OYENTE

Cameron Lowe

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  • 37
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Fun story

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 06-17-25

The tongue-in-cheek nature of Assassins Anonymous is a lot of fun. very reminscent of Brian Asman, which is a hell of a compliment, as both wear their influences on their sleeves and have some laughs at genre standards at the same time.

The narration is the only weak point here. The narrator spends half the novel dripping smarminess from every word and the last half overwrought emotion. It's a lot.

But overall. a truly terrific book

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Terrific novel, audio is dated

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-26-25

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is one of King's most underrated works, a short, terribly lonely effort that somehow feels as claustrophobic as Cujo, even if it takes place in a vast woodlands area. Aside from a nine-year-old who, at times, sounds like a fifty-year-old writing a nine-year-old, it is a fantastic story and well worth a read.

Anne Heche's performance is also really terrific, and my three star of the performance in no way reflects her skills as a narrator. However, the audio quality of the title is muffled and in dire need of either a remaster or a new recording. It would be a shame to lose Hache's performance but the lack of crispness to the sound is a definite detriment.

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Falters a bit but still gorgeously written

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-20-25

The first half of Last Night in Montreal is a gorgeously written character study, sad and hopeful all at once. I can't help but think if the story had remained focused on its two leads that it would have been among Mandel's best. But as the story enters its second half, it buckles under the weight of its characters, particularly that of Michaela and her father, who come across as broad plot devices, there to present tragedy in the manner of a pair of blunt hammers. It's so strange to see them juxtaposed to the gorgeously realized Lilia and the lovelorn Eli, who are well-built and representative of Mandel's best writing.

Strange too are certain plot choices. The Montreal sections tend to drag and feel pretty redundant by the end. Reveals near the end feel like they were meant to have a greater amount of weight than they actually carry, and the Icarian theme presented throughout again lacks any sort of real subtlety, especially given the novel's ending. I can't help but feel that the more interesting choice here would have been a more hopeful ending. Not that I feel like every novel should have a happily-ever-after, but it might have made for a more fascinating conclusion for Lilia to have her realize that sometimes, grasping for love - i.e. flying too close to the sun - can be the braver choice.

It's still a terrific novel, and Mandel's language is gorgeous and rich, and it's worth the read for that alone. But the plot, while still generally great, falls just short.

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Fascinating story dragged down by its take on PTSD

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-30-24

This is one of the better Joe Ledger novels in a while. Don't get me wrong there. Plot-wise, villain-wise, this is as strong as the series has been since its early goings. There's a lot more focus on the side characters, which is fantastic, as vinalla wafer stand-in Joe Ledger's perspective is getting a bit stale.

But there are two big strikes against it. First is the narration. Ray Porter does great voices, has great enunciation, and is generally great to listen to, but the more and more inflection he imparts on the things he reads, the works suffer. A great narrator doesn't try to spin the story into his own performance. He conveys the story, drawing out its natural voice. I feel like this is particularly problematic with Relentless, where Porter takes every line and infuses it with so much grandiose over-the-top emotion that it drags the experience down notably. It's a big swing and a miss from an otherwise reliable hitter. Of course, part of that can be pinned on the sometimes hammy-as-Easter-Sunday nature of the Joe Ledger novels and Maberry's writing in general, but this is especially egregious in Relentless.

But my biggest problem with Relentless is the way it turns PTSD into a plot device. There's absolutely nothing wrong with exploring the PTSD a character suffers from tragedy, and given the enemies Ledger goes up against, it's perfectly believable that someone would go after his own in a big way. None of that rankles me. But by turning Ledger's PTSD into a marionette dance by one of his enemies, it cheapens the emotions and gravity of what he's going through and turns it into a blameless, guiltless experience for him that ultimately demeans those deaths. "It's not your fault, you were being controlled" is a slap in the face to PTSD sufferers everywhere. It lessens their horrors and emotions and puts a mustache-twirling spin on it and it feels slimy and gross as a reader.

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A frustrating step back

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 08-30-24

Joe Ledger is quickly becoming the Lost of the techno-sorta-kinda-sci-fi thriller. For every interesting world-building element introduced to its overarching plot, it becomes clear that there's never going to be any kind of satisfying answers, if there are any answers actually plotted out. You can only tease out that sort of thing for so long before it becomes more of an annoyance than intriguing, or to put it colloquially, "crap or get off the pot." Joe Ledger is well past that expiration point.

The character work in this one just isn't there either. Joe's usual eye-rolling snark is turned up to eleven in one scene in such a way that it becomes grating. That could have been fine - maybe even a plot point, Joe still recovering from his mental issues from the previous book - but it's never addressed. Similarly, Joe's mental state is glossed over in this novel, further dismissing the most fascinating character aspect we've seen of him in four thousand novels and demeaning the tragedies of losing his family and going berserk. It cheapens the last novel, which was already pretty insulting to anyone suffering PTSD by blaming it all (passively) on magic... which Joe also seems to conveniently forget. What a weird thing.

But there are also a lot of high points to this one. The drugs-as-a-threat thing is in danger of being overplayed but it gets surprisingly good traction here, creating a fascinating threat for everyone involved. The action is rock-solid, and the side characters seem less like caricatures than in the last few Ledger novels and more like fleshed-out people. That's good to see, though again, it might be too little, too late.

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Good story up until...

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-28-24

A frustrating novel. Up to a certain point, it's an exciting story about a supernatural pair of stalkers with terrific action and great characters. But the protagonist spends a great deal of the novel trying to escape a deal with a supernatural creature only to make another obviously bad deal with a different supernatural creature? It feels like an unnecessarily stupid character decision that goes against the entire plot of the novel. Having characters make bad decisions simply to set up plot is one of my least favorite tropes, and here it's pretty eyerolling.

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Intense!

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-28-24

Hard-hitting and never excessive. Also the best stuffed bear in modern literature. Five out of five stars for that alone but he story and narration warrant the five stars too.

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Great story, stilted narration

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
3 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-01-23

The book itself is fantastic, with lots of action and the usual banter and introspection that makes the series great. But the narration for this one is lifeless and the cadence feels almost off-putting. It's like someone reading something they really don't want to for a class project.

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Great start

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 10-02-22

The first two-thirds are funny and entertaining, but the great cast of characters is mostly wasted on a meandering conclusion that left me ready for the book to end. But pretty solid overall.

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Terrific

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 09-20-22

Fun, fast paced, and a return to one of Sandford's best settings. Great performance too, as always.

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