Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

3 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

HOLY SHIT. Well gooddamm. So this is probably one of the best books I have ever read (well listened too but same difference). Wade Watts is a socially awkward poor 18 year old boy living in the year 2045. In this not so distant future, a immersive reality video game has taken over most of the planet. The Oasis was invented by James Haliday and Oggden Morrow. When Haliday died, his will revealed that he will leave all of his fortune and the entire Oasis game in the hands of the player who can find the egg he hid. Wade, and most of the Oasis population, has been searching for the first key for 5 years and when he accidentally stumbles upon the answer everything changes. This is a beautiful tale of love, friendship, perseverance, and ambition along with the message that reality is better than even the best recreations. I definitely thought this would be a boy book, based on the movie (which I have seen and can safely say this is almost nothing like it), but it pleasantly surprised me with how entertaining and emotionally deep Cline goes. This is a fantastic read/listen and I will be rereading this soon. 
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richardw2024's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was a fun book. It was an easy read and well paced. I enjoyed some of the"geek" references in the book, although I felt a lot of the references are  outdated and will probably only really be nostalgic to 80s kids.

There were elements of 1984 and The Matrix but neither particularly well executed. I didn't find the story tense at all and I felt the characters were pretty generic and not hugely developed, which I guess is maybe why the story didn't feel tense to me.

Again, it was a fun read. I enjoyed it. I'd recommend it for someone looking for a light sci fi dystopian book that has Matrix elements. Equally, if you really loves video games and 80s geek culture theme you may well enjoy this. If that's what you are looking for I'm sure you'd enjoy this. Only thing I would say though, is for what is essentially a purely plot driven book, it could probably have benefited from being about a hundred pages shorter.
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ravensandlace's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com

I wish I hadn’t watched the movie of this book first. Normally, I read the book first and then watch the movie. I didn’t mean to. My boyfriend was looking for a movie to watch and we decided on this one. I really enjoyed the movie but after reading the book, I realized how different they are from each other. Watching the movie first might have hindered my enjoyment of the book. I might have rated this book higher if I had read it first and then watched the movie. 

With this book, you have to be a bit of a geek with technology and the eighties in order to have even the vaguest understanding of what all the references mean. And I mean, there are so many references. I’m a bit of a geek myself but even the references were lost on me. It got to be a bit much at times. Sure, Wade explained most of the references but it was just...a lot. It was like Cline was trying to prove just how much he knew about the eighties and wanted to talk about how much he loved it.  

One of my favorite things about this book was the OASIS and concept of it. James Halliday, the founder, made sure it was available to everybody for free. He put libraries and educational things on there so everybody could learn anything they wanted too. I loved that and it shows that technology can be an awesome tool. Because the Lord knows I am tired of people complaining about how technology is ruining the lives of the youth. It’s a topic that makes me so annoyed. Maybe one day, I’ll post something about it. 

Overall, while I enjoyed the book, it had some flaws. Like the absolute crazy amount of geek and eighties references. The ending was also kind of abrupt but I wasn’t too bothered by it. I recommend reading the book first and then watching the movie. Because they are very different things. 
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