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emsee33's review against another edition
4.0
Read the rest of this review at All Things Urban Fantasy.
miraboo's review against another edition
3.0
I was lucky enough to have won this book in a giveaway. Not having read Adam Christopher before, this was quite a journey
The first three chapters got be a bit bored. There were several times I turned to my friends and told them that I hope the plot becomes more interesting later-and thankfully it did. By the time I had read the 1/3 of the book, I was hooked. Had I more time, I'd finish it much earlier
The plot wasn't great and as I said, in the early chapters,I wanted to not read it at all. That's the reason The Hang Wire gets 3/5 stars from me
old_tim's review against another edition
3.0
http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2014/01/surprisingly-clowns-are-not-to-blame.html
hyacinth51's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.25
seak's review against another edition
3.0
The circus is also in town and not without their oddities.
Christopher sinks his hooks into you from the start as he slowly reveals what is going on. I had the distinct feeling of Stephen King novel throughout the majority of the book and I'm guessing that was intentional because I know how heavily the author is influenced by the King.
After a great beginning, however, I was pretty let down by the major reveals in the novel. I won't go into too much detail, but I'm not a huge fan of this particular type of supernatural and it seemed like it wasn't quite set up well enough to pull it off. That could be my inherent bias, though...I'm not sure anyone could pull it off to my satisfaction.
I also wasn't too impressed with the characters. I didn't really like any of them and I definitely wasn't rooting for anyone so I had a hard time even caring what happened.
I still liked the book, especially the first half or so, but I can't say I'd outright recommend it.
3 out of 5 Stars (recommended with reservations)
crowyhead's review against another edition
2.0
Also, the author makes the unfortunate mistake of confusing Point Pleasant, WV (of Mothman fame) with Point Pleasant, NJ (no Mothmen there). I suppose he can be forgiven, given that he's from New Zealand, but it's really disappointing that no one caught this during the process of bringing the book to press, given that the wrong state is in the chapter heading.
the_bard's review against another edition
4.0
adaralynne's review against another edition
2.0
This book tried so hard to be good that it almost tried too hard in many cases. There was something about the construction of sentences and placement of words that made what would normally be very climactic and exciting scenes seem incredibly dull and unfulfilling. I was often left with a feeling of empty emotion; holes that were expecting to be filled with a good climax but weren't. Quite often the things that should have had the largest impact on me as a reader just slid on by with a gentle tap that leaves the story, as a whole, lacking. Consequentially, the ending was an absolute trudge and the story lost me completely at the arrival of... Belenus. (Not to mention the many spelling and grammar errors throughout the book; there were many times I actually had to reword a sentence in my head for the paragraph to make sense.)
It's very rare that I read a book and not care about any of the characters in the story. Generally speaking, there is usually at least one character that I attach myself to. This book didn't have that. It wasn't that the characters were particularly unlikable, the story just didn't make me care about them at all. The closest I got to caring about a character was my interest in Joel's story, but that interest was shattered with what you might call the 'climax' of the book, (really, I hated that entire final ordeal). Much of this, I think, is thanks to the way the characters were written. Kanaloa, for example. It felt like the author was attempting to hold the reader's hand the entire way through the book on who certain characters are, what they feel about the current situation, and what certain things would mean for the future of that character. Information was repeated constantly - yes, yes, we KNOW Kanaloa is super powerful and cannot, ever, lose control or else bad things will happen. We don't need to be told this every other page the character is present on.
This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book. The story was intriguing, (as said earlier, the construction of the circus was one of my favourite parts), I simply feel like the book tried too hard to be bigger than it was. It was an exhausting read for this reason alone.
koshkemeow's review against another edition
4.0
drewsof's review against another edition
2.0
Anyway. I'm not turned off of wanting to read Christopher's other work and I'm not particularly against this book in any way - I just never really got into it either.
Review at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2013/12/15/hangwire/
and at TNBBC: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/drew-reviews-hangwire.html