cordelia_gretson's reviews
278 reviews

Felt good to get this off the perpetually growing TBR, where it has sat according to my records since 2015. So a decade later, I finally picked it up.

Ok, so this absolute brick of a book…
Has a cast of colorful (erhmm, happily monochromatic) characters. A deep deck to pull from and intertwine, which kind of happens - more like braided together, part of the story but not completely feeling connected in all aspects for the author to treat them as all main characters.

Plot- is there one? You’re there to observe and take in the circus, the labyrinth of tents and rooms that lure you in and the keepers/designers of the rooms. You jump in time and place to an endless number of locations that are wonderfully built, but ultimately feel a bit disjointed.

As for this “competition”… if that isn’t the most vague and loose definition of the word, then I don’t know what. More like forcibly entwined with no real definition of what would put one ahead, what the goals were, or even who was each’s competition. The inventors of the competition are pretty vile and cruel individuals whose extensive time on earth has robbed them of empathy and humanity more than anything else.

If you like time jumps- this book is for you. Personally, I’m often a fan of following say two timelines, but this often felt chaotic and had to constantly flip back to the beginning of the chapter to reorient myself if it came before or after a previous chapter. As such, there were long sections of dialogue that only used pronouns and I would lose track of what characters were even speaking and who else was in the room.

Strangely enough, my favorite character ended up being one of the side characters, and became much more attentive in chapters that included him.

Without saying who, I found the deaths of characters to be oddly abrupt, reading back through to make sure that’s exactly what did happen. One character you don’t even know is in the setting and another just alive one breath and gone in the next.

If we’re going to chug through 500+ pages, I would have liked a better ending.

There’s too many questions left unanswered. What happens to Marco and Celia after the fire is relit and this grand competition is left in a freaking stalemate? If Hector and A. H.’s students are left in a stalemate, how does this not backfire on them as their binders- how do they exist in any fashion? Why are the Murray twins now running the circus? How did relighting the flame draw that conclusion?

Overall: I liked it. Is it life changing? No. Would I read it again? Also no. Would I recommend it? Only to certain people and not to anyone that wants to get into reading or out of a reading slump.

There should be a prize for every single character being unlikable- it’s almost impressive if not a bit annoying.

FMC is infuriating, often saying the right thing to do and blatantly disregarding it and doing the stupid alternative. In addition to her ability to be gaslit by everyone, including herself, she lacks

the ability to recognize people she once knew. It doesn’t seem feasible that she forgot this many people. The whole trial seems like a sham with her watery testimony she doesn’t even believe to be true, getting a guy a life sentence then saying oh gosh I think I was wrong, sprinting that guy from prison and incarcerating another without repercussions. I don’t think so.

Always go into a Freida book accepting the boundaries of feasibility, but this time the Queen of Redundancy (and boy did she like to repeat herself in this book) asked the reader to stretch too far. It’s not feasible, but rather a farce. 

It wants to be better, but I don’t think the author is capable at writing at all higher, less juvenile level. Where she tries to have a romantic feels with the FMC and potentially two of the four brothers, it reads 6th grade or first crush vs 18/19 year olds. Like, ma’am these are seniors to early college- hormones are popping off and you’re making it sound like a crush at bible camp. Where there could be tension, it falls flat.

“Puzzles” and mysteries aren’t strong enough to make me “not want to put it down.” Not until the last 80 pages, maybe, did much happen and the low level of imagery made world building difficult to paint an accurate picture of the scenes. Mapping out actions to puzzles came across as messy, but potential was there.

Characters aren’t lovable, more annoying than anything. The FMC bff wants to have Lily vibes from Princess Diaries, is my initial thought, with super strict parents that don’t let her swear and you’re fed ridiculous lines the author put in their hoping to make her lovable, avoid swearing (oh fucking dear), and make the book “age appropriate” (what was her target audience??)

Sometimes it feels AI written or guided with good premise but lacking any kind of emotion or suspense when the premise begs for it.

Notes to friend at 65% read:
Also, I don’t officially know yet, but I think I know why she’s chosen and if it’s the reason I think- womp, womp 🙄 😒 boring. The “who done it” aspect was guessed early on with a bizarre encounter combined with an inadvertent homage to Fred on Scooby Doo kids, “it’s the Red Herring,” but it was… might as well of had House (MD) guess lupus and be right every time. 

Epilogue felt like an after thought that should’ve been the penultimate chapter instead, providing an adequate hook to suck you into the next book. As it is, it fell into the, “I don’t care anymore. Yay! The book is over.”

Overall it has promise and potential and if you’ve never ready any mystery before or puzzle ridden books it could be for you. I don’t envision myself caring to continue. 

So much more than the back jacket  advertised. Loved the multiple story lines within a single chapter, kept the pace up and never felt like you were dragging. TJR’s style continues to capture my attention three books in. 

Lived the TJR world Easter eggs and crossovers from TSHOEH and DJATS and how interconnected, yet independent the worlds are.

Actually satisfied with the ending for virtually every character (and there’s a lot of them!)

Publishing kudos (something I always note, but never gets mentioned specifically): the font, size, spacing, and margins were greatly appreciated. Pages are thick enough that they aren’t bleeding through, nor crinkle as you turn them. The physical book size is perfect, itself knows how to sit and hold itself open. It practically screams “read me.”

One of those things where you don’t know exactly what you’re getting into, but you love the subject so you jump in anyways. 
My love for Diane Keaton far outweighs any liking for this memoir. It was semi chaotic and attempted to be philosophical, but more often than not just dragged on without much plot or know where the final destination would be. Some stories were funny , but it was hard to tell on audiobook what was a random quotes and what was finally her reflex. It would have been less if she hadn’t narrated it.
Would have never guessed she collected so much stuff, bizarre amounts of 8x10’s, paintings, photography, shoes, hats, turtle necks, houses, and the stories to fill them with several times over.