cowboyaj's review against another edition
2.0
man fuck this book.
Graphic: Suicide, Misogyny, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Transphobia
axdixon's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Body shaming, Xenophobia, and Misogyny
mxpringle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Pedophilia, Transphobia, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexism, and Racism
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Trafficking, Violence, Terminal illness, and Stalking
Minor: Mental illness and Medical content
madarauchiha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
Spoiler
hey look there's a godawful scene where the MC goes to a ultra secret dark underground super exclusive rich people club that apparently Cordova frequented from time to time. The author and MC make a huge deal about WHOA there's transwomen here wha t the? This also comes up briefly later in some 'that woman from the club... or WAS she a 'woman'...?!?!?' speculation that the MC does.It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Genocide, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking
illuminatedspace's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
The mystery was also kind of boring to me.
Spoiler
the mystery is kind of laid out early in the book and all the evidence gathering just confirms what was already told. Until the last 100 pages of the book when the biggest confirmation of evidence could possibly be a hallucination and the motivation could have been something else but maybe it's all real and maybe it isn'tThe mixed media elements are novel but not integral to telling the story.
If the book was shorter it may have been higher rated for me. It's not unreadable, but I hardly enjoyed any of the time I spent reading the book and nearly quit several times. I stayed for the resolution which in my opinion didn't really pay off and the denumont was so incredibly drawn out it felt like the book was ending 5 times before the actual last page. The climax was a bit of a page turner but the main character seemed to turn into a different person and some of their actions that provided the most dramatic situations seemed unmotivated. That paired with the fact that
Spoiler
the most interesting parts may have been a poisonous plant hallucinationGraphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence
nicolinebl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.
It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.
None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!
There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.
There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?
Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.
Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)
I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary and
Spoiler
I hated that they had a whole supernatural plot, then decided to explain it all away and then afterwards sort of went back to the supernatural route.I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.
PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, and Torture
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Trafficking, and Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Slavery, and Vomit
tessieferro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Suicide
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Medical content, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Torture
Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Car accident, and Transphobia
wylovat's review against another edition
Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, Transphobia, and Misogyny
jbellomy's review
1.0
I'm frankly shocked that Pessl hasn't been ~cancelled~ by the Twitter mob. The horrifying lens through which this author clearly views the world should not be given a platform. Here are some examples (though not specific, because no one's going to read this review and so I'm not going to get a physical copy and spend time scouring this trashfire):
- every single description of a character of Asian descent is slathered in racism. This probably happens around ten times, my absolute favorite (read: least favorite, burn it in hellfire) instance being when Scott is shocked that an Asian person speaks with an American accent – or as he says, "without an accent" lol Scott. The audiobook is even worse, as the narrator makes the very fun choice to read Cleo (who, by the way, is the Only Good Character in this never-ending tome) with a stereotypical accent, despite the fact that her accent is never mentioned. Other POC do not fare better. For example, there are two Latinas present in this book. One is a cowering superstitious maid who can't speak English. The other is a human trafficker eternally devoted to serving a white guy. I'm 90% sure this book uses the word "exotic" to describe WOC. (Don't fact check me on that. The fact that it's plausible is horror enough honestly.)
- there are multiple instances of needless transphobia. Hopper & Scott's reactions to the women working in the Secret Man Club is the worst of it. We also get very enjoyable and completely okay comments about the person who gave Nora all her clothes. Scott's never met this person, but he's gonna judge them, because they have a BOY NAME and collect WOMEN'S CLOTHES so they must be silly and weird!! Cool, Scott! You're so fucking cool!
- What really sealed the deal for me was when the only character to show same-sex attraction in, again, an absolute UNIT of a book, is shown to be a pedophilic predator. Ah, yes, Pessl! What a good and informed take on the queer community you have!
- Oh and there's plenty of sweet sweet bodyshaming in here too, because of course there is.
Here's a link to a review that has some details about this aspect of the book. Aaaand here's my absolute favorite review (except why the two stars, my dude? Lean into the anger).
Dangerous and untrue characterizations like this are inarguably bad. It's not a cute homage to hardboiled noir detectives. It's not a look into a morally grey protagonist. It's not interesting or edgy. It's lazy and it's shameful. These descriptions are presented as fact, and Scott's racist, transphobic, sexist perspective is never criticized at all. Why insert these elements? Populating a fictional world with disgusting stereotypes is not acceptable now, and it was not acceptable in 2013. I can't even say this was a "product of its time" because it was published SIX YEARS AGO. Bro, I'm usually one of the people that's like "eh we can like problematic stuff, very few people deserve to be fully cancelled" but the shit in this book is harmful in that it perpetuates pre-existing prejudices and it validates people who already carry those ideas.
If that were the only aspect of the book that was terrible, it'd be enough for me to be wary. I wouldn't completely dismiss it per se. But this book's core characters also leave a hell of a lot to be desired. Nora was particularly flat, presented as a doting, constantly gasping (or "amazed" or "spellbound" or "captivated") waif who's in love with McGrath by the end despite him treating her like dogshit. Scott's initial description of her is spot on. She does not become anything more than what he assumed her to be. Her moving out is prompted by Scott's rejection of her literal declaration of love. That's not character development, friendo. (How in the fuck was this written by a woman??? The internalized misogyny is STRONG with this one!)
I could go on (for a very long time). Like I haven't even mentioned the multitude of cavernous plotholes in this book that clearly prides itself in meticulous plotting (HOW DOES "DISGRACED JOURNALIST SCOTT MCGRATH" HAVE UNLIMITED FUNDS??!). Or the fanboy-level ~auteurs-can-save-the-world~ hero worship on display (we get it, you like Hitchcock). Or the completely illogical behavior of almost every random side character (lol! the pseudo-priest admitting to pedophilia! wtf!). Or the excruciating self-importance of the prose and themes (although to classify whatever this book was going for as "themes" is giving it too much credit). But I've already spent far too much time with this word vomit, and I need to scrub it from my psyche as soon as possible.
Needless to say, I'm not going to read Special Topics, and my lukewarm opinion of [b:Neverworld Wake|36545927|Neverworld Wake|Marisha Pessl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517426178l/36545927._SY75_.jpg|56878900] has been tainted by this utter garbage.
Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Violence
whatevertheysay's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Transphobia and Misogyny