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laurabenson's review against another edition
5.0
This book is fantastic and I highly recommend all scifi people to pick this book up and read it.
funny thing was I found myself more drawn to the secondary character of Connor who I found to be more interesting. Simon Canderous was everything that a woman would want in a man, except that he could never, ever touch her without knowing about some part of her life that he doesn't need to know.
I liked the psychometry aspect of the book. How awesome would it be to pick up an item and understand the journey that item and/or person took.
I'm looking forward to more books by this fantastic young, new author.
funny thing was I found myself more drawn to the secondary character of Connor who I found to be more interesting. Simon Canderous was everything that a woman would want in a man, except that he could never, ever touch her without knowing about some part of her life that he doesn't need to know.
I liked the psychometry aspect of the book. How awesome would it be to pick up an item and understand the journey that item and/or person took.
I'm looking forward to more books by this fantastic young, new author.
chantaal's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars
I'm not really sure how I feel about this. One on hand, it was a pretty nice twist on most urban fantasy novels, adding a whole This Is Our Silly Office element to it, but that went way overboard. All the pamphlets, seminars and paperwork being mentioned over and over got really old after the first third.
Also, I'm not sure what Strout was going for when it came to Simon's voice. Half the time his narrative made him sound like a regular guy, then the rest of the time it was all "oh look at how clever I am saying noob and using WTF in my narrative!"
I'm not even going to mention how fumbling the romance subplot was, or how insipid Jane's.
Bottom line, this is an interesting go to for a UF fix and a decent male lead. It just doesn't live up to what it wants to be.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this. One on hand, it was a pretty nice twist on most urban fantasy novels, adding a whole This Is Our Silly Office element to it, but that went way overboard. All the pamphlets, seminars and paperwork being mentioned over and over got really old after the first third.
Also, I'm not sure what Strout was going for when it came to Simon's voice. Half the time his narrative made him sound like a regular guy, then the rest of the time it was all "oh look at how clever I am saying noob and using WTF in my narrative!"
I'm not even going to mention how fumbling the romance subplot was, or how insipid Jane's
Spoiler
diary entries were when Simon took a look in themBottom line, this is an interesting go to for a UF fix and a decent male lead. It just doesn't live up to what it wants to be.
yayforbooks's review against another edition
1.0
This book is Dead to Me.
I really wanted to like it at first, and then I just really wanted it to be done with. The premise of the story, that Simon Canderous is a man who can touch things and come up with a history for the object, is really cool. That was about it.
It really tried to be funny and I can accept the cheesy titles to pamphlets and job titles that abounded in this book. But it didn't work. It just felt much too juvenile of a narration. It's not even that I'm against first person narratives that are told with a lot of character. I actually like that. It just didn't work with Simon's voice because it was trying too hard. And all those cheesy pamphlet titles got old really really quickly.
The characters didn't have much depth. The plot was there, but it wasn't anything remarkable or very memorable. It just seemed like your standard urban fantasy mystery novel, which would have been fine if there had been more depth to the characters or more cohesiveness to the writing. Also, lines like "I shouldn't french with the enemy" just make me sigh. I almost fell asleep during the action scene.
I also felt like the female characters couldn't really stand on their own two feet in this book. I didn't get a sense of strength or independence from them. Which really annoyed me. I don't demand that every female character I read be utterly perfect, developed, or strong. I just ask that they don't randomly have mood swings when presented with balloons, write diary entries about their thongs while on a stake-out, and be interesting.
All in all, I did not like this book at all. Which is sad because I wanted to. If you want something that's also a contemporary urban fantasy with aspects of mystery and humorous narrator that works for some reason, I'd recommend the Dresden Files (starts with [b:Storm Front|47212|Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)|Jim Butcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg|1137060]) by Jim Butcher. Dead to Me really tried to be fun and funny and exciting, but I think it missed the mark.
I really wanted to like it at first, and then I just really wanted it to be done with. The premise of the story, that Simon Canderous is a man who can touch things and come up with a history for the object, is really cool. That was about it.
It really tried to be funny and I can accept the cheesy titles to pamphlets and job titles that abounded in this book. But it didn't work. It just felt much too juvenile of a narration. It's not even that I'm against first person narratives that are told with a lot of character. I actually like that. It just didn't work with Simon's voice because it was trying too hard. And all those cheesy pamphlet titles got old really really quickly.
The characters didn't have much depth. The plot was there, but it wasn't anything remarkable or very memorable. It just seemed like your standard urban fantasy mystery novel, which would have been fine if there had been more depth to the characters or more cohesiveness to the writing. Also, lines like "I shouldn't french with the enemy" just make me sigh. I almost fell asleep during the action scene.
I also felt like the female characters couldn't really stand on their own two feet in this book. I didn't get a sense of strength or independence from them. Which really annoyed me. I don't demand that every female character I read be utterly perfect, developed, or strong. I just ask that they don't randomly have mood swings when presented with balloons, write diary entries about their thongs while on a stake-out, and be interesting.
All in all, I did not like this book at all. Which is sad because I wanted to. If you want something that's also a contemporary urban fantasy with aspects of mystery and humorous narrator that works for some reason, I'd recommend the Dresden Files (starts with [b:Storm Front|47212|Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)|Jim Butcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345556917s/47212.jpg|1137060]) by Jim Butcher. Dead to Me really tried to be fun and funny and exciting, but I think it missed the mark.
amdame1's review
3.0
Simon used to be a thief, a really good thief because he has skillz! he is a psychometrist, so he can read impressions from objects to discover just how valuable they are, their past history, and the like. Now he has joined the forces of Good, and is quickly entangled in a web of ghosts, cultists, and a stolen fish that keep him floundering (sorry for the bad pun) to control his powers and not lose his job - or his life.
nicaelafox's review
4.0
Concept of psychometry was really cool. Interested to see what the next book is like.
cjrecordvt's review
1.0
I assume the writer was going for a comedic vibe. In places, it felt like a bizarre form of social commentary, but there was too much jokiness to really grab hold and that jokiness got in the way of characters and their relationships.
teancom's review
1.0
Gave up before chapter 6, because ugh. Bad writing, bad dialog, just bad. Like Dresden but with all the wit and humor and characterization and plotting filed off. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if this started out as Dresden fan fiction and then he changed the names around to make it legal.
Stay away, stay far away.
Stay away, stay far away.
tigerb99's review
2.0
Annoying main character with scattershot thinking processes. And Canderous is also tremendously judgmental as well as instantly falling in love with women he meets (dead or undead).
elsewyse's review
3.0
I wanted to like this more than I did, but something just wasn't clicking. It felt like the author didn't have a good handle on any of the characters; they tended to act irrationally and unpredictably. The plot wasn't bad, but overall, I wasn't really thrilled. Too bad.