What a glorious mess this book is: a mess of plot, a mess of character, and a mess of storytelling. The only reason I don’t give this book a one star review, is that it is very fast paced and would make a good movie (which exists, and star Jonathan Reyes-Myers) and I really like Alex Garland. If I had it my way, he would be the benchmark for the kind of writing we need to see more of in a time when television and movies offer stiff completion to books. He is someone who has seen more movies than he has read books, and realizes that a book has to rival the entertainment value that television and movies offer the viewing public. And better than that, he can create plotlines that have the reader burning through pages, but he does so without sacrificing the introspectiveness books can offer, but movies and television cannot. I loved The Beach, which was a cool take off on the difference between our fantasy lives, and the way other perceive us, as well as one the first books to embrace video game culture. So why do I think this book is not very good? For one, it steers away from the linear, easy to follow plot of The Beach, and instead experiments with this idea of one event taking place over 200 pages, which recount the lives of all involved. It is interesting and could be done well, but in the hands of someone as erratic and on fire as Garland, it is simply a mess. Its story of a drug deal gone wrong, which claims a few innocent lives, was lost on me, and besides a few scenes of cool gore (like the hand amputation), it simply doesn’t cut it. Read The Beach, and skip this one.
Rating: 3/5
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