Reviews

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

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fletchie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It's a rare thing that a book makes me literally laugh out loud. Less is Lost is one of them.

laurenjcarter28's review against another edition

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adventurous funny reflective

3.5

gsroney's review against another edition

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3.0

This is a pleasant novel, which when compared to the first in the series, is probably more humorous but less cohesive. I think it would have been interesting to follow the themes of being a “bad gay” or absentee father/son, but neither of these issues get much satisfying resolution. Also, we are made to feel that Freddie and Arthur are perfectly in love but they spend the whole novel apart and we don’t get to see any of that.

“He joined a gym that turned out to be a sex dungeon. He joined a political party that turned out to believe a conspiracy theory about government health clinics. He joined a German-language society that turned out to be a sex dungeon. He joined a book group that turned out to be only for a political party. He joined a role-playing game club that turned out to be a sex dungeon. He joined a sex dungeon that turned out to be a government health clinic. It was all so confusing.”

jasonlaw77's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

a_viola's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

clairemariarose's review against another edition

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3.0

i adored less, but less is lost failed to enthrall me in the same way. having freddy as a narrator added a layer of separation between me as a reader and less’s self-reflection as a character, and that’s what drew me to his story in the first book. without being in less’s mind, the story felt flat.

freddy’s narration also felt gimmicky to me at times. in trying to relay a conversation less had with someone else, the author felt the need to write something like “and this exact thing was also said to me so i can transcribe their conversation word for word.” like why are we doing this, just have less narrate the book

there were still moments of growth and self-reflection that moved me. in particular, there was one moment where he was talking about his dad and said something to the effect of “i can look at the person in front of me now and forgive him without forgiving the person that left me all those years ago” and i was knocked off me feet. andrew sean greer is really making me address my own daddy issues, huh?

i also thought that the humor was still present as well, which i appreciated. but overall i just wasn’t as hooked as i was in book one.