spiralnode's review
tense
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
1.0
Craft was severely lacking here. I didn't see it in any element of the story: narrative, characters, pacing, intrigue, writing, none of these landed for me.
It started off well, with a man named Andrew essentially running away from his life and reinventing himself. The prep work was intriguing, the way he moved money between different bank accounts to emulate flow and how Neil Cross described the monotonicity of life.
But from here on out it quickly went downhill. A bunch of different characters are introduced, and the story isn't solidified sufficiently by ambiance, in fact a vibe is sorely missing. The rhythm is amped up, the progress is quick, and this is also helped by snappy dialogue. But for me this meant that I didn't have an anchor, I was forced to move from one detail to the next from page to page, and there wasn't anything approached deeply enough to create interest. This also meant that the writing didn't show any particular qualities. If a plot evolves at such a rapid speed, I expect something more compelling. But the sentences just looked thrown in there, impulsively written down. I didn't get the sense that there was much thought or polishing of the text.
It started off well, with a man named Andrew essentially running away from his life and reinventing himself. The prep work was intriguing, the way he moved money between different bank accounts to emulate flow and how Neil Cross described the monotonicity of life.
But from here on out it quickly went downhill. A bunch of different characters are introduced, and the story isn't solidified sufficiently by ambiance, in fact a vibe is sorely missing. The rhythm is amped up, the progress is quick, and this is also helped by snappy dialogue. But for me this meant that I didn't have an anchor, I was forced to move from one detail to the next from page to page, and there wasn't anything approached deeply enough to create interest. This also meant that the writing didn't show any particular qualities. If a plot evolves at such a rapid speed, I expect something more compelling. But the sentences just looked thrown in there, impulsively written down. I didn't get the sense that there was much thought or polishing of the text.
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