This book was a good time and apparently this year is going to be the Greatcoats year. This first book has a lot in line with The Lies of Locke LamoraThis book was a good time and apparently this year is going to be the Greatcoats year. This first book has a lot in line with The Lies of Locke Lamora and yet in spite of how many times they reference rape or indicate it happens or the somewhat dark things that happen. The world feels lighter and not just because the protagonist here is a lot less cynical than Locke Lamore.
This is a bloody brutal world. Maybe even qualifying for GrimDark but it's still not AS grimdark as Locke Lamora.
Fun fact they both end up covered in poop. So fun. Ohh and they both end up tortured as I now assume is mandatory for this Grimdark genre....more
I liked it. I think there's a lot of things to enjoy about this book. I think there are exactly three times when this book gets .... clumsy. Only one I liked it. I think there's a lot of things to enjoy about this book. I think there are exactly three times when this book gets .... clumsy. Only one of which I find offensive. Nora our protagonist is an excellent character. There's a lot of themes here that make it a great peer to Not If I Save You First and not just because they both have excellent titles. The short version is a story about a born and raised con artist who gets stuck in a bank robbery having to user her skills to break out. There's some nice tapestry in the writing with a running list of assets and plans that keeps you engaged in how forward thinking and what kind of payoffs to expect without actually ruining the fun of the various cons that get pulled in the past or the present.
This is also a book about Nora and her history and how she became who she is now. Sister to Lee. Friend to Wes. Girlfriend to Iris. Of those three Iris even at the end remains the least interesting. I'm not as invested in her as a character on in her relationship to Nora. In spite of that she's on a base level far more interesting than an average side character so there's that. The book is also well researched and well paced because a few moments aside the research on trauma blends well with the narrative of the heist. It blends VERY well. Heck I even liked the afterward expanding on endometriosis. I like to think I know as much as an average person should know about endomietriosis and the afterward does an effective job of lampshading a rather serious and ignored condition.
Watching Nora's history unfold and seeing her struggle to find meaning and safety when she finds her way out of the life is effectively emotional. I didn't cry but I could easily see others have especially if they resonate with the (respectfully handled) trauma.
I think this has strong potential to get picked up and since it has, maybe decent potential to be a good movie. Movies tend to incestualize their characters even more than books do. Everyone has to be linked to everyone else or else the audience won't be invested. So Duane will be related somehow and not random. It's fun to speculate about adaptions...more
Well that was a fast-paced ride. I mean I saw the cover. I read the back of the book. I had an understanding that this would feature final girls. I diWell that was a fast-paced ride. I mean I saw the cover. I read the back of the book. I had an understanding that this would feature final girls. I didn't expect to see the literal final girls being presented here in a "legally distinct" manor. I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it if I enjoyed horror as a genre. If I had watched a lot of the classic movies being very very directly referenced.
That said I love reading about horror movies and I'm familiar enough with most of the stories.
This book exists in a world where those horror movies are based on real events and there are real final girls who get their stories told in movies like Scream/Ghost and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Panhandle Meathook, Halloween/Slay Bells. The girls these movies are based on are damaged physically and mentally. But a few of them have formed a survivors group. Then one day a conspiracy breaks out trying to kill them.
It's as I said very fast paced. I probably could have finished it in an afternoon. It's not especially breakthrough but it's effective. Save for a few bits. There's a character that goes on a Scream-like rant about the girls and their place in the universe from a metaphysical perspective and the rant is kinda dumb. But I like the characters I like the adaption of the scream queens to real characters. I did successfully see a character gap that leads to the real killer. I kept wondering why (or specifically how) would this person do it and it didn't make sense. That did turn out to be important so yay me. It's a fun read that doesn't lose many points so I'm gonna be generous and drop a quatre on it....more
I often feel like I overrate books. But I can't imagine rating this book higher than 2 stars. I'm not a writer even casually but this just needed so mI often feel like I overrate books. But I can't imagine rating this book higher than 2 stars. I'm not a writer even casually but this just needed so much editing. That's how bad it is because I barely know what editing looks like. But again even more than the previous books there's just so much frustration. ...more
I think even more in this book there's a theme I find frustrating. Teenagers are like babies. They want to run before they learn how to walk. This is I think even more in this book there's a theme I find frustrating. Teenagers are like babies. They want to run before they learn how to walk. This is true to life and realistic. The problem is that the book and the adults in the book keep ending up in the position where they let the teens run rather than focusing on walking first.
That's just a thematic problem I have with the concept of the series. Smart teenagers are still teenagers. They don't have the experience or training of adults. I thought they would be learning to hone their skills but just like last book, even less so, there's way too much practical stuff. Contrary to what Cassie constantly says in her head when adults are about to cut her out they WOULD have discovered a lot of the clues on their own. She's ONE profiler in a house of 5 people. The FBI is an entire school population size of adults that are trained and experienced. They have way more manpower and way more specializations. It's not silly for a book where the kids win. It's not even silly for a series about the kids winning. But it's silly for the kids to win with competent adults doing absolutely nothing.
There's also moments where there's too much explanation writing wise. Here's one
“Not to interrupt a touching moment,” [Boy1] said, his voice lined with enough bite to make me think he wasn’t talking just about the moment between Sterling and Judd—he was referring to the synchrony between [Boy2] and me.
Even without context it's insanely clear that he was talking about the moment between Boy2 and me, why say the quiet parts aloud?
The murderer was interesting enough who doesn't love [the classic movie that inspired this murder]. But again back to the Naturals house. It's like watching an Anime, it's just a story about a bunch of teenagers with no parents. I maintain it would be super useful if like in a proper shonen anime they got to develop their powers. But instead they're basically perfect the way they are and the struggle is to get the adults to see that....more
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