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A Little More Human
A dazzling new novel from the author of the “weird, thrilling, and inimitable” Woke Up Lonely (Marie Claire)
Meet Phil Snyder: new father, nursing assistant at a cutting-edge biotech facility on Staten Island, and all-around decent guy. Trouble is, his life is falling apart. His wife has betrayed him, his job involves experimental surgeries with strange side effects, and his father is hiding early-onset dementia. Phil also has a special talent he doesn’t want to publicize—he’s a mind reader and moonlights as Brainstorm, a costumed superhero. But when Phil wakes up from a blackout drunk and is confronted with photos that seem to show him assaulting an unknown woman, even superpowers won’t help him. Try as he might, Phil can’t remember that night, and so, haunted by the need to know, he mind-reads his way through the lab techs at work, adoring fans at Toy Polloi, and anyone else who gets in his way, in an attempt to determine whether he’s capable of such violence.
A Little More Human, rife with layers of paranoia and conspiracy, questions how well we really know ourselves, showcasing Fiona Maazel at her tragicomic, freewheeling best.
Meet Phil Snyder: new father, nursing assistant at a cutting-edge biotech facility on Staten Island, and all-around decent guy. Trouble is, his life is falling apart. His wife has betrayed him, his job involves experimental surgeries with strange side effects, and his father is hiding early-onset dementia. Phil also has a special talent he doesn’t want to publicize—he’s a mind reader and moonlights as Brainstorm, a costumed superhero. But when Phil wakes up from a blackout drunk and is confronted with photos that seem to show him assaulting an unknown woman, even superpowers won’t help him. Try as he might, Phil can’t remember that night, and so, haunted by the need to know, he mind-reads his way through the lab techs at work, adoring fans at Toy Polloi, and anyone else who gets in his way, in an attempt to determine whether he’s capable of such violence.
A Little More Human, rife with layers of paranoia and conspiracy, questions how well we really know ourselves, showcasing Fiona Maazel at her tragicomic, freewheeling best.
351 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2017
27 people are currently reading
1362 people want to read
About the author
Fiona Maazel
9 books70 followersFiona Maazel is the author of the novels LAST LAST CHANCE (FSG, 2008), WOKE UP LONELY (Graywolf, 2013) and A LITTLE MORE HUMAN (Graywolf 2017). She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
November 6, 2016
[Disclosure: I got an ARC of A Little More Human from the publisher; based--I guess--on the fact that I gave positive reviews to Fiona Maazel's previous books. Well, as it turns out I'm going to give this book a positive review too because it's great and you should all be jealous that I got to read it first!]
Fiona Maazel's new book, A Little More Human, is--like Woke Up Lonely--a funny, sad (lonely, even), multi-layered, semi-fantastical deconstruction of the things that make life difficult and worth living. It's got the elements that I'm now starting to see as common to Maazel's writing: lots of flawed but ultimately good characters with deep-inner lives and intersecting plot lines; double-lives and secrets and conspiracies that bump up into each other unexpectedly; a messy refusal to fully explain or wrap up every single thread because that's how life works; and a knife's edge of hilarity and pathos. Plus it is so much fun to read!
The plot line is slightly more traditional than her last book (but just slightly) in that it has the foundations of a corporate thriller, with a reluctant protagonist up against a shadowy international conspiracy. Even as it bounces between points of view, the plot is driving towards solving a mystery (with clues like unidentified dead bodies and secret keys!), and this edifice makes it more "readable." For those that found Woke Up Lonely well written but too hard to follow, A Little More Human will click better. (Not that I'm criticizing Woke Up Lonely--it's one of my favorite books!) Then on top of that there's the mind-reading and the experimental biotech laboratory, not-quite-reality factors that are fun and interesting, used to further an exciting plot but also to dig into themes of humanity and responsibility and question what we can know about our mind.
And it's those themes that really make this book something special. This is definitely still the kind of literary fiction that has high expectations of the reader. The plot is just one of many aspects, and you can and should engage with the material on multiple levels. I'm continually impressed with how many different concepts Fiona Maazel juggles within a single book, all of it working together to build something bigger. I just finished reading it so I'm still trying to unpack my own thoughts, and I'll probably be mulling over A Little More Human for a long time.
What connected most for me was the idea of how little we can know those around us and how little we even know our own selves. So much of what was going on in the book fed into this question. Even with the protagonist Phil Snyder's limited mind reading capabilities, he didn't understand the secrets carried by everyone around him. And--more importantly--he had big gaps in his own memory, as well as a real lack of self-introspection and a failure to wrestle with his own motivations. It's tough at times to like Phil because of the terrible thing he's potentially done during his lost time, but also because of the stupid and angry way he's responding to conflict in his life. But, then again, he's so human in that he doesn't always make the right decisions and has to live with his stupidity and his anger.
Then there's his father, a once great doctor and scientist who is struggling with the oncoming rush of dementia, losing more memories every day, knowing that soon he won't even know what he's lost, wondering if he'll still be the same person if he no longer knows himself. He's also a hoarder, a fact that is handled with real compassion (rather than mockery as is so common). It's also presented with exquisite detail, a suffocating sense of a life about to tumble into nostalgia's chaos. In this book a house filled with extreme clutter works as a metaphor for the brain's disordered memories, and it's a brilliant analog parallel to the book's biotech plotline: hoarding as physical manifestation of memory augmentation.
I want to go even further and say that, structurally, the way the novel skips between points of view is itself a representation of the mind's grasp at patterns. But, perhaps I'm overthinking... sometimes a book just jumps between points of view. But that's thing about A Little More Human: it has you linking everything, looking for connections everywhere, sucking you into it's paranoia and conspiracies.
And with all this I've hardly scratched the surface! There's also Ada and her real-world Nigerian e-mail scam and there's a movie superhero overlapped onto Phil's life and there's a Big Pharma plutocracy and all of it mixing together with an ease of social parody and winking cultural reference. in the end the tumble of exciting revelations is second only to the revelations about who the characters really are inside when pushed to the breaking point, a lesson most people don't want to learn. Like Woke Up Lonely, it's not what I'd call a happy ending but maybe more of a "happy moment," a split second when you can feel good about yourself before the hoarded memories come crashing down on your head. It's so beautiful and sad and perfect and I loved reading it.
Fiona Maazel's new book, A Little More Human, is--like Woke Up Lonely--a funny, sad (lonely, even), multi-layered, semi-fantastical deconstruction of the things that make life difficult and worth living. It's got the elements that I'm now starting to see as common to Maazel's writing: lots of flawed but ultimately good characters with deep-inner lives and intersecting plot lines; double-lives and secrets and conspiracies that bump up into each other unexpectedly; a messy refusal to fully explain or wrap up every single thread because that's how life works; and a knife's edge of hilarity and pathos. Plus it is so much fun to read!
The plot line is slightly more traditional than her last book (but just slightly) in that it has the foundations of a corporate thriller, with a reluctant protagonist up against a shadowy international conspiracy. Even as it bounces between points of view, the plot is driving towards solving a mystery (with clues like unidentified dead bodies and secret keys!), and this edifice makes it more "readable." For those that found Woke Up Lonely well written but too hard to follow, A Little More Human will click better. (Not that I'm criticizing Woke Up Lonely--it's one of my favorite books!) Then on top of that there's the mind-reading and the experimental biotech laboratory, not-quite-reality factors that are fun and interesting, used to further an exciting plot but also to dig into themes of humanity and responsibility and question what we can know about our mind.
And it's those themes that really make this book something special. This is definitely still the kind of literary fiction that has high expectations of the reader. The plot is just one of many aspects, and you can and should engage with the material on multiple levels. I'm continually impressed with how many different concepts Fiona Maazel juggles within a single book, all of it working together to build something bigger. I just finished reading it so I'm still trying to unpack my own thoughts, and I'll probably be mulling over A Little More Human for a long time.
What connected most for me was the idea of how little we can know those around us and how little we even know our own selves. So much of what was going on in the book fed into this question. Even with the protagonist Phil Snyder's limited mind reading capabilities, he didn't understand the secrets carried by everyone around him. And--more importantly--he had big gaps in his own memory, as well as a real lack of self-introspection and a failure to wrestle with his own motivations. It's tough at times to like Phil because of the terrible thing he's potentially done during his lost time, but also because of the stupid and angry way he's responding to conflict in his life. But, then again, he's so human in that he doesn't always make the right decisions and has to live with his stupidity and his anger.
Then there's his father, a once great doctor and scientist who is struggling with the oncoming rush of dementia, losing more memories every day, knowing that soon he won't even know what he's lost, wondering if he'll still be the same person if he no longer knows himself. He's also a hoarder, a fact that is handled with real compassion (rather than mockery as is so common). It's also presented with exquisite detail, a suffocating sense of a life about to tumble into nostalgia's chaos. In this book a house filled with extreme clutter works as a metaphor for the brain's disordered memories, and it's a brilliant analog parallel to the book's biotech plotline: hoarding as physical manifestation of memory augmentation.
I want to go even further and say that, structurally, the way the novel skips between points of view is itself a representation of the mind's grasp at patterns. But, perhaps I'm overthinking... sometimes a book just jumps between points of view. But that's thing about A Little More Human: it has you linking everything, looking for connections everywhere, sucking you into it's paranoia and conspiracies.
And with all this I've hardly scratched the surface! There's also Ada and her real-world Nigerian e-mail scam and there's a movie superhero overlapped onto Phil's life and there's a Big Pharma plutocracy and all of it mixing together with an ease of social parody and winking cultural reference. in the end the tumble of exciting revelations is second only to the revelations about who the characters really are inside when pushed to the breaking point, a lesson most people don't want to learn. Like Woke Up Lonely, it's not what I'd call a happy ending but maybe more of a "happy moment," a split second when you can feel good about yourself before the hoarded memories come crashing down on your head. It's so beautiful and sad and perfect and I loved reading it.
April 8, 2017
I have been reading this book since Tuesday and finally realized that at 50 percent in, I was just not at all feeling it. It should have been right up my alley-- people with superpowers, mysterious happenings, a sort of thriller element-- but I felt like Maazel was not revealing anything to the reader in a timely manner, so it was just STUFF happening and not leading anywhere. Really bogged down for me and I did not care enough to invest more time in it.
July 6, 2017
As my fellow readers know, I like to read all kinds of books in all kinds of genres. I especially like the younger female authors who are taking on the world-in-flux where we now live. Ever since I read her second novel, Woke Up Lonely, Fiona Maazel has been right up there near the top of my list.
The Los Angeles Times reviewer of this current novel said, "Imagine a situation comedy written by Philip K Dick or a telenovela penned by Thomas Pynchon." I didn't want to write down what I thought as I read the book (she writes likes a man) because that seems so conflictedly sexist, but Jim Ruland did it for me.
Fiona Maazel does the magic trick of creating completely unlikable characters that I grow to almost love. Phil Snyder and his equally wonky and hapless wife are two of those. Phil works as a nursing assistant at his parents' bleeding edge biotech research and rehabilitation center, SCET, where wounded soldiers and sufferers of brain disease receive experimental surgeries. On the side, Phil also has a weekend gig impersonating Brainstorm, star of a movie about a telepathic crime solver. The joke is that Phil can actually read minds but he can't solve the many crimes encircling his life.
Why did his wife turn to SCET for artificial insemination without telling him? How did his mother die? Is his current BFF Ben a true friend? And how the hell did he wake up one morning on the back of a horse, hungover, and covered in blood and semen? Did he really rape a woman while drunk?
This is a deep dark thriller that mines some of the horrible crimes going on at the fringes of modern society. The humor is black. The prose is relentless, jagged as a rapier in rapid action. As in her former novel, I spent the first half of the book crippled with doubt about why I was reading it, but I finished the book in awe. On Twitter I said I was left mentally gaping.
April 19, 2018
Though it read like a soap opera overlaid on a fairly cliché medical sci-fi tale and had tons of false starts and loose ends that didn't go much of anywhere, I sort of enjoyed this book, based mostly, I think, on the strength of Maazel's prose. I agree with some other comments I saw that the author needs to do a better job of self editing. There was a lot to this story that was unexplainable and unessential, including the premise of the main character's brainstorm capabilities (though the gift did serve the author in wrapping up some issues at the end of the book). I was a bit disappointed with the ending, which seemed like a series of highly improbable events and coincidences. Yet, I appreciated the way Maazel dealt with the slippery motivations and perceptions of her characters and I might try reading more of her work. Maybe her next book will be less taxing on one's willingness to suspend disbelief.
Read
June 20, 2018DID NOT FINISH. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with this book; but a hundred pages in, I still found myself completely disengaged with the proceedings, so thought I'd use my reading time more wisely and move on to something I'll hopefully like more. Like a lot of 21st century academic literary fiction, Maazel here fills up her book with quirky details, in the hopes of masking the fact that almost nothing of interest is actually happening to anyone; this is my first book of hers, and although I've heard good things about the rest of her oeuvre, this mediocre experience now makes me question whether I'd like them or not. Just compelling enough that I'll take another chance with her next book (or maybe an earlier one if I stumble across it), but you can consider my expectations officially lowered at this point.
September 9, 2017
Phil Snyder’s wife has gone behind his back and had herself artificially inseminated. His father is losing his mind. On the weekends Phil works as a promotional costumed superhero called Brainstorm. And meanwhile, his ability to read minds and manipulate thoughts prove useless when he is accused of sexually assaulting a woman. And to top it off, the local biotech company, SCET, is secretly manipulating it all.
There’s a lot more to it, but that was the bare bones of it. A Little More Human is a challenging read.
I read a lot of books, and admittedly many follow a loose structure that allows my mind to wander a little bit without losing the plot. But this one is so bizarre, with so many characters and plotlines that it is easy to get lost. It is overall enjoyable but there is a lot going on.
I thought it was interesting to think about Phil’s odd superpower and how a normal person would try to use it. He can re-set other people around him so that they don’t remember him or what they know about him. If you could re-set the people in your life, would it be worth it?
A Little More Human is ultimately satisfying because it is not a paint-by-numbers novel.
There’s a lot more to it, but that was the bare bones of it. A Little More Human is a challenging read.
I read a lot of books, and admittedly many follow a loose structure that allows my mind to wander a little bit without losing the plot. But this one is so bizarre, with so many characters and plotlines that it is easy to get lost. It is overall enjoyable but there is a lot going on.
I thought it was interesting to think about Phil’s odd superpower and how a normal person would try to use it. He can re-set other people around him so that they don’t remember him or what they know about him. If you could re-set the people in your life, would it be worth it?
A Little More Human is ultimately satisfying because it is not a paint-by-numbers novel.
May 16, 2017
I've never been so conflicted on a book before. I'm halfway through this book and I'm not enjoying it. The urge to read this dwindled as the days went on. It sucked too because it's right up my alley. Superpowers, conspiracy and a mixture of science fiction. The writing and the idea for the story are fantastic and in that sense it flows well. However the pacing and the characterization are weak. 3/4's of the characters were awful with very little positive traits. That and with the pacing where it just dragged on. The worst thing about this was that stuff was happening but not going anywhere. Again its upsetting because this had a lot of potential to be great. But as the pages kept going I couldn't keep investing in it.
tasted
December 28, 2017Like the last book I tasted, Aminatta Forna’s Happiness, this novel goes back and forth between different characters and stories, present and past. The major difference is that Maazel has a better ear and a good sense of humor. But these were not enough to get me past the first 75 pages. Some good fun, but it didn’t hold my interest.
December 2, 2017
I got about 1/3 of the way through, and just didn't have any desire to continue. The characters were a little too much (wacky, zany, pathological) for my tastes and I couldn't tell what the plot was going to turn into. Not my cup of tea.
December 16, 2017
I found this to be a confusing jumble of words that were not leading anyplace interesting. It is rare for me to quit reading a book I have started but I called it quits on this one.
July 6, 2021
Well! My fault for not paying attention, early on. I thought I'd missed a few essential pages but it turned out I just wasn't prepared for a twisty, shapeshifting novel (that's what I get for reading a lot of formulaic dreck recently). Ms Maazel writes a lovely story here about human nature, the bonds of family, the presumptions of friendship and of what constitutes our notion of Life, how it might be possible to achieve a measure of happiness and, as Stephen Dobyns wrote 'what comes next. And how to like it'.
It's not a book to breeze through - this really is a book to savor (lots of beautiful words not always in fashion these days, like 'adumbrate') and boring little moments therein need to be suffered through because they will become the stepping stones for much larger moments that drive the story.
I don't regret a moment with this book, except for that moment when I was outside, reading, and got stung by a hornet. But that's not the book's fault.
It's not a book to breeze through - this really is a book to savor (lots of beautiful words not always in fashion these days, like 'adumbrate') and boring little moments therein need to be suffered through because they will become the stepping stones for much larger moments that drive the story.
I don't regret a moment with this book, except for that moment when I was outside, reading, and got stung by a hornet. But that's not the book's fault.
April 18, 2017
Seriously one of the best books I've read this year... funny, well-written, clever, speculative "futuristic" with a creative insight into the future of biometrics & where the line between tech meets medicine becomes blurred and twisted, and the best part... a page-turner - not unlike that of the best written thriller- trying to solve the puzzle that is this crazy twisted plot line. Think Gary Shyndangart meets Harlan Corbin in a novel that I can only compare to HBO's hilarious animated "Animals" (in particular Season Two's unraveling of the subplot). If you love any of the above, you'll love this!
May 7, 2017
Probably closer to 2.5 for me.
The concept of the story was promising, a fairly average person with the ability to read minds attempts to figure out what happened during a blackout drunk and why his life is spiraling.
I have multiple issues with the book though, the biggest being, I had no sympathy for any of the characters, the exception being the father, and some of the patients. The main characters, however, were petty, self absorbed and frustrating. There were also several points that I felt could have been flushed out more instead of being glanced over quickly and dropped in order to move the story along.
What I did like about the story is it's a pretty decent representation of what some people are predicting for the future of biotechnology. It also reflects how shitty people are, so it a way is an accurate reflection of real life, and what actual superheroes might be like, assholes.
I really wanted more from this story.
The concept of the story was promising, a fairly average person with the ability to read minds attempts to figure out what happened during a blackout drunk and why his life is spiraling.
I have multiple issues with the book though, the biggest being, I had no sympathy for any of the characters, the exception being the father, and some of the patients. The main characters, however, were petty, self absorbed and frustrating. There were also several points that I felt could have been flushed out more instead of being glanced over quickly and dropped in order to move the story along.
What I did like about the story is it's a pretty decent representation of what some people are predicting for the future of biotechnology. It also reflects how shitty people are, so it a way is an accurate reflection of real life, and what actual superheroes might be like, assholes.
I really wanted more from this story.
February 15, 2022
Did not finish.
For a book described as hilarious, it was a non-stop bummer. The main character can read minds but it seems to not be plot relevant. Stuff happens that is not scientifically accurate, but what can you expect when mind reading is introduced in the first chapter. When I think of a guy dressing like a super hero, I hope for either laughs or heroics, not depressing guy everyone would avoid at a party who is torturing his wife whom he should leave if he blames her for fertility "infidelity". He's apparently accused of abusing (or killing?) a woman during a drunken blackout and his mind reading doesn't help when a blackmailer comes forward, nor is there a reason that someone might be setting him up, and that's in the first two hours of the audiobook. I quit the moment I suspected he was walking into an apartment with a dead baby. Probably a real riot to somebody. Somebody else also wants to swindle a man with dementia to pay for extortionist medical bills, so the dystopia is basically the reality many of us already live in. Enjoy if this is your bag.
For a book described as hilarious, it was a non-stop bummer. The main character can read minds but it seems to not be plot relevant. Stuff happens that is not scientifically accurate, but what can you expect when mind reading is introduced in the first chapter. When I think of a guy dressing like a super hero, I hope for either laughs or heroics, not depressing guy everyone would avoid at a party who is torturing his wife whom he should leave if he blames her for fertility "infidelity". He's apparently accused of abusing (or killing?) a woman during a drunken blackout and his mind reading doesn't help when a blackmailer comes forward, nor is there a reason that someone might be setting him up, and that's in the first two hours of the audiobook. I quit the moment I suspected he was walking into an apartment with a dead baby. Probably a real riot to somebody. Somebody else also wants to swindle a man with dementia to pay for extortionist medical bills, so the dystopia is basically the reality many of us already live in. Enjoy if this is your bag.
December 18, 2017
what is this book? A comic caper? A romantic comedy? A paternity drama? A paranoid thriller? A super-power adventure story? A contemplation of what it means to be human?
It's a little bit of all these things, but it doesn't hold together, and the smart alecky writing style grates increasingly, as the story reveals its inability to hang together. I could handle it while I was trapped on airplanes for a day, but when I tried to finish the last 90 pages at home, all I could think was, "Why do I care about this nonsense?"
It's extremely rare for me to give up on a book, but 50 pages from the end, I lost all patience and dropped it in the recycle bin.
It's a little bit of all these things, but it doesn't hold together, and the smart alecky writing style grates increasingly, as the story reveals its inability to hang together. I could handle it while I was trapped on airplanes for a day, but when I tried to finish the last 90 pages at home, all I could think was, "Why do I care about this nonsense?"
It's extremely rare for me to give up on a book, but 50 pages from the end, I lost all patience and dropped it in the recycle bin.
May 26, 2019
Attend my pontification on the demerits of this tome. Allow me to pour vitriol upon it like the syrup that graced golden breakfast waffles on the day your first son was born.
Did these sentences make you gag? cringe? laugh condescendingly? If so, stay away: this book is basically 346 pages of that. It feels like the original draft of the book was run through a thesaurus and this is what came out.
To add insult to injury, the characters are not relatable (a little ironic given the book's title) and the plot is full of holes and conveniences.
Did these sentences make you gag? cringe? laugh condescendingly? If so, stay away: this book is basically 346 pages of that. It feels like the original draft of the book was run through a thesaurus and this is what came out.
To add insult to injury, the characters are not relatable (a little ironic given the book's title) and the plot is full of holes and conveniences.
May 23, 2020
Cup half full, cup half empty on this book.
Maazel is more than clever, and the novel brims with interesting ideas, clever phrases, and thought-provoking insights. So many that it becomes too many. Take a breath, Ms. Maazel and give your readers time to digest!
About 2/3 way through, the plot picks up steam and really roars toward the finish. Less ideas, more action!, and pretty darn enjoyable. But the finish ... it was quite a let-down. Too many characters that disappear, and implausibly simplistic endings to complicated situations.
Maazel is more than clever, and the novel brims with interesting ideas, clever phrases, and thought-provoking insights. So many that it becomes too many. Take a breath, Ms. Maazel and give your readers time to digest!
About 2/3 way through, the plot picks up steam and really roars toward the finish. Less ideas, more action!, and pretty darn enjoyable. But the finish ... it was quite a let-down. Too many characters that disappear, and implausibly simplistic endings to complicated situations.
July 17, 2017
I wanted to like this a whole lot more than I did. What started as an interesting premise seemed to stumble off the blocks, meander a bit throughout, and not pack the payoff punch expected. I think it was a bit too long for it's own good, and the fact that Phil Snyder Jr. is largely a jerk didn't make it easy to relate. I'd give it 2 stars, but I really like the way the elder Dr. Snyder was handled, so I'll bump it by one.
April 16, 2018
I should have known. This bit in the author bio - She teaches at Princeton University and lives in Brooklyn - is about the same as saying, 'the folks at the book reviews and literary magazines may love her, but it's not going to be for you Mike, with your Midwestern outlook and foolish desires for old- realism and likable protagonists.
August 10, 2020
DNF When I started reading this book, I couldn’t figure out what was going on so I started again at the beginning. Nope. So I stuck with it for a few chapters. Nope. Still made no sense and all the characters were still unlikable. ,ay e it would have made sense if I'd read the whole thing, but there are too many books waiting for me to stick with a bad one.
May 27, 2017
Urgh. I really wanted to like this book and I stuck with it but... I just felt disconnected from it the whole way through. None of the characters are even remotely likeable and as a result it was difficult to feel anything for them.
did-not-finish
June 29, 2024I was half way though this book, and when I went to read more, a realized I really didn't want to. So I stopped.
I didn't like the characters or the story. What's the point of reading the book when you feel that way?
I didn't like the characters or the story. What's the point of reading the book when you feel that way?
May 20, 2017
Despite moments of readability, this book is angst-ridden to the point of no return.
February 25, 2018
Possibly an interesting premise—he can read minds. But he was not likable and overthought every action. I quit 1/3 in.
June 16, 2018
Not funny as book jacket would infer...dark
June 11, 2018
A confusing a cast of characters. I finally gave up and returned it to the library without finishing. It was billed as a "madcap conspiracy", but I didn't get it.
Not recommended
Not recommended
February 14, 2021
The plot fell apart at the end. Disappointing.
January 11, 2022
I read this book, yet I have no clue what it was about.
August 31, 2017
I found this book to be so poorly written that it was difficult for me to read beyond the second half, and as of writing this review, I can't convince myself to read the last fifty or so pages. Some of the writing is painfully cringe-worthy, especially the way that the author tends to over-describe characters' motivations and feelings - she leaves very little for readers to discern from themselves, while also describing those motivations so broadly that they make tropes of themselves.
I felt like I was constantly having the plot explained to me, so it was difficult to remain engaged and interested; there was little to no nuance or fine detail. Rather, readers get to see a broad brush of a sensational plot. It was sort of like half-watching a crime show on TV where you're only going to watch one episode. (I thought the plot was intrinsically interesting and could have made for a great story, which kept me reading. The way that the plot began to reverse-reveal itself in the second half was quite inventive and made me reflect on the first half very differently.)
The writing style contributed heavily to the cardboard feeling of most of the characters in the book. All of the main characters are defined only by their relationship to the plot devices, so there was little reason to be invested in any character, even Phil. 300 pages in, I would find it difficult to describe personality differences or similarities between any pair of characters, since each person only functioned to spiral into the plot. The book could have benefited from a paragraph primer on each character each time one is introduced. To me, the lack of character description and depth made this book incredibly frustrating to attempt to stay invested. (Example: we keep hearing about Ada's year in law school, but we only hear just that. Even a single page, invoking a strong, visualized portrait of what happened in that year, would have given me reasons to root for Ada.)
I was also disappointed with the author's interpretations of sex addiction and drug addiction. Frankly, she wrote with a lack of understanding of addiction, and wrote as a person who is 'writing about', not 'writing from' personal experience. Both kinds of addictions were framed in a channel-flipping, clickbaiting manner, adding nothing to the popular consciousness' depth of understanding about addiction and only reinforcing the cultural norm of responding to these issues in terms of shock value.
I felt like I was constantly having the plot explained to me, so it was difficult to remain engaged and interested; there was little to no nuance or fine detail. Rather, readers get to see a broad brush of a sensational plot. It was sort of like half-watching a crime show on TV where you're only going to watch one episode. (I thought the plot was intrinsically interesting and could have made for a great story, which kept me reading. The way that the plot began to reverse-reveal itself in the second half was quite inventive and made me reflect on the first half very differently.)
The writing style contributed heavily to the cardboard feeling of most of the characters in the book. All of the main characters are defined only by their relationship to the plot devices, so there was little reason to be invested in any character, even Phil. 300 pages in, I would find it difficult to describe personality differences or similarities between any pair of characters, since each person only functioned to spiral into the plot. The book could have benefited from a paragraph primer on each character each time one is introduced. To me, the lack of character description and depth made this book incredibly frustrating to attempt to stay invested. (Example: we keep hearing about Ada's year in law school, but we only hear just that. Even a single page, invoking a strong, visualized portrait of what happened in that year, would have given me reasons to root for Ada.)
I was also disappointed with the author's interpretations of sex addiction and drug addiction. Frankly, she wrote with a lack of understanding of addiction, and wrote as a person who is 'writing about', not 'writing from' personal experience. Both kinds of addictions were framed in a channel-flipping, clickbaiting manner, adding nothing to the popular consciousness' depth of understanding about addiction and only reinforcing the cultural norm of responding to these issues in terms of shock value.
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