Scan barcode
psnchz's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
kbio's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Dementia, Alcohol, and Classism
zzaakkiiyyaa's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Death
kimberlyswalters's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
felofhe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
freshbatchofbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I would highly recommend reading this one and not listening to the audiobook. Hallett (and the fictional author Edith Twyford) rely heavily on acrostics and anagrams. Also, since this book is written as audio recordings, the phonetic spellings play a massive role in the mystery
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Drug abuse, and Death of parent
beepbeep101's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
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
nickoliver's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
This was certainly a lot different than I could have ever imagined! I went into it very excited because I’d heard good things about it, but it was a bit of a challenge for me at first.
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, it was obvious that Max’s name could be important, since Steven not once called him by his name in a single audio file -, but for the most part, they were all small and trivial enough for me to overlook them.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent
tamara_joy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent and Murder
Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcohol, and War
loop_laurens's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
A unique, engaging mystery with a completely unexpected ending that would make a second read through an entirely different experience.
The main character was a highlight of the book; it was refreshing to read from the persepctive of the type of person who doesn't often get to be the main character - older, poor, dyslexic - and he truely felt like a real person. The current plot and past memories were well balanced, and the transcript format of the mystery made for a fun and different read.
I haven't decided if I liked the plot twist at the end, but it was incredibly clever and definitely unexpected, and does want to make me want to reread the book to see how knowing the twist changes the reading experience.
Overall, would highly recommend.
The main character was a highlight of the book; it was refreshing to read from the persepctive of the type of person who doesn't often get to be the main character - older, poor, dyslexic - and he truely felt like a real person. The current plot and past memories were well balanced, and the transcript format of the mystery made for a fun and different read.
I haven't decided if I liked the plot twist at the end, but it was incredibly clever and definitely unexpected, and does want to make me want to reread the book to see how knowing the twist changes the reading experience.
Overall, would highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail