joreads7's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
wildblackberrydays's review
4.0
I could not disagree more on the reviews that found this to be difficult to follow or pretentious - this book had me cracking up so much. The author uses sarcasms and judgement as the main character’s defense mechanism - and you see this evolve throughout the narrative. It’s witty and fun and I would read it again. When the main character, Stella, recognizes that she hasn’t really been living for some time near the end and begins to stand up for herself…this is a lovely read that I would absolutely recommend.
beamsreads's review
3.0
Ideally I’d give this a 3.5 because I did genuinely enjoy several parts of it. The writing is difficult to get used to, though. It took me about three chapters until I felt like I got the hang of it. I do not recommend this to anyone who doesn’t like history because there are a lot of small passages about her research where she goes into detail.
happyglowlucky's review
5.0
I enjoyed it very much. It appealed to me because it was about a woman roughly in my age range, trying to get out of her chaotic life - that is me, right now, as I am trying to work my way out of the chaos that comes with a 10-year relationship with an alcoholic who refuses to get better (that is my story, not the book's story). Anyway. I see that some people didn't like the language, in the sense that they weren't fans of the big words....personally, I enjoyed that aspect of the book, as I love language and learning. I liked, very much, that the author wasn't afraid to use the words she wanted, instead of being afraid that it would put people off - she stayed true to herself, as a writer. I enjoyed the witty style of the writing, too. Good plot, with a nice surprise of an ending. Kept me enthralled, and I would recommend it, for sure.
laceyslibrarybooksta's review
2.0
First, I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books, and Lucy Ives for a free copy of this book before the publication date in exchange for an honest review.
Stella is a curator with a week from hell. To top it all off, her co-worker, Paul, goes missing. Finding a map makes her question everything about anything she knows. She deals with everything on her plate, while also finding out things about her co-worker Paul.
This book was not for me. I really, really struggled to get through this book. Even though it was a relatively short book, it took me some time to actually finish it. I wanted to like this book. The cover is beautiful and the synopsis definitely intrigued me. However, that’s about how far it got for me.
First, the writing style was too much for me. I can tell that Lucy Ives has the writing style of a poet. There were times where I had to reread because things were confusing for me. I never read poetry, therefore, it might be hard for another reader who is like me and never reads that kind of writing style.
Next, I felt like some of the writing was pretentious. It seemed like the character seemed like she was all high and mighty. I’m still trying to figure out if it was the narration, writing style, or the character, Stella, herself.
This book was classified as a mystery, and I agree that there were some parts that had mysterious accents, but not many. There were a few parts around 30% that grabbed my attention, but I felt like that might have been the only time. There were a few descriptions that this book had that wasn’t fulfilled.
I really wanted and tried to like this book. Unfortunately, the writing style made it hard for me to follow, along with the narration used. Towards the end, I was just reading to get to the end. Overall, I just couldn’t get into it. I wish I had liked it better, but it just wasn’t for me.
Stella is a curator with a week from hell. To top it all off, her co-worker, Paul, goes missing. Finding a map makes her question everything about anything she knows. She deals with everything on her plate, while also finding out things about her co-worker Paul.
This book was not for me. I really, really struggled to get through this book. Even though it was a relatively short book, it took me some time to actually finish it. I wanted to like this book. The cover is beautiful and the synopsis definitely intrigued me. However, that’s about how far it got for me.
First, the writing style was too much for me. I can tell that Lucy Ives has the writing style of a poet. There were times where I had to reread because things were confusing for me. I never read poetry, therefore, it might be hard for another reader who is like me and never reads that kind of writing style.
Next, I felt like some of the writing was pretentious. It seemed like the character seemed like she was all high and mighty. I’m still trying to figure out if it was the narration, writing style, or the character, Stella, herself.
This book was classified as a mystery, and I agree that there were some parts that had mysterious accents, but not many. There were a few parts around 30% that grabbed my attention, but I felt like that might have been the only time. There were a few descriptions that this book had that wasn’t fulfilled.
I really wanted and tried to like this book. Unfortunately, the writing style made it hard for me to follow, along with the narration used. Towards the end, I was just reading to get to the end. Overall, I just couldn’t get into it. I wish I had liked it better, but it just wasn’t for me.
trulybooked's review
3.0
[I received an free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.]
Just to start us off, I had to struggle to get a hold of this book. I didn't read the instructions properly and ended up being unable to read the novel for about two weeks. There was all this suspense as I tried to find ways to get another copy. I requested galleys, I emailed the publishers, I tried to get another copy through any means I could and in my mind, the book became elevated to this ethereal novel that I couldn't touch.
I feel like if this book was a person, we would be the jaded lovers who liked each other, but just couldn't quite make it work. I wanted something gorgeous and effortless, something that matched the beautiful cover. Instead I was given something that was surprisingly gritty.
It's hard to like the people in this novel and I think that's where I get derailed. Combine that with my initial misconceptions about the novel's tone and you've got a dissonant feeling right off the bat. The cover is gorgeous and the write-up feels whimsical. It's called a "dazzling debut" and it doesn't dazzle. It's too rough for that.
I know that I sound like I'm unhappy with the book and I'm not. Not at all. Impossible Views of the World just had an uphill struggle from the very beginning.
I should have been fascinated by the premise. It's not often that you follow the threads of a mystery through honest to goodness research and searching through multiple books for a place that may or may not exist. I wish that the novel had focused more on that and less on the interaction between the characters within it.
There's a very 30s kind of feel to this novel which was interesting to me and I did (eventually) warm up to Stella because underneath it all, she's kind of messy. She's competent, intelligent, independent and all kinds of mess. But then when you put other characters beside her, it became obvious very quickly that they were caricatures of themselves.
Maybe that was the point. This novel makes me feel like I missed the point somehow, but I feel like it should have been more lyrical than it was.
Either way, I did enjoy it for what it's worth. The male characters are terrible and the female characters aren't much better, but there's something fascinating about feeling like the present has been transposed into the 1930s. And if I sound like I don't have my normal enthusiasm, it's because this book took a lot out of me.
Read more reviews like this at Truly Booked.
Just to start us off, I had to struggle to get a hold of this book. I didn't read the instructions properly and ended up being unable to read the novel for about two weeks. There was all this suspense as I tried to find ways to get another copy. I requested galleys, I emailed the publishers, I tried to get another copy through any means I could and in my mind, the book became elevated to this ethereal novel that I couldn't touch.
I feel like if this book was a person, we would be the jaded lovers who liked each other, but just couldn't quite make it work. I wanted something gorgeous and effortless, something that matched the beautiful cover. Instead I was given something that was surprisingly gritty.
It's hard to like the people in this novel and I think that's where I get derailed. Combine that with my initial misconceptions about the novel's tone and you've got a dissonant feeling right off the bat. The cover is gorgeous and the write-up feels whimsical. It's called a "dazzling debut" and it doesn't dazzle. It's too rough for that.
I know that I sound like I'm unhappy with the book and I'm not. Not at all. Impossible Views of the World just had an uphill struggle from the very beginning.
I should have been fascinated by the premise. It's not often that you follow the threads of a mystery through honest to goodness research and searching through multiple books for a place that may or may not exist. I wish that the novel had focused more on that and less on the interaction between the characters within it.
There's a very 30s kind of feel to this novel which was interesting to me and I did (eventually) warm up to Stella because underneath it all, she's kind of messy. She's competent, intelligent, independent and all kinds of mess. But then when you put other characters beside her, it became obvious very quickly that they were caricatures of themselves.
Maybe that was the point. This novel makes me feel like I missed the point somehow, but I feel like it should have been more lyrical than it was.
Either way, I did enjoy it for what it's worth. The male characters are terrible and the female characters aren't much better, but there's something fascinating about feeling like the present has been transposed into the 1930s. And if I sound like I don't have my normal enthusiasm, it's because this book took a lot out of me.
Read more reviews like this at Truly Booked.
radetzkymarsch's review
5.0
"But I could not go back into the past. At least, I could not go back into a personal past. And what that left me with was history."
Say what you will – I loved this book. Beautiful prose, an instantly relatable protagonist, and a fast-moving, engaging plot line that rings true at every every turn.
I look forward to the publication of Lucy Ives' next book!
Say what you will – I loved this book. Beautiful prose, an instantly relatable protagonist, and a fast-moving, engaging plot line that rings true at every every turn.
I look forward to the publication of Lucy Ives' next book!
jnikolova's review
2.0
Also available on the WondrousBooks blog.
This was the first book I received from Penguin Books on NetGalley and I was very happy about it. Add to that the interesting premise of a museum and a mysterious map of a magical settlement, as well as the beautiful cover, which reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel movie cover, and I was hooked.
Unfortunately, the book is anything but exciting. For starters, the main character was a strange, self-contradictory woman, who was as hard to like for me, as she was for all the rest of the characters. She seemed to possess mainly negative qualities, and most of all, she was rude and judgmental to the other characters, yet extremely gullible when it came to the museum heartthrob who managed to get her interest, despite being a very obvious sleazebag.
Also, story-wise, there were two separate stories which had nothing to do with each other, aside from being connected to the main character, Stella, and they kept pulling the main story in different directions, making it scattered and unbalanced.
The map story was very naive, childish and not really interesting to follow, and the story of Stella's private life was just so out of place in terms of the book, that while finding it somewhat more interesting, I felt awkward reading about it, because it so obviously did not belong in the book, at all.
The writing itself was not to my liking either. To some it might have been clever, but to me it seemed very pretentious. There's nothing bad about using a rich vocabulary, but it just seemed very forced and ostentatious, like a teenager trying to sound smart at a college party.
This was the first book I received from Penguin Books on NetGalley and I was very happy about it. Add to that the interesting premise of a museum and a mysterious map of a magical settlement, as well as the beautiful cover, which reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel movie cover, and I was hooked.
Unfortunately, the book is anything but exciting. For starters, the main character was a strange, self-contradictory woman, who was as hard to like for me, as she was for all the rest of the characters. She seemed to possess mainly negative qualities, and most of all, she was rude and judgmental to the other characters, yet extremely gullible when it came to the museum heartthrob who managed to get her interest, despite being a very obvious sleazebag.
Also, story-wise, there were two separate stories which had nothing to do with each other, aside from being connected to the main character, Stella, and they kept pulling the main story in different directions, making it scattered and unbalanced.
The map story was very naive, childish and not really interesting to follow, and the story of Stella's private life was just so out of place in terms of the book, that while finding it somewhat more interesting, I felt awkward reading about it, because it so obviously did not belong in the book, at all.
The writing itself was not to my liking either. To some it might have been clever, but to me it seemed very pretentious. There's nothing bad about using a rich vocabulary, but it just seemed very forced and ostentatious, like a teenager trying to sound smart at a college party.
rosyposie's review
2.0
I liked the story presented and bought that the approach was rather clever. The context of an art museum, the play with reality, and the unpredictable twists and turns were all welcome components. Unfortunately, sentences often didn't make sense or just ended, and this made the story a bit difficult to follow.
bamahnken's review
1.0
I received the ARC of Impossible Views of the World by the publisher through the First to Read program in exchange for my honest review.
From the first paragraph I knew this was going to be a tough read. Ives' writing style is so needlessly pretentious that it makes her story very hard to read without rolling your eyes. She uses many fancy words to say a whole lot of nothing. The writing was unnatural and felt forced and robotic. I felt Ives was trying to show she could write well instead of actually just telling her story.
The story was lackluster as well. From the short synopsis I read I thought I would be reading a thrilling mystery and also reading about someone like me who is trying to get through her late 20s/early 30s in tact. This is NOT what was delivered. The mystery was anti climactic, and the characters in the book were all vile.
Hard pass on this one. I will not be recommending to anyone I know. This very nearly went in my "Did Not Finish" reading pile and I only persisted because it was an ARC and I wanted to give a true review. I am so happy I didn't spend money on this. 1/5
From the first paragraph I knew this was going to be a tough read. Ives' writing style is so needlessly pretentious that it makes her story very hard to read without rolling your eyes. She uses many fancy words to say a whole lot of nothing. The writing was unnatural and felt forced and robotic. I felt Ives was trying to show she could write well instead of actually just telling her story.
The story was lackluster as well. From the short synopsis I read I thought I would be reading a thrilling mystery and also reading about someone like me who is trying to get through her late 20s/early 30s in tact. This is NOT what was delivered. The mystery was anti climactic, and the characters in the book were all vile.
Hard pass on this one. I will not be recommending to anyone I know. This very nearly went in my "Did Not Finish" reading pile and I only persisted because it was an ARC and I wanted to give a true review. I am so happy I didn't spend money on this. 1/5