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2.49 AVERAGE
2.49 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
slow-paced
A bit of a slow start. Enjoyed once the pace picked up (or when I caught up).
The only reason I finished this book was that I was on a plane with nothing else to read. Boring and fairly pointless.
I really enjoyed the protagonist and many of the other supporting characters. The setting was very creative, and the plot was clearly a great idea. I even laughed out loud a couple of times at Stella’s thoughts and the situations she finds herself in. However, I got bogged down a lot with the language. It was pretentious to the point of barely making any sense. Someone as down to earth as Stella would not speak (or think) using such language- despite her advanced degrees and spending time daily in the company of other well-educated people.
Review from May 14th, 2018 (I saw it on my Amazon profile and realized I never posted it here haha).
———
This is the single worst book I've ever read, and as I am (or once was) an avid reader, that is truly saying something. I thought only a few pages into it, at around page 6 and then again by page 26 that I didn't want to finish it but I pushed through as I didn't want to think “what if” lol. That was a mistake. I want those hours back. I also want my $25 back as I purchased it on a whim at Barnes and Noble. I thought the premise seemed interesting and as an educated twenty something, interested in art it drew me in but was an utter waste of time and money. This book is overly pretentious, and so hard to get through. Someone else described the language as overly verbose and that is completely it. I wish so badly I had read the goodreads reviews before purchasing it but I've never had such a reaction to a book and didn't realize I was in for the worst book to ever be written. The plot basically goes nowhere, the author has to explain a lot of very detailed uninteresting stuff while trying to tell the story and it just sounds like someone was trying to sound intelligent for the sake of sounding smart, not to serve a story. I don't even know how to articulate how horrible this book is. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.
Edit to add: I got rid of it/gave it away because I couldn’t even stand to look at it
———
This is the single worst book I've ever read, and as I am (or once was) an avid reader, that is truly saying something. I thought only a few pages into it, at around page 6 and then again by page 26 that I didn't want to finish it but I pushed through as I didn't want to think “what if” lol. That was a mistake. I want those hours back. I also want my $25 back as I purchased it on a whim at Barnes and Noble. I thought the premise seemed interesting and as an educated twenty something, interested in art it drew me in but was an utter waste of time and money. This book is overly pretentious, and so hard to get through. Someone else described the language as overly verbose and that is completely it. I wish so badly I had read the goodreads reviews before purchasing it but I've never had such a reaction to a book and didn't realize I was in for the worst book to ever be written. The plot basically goes nowhere, the author has to explain a lot of very detailed uninteresting stuff while trying to tell the story and it just sounds like someone was trying to sound intelligent for the sake of sounding smart, not to serve a story. I don't even know how to articulate how horrible this book is. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.
Edit to add: I got rid of it/gave it away because I couldn’t even stand to look at it
There were a lot of things I liked about the book. I enjoy books set in art museums. "The Mixed Up Files..." was - and still is - one of my favorite books. I love books set in NYC in urbane, sophisticated households. The plot was interesting. A co-worker at the Central Museum (fictional Met) disappears. That mystery is set along side a historical art mystery and then the two overlap. I love maps and they were an aspect of the story. The main character was interesting and had depth. But there were questions left hanging or maybe I didn't figure them out. The novel was also funny in a biting way at times. But overall the language was too dense and the style too wordy for my taste. I struggled through the forest at times in this book to see the trees. Some characters were fuzzy and there was way too much inner monologue. The book was clever but almost too much so.
The author is clearly a poet because the writing is like nothing I've read before. Lyrical, playful, and mesmerizing. The plot is relatable. I would probably read it again in the future.
Stella is a very accomplished and capable museum employee, destined to be stuck at a junior level until positions begin to open up due to the deaths of Boomers. Also, her romantic life is falling apart. She is doing the bare minimum to direct either her professional or personal life. In the opening chapters, she is thrust into the middle of a minor disaster that requires her attention, and gratefully applies herself to this. Indeed, she digs into the matter to an infinitely greater extent than would have been expected. As she throws herself into a week-long turn as Nancy Drew chasing some MacGuffin, she is also occasionally forced to deal with events in her own life.
Stella is both at-ease with her introversion and completely aware of the futility of her attempts to achieve basic societal competence at the surprising number and variety of social encounters she must endure. She spends a lot of time in her own head, with an inner voice that is snarky, wordy, somewhat pretentious, and generally quite entertaining. Much of the book's humour comes from Stella's interpretations of her own interactions with people. Much of this is extremely funny.
As for plot, we naturally are sucked into the MacGuffin mystery, which nobody other than Stella wants solved (and of course there are characters who are uncomfortable with any sort of poking around in archives or histories). Really, the meat of the story is a kind of quarter-life crisis in which Stella is emerging from her young adult self to become something different. Even though not all of this works well, some of it is excellent.
Before reading this book, I was intrigued not only in the usual way, i.e. by the synopsis, but also by the wild divergence in reader reviews. I was happy to find myself in the minority that really enjoyed this book. I am hesitant to recommend it to you, as you would be likely to remonstrate with me, and I would need to arrange my features into something like dismay.
Stella is both at-ease with her introversion and completely aware of the futility of her attempts to achieve basic societal competence at the surprising number and variety of social encounters she must endure. She spends a lot of time in her own head, with an inner voice that is snarky, wordy, somewhat pretentious, and generally quite entertaining. Much of the book's humour comes from Stella's interpretations of her own interactions with people. Much of this is extremely funny.
As for plot, we naturally are sucked into the MacGuffin mystery, which nobody other than Stella wants solved (and of course there are characters who are uncomfortable with any sort of poking around in archives or histories). Really, the meat of the story is a kind of quarter-life crisis in which Stella is emerging from her young adult self to become something different. Even though not all of this works well, some of it is excellent.
Before reading this book, I was intrigued not only in the usual way, i.e. by the synopsis, but also by the wild divergence in reader reviews. I was happy to find myself in the minority that really enjoyed this book. I am hesitant to recommend it to you, as you would be likely to remonstrate with me, and I would need to arrange my features into something like dismay.
It feels mean spirited to provide a bad review for a book that, in both style and execution, is just not for me. Look, I was drawn in by the Wes Anderson inspired cover and the synopsis checked a whole bunch of boxes (museums! mystery! mysterious maps in museums!), so one should not be ashamed for falling for a pretty, pretty package. The novel itself, however, is overly self-aware and the writing style is near impossible to wade through. It reminded me of Miranda July, whose writing is always a hard pass for me. Soooo, if you like Ms. July I think you'll enjoy Ms. Ives? A solid "No thank you" for me.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.