I loved this book. I know many thought it was too long and it was too much about video games. I didn’t. I am not a huge gamer but I did know most of the games mentioned in the book and I am a programmer so that part didn’t scare me.
But this book wasn’t about that in the end. It was about the deeply layered, flawed, interesting, and complex characters and how they changed each others lives. I loved every one of them and I could not stop listening to it once I started. It did not feel long to me at all.
This book took me forever to read. I started it at least ten times. It felt too depressing each time so I put it down. After months, I finally picked it as my book club pick so I would make my way through the book. Even then, it took me days to finish.
I can’t put my finger on exactly why this book didn’t have as profound as effect on me as it seems to have on many others. The writing was totally fine and I did love the food and all the evocative scenes.
But I think in the end, it felt like the story was about grief, yes, but not about growth. Not about what she learned. Such it made it an interesting and very sad story but harder for me to relate to it and make it my own.
Still I am glad I read it and grateful for more stories of grief out in the world.
Ok I know I am in the minority but I disliked this book. I found the characters stupid and despicable and I really felt awful by the time I was done reading it. I gave it two stars because I did keep reading it and some of the twists were interesting but I was of course able to guess the biggest ones and honestly, I was so unhappy by the end that I am sorry I read this book.
I am in the minority on this one or maybe I’ve read too many dystopian YA books by now that this was not interesting, not different or unique in any way except for the small twist of switching skin colors which was clever and interesting but not enough to make the book worthwhile for me. It might be the audio which I thought was terrible.
Maggie O’Farrell is such a wonderful writer and this, her first novel, is no exception. This is the story of Alice who takes the train to visit her sisters and while there sees something so shocking that she has to turn around and go right back home and then walks into traffic and ends up in a coma.
The novel unwinds in bits and pieces from there and shows us Alice and her family members, each with their own stories and bits and pieces of life until it all comes together. This is a rich, multi-layered story with wonderful characters. Highly recommended.
