Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi

1 review

durrareadsstuff's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If everything you know about yourself isn't true, how do you know who you are?

I have mixed feelings about this book. First off—this book prevented a book slump for me and I could not put it down. This book made me feel things and it's been a while since I screamed at a book. In some parts the pace was slow and in others it was really fast. There's one of my favourite tropes in here, found family. I think the friendship between 2.0 was awesome and the sort of misfits brought together by a single goal. I mean, I'm a sucker for that thing. 

I think the characters were well developed. I loved Alix. Despite that one major incident when she was a complete idiot, she was super cool. Smart, not damsel-y, strong and driven. Cynthia was EVEN MORE amazing—I mean wow, that girl is freakin brilliant. I guess they're all geniuses so that compliment doesn't really stand. Kook, Tank and Adam was not as much developed. Although Tank was pretty much the center of the story most of the times. Moses? Hmm I don't know. He's a pretty good character, but as usual with the love interests, I got higher expectations for him. He reminds me a little of Kaz, but he's far from that level of ingenious. But you know, I guess he's alright. 

One of the problems I have with this books is I felt the romance was a bit rushed. Actually I think a lot of the book was like that. It's like going slow and then suddenly someone hit the accelerator and the next thing you know everything is happening. The scene in the car was good, but then I was like—what? That's it? No tension? I get that not all romance are slow burn and they're not necessarily bad, but I guess I was kinda disappointed. I really liked the build up before that. 

I liked how ADHD was talked about in the book in the form of Jonah, I think it was well represented. Although I do wish I'd seen him more often in the book and the siblings relationship. I felt like it wasn't fair that Alix's parents didn't get that much coverage either, especially her mom. She was basically just dismissed as a trophy wife who does Pilates. Sophie and Derek also just vanished like that? I mean, weren't they pretty close before this?

Overall, I liked it. It kind of feels like a watered down version of my favourite book if that makes any sense? I think the plot was incredible too. 
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