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A review by stardust_ashes
Outside Looking In by T.C. Boyle
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book's vibe is interesting, and I had never read anything quite like this but it bored me so much.
This book takes place in the first years of the sixties when a group of scientists/ psychology students decided to study the effects of LSD. We follow mostly a man and his wife who take part in forming a sort of community.
Basically, all that ever happens are LSD trips. The prologue is great but the rest is flat, too long. Nothing outstanding ever happens. I wish the characters saved the book, but most of them are annoying. Not bad people per se, just unlikable and uninteresting.
I expected at least that the whole community to turn out sect-like, but not quite but still quite toxic (who takes care of the kids? They roam all day long while their parents are tripping, and damn they are good kids, way too good to be true).
I felt like the whole story about drugs, from taking them to consequences, passing through tripping could be enough to support the novel but I felt a sort of disconnection between all the elements because I missed a guiding thread between all the trips. I missed a real purpose in the storyline. Yes, they are taking LSD to study its effects but nowhere are told the results, and nobody talks about their experience. Everybody keeps dripping farther from that first goal and from each other but towards nothing else. The story and the characters all feel like empty shells, no motivation, just trips.
This book takes place in the first years of the sixties when a group of scientists/ psychology students decided to study the effects of LSD. We follow mostly a man and his wife who take part in forming a sort of community.
Basically, all that ever happens are LSD trips. The prologue is great but the rest is flat, too long. Nothing outstanding ever happens. I wish the characters saved the book, but most of them are annoying. Not bad people per se, just unlikable and uninteresting.
I expected at least that the whole community to turn out sect-like, but not quite but still quite toxic (who takes care of the kids? They roam all day long while their parents are tripping, and damn they are good kids, way too good to be true).
I felt like the whole story about drugs, from taking them to consequences, passing through tripping could be enough to support the novel but I felt a sort of disconnection between all the elements because I missed a guiding thread between all the trips. I missed a real purpose in the storyline. Yes, they are taking LSD to study its effects but nowhere are told the results, and nobody talks about their experience. Everybody keeps dripping farther from that first goal and from each other but towards nothing else. The story and the characters all feel like empty shells, no motivation, just trips.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Minor: Animal death and Sexual content