Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

12 reviews

arlorees's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I would recommend listening to this book, I listened to the audiobook over a few long drives and it was fantastic. The characters are super engaging, the story is fascinating and I love sci-fi which focuses on the human reaction to alien things. There are a lot of serious topics touched upon in this but none are in too much depth. 
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musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

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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. 
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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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4.25

 Finished reading: September 7th 2023


“I was smart enough to know it was wrong, but not brave enough to stop them.”

It's true that I don't usually read a lot of sci-fi, and especially when there are aliens involved... But there was something about Sleeping Giants that made me curious ever since it was first published back in 2016. I guess my TBR jar thought it was time I finally gave this first book of a trilogy a chance, and I'm very glad this title popped up now. Why? I have to say that I was very much impressed by Sleeping Giants! There was just something about this story that was both addictive and able to make you feel humble at the same time. The fact that you don't exactly know what is going on only adds to the suspense, and it was absolutely fascinating learning more about what was being discovered. The writing style itself stands out as it is told through interviews, diaries and other files, but somehow the story was still very readable. It makes you wonder what would happen if such a discovery would be made in real life, and how the people involved would react... The different characters involved added humanity to the story and while I could have done without the love triangle, in general I enjoyed learning more about them. And after how things ended, I also can't wait to pick up the sequel to see what will happen next! 
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jojo_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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marareading's review

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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. 
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deejmgee's review

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

3.75

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thereadinghammock's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book had been on my TBR for ages and I decided to rec it for a book club to have folks to read it with. I was still lingering on a book hangover, but finally kicked myself into gear to get it read, and at just under 300 pages, I figured it wouldn't be too tough a read. The book ended up being a lot darker than I was expecting, and left me with a lot of questions I wasn't expecting to want answered at the end.

The format of the book was a bit strange at first. The interview format with the forever nameless interviewer was intriguing, and his complete anonymity was both frustrating and intriguing throughout the entire book. Kara was a hot head and a very relatable character from the very beginning. Rose was so loveable and sweet and I loved how excited she got for all the science. Vincent and Ryan were a bit more of wild cards for me, though I grew to like Vincent a bit more after "The Incident" and we got to see his resolve and effort to getting back into the machine.

What I was NOT expecting was Ryan slipping off the deep end and trying to kill Vincent, or the pulse weapon vaporizing the Denver facility and killing (or so we thought) Rose! Oh my gods I think I actually gasped!! Some things I was aghast at, but not really surprised by: the nameless interviewer forcing a radical surgical procedure to give Vincent reversible knees, given the unique anatomy of the robot; and Papantoniou resorting to forced IVF egg retrieval, given her insistence on having back up pilots. Once she was in control of the program, it was clear that everything was just going to hell in a handbasket. What I hadn't been sure of was whether it would be because of her need for control and success or because she wouldn't have the backbone to stand on her own two feet against The Board, but WOW was that a tough read toward the end. But I think I was the most impressed with Vincent's character development overall. He ended up being a character I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
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mar's review against another edition

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

2.25

why is almost every character in this book a war criminal. this sucks but i cant put it down tf
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bookcaptivated's review

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challenging funny mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

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trips's review

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adventurous dark informative fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Fast-paced epistolary novel, which I love.
Some of the content was a bit too dry, or glossed over for the sake of pushing the plot forward, I wish we had gotten a small taste of what was actually going on in the pivotal scenes, like better retellings or even like CCTV transcripts? But honestly its a great novel if you like giant robots and aliens! 
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