eminyx's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
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
3.25
alicerondinella's review against another edition
2.0
Non mi ha convinta e mi ha annoiata. Aveva del potenziale, si, ma poi il potenziale si è perso nelle Bitterroot pure lui…
lauren_cuellar's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
mmxia's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
jubaju's review against another edition
1.0
1.5 stars
I picked this up a few times at the bookstore and kept putting it back on the shelf. The blurb didn't have me convinced I would like this and there were many other books I wanted to look at. I should have left it there and not let the cover influence me. The writing was abysmal, the plots were boring, the characters were one dimensional, the big reflections on morality were general Instagram poetry wannabees. The ending saved this book from a 1 star review.
The language was very hard to read. I don't know if that came from the fact that English is not my native language (which is not usually a problem) and this style doesn't work with what I learned, or (as I suspect) from Curtis' way of writing, which makes it very hard to parse sentences. I also hated the fact that the dialogues had no punctuation and everything was jumbled. It took me a lot longer than it should have to read this book, in the sense that I kept having to reread entire pages but also the fact that I put it down and didn't pick it up for 2 weeks.
Debra Lewis' chapters especially were a mess to read and very painful to get through in regards to both the language and the story they told. This novel is divided between two plots: Ranger Lewis has just divorced her cheating ex who she found out had also been married to other women at the same time as her. Cloris Waldrip is lost in the wilderness after a plane crash that killed her husband after half a century together. Neither of these stories sound boring, but neither of them were executed well. Neither of them held my attention.
Debra mostly drinks and philosophizes about existence in the most shallow way possible, says "g*dd*mn" every other sentence and tries to start a relationship with a 17 year old. On the flip side of that, Cloris is being helped survive in the wilderness by a child molester, and she concludes her musings with the thought that "he couldn't help his impulses". When one character excuses pedophilia, that's a reflection of them. When both of the main characters do, it might be a problem coming from the author.
The ending made some reflections on what it means to be human and to exist in the presence of others, but it was mostly general platitudes without any real thought behind them. Not an enjoyable read and I will stay very far away from the author in the future.
I picked this up a few times at the bookstore and kept putting it back on the shelf. The blurb didn't have me convinced I would like this and there were many other books I wanted to look at. I should have left it there and not let the cover influence me. The writing was abysmal, the plots were boring, the characters were one dimensional, the big reflections on morality were general Instagram poetry wannabees. The ending saved this book from a 1 star review.
The language was very hard to read. I don't know if that came from the fact that English is not my native language (which is not usually a problem) and this style doesn't work with what I learned, or (as I suspect) from Curtis' way of writing, which makes it very hard to parse sentences. I also hated the fact that the dialogues had no punctuation and everything was jumbled. It took me a lot longer than it should have to read this book, in the sense that I kept having to reread entire pages but also the fact that I put it down and didn't pick it up for 2 weeks.
Debra Lewis' chapters especially were a mess to read and very painful to get through in regards to both the language and the story they told. This novel is divided between two plots: Ranger Lewis has just divorced her cheating ex who she found out had also been married to other women at the same time as her. Cloris Waldrip is lost in the wilderness after a plane crash that killed her husband after half a century together. Neither of these stories sound boring, but neither of them were executed well. Neither of them held my attention.
Debra mostly drinks and philosophizes about existence in the most shallow way possible, says "g*dd*mn" every other sentence and tries to start a relationship with a 17 year old. On the flip side of that, Cloris is being helped survive in the wilderness by a child molester, and she concludes her musings with the thought that "he couldn't help his impulses". When one character excuses pedophilia, that's a reflection of them. When both of the main characters do, it might be a problem coming from the author.
The ending made some reflections on what it means to be human and to exist in the presence of others, but it was mostly general platitudes without any real thought behind them. Not an enjoyable read and I will stay very far away from the author in the future.
tommooney's review
2.0
Couldn't bring myself to finish this. If you're gonna write a book about an old woman surviving in the wild, you'd better tell us about the old woman surviving in the wild.
The opening section is really good but it quickly falls into a dull stream-of-conscious narrative that doesn't deliver.
The opening section is really good but it quickly falls into a dull stream-of-conscious narrative that doesn't deliver.
franchesqua_levi's review
I just wasn't in the mood for it.
Spoiler
Plus, it was a little bit too gory for what I was wanting to read. There was this bit where Terry, the pilot's jaw is hanging from his face because of the plane crash. Then his face gets eaten by a white eyed raccoon and after that, he has this convulsion thing where all the extra gas gets released after you die. It was all just way too much for me.bundy23's review
2.0
Not very good. "Merlot" is used more in this book than in every other thing I've ever read in my life combined. Read some of the 1 star reviews for where it all goes wrong as they sum it up much better than I could. It gets 2 stars from me because the opening was actually really good.