mixedreader's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
sydney_arcuri's review
2.0
2/5
The audiobook was pretty quick, but I just don't think I was the target audience for this.
The audiobook was pretty quick, but I just don't think I was the target audience for this.
beyond_anna's review
3.5
I loved the premise of this book and the magical realism. I also liked the prose even though I had to read many sentences a few times to understand. It's a confusing book, but I understood it enough to continue. I just wish I understood Ham and his decisions more.
mythaster's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
funkypenguin3000's review
4.0
felt nice and hazy. didnt like the protagonist though. characterization was really good, you understood every character. i keep coming back to the part with the jaguar getting high off the vines. 5 more for the writing style and magical realism-y elements than the main character's story. I honestly didn't really care for him and would have loved to get more from the (for lack of a better term) manic pixie dream girl. And the old woman. They were my faves
pottedplnt's review
3.0
This book was confusing but I didn't mind the confusion. I think it was intentionally discombobulated in the beginning and I appreciated the author for just trusting her words to sit and not slowing down. What I minded was the protagonist as a character and how there was no growth.
Until the final ~40 papes, I liked the novel a lot more than I did by the time I finished. The ending of the book was unsatisfying and the main character was really had to sympathize with.
The synopsis implies that Ham is an active character. That over the course of the novel, as the back cover says, he "catching sight of a freedom he's never known, he must reclaim his body and mind." But Ham never reclaims his body. He is never even aware that his body has been taken. This is a book about haunted people who are empty and listless and can just drift in and out of rooms and towns. But the book never really lets Ham be more than a facimile of a person.
Ham does things and impacts people but at the end of the day, he's empty. The novel spends SO MUCH TIME implying that the TRUE Ham's personality and self is hidden somewhere under all the static but by the end of the novel, you realize that either Ham is an asshole by nature or he was always just a blank board with or without the possession.
And it's that lack of presentness and personality by the end of the novel that makes it such a fustrating read. Ham is so lost that he can't take any accountability for the things that he does and the people he hurts. He's a ghost on the page, moving through other people's lives without making any meaningful contrabutions or observations.
Until the final ~40 papes, I liked the novel a lot more than I did by the time I finished. The ending of the book was unsatisfying and the main character was really had to sympathize with.
The synopsis implies that Ham is an active character. That over the course of the novel, as the back cover says, he "catching sight of a freedom he's never known, he must reclaim his body and mind." But Ham never reclaims his body. He is never even aware that his body has been taken. This is a book about haunted people who are empty and listless and can just drift in and out of rooms and towns. But the book never really lets Ham be more than a facimile of a person.
Ham does things and impacts people but at the end of the day, he's empty. The novel spends SO MUCH TIME implying that the TRUE Ham's personality and self is hidden somewhere under all the static but by the end of the novel, you realize that either Ham is an asshole by nature or he was always just a blank board with or without the possession.
And it's that lack of presentness and personality by the end of the novel that makes it such a fustrating read. Ham is so lost that he can't take any accountability for the things that he does and the people he hurts. He's a ghost on the page, moving through other people's lives without making any meaningful contrabutions or observations.
mariannak98's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
amywoolsey_93's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
There's a lot of promise in None but the Righteous. I liked the way it jumps through time and between points of view, offering readers a taste of the narrator's bodiless existence, and James's prose, which is at once lush and economical. Unfortunately, my lingering feeling is frustration with the ending, which forgoes actual character development in favor of granting its protagonist unearned, apparently effortless redemption. Sorry, I don't think counts as growth.