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A review by lexish00
Fellside by M.R. Carey
2.0
Prison stories don't interest me, first of all. I don't like Orange is the New Black, and I don't have any other examples of prison stories, that's how little they interest me.
I read this because my coworker found out I had read Carey's other book The Girl With All the Gifts, and she told me I HAD to read this one, too. So she lent it to me, and then how could I say no? No, I won't read this book you lent me? So I read it. She has life experiences that make the story and the ending a lot more meaningful to her, and I get that. I get that different people get different things out of books.
But for me, The Girl With All the Gifts had a ton of things I liked and found interesting and kept meturning pages and thinking, and this had very little. Carey's writing style makes you think there is something exciting around every corner (which at least made reading a book I don't care about easy enough), but in this instance it was so deceptive. The huge court reveal? Everything was leading up to that and then it just felt so... normal. Like, yeah, that's what we all expected. I honestly felt the same about the ghost reveal that happens about 2/3 through the book. It was a surprise, but not nearly enough of a surprise to be excited about.
Credit where credit's due -- Carey knows how to end a story. He ties up loose ends and puts ribbons on everything. This was probably my favorite thing about Fellside and The Girl With All the Gifts, the endings are so perfect. But that book also had interesting theories about science and life and humanity, whereas Fellside, what does it have? Maybe relationships? Barely? A half-hearted attempt to redeem oneself? The story just didn't capture me.
I read this because my coworker found out I had read Carey's other book The Girl With All the Gifts, and she told me I HAD to read this one, too. So she lent it to me, and then how could I say no? No, I won't read this book you lent me? So I read it. She has life experiences that make the story and the ending a lot more meaningful to her, and I get that. I get that different people get different things out of books.
But for me, The Girl With All the Gifts had a ton of things I liked and found interesting and kept meturning pages and thinking, and this had very little. Carey's writing style makes you think there is something exciting around every corner (which at least made reading a book I don't care about easy enough), but in this instance it was so deceptive. The huge court reveal? Everything was leading up to that and then it just felt so... normal. Like, yeah, that's what we all expected. I honestly felt the same about the ghost reveal that happens about 2/3 through the book. It was a surprise, but not nearly enough of a surprise to be excited about.
Credit where credit's due -- Carey knows how to end a story. He ties up loose ends and puts ribbons on everything. This was probably my favorite thing about Fellside and The Girl With All the Gifts, the endings are so perfect. But that book also had interesting theories about science and life and humanity, whereas Fellside, what does it have? Maybe relationships? Barely? A half-hearted attempt to redeem oneself? The story just didn't capture me.