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nikkinmichaels's review against another edition
3.0
Hannah Tennant-Moore is clearly a huge talent, and WRECK AND ORDER occasionally stuns with its language and insight. It frequently tries too hard, though, and something about it just reads clichéd and trite.
mg_1133's review against another edition
I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.
I was so excited to win a copy of this book following a few reviews I had read. From the description, I expected this to be a quarter-life-crisis kind of book, a rougher, more authentic Eat Pray Love. I'll never know if that's what it turned out to be because I only made it about 60 pages in. I waited to review it, hoping I could convince myself to come back to it, but I couldn't. This book managed to be both extremely uncomfortable and totally unbelievable, which is a really bad combination.
I was so excited to win a copy of this book following a few reviews I had read. From the description, I expected this to be a quarter-life-crisis kind of book, a rougher, more authentic Eat Pray Love. I'll never know if that's what it turned out to be because I only made it about 60 pages in. I waited to review it, hoping I could convince myself to come back to it, but I couldn't. This book managed to be both extremely uncomfortable and totally unbelievable, which is a really bad combination.
bookmarked642's review against another edition
2.0
I received an advanced reader's copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for my honest review. I downloaded the book via NetGalley.
I started this book nearly a month ago - a month! It definitely isn't the kind of book I would usually go for, but hey, it's good to try something new.
This is definitely an honest book. Elsie, having grown up on her father's money, is trying to find happiness. She befriends Suriya in Sri Lanka, and even ties out the Buddhist monks' way of life. But all she ever seems to think about is, quite honestly, sex. She connects everything that happens to her to some kind of sexual act or emotion achieved through a sexual relationship. Like I said, Wreck and Order is extremely honest. Perhaps a bit too honest at times.
Elsie is trying to find her place in the world. That is a great start for a book. But I just didn't get into this - I wasn't emotionally attached to Elsie at all, and I couldn't really relate to her. I got more than a bit fed up of all the sexual references pretty early on.
It doesn't even seem to be in chronological order. Okay, not all books are, but I just kept getting so lost in this! One minute she's alone in Sri Lanka, the next she's remembering her time with her kind-of-boyfriend, and then she's comparing it all to her hellish time in Paris... I just could not keep up.
There was no real hook or plot in this novel either. Elsie goes here, she meets them, she does this. The end.
Speaking of the end, what is going on there?! I tried to turn to the next page repeatedly, not realising the book had even finished. A bit of a dead end in my opinion, rather disappointing.
I try not to say that I don't like a book. I never stop reading part-way through. But I have struggled with both of these things with Wreck and Order. Perhaps it just isn't my kind of novel. Perhaps it was a bit too sexual. Perhaps it just didn't have a gripping storyline and lacked the development that readers love so much. I'm giving this 2.5 stars; the writing is very good in places, the idea is there, but it just doesn't fit together quite right.
I started this book nearly a month ago - a month! It definitely isn't the kind of book I would usually go for, but hey, it's good to try something new.
This is definitely an honest book. Elsie, having grown up on her father's money, is trying to find happiness. She befriends Suriya in Sri Lanka, and even ties out the Buddhist monks' way of life. But all she ever seems to think about is, quite honestly, sex. She connects everything that happens to her to some kind of sexual act or emotion achieved through a sexual relationship. Like I said, Wreck and Order is extremely honest. Perhaps a bit too honest at times.
Elsie is trying to find her place in the world. That is a great start for a book. But I just didn't get into this - I wasn't emotionally attached to Elsie at all, and I couldn't really relate to her. I got more than a bit fed up of all the sexual references pretty early on.
It doesn't even seem to be in chronological order. Okay, not all books are, but I just kept getting so lost in this! One minute she's alone in Sri Lanka, the next she's remembering her time with her kind-of-boyfriend, and then she's comparing it all to her hellish time in Paris... I just could not keep up.
There was no real hook or plot in this novel either. Elsie goes here, she meets them, she does this. The end.
Speaking of the end, what is going on there?! I tried to turn to the next page repeatedly, not realising the book had even finished. A bit of a dead end in my opinion, rather disappointing.
I try not to say that I don't like a book. I never stop reading part-way through. But I have struggled with both of these things with Wreck and Order. Perhaps it just isn't my kind of novel. Perhaps it was a bit too sexual. Perhaps it just didn't have a gripping storyline and lacked the development that readers love so much. I'm giving this 2.5 stars; the writing is very good in places, the idea is there, but it just doesn't fit together quite right.
fearandtrembling's review against another edition
2.0
I had some major issues with the book; tried to explain it in this review.
omgbeansgoreadabook's review against another edition
3.0
Title: Wreck and Order
Author: +Hannah Tennant-Moore
Pages: 304
Publisher: Hogarth
Star rating: 3/5
Trigger Warning: Deals with sexual scenarios some may find uncomfortable or degrading. Also deals with physical and emotional abuse.
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions herein are of my own.
Synopsis from Amazon: Decisively aimless, self-destructive, and impulsively in and out of love, Elsie is a young woman who feels stuck. She has a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend, a dead-end job at a newspaper, and a sharp intelligence that’s constantly at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution.
An auto-didact who prefers the education of travel to college, Elsie uses an inheritance to support her as she travels to Paris and Sri Lanka, hoping to accumulate experiences, create connections, and discover a new way to live. Along the way, she meets men and women who challenge and provoke her towards the change she genuinely hopes to find. But in the end, she must still come face-to-face with herself.
Whole-hearted, fiercely honest and inexorably human, Wreck and Order is a stirring debut that, in mirroring one young woman's dizzying quest for answers, illuminates the important questions that drive us all.
Review:
This was a hard book for me to read, and I normally read about some heavy issues without it bothering me. This book was hard to read for me mainly because I wanted to shake the main character, Elsie, until she grew a brain. On the other hand, I really felt for her because she obviously has some inner issues that she can't handle and searches for ways to heal herself in abusive relationships and running away 500,000 miles from home.
I did like the fact that most of the novel was set in Sri Lanka, where Elsie went to lose herself in a poverty stricken neighborhood with her friend Suryia. I believe the trip was definitely eye opening for Elsie because she has so much more than what Suriya and her family has. This novel is beautifully written, and deals with a lot of issues that are deemed as taboo, which is very brave of Tennant-Moore, in my opinion.
I was a little disappointed at the end of the book because I didn't feel as if Elsie had learned much of anything except about her divide with a third world country. This is a book that made me feel degraded reading. I wanted to reach out to Elsie and tell her that rough sex isn't the only way she can feel the things she needs to. In fact, I think it hinders her ability to move past whatever issues she is dealing with. Although I did finish the book, it would be one that I will not let my children read until they are grown up enough to understand that the type of love and sacrifices that Elsie is making is not the type of love she or he will ever need in their lives. This is a story of a severely screwed up individual who should have had a little more guidance when they were growing up instead of an absent mother and a father who also has a mental-illness.
All in all, I love the way Tennant-Moore can write. It's eloquent and in some cases extremely crude and horrifying. I love a book that can bring out those emotions in me. On the other hand, it's a book that needs to be read by an older, more mature crowd who can understand the difference between abuse and love. This book likes to make you think differently about things.
Author: +Hannah Tennant-Moore
Pages: 304
Publisher: Hogarth
Star rating: 3/5
Trigger Warning: Deals with sexual scenarios some may find uncomfortable or degrading. Also deals with physical and emotional abuse.
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions herein are of my own.
Synopsis from Amazon: Decisively aimless, self-destructive, and impulsively in and out of love, Elsie is a young woman who feels stuck. She has a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend, a dead-end job at a newspaper, and a sharp intelligence that’s constantly at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution.
An auto-didact who prefers the education of travel to college, Elsie uses an inheritance to support her as she travels to Paris and Sri Lanka, hoping to accumulate experiences, create connections, and discover a new way to live. Along the way, she meets men and women who challenge and provoke her towards the change she genuinely hopes to find. But in the end, she must still come face-to-face with herself.
Whole-hearted, fiercely honest and inexorably human, Wreck and Order is a stirring debut that, in mirroring one young woman's dizzying quest for answers, illuminates the important questions that drive us all.
Review:
This was a hard book for me to read, and I normally read about some heavy issues without it bothering me. This book was hard to read for me mainly because I wanted to shake the main character, Elsie, until she grew a brain. On the other hand, I really felt for her because she obviously has some inner issues that she can't handle and searches for ways to heal herself in abusive relationships and running away 500,000 miles from home.
I did like the fact that most of the novel was set in Sri Lanka, where Elsie went to lose herself in a poverty stricken neighborhood with her friend Suryia. I believe the trip was definitely eye opening for Elsie because she has so much more than what Suriya and her family has. This novel is beautifully written, and deals with a lot of issues that are deemed as taboo, which is very brave of Tennant-Moore, in my opinion.
I was a little disappointed at the end of the book because I didn't feel as if Elsie had learned much of anything except about her divide with a third world country. This is a book that made me feel degraded reading. I wanted to reach out to Elsie and tell her that rough sex isn't the only way she can feel the things she needs to. In fact, I think it hinders her ability to move past whatever issues she is dealing with. Although I did finish the book, it would be one that I will not let my children read until they are grown up enough to understand that the type of love and sacrifices that Elsie is making is not the type of love she or he will ever need in their lives. This is a story of a severely screwed up individual who should have had a little more guidance when they were growing up instead of an absent mother and a father who also has a mental-illness.
All in all, I love the way Tennant-Moore can write. It's eloquent and in some cases extremely crude and horrifying. I love a book that can bring out those emotions in me. On the other hand, it's a book that needs to be read by an older, more mature crowd who can understand the difference between abuse and love. This book likes to make you think differently about things.
melissa_mccaffrey11's review against another edition
2.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book for free from the GoodReads First Reads program.
I...don't know what to make of this book. It typically doesn't take me a month and a half to read a less-than-300-page book, but I just wasn't compelled to continue with this one.
The first 15 or so pages were maybe the worst pages of any book I've ever read, so awful that I almost put the book down for good. I eventually picked it back up and decided to slog through, and some parts got much, much better. On the whole I really enjoyed the second half of the book set in Sri Lanka, although the main character is so unlikeable as to make for difficult reading at times. Also, although I'm not bothered by sex in books, I found much of the sexual descriptions to be pointless and borderline lewd.
And then, just as I'm reading the last few pages and thinking, "Hmm, maybe this was better than I'd thought," I come across another completely unnecessary sexual reference, right there in the last paragraph, which makes me kind of uncomfortable and also succeeds in completely pulling me out of whatever emotion the author may have been trying to put into that final scene.
Not great. Wouldn't really recommend.
I...don't know what to make of this book. It typically doesn't take me a month and a half to read a less-than-300-page book, but I just wasn't compelled to continue with this one.
The first 15 or so pages were maybe the worst pages of any book I've ever read, so awful that I almost put the book down for good. I eventually picked it back up and decided to slog through, and some parts got much, much better. On the whole I really enjoyed the second half of the book set in Sri Lanka, although the main character is so unlikeable as to make for difficult reading at times. Also, although I'm not bothered by sex in books, I found much of the sexual descriptions to be pointless and borderline lewd.
And then, just as I'm reading the last few pages and thinking, "Hmm, maybe this was better than I'd thought," I come across another completely unnecessary sexual reference, right there in the last paragraph, which makes me kind of uncomfortable and also succeeds in completely pulling me out of whatever emotion the author may have been trying to put into that final scene.
Not great. Wouldn't really recommend.
mkat303's review against another edition
2.0
I'm mixed on this one. It started off really promising, but then... I dunno. I decided I had to finish it, though, to see what happened. I did like how candidly the author wrote about sex, and I do think the book had potential. Maybe her next book will be better.
cinderwizard's review against another edition
3.0
I loved that the author of this book let loose and put to words some very explicit thoughts and activities, which most people probably find crude. I found myself relating to a lot in El's world. This is a good book for any gender, not just women. Men in particular could benefit from hearing a woman's perspective on sex.
vulpasvulpas's review against another edition
This is one of my first and only DNF books from this year, largely due to the incoherence and faulty linearity of the narrative - it would've been alright if I didn't have 35 other books on my to-read list currently queued up at the foot of my bed, so sacrifices had to be made in the effort of moving forward. There's a lot to say for Tennant-Moore's writing, however. I love splotchy, displacing, irrevocably distressed styles, as unpopular as they are; I love feeling the nervousness and destructiveness of Elsie lift off the page through her narrative, sharp as shattered glass on a cement floor. There's nothing really to be done when it's shattered like that except cut every exposed area of your fingers trying to sift through the pieces, finding no point really in it's already completed self-ruination, and that's pretty much what reading this book was like.
sophronisba's review against another edition
3.0
I hated the first quarter of this book. Elsie is a difficult character to read about; she is overprivileged, entitled, shallow, whiny, and continually makes bad life choices. I don't generally have a problem with unlikable protagonists, but her self-absorption could be hard to take. But I do think she developed some layers as the book went on, and she was self-aware enough to realize a lot of her own faults. I probably wouldn't have put this on the First Novel longlist, but I will be looking out for Tennant-Moore's next novel.