Darja

Good story, awful writing

Revisado: 03-13-23

I read a lot of literary fiction AND a lot of genre fiction, so, while I do have certain potential for style snobbery, I am usually able to put it aside and just enjoy the story.
In the case of this book, no story could distract me from absolutely awful writing. It reads as if written by a middle-school graphomaniac who (over)uses every cliched, tortured comparison and metaphor they can possibly search out. I really, really wanted to like it. I enjoy the 'dark academia' genre a lot and I also believe audiobooks are more forgiving since you're usually doing something else while listening to them, so can tune out sometimes. But this book just really needed an editor and for some reason didn't get one. I tried to listen to in four times and finally stopped 47 min short of the end.
Just to give you a taste, here is an excerpt from the very first paragraph of this book:
"I read that drowning is a good way to go. By all accounts the pain fades and euphoria blooms in its place like hothouse flowers, red orchid roots tethered to the stones in your pocket.
Falling would be worse.
Falling is barbed-wire terror ripping down your spine, a sharp drop and a sudden stop, scrabbling for a rope that isn’t there.
My cheek is pressed against the snow. I don’t feel cold anymore. I am part of the mountain, its frigid stone heart beating alongside mine. The storm batters against my back, tries to peel me off this rock like lichen. But I am not lichen. I am limestone and schist, veined with quartz. I am immovable."

Conclusion: the book's writing style is pitched at a YA reader at best. If you are at all discerning, you will find it so annoying that you won't be able to enjoy the plot.

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I have never read a more boring book

Revisado: 05-14-18

I have never read a more boring book in a more awful, self-indulgent writing style. I intended to include a few pearls here but I honestly can't bring myself to go back and listen to a second of that sludge again. Frankly, the only thing that kept me going past the first 10% or so was the thought of writing this review (I make it a rule not to write bad reviews about books I gave up on early). By chapter 70 I was thoroughly on the side of the bad guys and wanted to kill the main character asap to put us both out of our misery. The author thinks that throwing in five lame epithets for every boring over-stated feeling of his protagonist is going to make this drudgery interesting to read. It only makes it sound like an essay by a fifth grade aspiring to be a writer when she grows up.
Do yourself a favour and avoid this book.
Also, people who compare this to the Gone Girl must have been paid by the publisher. A lot.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

lovely, melancholic story

Revisado: 03-04-16

The first thing I loved about this book was the voice of the female narrator - the charming, magic quiet tembre that is absolutely perfect for the character of Nell.
This is certainly not a book that you read for the action, although, surprisingly, there is quite a lot of that: people murdered by arrows, abused wives, lost babies, a grand theft of the most precious religious artifact of a murderous tribe. The story, however, is about how each one of us lives in their own world and tells their own story; about how our lives may brush each other and continue unaltered, or how a chance encounter may cause a storm.
This is a beautiful, lyrical story of the three anthropologists in Papua New Guinea shortly before the Second World War - the students of Franz Boas, if that tells you anything. It is told in two different voices, that of the female narrator, a young scientist Nell Stone whose first book has unexpectedly become a bestseller in the far-away Western world; and a male British anthropologist who is fighting a confidence crisis and only really remains in the region because the tribe has become his family, much more so than his dead brothers or an annoying overbearing mother.

I definitely recommend the book to you if you're prepared to let yourself be immersed in the narration and enjoy the beautiful writing. This is not an action thriller or even light reading - it's to poignant and thought-provoking for a beach or an airplane.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

boring crime story that tries hard but fails

Revisado: 03-04-16

First of all, if you have anything to do with academia, especially with the humanities, do not read this book. You will be annoyed out of your mind by each new sentence. I'm not sure what kind of higher education reality this story is supposed to represent - the action is clearly set in the past, seeing as Facebook is a novelty and every file need to be painstakingly printed out on a slow printer - but even a few decades cannot change soften the shock from the collection of (poorly developed) characters. The faculty of EngLit seems to be a very shallow and stupid bunch.
Anyway, the detective story itself is also badly written and fails to grip the reader at any point. The victim is unlikeable, every character in the book is a suspect, but we do not care. Honestly, do not waste your time. This book doesn't work even as light trash reading

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

not audiobook material

Revisado: 02-07-14

First of all, let me say that I adore the actor who read it. This is the first time that I could identify every single character simply by the way they speak, even before 'XXX said' would come (and there are a lot of characters). Mark Meadows does a great job of impersonating different people, men as well as women, and it is not ridiculous or annoying as such 'voice change' can get sometimes when you hear grown men trying to do a woman's voice. The reading was exquisite.

That said, I almost gave up on the book. It feels like a sort of book I would like, but in the end I decided that it was simply not audiobook material: the plot and writing are to complex to perceive without having the text in front of your eyes. Especially in the last chapters, where action happens very quickly and almost exclusively in very complicated sentences in form of chapter summaries. The plot jumps back and forth, there are a lot of descriptions, philosophical reveries and flashbacks, and it's simply too hard too follow by ear. There were a lot of spots where I thought, I love this quote! Wonderfully said! but the story was already moving forward, and I could neither enjoy the turn of phrase properly, no catch up to the stuff that happened in three seconds past.

So all in all, I recommend you to buy the paper version of the book, or alternatively, really concentrate on listening (not next to cooking/running as I usually do, and definitely not in bed, because you'll surely fall asleep and miss a million of plot turns)

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Amazing book, not so amazing reading

Revisado: 12-12-13

Donna Tartt is wonderful: I love how the story dips in and out of the past, relating the plot not in a linearly manner, but also not through simple old flashbacks. It's much more complicated than than, woven into a perfect canvas just like a real memory.
But please, dear producers, was it so hard to find a reader with a rudimentary knowledge of Russian, or even ask a consultant to explain the pronunciation? If it were a sentence or two, I'd understand, but a good deal of conversation in the book is supposed to be Russian! It doesn't occur to anyone to give Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache books to a reader who speaks no word of French; why did poor Goldfinch deserve to be slaughtered that way?

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yet another forensic anthropologist story

Revisado: 09-24-13

You will enjoy the book if you like reading about the north of England landscapes and if you're looking for something similar to Simon Beckett or early Katy Reichs. The story is not nearly as suspensful as Beckett's, but you will find all the usual gory medical details, and a bit of campus romantic thrown in. All in all a decent read, although I wouldn't list it as a 'best of' anything.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

I was not impressed

Revisado: 09-24-13

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I cannot say that I enjoyed the book. It is not gripping or particularly well-written. The performance is fine, but the actor, whose voice is very well suited to the character, cannot save the lukewarm story. There is a fair amount of chasing, killing, climbing the cliffs, chopping off hands, and other thriller elements; and yet they utterly fail to excite the reader. I would've given up listening after the first couple of hours, but this was the only audiobook available to me this month and I really need something to listen to while I jog, so I finished it. I'm sorry to say the rest was just as bland as the beginning.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It's not possible to write a spoiler because nothing remotely surprising happens in the second half of the book. First half is not particularly inventive either, but at least the reader is still getting to know the characters so he is not completely bored. I've fallen asleep listening to this book more often than with any other audiobook ever before.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

A good solid scary story

Revisado: 06-27-13

Would you consider the audio edition of The House of Lost Souls to be better than the print version?

A thriller which is based on the theme of devil possession but will also appeal to a reader who is not religious. In fact, the protagonist himself is presented as an atheist who struggles to reconcile his world view with the terrible events that keep hinting at church teachings. This storyline, however, is more subtle and not so in-you-face as in Cottam's other book, and not irritating at all. The novel is dynamic, expertly interweaves the past and the present, and keeps one on the edge of his chair. The characters are likeable enough, but not so very much that you would get depressed for days when they die :) The narrator does a really good job, too. On the whole, I recommend it to those who like fairly easy reading, but good quality and with a thrill

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Great, enchanting mystery from Deborah Crombie

Revisado: 06-27-13

If you could sum up No Mark Upon Her in three words, what would they be?

Deborah Crombie, along with Louise Penny, is certainly on the list of my favourite detective writers - and she does not disappoint this time. Each of her books usually has a new theme, a twist, a focus - opera, antiquities, history of London Docks etc. In this case, it is rowing. Narration is very pleasant as well, no criticism here. If you are a fan of cosy British mysteries with flavour of local history, I highly recommend this book

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