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kketch's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Story doesn’t pick up until you’re more than half way through it. Tough read, but interesting turnaround towards the end.
milliad's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
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
1.75
What.
I picked up this book because I love Spider-Man and I was attracted by the cover. Boy, was that a mistake.
This book is based on a mentally corrupted man (“Peter Parker”) who takes interest in a girl WAY too young for him, begins fantasising about her and dreaming about her in her underwear, and then he calls her Gwen Stacey and she just… goes along with it?
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but 17 year old girls do NOT belong with 26 year old men. I felt the book was a bit self-aware of this, with other characters asking if he was too old for her, but continued to romanticise it anyway.
Also hate the trope of women giving up their dreams to follow a man in his idiotic ideas
I picked up this book because I love Spider-Man and I was attracted by the cover. Boy, was that a mistake.
This book is based on a mentally corrupted man (“Peter Parker”) who takes interest in a girl WAY too young for him, begins fantasising about her and dreaming about her in her underwear, and then he calls her Gwen Stacey and she just… goes along with it?
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but 17 year old girls do NOT belong with 26 year old men. I felt the book was a bit self-aware of this, with other characters asking if he was too old for her, but continued to romanticise it anyway.
Also hate the trope of women giving up their dreams to follow a man in his idiotic ideas
doritobabe's review
4.0
3.5/5
This novel definitely classifies as literary fiction and not the contemporary, possibly adventurous, YA novel that I thought it was when I purchased it from a used book store several years ago.
The Night Gwen Stacey Died is a novel about two people trying to escape from, well, something in each of their own lives. Sheila is a 17-going-on-18 year old, small town girl, who dreams of achieving something akin to glamour and fabulousness in Paris, France. Reader's don't really learn the truth behind her discontentment, though one can assume (especially if you have been a teenage girl) that dreams are oft born out of ennui and too much romanticism.
One day, Sheila is "abducted" by an older, handsome young man who is (and remains throughout the novel) a rebel-without-a-cause; Peter is your classic bad boy.
As the title suggests, this novel is heavily influenced and inspired by Marvel's The Amazing Spider Man comics, and the relationship between Peter and Gwen. These are the two identities that the above mentioned characters assume when they escape across state lines into the neighbouring Chicago. In Chicago, they will find what (and who) they are looking for... (inesrting my own dramatic statement for effect).
I love the Spider Man comics (he is my favorite Marvel character) and I loved Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacey much more than his relationship with MaryJane. I love the tragic end. I particularly enjoyed how Bruni made her Peter less of a nerd and more of a bad boy, as that is my favorite portrayal of Peter Parker (see 2012 Spider Man movies for a similar character played by Andrew Garfield).
To me, this novel was more about "Peter" than Sheila/Gwen, though I am sure that is not the intent. To me, Sheila/Gwen is just plot-device to move things forward. I found her unrelatable and annoying (likely because I am old now and not 17) and like her character transformation/growth in the novel was unremarkable.
Now that I write that, really, a lot of the plot was unremarkable, so why did I give this ~4 stars and enjoy it? Bruni played off some of my favorite stories and even though the plot was weak with somewhat weak characters, this novel redeemed itself entirely because of its excellent pacing, writing, and what I call "ruminating" (when the author yarns poetically at the reader. Mmm, my favorite). I was totally in the mood for this book.
This novel definitely classifies as literary fiction and not the contemporary, possibly adventurous, YA novel that I thought it was when I purchased it from a used book store several years ago.
The Night Gwen Stacey Died is a novel about two people trying to escape from, well, something in each of their own lives. Sheila is a 17-going-on-18 year old, small town girl, who dreams of achieving something akin to glamour and fabulousness in Paris, France. Reader's don't really learn the truth behind her discontentment, though one can assume (especially if you have been a teenage girl) that dreams are oft born out of ennui and too much romanticism.
One day, Sheila is "abducted" by an older, handsome young man who is (and remains throughout the novel) a rebel-without-a-cause; Peter is your classic bad boy.
As the title suggests, this novel is heavily influenced and inspired by Marvel's The Amazing Spider Man comics, and the relationship between Peter and Gwen. These are the two identities that the above mentioned characters assume when they escape across state lines into the neighbouring Chicago. In Chicago, they will find what (and who) they are looking for... (inesrting my own dramatic statement for effect).
I love the Spider Man comics (he is my favorite Marvel character) and I loved Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacey much more than his relationship with MaryJane. I love the tragic end. I particularly enjoyed how Bruni made her Peter less of a nerd and more of a bad boy, as that is my favorite portrayal of Peter Parker (see 2012 Spider Man movies for a similar character played by Andrew Garfield).
To me, this novel was more about "Peter" than Sheila/Gwen, though I am sure that is not the intent. To me, Sheila/Gwen is just plot-device to move things forward. I found her unrelatable and annoying (likely because I am old now and not 17) and like her character transformation/growth in the novel was unremarkable.
Now that I write that, really, a lot of the plot was unremarkable, so why did I give this ~4 stars and enjoy it? Bruni played off some of my favorite stories and even though the plot was weak with somewhat weak characters, this novel redeemed itself entirely because of its excellent pacing, writing, and what I call "ruminating" (when the author yarns poetically at the reader. Mmm, my favorite). I was totally in the mood for this book.
beastreader's review
3.0
Sheila Gower is almost an adult. She is seventeen. she lives in a small town in Iowa. She dreams of someday leaving and going to Paris. She is preparing by learning French. So when a mysterious man comes into Sheila's place of employment, she shows the man attention. The man is older and he is a little odd. His name is Peter Parker. Yes, just like Spiderman. Peter likes Sheila. He even starts calling her Gwen Stacy, Peter's girlfriend. Peter and Sheila decide to run away together. They come up with a plan. Peter fakes a robbery and together Peter and Sheila aka Gwen drive off together. Will they have a happy ending?
You could say that my interest was high when I read the summary for this book. I wanted to see what author, Sarah Bruni would do with this concept of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. I have to say that this book is unique in a good way. while I was never over excited about Peter and Sheila, I did find their story appealing. Sheila's naiveness grew old quickly after a while. Than there was Peter. Let's just say he is nothing like the "real" Peter Parker. This book is more about what happens to two people who are different from each other and live in their own world. Not a lot of excitement. I was expecting more humor to be featured in this book and there was hardly any moment that I was laughing. Overall a book that deserves a look but you might want to check it out at your local library.
You could say that my interest was high when I read the summary for this book. I wanted to see what author, Sarah Bruni would do with this concept of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. I have to say that this book is unique in a good way. while I was never over excited about Peter and Sheila, I did find their story appealing. Sheila's naiveness grew old quickly after a while. Than there was Peter. Let's just say he is nothing like the "real" Peter Parker. This book is more about what happens to two people who are different from each other and live in their own world. Not a lot of excitement. I was expecting more humor to be featured in this book and there was hardly any moment that I was laughing. Overall a book that deserves a look but you might want to check it out at your local library.
mattbowes's review
3.0
A superhero whose adventures are written in the classic Marvel Comics style lives in a world so fraught with tragedy that mere mortals could not bear it. Each month, friends and family are put in deadly peril, allies are mind-controlled, replaced with robot or alien doubles, and countless civilians are hurt by battle debris. At their best, monthly comics are essentially four-colour soap operas, and no hero’s saga exemplifies this best than that of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, from the 1960s to the 1970s. Long before the Sam Raimi films, Spider-Man was the most relatable hero around, as his running battles with villains like the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus shared almost equal page counts with rent payments, girl troubles and the constant worries of his beloved Aunt May.
Read the rest of my review at This Nerding Life.
Read the rest of my review at This Nerding Life.
rbreade's review
Bruni makes clever use of the events chronicled in issue 121 of The Amazing Spider-Man, especially the one that gives her book its title: the ambiguous death of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first girlfriend, with its never-answered question of whether the Green Goblin or Parker's alter-ego, Spider-Man, was ultimately responsible for her death. Sheila Gower is a 17-year-old high school senior working in a gas station, of all places, in Coralville, Iowa, saving money to move to France after graduation; she has no real plan, though, and it's clear that what she really wants is a life anywhere else but Coralville, Iowa. The 28-year-old man whose identity will eventually be revealed as Seth Novak, but who is known to Sheila for much of the novel as Peter Parker, drives a taxi in Coralville and frequently stops in the gas stain for cigarettes and conversation. Among the things she learns about him is that his brother, Jake, died of an intentional pill overdose when Peter/Seth was seven or eight.
Except he didn't die, as we eventually learn; he recovered, left town, and moved to Chicago, leaving Seth to believe he'd died. Reality for Peter/Seth is a tricky thing, and what we watch as the novel unfolds is the convergence, through a series of coincidences and actions necessary to life on the lam with a teenage runaway (Sheila), whom the world believes Peter/Seth has kidnapped at gunpoint (though the truth is more complicated), of Seth/Peter's and Sheila/Gwen's resemblance to the comic book characters, and the resemblance of their story arc to that of issue 121.
Though Bruni doesn't definitively address the question of Peter/Seth's apparent pre-cognitive ability--Spider-Man's "spider-sense"--it doesn't substantially detract from the suspense of the main story-line, which is the meeting, after 20 years of Seth believing his brother dead (though this lack of knowledge might be a product of Seth's unusual relationship with reality), of Seth and his brother Jake.
Except he didn't die, as we eventually learn; he recovered, left town, and moved to Chicago, leaving Seth to believe he'd died. Reality for Peter/Seth is a tricky thing, and what we watch as the novel unfolds is the convergence, through a series of coincidences and actions necessary to life on the lam with a teenage runaway (Sheila), whom the world believes Peter/Seth has kidnapped at gunpoint (though the truth is more complicated), of Seth/Peter's and Sheila/Gwen's resemblance to the comic book characters, and the resemblance of their story arc to that of issue 121.
Though Bruni doesn't definitively address the question of Peter/Seth's apparent pre-cognitive ability--Spider-Man's "spider-sense"--it doesn't substantially detract from the suspense of the main story-line, which is the meeting, after 20 years of Seth believing his brother dead (though this lack of knowledge might be a product of Seth's unusual relationship with reality), of Seth and his brother Jake.
nssutton's review
3.0
This read like a bleary dream, that worked when you can devote yourself to the story completely. To stop reading for even a few hours was like realizing you were dreaming, which made getting back into it that much harder. I liked the heat of the romance, the way in which the characters willingly took on new identities in a way that still felt authentic and real, and the reality that was built around Peter's dreams, both those he had at night and those that connected him to the Spider-man storylines. I still had trouble understanding why Peter needed the gun in the first place. The pacing of the ending still has me flummoxed - just what will happen to these two now that what has happened has happened?
caitmarie24's review
5.0
Went into this completely blind based on the rec from a friend and was not disappointed by the weirdness. So good! Finished it in 2 days. Definitely recommend.
alanahcw's review
2.0
Slow to start, Confusing with the alternating voices and timelines. Interesting, but not quite for me.