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maxierosalee's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Hovering around 3.75-4 stars.
This was a book where my star rating went up the more as I read the book. It started as a pretty "meh" 3 out of 5, but the score had risen by the time I reached the end.
It had an intriguing premise: a mysterious, giant hand is uncovered by a young girl in her backyard. As the years go on, the journey to find the other parts of whatever enormous robotic body it belonged to unfolds, along with the mission to find out what exactly it is and what it does. But it wasn't just the premise that caught my interest: the format did as well. Instead of traditional narrative prose, the book is told in epistolary format. It uses the form of documents and transcripts, but mostly interviews between characters to tell the story. For me, the epistolary format is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be a very intriguing way to tell a story and give it a certain kind of tone/atmosphere...but it's a common shortcoming that due to their nature, epistolary novels often suffer from a very bad case of "telling, not showing." I've read books in this format that were just exposition dump after exposition dump, and it gets to be a drag to read.
This one was a pretty engaging read. I was pretty invested in the plot. I wanted to read on as the characters worked to untangle the mystery of the giant robotic hand and see what would happen. Also, with the interview format, I found the characters decently captivating, and the author did a good job giving the main characters their voices and showcasing their personality through their words only, which I consider pretty hard to do since you can't use described action to show what these characters are like. Certain developments in the plot got me hooked enough to want to keep going and events happening to characters took me for a surprise.
I have some complaints with the book: it does sort of fall into the exposition dump from time to time, but it is by no means bad, in my viewpoint. It also suffers from a common epistolary problem in that sometimes, characters say things in supposed "interviews" that don't sound natural, since you're supposed to believe that the characters are saying this out loud in a conversation (I cannot imagine anyone saying with any kind of natural tone a sentence like "he had leathery-esque skin" out loud to someone else). A big plot complaint is, without any spoilers, how we get the "explanation" for the giant robot body parts. It seemed to come absolutely out of nowhere with no build-up, no foreshadowing, just dump a random exposition character in there.
On that last note...to be fair, this is the first in a trilogy of books, and it may be meant to be explored in the later books. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and a pretty intriguing one...
All in all, a pretty good book that's held back by some flaws, but an enjoyable read with a unique format!
This was a book where my star rating went up the more as I read the book. It started as a pretty "meh" 3 out of 5, but the score had risen by the time I reached the end.
It had an intriguing premise: a mysterious, giant hand is uncovered by a young girl in her backyard. As the years go on, the journey to find the other parts of whatever enormous robotic body it belonged to unfolds, along with the mission to find out what exactly it is and what it does. But it wasn't just the premise that caught my interest: the format did as well. Instead of traditional narrative prose, the book is told in epistolary format. It uses the form of documents and transcripts, but mostly interviews between characters to tell the story. For me, the epistolary format is a bit of a mixed bag. It can be a very intriguing way to tell a story and give it a certain kind of tone/atmosphere...but it's a common shortcoming that due to their nature, epistolary novels often suffer from a very bad case of "telling, not showing." I've read books in this format that were just exposition dump after exposition dump, and it gets to be a drag to read.
This one was a pretty engaging read. I was pretty invested in the plot. I wanted to read on as the characters worked to untangle the mystery of the giant robotic hand and see what would happen. Also, with the interview format, I found the characters decently captivating, and the author did a good job giving the main characters their voices and showcasing their personality through their words only, which I consider pretty hard to do since you can't use described action to show what these characters are like. Certain developments in the plot got me hooked enough to want to keep going and events happening to characters took me for a surprise.
I have some complaints with the book: it does sort of fall into the exposition dump from time to time, but it is by no means bad, in my viewpoint. It also suffers from a common epistolary problem in that sometimes, characters say things in supposed "interviews" that don't sound natural, since you're supposed to believe that the characters are saying this out loud in a conversation (I cannot imagine anyone saying with any kind of natural tone a sentence like "he had leathery-esque skin" out loud to someone else). A big plot complaint is, without any spoilers, how we get the "explanation" for the giant robot body parts. It seemed to come absolutely out of nowhere with no build-up, no foreshadowing, just dump a random exposition character in there.
On that last note...to be fair, this is the first in a trilogy of books, and it may be meant to be explored in the later books. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and a pretty intriguing one...
All in all, a pretty good book that's held back by some flaws, but an enjoyable read with a unique format!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: War, Medical trauma, and Body horror
Minor: Deportation
The body horror might seem like a weird one, but there's honestly a part that counts as body horror to me and gave me the slightest feeling of squick. One of the charactersnilssjoberg's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Alcohol, Deportation, Pregnancy, Sexual content, War, and Child death
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
When a giant hand is discovered underground in South Dakota, the world will never be the same.
I really enjoyed this book. I listened to the audiobook and it was almost like listening to a play with all the different actors. Even though the story was written in a way that the reader didn’t get the minute details of everything you would normally get in a sci-fi kind of novel, it was just so enthralling. I quite liked all the characters, I laughed out loud a few times, I just overall really enjoyed the experience of listening to this story.
There were parts of the story that were a touch cheesy. The romance angle was a little bit eye-roll inducing, but not so much as to overshadow the whole story.
I really enjoyed this book. I listened to the audiobook and it was almost like listening to a play with all the different actors. Even though the story was written in a way that the reader didn’t get the minute details of everything you would normally get in a sci-fi kind of novel, it was just so enthralling. I quite liked all the characters, I laughed out loud a few times, I just overall really enjoyed the experience of listening to this story.
There were parts of the story that were a touch cheesy. The romance angle was a little bit eye-roll inducing, but not so much as to overshadow the whole story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Confinement, Death, and Deportation
Minor: Medical content, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and War
marareading's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This didn't fully land for me. I normally love a book written in an interview style. This story felt character driven up front and plot driven at the end. I didn't connect the overall story, but the characters were interesting. The end definitely had some twisted story lines that grabbed me. Not enough for me to reach for book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Confinement, Deportation, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, War, and Medical trauma
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