Reviews

Outside Looking In by T.C. Boyle

jlauf1996's review against another edition

4.0

Entertaining but not necessarily enlightening.

zellm's review against another edition

2.0

I didn't think that it was possible to be this bored by a book about psychologists tripping on LSD. Sounds exciting, right? But this was just an awful lot of navel-gazing, making bad parenting decisions, and one-dimensional characters that would be unlikable if they felt more like real people. The lab portions were interesting, but the rest of the book after they leave Harvard just lost me.

nicilaui's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious

3.0

dcmr's review against another edition

3.0

T.C. Boyle is a master, able to write on nearly any topic, and always engaging and informed. This one isn't among my favorites, but I always gain insight (and entertainment) from his work.

memequeensopsop's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

petal7's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

c3j's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

rvlgonzalez's review against another edition

2.0

I only finished this book because of the sunk cost fallacy, which is a fallacy, so I should have stopped, but I was holding out hope that maybe the book would cohere into something informative or introspective or compelling or analytical, but it didn't. Sometimes it felt impossible to tell whether the writer was as infatuated with psychedelics as his characters or resented them so much that his idea of successful criticism was ham-handed satire.

sabijne's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

autumnbrn's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5