A review by bookcheshirecat
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

2.0

“Those are not my words. In fact, I had to look up the exact quote. Like everyone else, I only knew 'I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' We tend to romanticize good quotes, and I always imagined Oppenheimer uttering those words while staring at the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. In reality, he spoke those words during an interview for an NBC documentary in 1965. He had had twenty years to think about it.” 

➽ I was curious about Sleeping Giants because it's a pretty popular sci-fi! I really enjoy mixed-media books and the audiobook has a full cast, so I was excited to check it out. Sleeping Giants is about a young girl called Rose who discovers a giant metal hand. Years later, she's leading a research time to find out more about the bizarre artefacts that have been left all over the world. The body parts are supposed to make up a giant figure, but there seem to be even more secrets hiding within them! I liked the idea and the fact that the story is told in journal entries and interviews! Unfortunately, unlike other similar books (such as The Illuminae Files) I didn't enjoy Sleeping Giants, as I wasn't engaged in the story.

➽ I had such a hard time caring for any of the characters. They didn't have much depth and the interview format worked against connecting to anyone in this book. I think it would have been better to focus on Rose since she has a personal connection to the hand and reframe the story from her perspective. I also wasn't a big fan of the included forced romances, as they felt out of place. I wanted more focus on the giants and less on the romantic drama in the research team.

➽ Another big issue was that I despised the unnamed interviewer, he was always acting so smug and superior. Since 80% of the files are interviews, he showed up all the time. We never really find out who he is, so it's hard to tolerate him when he's constantly manipulating and insulting the people he interviews. I actually liked him more in the very end, as he finally loses his composure instead of being this insufferable know-it-all. I just found all the interviews so offputting, since the interviewer constantly lets you know how powerful he is and that he seemingly can solve all the problems.

➽ In general, I was just disappointed by this story. It wasn't engaging and the only hook happens in the epilogue, but still isn't enough to make me want to read the sequels. I feel like the story was all over the place with all the military operations and discussions of war I didn't care about. So much went over my head and the mystery of the giant should have been the focus. I don't think I ever understood why everyone was so obsessed with this research, the story failed to establish the personal and bigger stakes. 
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