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paronomaniac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence and Kidnapping
staceyinthesticks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, and War
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Abandonment
zzaakkiiyyaa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Death
kimberlyswalters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
kfergy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol
Minor: Death, Gun violence, and Murder
Gang activityfelofhe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
gphemsley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Vomit, and War
beepbeep101's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism
Minor: Torture
kylieqrada's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Alcohol, and War
nickoliver's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
First of all, it mentioned at the beginning that some of the spelling was going to be wrong. The whole book consisted solely of audio files that got transcribed via some program, and they sometimes would spell words inaccurately. And I just wasn’t looking forward to that. I’ve always been a big fan of books with mixed media, which this one obviously was, but it took me a while to really make my peace with the writing.
However, it grew on me. Even though I didn’t listen to the audiobook, it helped envisioning Steven’s voice, because he had a very distinct accent - someone else could probably say what kind, but I’m not British, so I have no idea. And thanks to the phonetically accurate writing, you could actually hear his accent even in the physical book. It gave the story a bigger British feeling than it would’ve had otherwise. Which was fun.
What was weird about the writing too, though, was that it didn’t really feel realistic. The audio files were very similarly written to how an author would write a normally structured book. If a person talked into their phone to record their life, would they really talk like that? Doubtful. It was fine when Steven talked to other people, but when he just summarised what had just happened to him, it really didn’t sound authentic and was almost a bit cringey at times.
Because it was audio files, there were also details in the writing that you’d find in a transcription - for example, capitalised words for shouting, italicised words for whispering, brackets to show a pause, and things like that. It’s possible that some readers might be thrown off by that. I wasn’t bothered because I had to transcribe audio files before and was therefore familiar with the style, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless.
Next up, the story itself also took me some time to really get into it. I started out confused and uninterested in what Steve had to say. At a certain point, I started to find the story more and more intriguing. But even then, I think the plot surrounding the Twyford Code was just too sophisticated for me. All that talk about what they found out within the text went completely over my head, which made especially the parts with Lucy, a vaguely important side character, a bit confusing and stopped me from enjoying the story. It also lessened my intrigue a bit? I really wasn’t that hooked on what could be going on.
Looking back, a lot was foreshadowed. Part of that was quite tedious and off-putting in the story itself. Steven, the protagonist, often stopped telling what was currently going on and started rambling about the past and how he ended up where he ended up. In a book like this that was structured in audio files, it felt really out of place. If someone had just had to run away from some bad guys, or had an eye-opening conversation with someone, why would they just randomly talk about the past like that? It made sense in retrospect why it was in the book, but while reading it, it just annoyed me and I had to suppress the urge to just skim-read those parts. So it definitely didn’t help making the story more interesting to me in the moment.
Though I do have to say that the foreshadowing was quite brilliant. Some of it was a little bit predictable - for example,
For the majority of the book, I would’ve given it 3 stars - maybe 3.5 if I was generous. But then I got to the second part, literally forty pages away from the ending. The audio files stopped, though it was still mixed media. And now there was suddenly plot twist after plot twist. I was flabbergasted - also a bit confused for a while, but it got explained pretty well. And while the very end of the story wasn’t my favourite , the way I kept being surprised and confronted with information I did not see coming made me eventually raise my rating to 4 stars. It kind of made the more boring and confusing parts of the book worth it for me.
Overall, this wasn’t quite what I expected. The plot went over my head a bit too often for far too long, and the writing took me a while to get used to. But I liked Steven as a voice to follow - the way he talked about his son made me feel raw and ready to cry -, and the last forty pages had wonderful plot twists that I didn't see coming.
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent