Reviews

Bona sort by Nickolas Butler

dhall65's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

chamilton3396's review against another edition

3.0

Impressive in its ability to draw the reader fully into the story. Good character development made the story believable even when it perhaps should not have been. Some late in the book 'twists' were disappointing and forced.

pjroeder's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

cinnamontchai's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

goferal's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.75

siritheowlcat's review against another edition

DNF @ 54%

EASILY the most boring, monotone, bland audiobook performance I've listened too all year (and I've listened to a text-to-speech ARC in the last month 😬). That in addition to an interesting plot basis with plot-irrelevant meandering, uninteresting characters, and a casual "yeah i think i'll take up smoking meth to  build this house, seems like a good idea 🤷" made this a miserable reading experience. 

Thankfully, I love myself enough to put this down and move on.

ashlurtis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is easily my least favorite Nick Butler book, unfortunately. For anyone else, it might be a kind of middle of the road, okay thriller kind of read, but with the rest of Butler’s catalog being so full of depth, this book was exceptionally shallow. 

The writing itself felt weak at times, specifically during the unfortunate meth scenes. Though I know the opposite to be true, those weaker moments read like this was a brand new writer with very little experience. I get that the drug use itself was less important than the overall aura of the book, but the poor writing really undermined the story. 

While the very end was poignant, the lead up left much to be desired. Certain details could have been revealed in a more subtle way for greater affect. The dark and Stephen King-esque foreboding didn’t really permeate as deeply as it could have, resulting in some big events falling a little flat. 

I honestly think this book is just missing quite a bit. It feels like there could have been so much more to it. It FEELS like a very bare-bones King novel. A few more hundred pages could have maybe added some more substance. 

pleasereadittome's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

detrasystem's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

tommooney's review against another edition

2.0

Sheesh. I like Nickolas Butler a lot but this is far away from being his best work. The story is immensely boring (I mean, I don't expect thrilling plot twists but you need to give me something to cling to) and I didn't believe one character in the whole book (something that was most surprising as that's not something you can say about his other books). Gretchen, the homeowner, was particularly unbelievable, ridiculous even.

Pretty damn disappointing.