barbarabarbara's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
oceanlistener's review
2.0
I guess I should give the author credit for just coming out and explicitly stating that women are all interchangeable, rather than not-so-subtly implying it like so many other male authors.
You know what gets all the word play? His dog's shit. No joke, that gets about 10x more description than anything else. I'm no editor, but I'd recommend taking out a few of the whorls and turrets of dog shit and maybe applying it to something, anything, else in the book. I understand that he can't describe any of the female characters because their interchangeableness is the only thing resembling plot, but come on!!!
I was interested in the premise, but it's so insistent on vagueness and taking no moral stand (after all, what are a few war crimes between old high school acquaintances?) that there's nothing interesting about anything that happens. It doesn't make it a universal story, just boring.
The best thing about this book is if you listen to it as an audiobook at 2x speed, nothing interesting happens, but it doesn't happen much faster and the book is over pretty quickly (the only reason I finished it at all).
You know what gets all the word play? His dog's shit. No joke, that gets about 10x more description than anything else. I'm no editor, but I'd recommend taking out a few of the whorls and turrets of dog shit and maybe applying it to something, anything, else in the book. I understand that he can't describe any of the female characters because their interchangeableness is the only thing resembling plot, but come on!!!
I was interested in the premise, but it's so insistent on vagueness and taking no moral stand (after all, what are a few war crimes between old high school acquaintances?) that there's nothing interesting about anything that happens. It doesn't make it a universal story, just boring.
The best thing about this book is if you listen to it as an audiobook at 2x speed, nothing interesting happens, but it doesn't happen much faster and the book is over pretty quickly (the only reason I finished it at all).
mallorylocklear's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
laurenkd89's review
2.0
Bummed to say I didn’t love this book. It felt incomplete to me - and like it didn’t know what it wanted to be or what it wanted to say. It is kind of a dystopia or speculative fiction, in which crises in America have escalated to the point in which American citizens are now put in the place of being refugees around the world, fleeing from their home. At first I was intrigued by this concept, but after I started reading, I asked myself: if this is intended to make you sympathize with refugees more, why do we need to have Americans becoming refugees to do that? Why aren’t real refugees stories sympathetic and moving enough?
Then, that aside, the rest of the setup felt kind of half-assed. The author chooses not to say the name of the country in which the main character is a refugee, not even giving any indication of traditions, languages, etc to give you a hint of where. One thing that bothered me was instead of referring to customs of the country as “local” or “native,” he chose to say “indigenous” - eg, “the indigenous cockroaches” (referring to the insects). Something about that phrasing just seemed awkward and weird to me.
In trying to describe the past events and tensions in America that led to this refugee crisis (the same tensions that now bubble up in the refugee enclave of Little America), the author makes the reader do a lot of inferring and work to get to what he’s trying to say. I just found myself so confused as to the “events” that he alludes to, like I was missing something or couldn’t make the inference he was betting on.
Finally, the main character was unlikeable and kind of skeevy to me (I’m not sure if that was intentional and you’re not supposed to relate to him, or if I just didn’t like him.) The book opens with him doing maintenance on the rooftop of a building and seeing a woman naked in her shower. He stays and watches her for a long, long time. Then, he meets another woman who he thinks is the woman from the bathroom, befriending her and asking her out for that reason. And when it turns out that she’s not that woman, he tells her the story and is offended when she thinks the story is gross and creepy. Why is he offended? Because he says that they’ve done all manner of freaky sexual activities together so he expects her to not take offense to this story - as if engaging in consensual sexual activities means that she’ll accept his disgusting peeping Tom activity. That put a bad taste in my mouth from the start.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book, and despite its short length, I wouldn’t recommend it. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.
Then, that aside, the rest of the setup felt kind of half-assed. The author chooses not to say the name of the country in which the main character is a refugee, not even giving any indication of traditions, languages, etc to give you a hint of where. One thing that bothered me was instead of referring to customs of the country as “local” or “native,” he chose to say “indigenous” - eg, “the indigenous cockroaches” (referring to the insects). Something about that phrasing just seemed awkward and weird to me.
In trying to describe the past events and tensions in America that led to this refugee crisis (the same tensions that now bubble up in the refugee enclave of Little America), the author makes the reader do a lot of inferring and work to get to what he’s trying to say. I just found myself so confused as to the “events” that he alludes to, like I was missing something or couldn’t make the inference he was betting on.
Finally, the main character was unlikeable and kind of skeevy to me (I’m not sure if that was intentional and you’re not supposed to relate to him, or if I just didn’t like him.) The book opens with him doing maintenance on the rooftop of a building and seeing a woman naked in her shower. He stays and watches her for a long, long time. Then, he meets another woman who he thinks is the woman from the bathroom, befriending her and asking her out for that reason. And when it turns out that she’s not that woman, he tells her the story and is offended when she thinks the story is gross and creepy. Why is he offended? Because he says that they’ve done all manner of freaky sexual activities together so he expects her to not take offense to this story - as if engaging in consensual sexual activities means that she’ll accept his disgusting peeping Tom activity. That put a bad taste in my mouth from the start.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book, and despite its short length, I wouldn’t recommend it. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley.
richardgeo's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
revdavidstippick's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
tsteele99snu's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
katalia's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
kempfme's review
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
rebelqueen's review
1.0
Great premise. 100% not fully realized. The premise here is that extreme polarization in America led to civil war so now there are American refugees escaping to other countries. Ron leaves in a “Little America” in a foreign city as an American refugee. Resistance against refugees is strong and life is hard. So again, great premise, but yikes there is nothing here. Everything is so vague. This is one of the vaguest stories ever. Not fun.