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2.88 AVERAGE
2.88 AVERAGE
Honestly, this book frustrated me. The tone was almost arrogant in its telling and the story wasn't all that compelling. A 'rich white boy kills himself and his friend tries to work though it' has been done before a hundred times and there was nothing that made this book stand out from the others. Referencing Dostoevsky and a fictional German philosopher only made the narrator feel like it was talking down to the reader, though the reader is in this case, well-read and well-educated. Overly moody, a hint of gay attraction which is thoroughly stomped on with violence and school antics. This could have been something were the characters not so intensely fictional--they stayed within their roles strictly, never showing anything other than the singular side required of the plot. The note at the beginning was insulting, honestly. If I wanted to be condescended to in written form, I would read Youtube comments.
Just goes to show how hard is to write a great novel. Ruby is very intelligent, has a great track-record of being published in literary magazines, has a good story and interesting characters. Yet, it falls short as a novel simply because the prose is not top shelf.
Nonetheless, gripping and interesting enough read.
Nonetheless, gripping and interesting enough read.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An ambitious novel. Trying to make interesting points about identity, alienation, family and more. But the narrative - including the climax - flounders at times under the weight of that ambition. But it's ideas and ambition - if that's your interest - can make it worth a read.
Unfortunately, this is the rare unicorn of an ARC where you can be sure that my honest review for NetGalley is completely honest because reader, I hated this book. The characters were pretentious without much to anchor them to reality, and the depiction of twins made me wonder if the author had ever met a pair in his life. There was just too much going on here, and none of it was good.
Spoiler
Stop the surprise!twincest, for the love of god. It’s embarrassing as a writer and agonizing for real twins like me to read.
slow-paced
terrifying book and reassuring at the same time - you can be a smart guy and still not being able to pull a good novel out of yourself. a somewhat good coming of age story, about the fascination for books, alienation and the ever so common angst of 20 something college student ** and so much more mom **, it fails to be human when it needs to and fails to being borgesianly labyrinthine when it desperately has to. Some passages are interesting but the body or feelings seem to be a cumbersome data for the narration, actually everything is so cumbersome that it fails to coagulate in a novel, as is the book never puts the character at sort of distance, fascination and vertigo are expressed so poorly, all of this ends up being a unfun dark academia novel.
I get it really, but this book fails to tell it in any compelling way, despite a serviceable prose.
Just read Mohamed Mbougar Sarr if you want this somewhat well done.
I get it really, but this book fails to tell it in any compelling way, despite a serviceable prose.
Just read Mohamed Mbougar Sarr if you want this somewhat well done.
So so so so good! Depressing but so engaging - loved the way it was written, loved the characters explorations with the philosophy of suicide - look forward to rereading this another time to better try and wrap my head around the ideas and enjoy the language :)
A shallow echo of earlier gothic novels with an entirely predictable twist and a collection of main characters trapped by the author's self image of smug importance. The only thing extraordinary about The Zero and the One is how banal it makes the assassination of morality, the taboo of incest, and even murder.
I unfortunately didn't finish this book. I had such a hard time getting into it and it just overall didn't wow me. It's not because the writing is bad but just because the story itself is rather boring :(