A review by sarahrara
A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, by Christopher Brookmyre
4.0
Well, that was something quite unexpected. And not only because I downloaded this so long ago that I forgot what it was about, and was expecting a children's book of some kind. It's definitely not a children's book... Unexpected in a good way though. The writing was deliciously witty and sarcastic, and I laughed out loud several times while listening. I also delighted in Scottish slang terms such as bampot and ned.
While I think the narrator did a bang-up job, I did have a little trouble following the climactic scene at the end, also because it was hard for me to visualise what it looked like, not having had any experience with such places. I think it might have been a little easier in writing, plus if I read the book I'd have plenty of opportunity to pause, reread and fully enjoy some of the jokes and phrasings. So for that reason alone I'm leaning towards getting the written books for the rest of the series (and possibly any other Brookmyre books).
It's a very clever book, and it gives that necessary illusion of realness while describing a pretty out there scenario by adhering to Aristotle's maxim of probable impossibilities. I did find the writing a tad self-indulgent but am mostly willing to forgive that because of how clever and funny Brookmyre is. Though I will say that if it had been 50-100 pages shorter it might have received full marks from me. There was a lot of rehashing of Simon and Ray's pasts, that while not irrelevant to the story was for the most part also not strictly speaking necessary. And to my mind there was comparatively too little backstory for Angelique, though hopefully this will rectified in the later books.
While I think the narrator did a bang-up job, I did have a little trouble following the climactic scene at the end, also because it was hard for me to visualise what it looked like, not having had any experience with such places. I think it might have been a little easier in writing, plus if I read the book I'd have plenty of opportunity to pause, reread and fully enjoy some of the jokes and phrasings. So for that reason alone I'm leaning towards getting the written books for the rest of the series (and possibly any other Brookmyre books).
It's a very clever book, and it gives that necessary illusion of realness while describing a pretty out there scenario by adhering to Aristotle's maxim of probable impossibilities. I did find the writing a tad self-indulgent but am mostly willing to forgive that because of how clever and funny Brookmyre is. Though I will say that if it had been 50-100 pages shorter it might have received full marks from me. There was a lot of rehashing of Simon and Ray's pasts, that while not irrelevant to the story was for the most part also not strictly speaking necessary. And to my mind there was comparatively too little backstory for Angelique, though hopefully this will rectified in the later books.