hardcover, 272 pages
Published April 9, 2019 by Henry Holt and Co..
I found this book interesting, but I didn’t actually enjoy reading it. The prose style of the first section felt too wordy. I preferred the second section, but it still had annoying tics.
This is the first book I've read by Susan Choi and – if it's representative of the rest of her work – it will be the last. It's unfortunate because I when I saw her interviewed at the National Book Festival this summer, she struck me as a smart and thoughtful person wrestling with some big questions. Unfortunately, her writing style just didn't do it for me and I found myself largely frustrated by this book. The first section felt cluttered with two dimensional characters. The second section (intended to make you question the accuracy of the telling of events in first section) was promising but confusing. The third section felt like it was ghost-written by someone like Gillian Flynn. All in all, I can't even tell you who the actual characters were in this book. Maybe that's how Choi wants people to feel: like they, too have been on …
This is the first book I've read by Susan Choi and – if it's representative of the rest of her work – it will be the last. It's unfortunate because I when I saw her interviewed at the National Book Festival this summer, she struck me as a smart and thoughtful person wrestling with some big questions. Unfortunately, her writing style just didn't do it for me and I found myself largely frustrated by this book. The first section felt cluttered with two dimensional characters. The second section (intended to make you question the accuracy of the telling of events in first section) was promising but confusing. The third section felt like it was ghost-written by someone like Gillian Flynn. All in all, I can't even tell you who the actual characters were in this book. Maybe that's how Choi wants people to feel: like they, too have been on the receiving end of a mindf*ck. No thanks.
