Reviews From The Fiction Shelf
Ness returns with another intriguing novel inspired by Mrs. Dalloway and Judy Blume’s Forever, as we follow Adam Thorne on what seems to be an ordinary day…that is until a prick from a rose changes everything. While I would love to write an in depth synopsis of this novel I’m unable to find the right way to walk through it for new readers. Why? The story has a sense of the bizarre and mystical while also being a slice of life story. The beginning took me a while to get through, but significantly picked up halfway through. The romance scenes between Adam and his boyfriend Linus are beautifully tender and realistic, which some YA novels don’t always get right, and the “Queens” scenes are mystifying and exciting. So should you read it? Yes. Absolutely! If you’re looking for something a little different and love YA then you are going to be in for a treat. Happy reading!
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
As I’m sure everyone has heard, Clines 1980’s, pop-culture, gamer, nerdtopia novel is coming to life in theaters and the responses seem to have a huge divide. When I first saw the trailer I was bombarded by an oversaturation of nerd gamer culture and CGI, so naturally, I was a little overwhelmed. After my second viewing I figured reading it was worth a shot to see what all the hype is about. My ruling? It’s mostly just hype. While the premise of the story was impressive and exciting, the world-building and storytelling just wasn’t there. Throughout the story of Wade Watts journey to uncover the biggest easter egg in the online world of OASIS, we get glimpses of interesting backstory that boasts promises of exciting story arc… and then you get an enormous info dump of old school 80’s nerd trivia that really takes you out of the enchantment of this really cool virtual world. A lot of this extra “info fluff” is unnecessary to the story and the novel could have easily cut about 100 pages to create a less long-winded adventure. Throughout the rest of Cline’s novel the story just pats itself on the back for nerd elitism against “noobs” and “fake gamers” which is the exact opposite of what we need in today’s culture towards female/younger/new gamers. All in all, I was unfortunately not impressed. My opinion, however, is if you are into all things geek (especially that old school 80’s nostalgia) then give this story a go! Maybe it will resonate differently with you! Happy reading!