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emrodav's review
3.0
I don't know exactly how I feel about this book (which seems to be how a lot of my reviews start, lol, but I can say I mostly enjoyed this book. The world of the Swampsea is wonderfully created, and all the creatures--the Old Ones-- are very interesting. The main character, Briony, is very repetitively harsh on herself, which can get quite annoying. However, it makes sense for what Briony believes she's done. I just wish it had been a little less.
The method of story-telling can both enjoying and off-putting. Billiingsley uses some stream-of-consciousness that I enjoyed most of the time. She also frequently switched to second person,which I generally don't like. I suppose, though, that it adds to some of the confusion of the story.
The plot is quite thin, and I figured out the twist very early on. The plot is definitely not the main reason I enjoyed the book. I liked the fantasy elements, but was sometimes bored by the plot and confused by the writing style.
The method of story-telling can both enjoying and off-putting. Billiingsley uses some stream-of-consciousness that I enjoyed most of the time. She also frequently switched to second person,which I generally don't like. I suppose, though, that it adds to some of the confusion of the story.
The plot is quite thin, and I figured out the twist very early on. The plot is definitely not the main reason I enjoyed the book. I liked the fantasy elements, but was sometimes bored by the plot and confused by the writing style.
andiemags53's review
2.0
Couldn't even finish it.... Horrible writing... No connection at all with the characters.
alicebme's review
2.0
This was one weird ass book. You know, I think it would make a great movie! The swamp setting, the different Old Ones, and the human characters are all well written. I also liked the plot. I just didn' t like the path of the plot. It made me too angry before it explained. = not so perfect reading experience.
emath98's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
mhouser14's review against another edition
3.0
Several things about this book caught my eye: the cover, the title, and the overview. I was ready to sweep myself away into a bizarre new world, and Chime looked promising. I really wanted to love this book, as I do most of my others, but it was hard to go on. Ms. Billingsley's language is unique and definitely takes imagination and talent to create and write with, but it was hard for me to read.
The first half wasn't what I wanted or imagined, but the ending... brilliant! Getting through the confusing beginning was completely worth the twist at the end. I loved he way all loose ends were tied up and explained, and the complete story was worth the slow start.
katieinca's review
3.0
Oh hi! Yes, I finished this. It was fun. And a neat and fun-to-think-about experiment. 3.5.
I get that we readers are muddled because our narrators are muddled, but it still felt a bit... thin to me. In spots. The world building. Also, I get irritated in books where the female lead seems to need the male lead more than vice versa, so I spent a fair amount of time being irritated, which the fixing-of-that in the last few chapters may not have entirely erased.
From back in April:
------
I'm supposed to be reading nonfiction now, but it just didn't seem like the night for it. So I'm picking this up from my fun-things-I've-been-itching-to-read list. So far I'm not even 20 pages in and we have references to Queen Anne, paperclips, arsenic poisoning, swamp fever, and the Dead Hand. So, yeah, I'm in.
I get that we readers are muddled because our narrators are muddled, but it still felt a bit... thin to me. In spots. The world building. Also, I get irritated in books where the female lead seems to need the male lead more than vice versa, so I spent a fair amount of time being irritated, which the fixing-of-that in the last few chapters may not have entirely erased.
From back in April:
------
I'm supposed to be reading nonfiction now, but it just didn't seem like the night for it. So I'm picking this up from my fun-things-I've-been-itching-to-read list. So far I'm not even 20 pages in and we have references to Queen Anne, paperclips, arsenic poisoning, swamp fever, and the Dead Hand. So, yeah, I'm in.
renuked's review
4.0
Wow, what a magical, mysterious setting. I’m blown away. By everything. The plot, the characters, the mystery, the wording. It was all surreal as I was reading it, and yet it was all very tangible. I’ll explain.
The Plot: Confusing at first, but the plot is centered on Briony and her struggle to save her twin Rose from the dangerous swamp cough. They are returning to Swampsea, a 20th century town complete with motorcars, but still with a tinge of the Victorian era and of course haunted by ancient things that roam in the wild swamp. It’s hard to find the actual villain at first because Briony is so hell-bent on the fact that the villain is herself, but that just serves to add more twists and turns. The entire book has a really dark sort of feel to it, mysterious and on the verge on confusing. Toss in there a bit of sunshine and humor (there were parts I laughed out loud actually) known as Eldric and we really have ourselves a brilliant novel.
The Characters: This is what I wanted to talk about the entire time. It’s not really the plot that keeps the book moving, it’s the characters. Or Briony herself I guess. It’s strange to find a female protagonist not whining about how ugly and unlovable she is, but about how she is pretty on the outside, and wicked and evil on the inside. She doesn’t spend time mooning over some arrogant jerk, complaining how he’ll never love her back, but instead she focuses on how she deserves to hang and to never be loved. It’s quite a flip. But you find yourself still liking her. Even though she can ramble about her wickedness, and you want to shake her, she is still pretty powerful, which made me like her even more. Eldric was the complete opposite, which made him perfect for Briony. They completed each other. He was the light in the story. I laughed over their “bad-boy” Latin and their boxing lessons. It was perfect. And then there is Rose, who is absolutely adorable, and Tiddy Rex who reminds me of a puppy. And Leanne and Cecil (both of whom I would’ve loved to punch in the face). But it’s lovely to have characters that inspire such feeling in the reader.
The Romance: Slower than other books. No insta-love. No love-triangles, (no real ones at least.) Like I said, Eldric and Briony are perfect for each other. They belong together and neither of them cares about the others flaws. They learn about each other before professing undying love for each other. They become real friends, learning about love, loyalty, and trust, before lust (even though they learn about that too). It was sweet and touching.
The Style: Gorgeous. Lush. Deep. Sumptuous. Mysterious. Verdant. Cryptic. Arcane. Opulent. All great words. The poetry, the descriptions, the Latin (you’ll understand when you read it), the emotions. You could sink into them and never return. It was astonishingly rich and worth reading it for the setting alone.
Overall: See above. Or just go read the book. Take your pick. If the choice is the former, you still go read it.
The Plot: Confusing at first, but the plot is centered on Briony and her struggle to save her twin Rose from the dangerous swamp cough. They are returning to Swampsea, a 20th century town complete with motorcars, but still with a tinge of the Victorian era and of course haunted by ancient things that roam in the wild swamp. It’s hard to find the actual villain at first because Briony is so hell-bent on the fact that the villain is herself, but that just serves to add more twists and turns. The entire book has a really dark sort of feel to it, mysterious and on the verge on confusing. Toss in there a bit of sunshine and humor (there were parts I laughed out loud actually) known as Eldric and we really have ourselves a brilliant novel.
The Characters: This is what I wanted to talk about the entire time. It’s not really the plot that keeps the book moving, it’s the characters. Or Briony herself I guess. It’s strange to find a female protagonist not whining about how ugly and unlovable she is, but about how she is pretty on the outside, and wicked and evil on the inside. She doesn’t spend time mooning over some arrogant jerk, complaining how he’ll never love her back, but instead she focuses on how she deserves to hang and to never be loved. It’s quite a flip. But you find yourself still liking her. Even though she can ramble about her wickedness, and you want to shake her, she is still pretty powerful, which made me like her even more. Eldric was the complete opposite, which made him perfect for Briony. They completed each other. He was the light in the story. I laughed over their “bad-boy” Latin and their boxing lessons. It was perfect. And then there is Rose, who is absolutely adorable, and Tiddy Rex who reminds me of a puppy. And Leanne and Cecil (both of whom I would’ve loved to punch in the face). But it’s lovely to have characters that inspire such feeling in the reader.
The Romance: Slower than other books. No insta-love. No love-triangles, (no real ones at least.) Like I said, Eldric and Briony are perfect for each other. They belong together and neither of them cares about the others flaws. They learn about each other before professing undying love for each other. They become real friends, learning about love, loyalty, and trust, before lust (even though they learn about that too). It was sweet and touching.
The Style: Gorgeous. Lush. Deep. Sumptuous. Mysterious. Verdant. Cryptic. Arcane. Opulent. All great words. The poetry, the descriptions, the Latin (you’ll understand when you read it), the emotions. You could sink into them and never return. It was astonishingly rich and worth reading it for the setting alone.
Overall: See above. Or just go read the book. Take your pick. If the choice is the former, you still go read it.
stephxsu's review
5.0
CHIME has received countless starred reviews and a nearly equal array of praise and protestation from bloggers. Suffice it to say that I went into this book with equal parts anticipation and trepidation. A book couldn’t possibly live up to all that praise, I thought. At best, I thought, I will like this book, but I won’t love it.
But oh, I loved it. Oh, how I did. CHIME completely won me over, and I am in nonstop raptures about its genius. Seriously. It might be a good thing you are not in my vicinity right now. Otherwise I’d be floating and spinning in circles around you in my enrapturement.
When I say that CHIME won me over, it really did have to win me over. The first 150 or so pages were craAaAaAaAazy! I was really confused, because the book throws us right in the middle of Briony’s narration, and she’s not exactly the most objective of narrators. She is a great example of a successful unreliable narrator, because everything she narrates is colored by her own charged perception of things.
Briony is so vehement in her self-hatred that she very nearly makes us hate her as well. A person who spends her whole life thinking that she’s wicked and hating herself will obviously have a great deal of trouble thinking otherwise. And yet Briony also has a wicked sense of humor—and by “wicked,” I mean in the best way possible. She is like a magical, irresistible combination of Anne Shirley’s whimsy and—well, I can’t think of who her wit is like, but yeah, she’s a combination of wit and whimsy, which makes her completely and utterly cool.
Briony’s narration may be confusing at first, but if you give yourself a solid chunk of time to read CHIME, by page 200 you will be so engrossed in these characters’ stories that you will not want to put this book down. Perhaps most incredible is how well we come to know and love supporting characters such as Eldric and Rose through Briony’s voice. Eldric, the boy-man with an irrepressible love of kind-hearted playing. Rose, brain-damaged but still beautifully artistic, and all the more precious for her unique and childlike take on the world. CHIME celebrates childhood and play, and suggests that the best kind of love comes from these nearly magical moments of youthfulness.
There is so much more I could say about CHIME, and so much more within this book that deserves to be talked about. But I could go on and on for pages and pages, and nothing would compare to reading this book yourself, to see if it is, too, your brand of magic. I wasn’t expecting to love CHIME, but now it’s one of my favorite books of all time, an impressive accomplishment of writing magic. Now excuse me, while I go and reread it.
But oh, I loved it. Oh, how I did. CHIME completely won me over, and I am in nonstop raptures about its genius. Seriously. It might be a good thing you are not in my vicinity right now. Otherwise I’d be floating and spinning in circles around you in my enrapturement.
When I say that CHIME won me over, it really did have to win me over. The first 150 or so pages were craAaAaAaAazy! I was really confused, because the book throws us right in the middle of Briony’s narration, and she’s not exactly the most objective of narrators. She is a great example of a successful unreliable narrator, because everything she narrates is colored by her own charged perception of things.
Briony is so vehement in her self-hatred that she very nearly makes us hate her as well. A person who spends her whole life thinking that she’s wicked and hating herself will obviously have a great deal of trouble thinking otherwise. And yet Briony also has a wicked sense of humor—and by “wicked,” I mean in the best way possible. She is like a magical, irresistible combination of Anne Shirley’s whimsy and—well, I can’t think of who her wit is like, but yeah, she’s a combination of wit and whimsy, which makes her completely and utterly cool.
Briony’s narration may be confusing at first, but if you give yourself a solid chunk of time to read CHIME, by page 200 you will be so engrossed in these characters’ stories that you will not want to put this book down. Perhaps most incredible is how well we come to know and love supporting characters such as Eldric and Rose through Briony’s voice. Eldric, the boy-man with an irrepressible love of kind-hearted playing. Rose, brain-damaged but still beautifully artistic, and all the more precious for her unique and childlike take on the world. CHIME celebrates childhood and play, and suggests that the best kind of love comes from these nearly magical moments of youthfulness.
There is so much more I could say about CHIME, and so much more within this book that deserves to be talked about. But I could go on and on for pages and pages, and nothing would compare to reading this book yourself, to see if it is, too, your brand of magic. I wasn’t expecting to love CHIME, but now it’s one of my favorite books of all time, an impressive accomplishment of writing magic. Now excuse me, while I go and reread it.
thebrainlair's review
3.0
3.5. Language was beautiful but story moved slowly. Loved the wordplay throughout.