A book with "all the things in it"

Did you know that a woodpecker's tongue wraps around its brain? It does. I looked it up. If you read that, and just kept on reading my review with no problem, you will probably like this book. It is *not,* in my opinion, "just awful." It is not, in my opinion, a book designed for young readers. Judge for yourself. If it is a YA book, I could not tell. It *is* weird, funny, rambling, and things explode. Like Ruth's Pouch it has "all the things in it." It is a much lighter hearted book then VanderMeer's other books. Even so, there is no mistaking who wrote it. As always, there is fungus.

7 people found this helpful

oh my..just awful

I tried ...I really tried! I just couldn't follow it at all. I even started over 3 times thinking maybe I just missed something....but nope....its just bad. I wanted all of the characters to slowly die but they don't. I couldn't even finish it.

7 people found this helpful

FAB!

Seriously loving this book by Jeff VanderMeer​! It is like Animal Farm and Harry Potter had a baby while watching Locke and Key in Hill House! I highly recommend! The reader was also a perfect choice.

6 people found this helpful

A little over the top

I love Jeff VanderMeer, and this was definitely had some of his hallmark mind-bending world building - but the over-the-top absurdity kinda wore me out by the end. I mean, I'm curious to know what happens to the characters in subsequent books...but not enough to actually read them. Great narration though.

3 people found this helpful

Intriguing but Mostly Nonsense

This book is enormous with a lot of moving parts. There are so many instances where dialogue is transitioned from one person to another with little to no indication of the switch. There are many many things thrown in just to be wacky, which isn't necessarily bad, but the sheer quantity of them made following the important parts of the story very difficult to figure out. The ending also relies too heavily on the book being a series. It almost feels like the entirety of the book was carefully crafted nonsense to build excitement for a sequel that I suspect will be equally difficult to read.

2 people found this helpful

Wow! Highly imaginative and fabulous performance!

This is a fantastic story that is just as much fun for adults! VanderMeer is a master at creating worlds and filling them with wonderful, wacky, endearing and horrifying characters. This adventure across worlds made me laugh out loud many times! Also felt grossed out, scared, and endeared to the most unexpected characters. Hold on for the ride as this narrarator brings them all to life with perfect timing and fun voices, putting on a magnificent performance. The mystery continues and I am looking forward to Book 2!

2 people found this helpful

STARTED 3 TIMES, COULDN'T GET PAST CHAP 29

I struggled and struggled to like this book - to just SEMI-VISUALIZE the world that I kept 'bribing' myself to just 'read one more chapter' - but I could not get involved in the story - the characters - and the fluctuating premise. It was like a horrendous combination of Alice in Wonderland meets the Satanic Empire. I expected strange characters and landscapes - but there just never seemed to be enough DESCRIPTION of the walking & talking oddities that kept turning up 'en masse'. You need to take a really extreme pledge to just keep reading and hope that eventually your 'inner eye' will finally open so you can see what is happening. The plot is simply covered with 'strangeness', but it occasionally pops back into sight to 'keep you on the right track' - then veers off again with introduction of another mind-boggling oddity. After making THREE attempts to start it again, I never got past chapter 29. I couldn't remember what I had 'read' the evening before, I'd have to re-read part of it to 'remember' what I'd read before. That is NOT the way one should enjoy a book. Premise was reasonable - friends go on a quest and weird things happen along the way. But when the 'super star satanic villain' houses himself in a humongous elephant whose innards have been redecorated to suit the new owner, I decided to bail...not like the character (who had a 'private exit' through the elephant's anal 'slide'). I should have stopped reading when the somehow alive talking head of Napoleon appeared - and sometimes disappeared. Perhaps it will someday appear as a film - which might attract more interest. Sad to have to return it - it seemed so promising when I read the description.

1 person found this helpful

Uniquely thrilling

Loved this book, I have loved most of Jeff Vandermeer's fiction... But this one was surprisingly easy to get into, but still has the bizarreness & deep philosophical umpf that I've come to expect from the author. Amazing performance, superb writing. An adventure I loved to be a part of, and hope for more in this universe.

1 person found this helpful

Very fun!

Such a wonderful book! I hadn’t expected it to be funny, but the humor made it really fun to read! The manner of humor reminded me of Douglas Adams, at times.

Only 4 stars on the narration because I didn’t feel that the narrator accurately captured how a teenage boy would express himself. Apart from that character, he was an ace narrator.

To the author: the quiz at the end was clever. : ) I’d answer e. All of the above. I look forward to the second book!!!

1 person found this helpful

Exhibition writing

This was quite the interesting read, coming from a 40 year old that reads a couple of books per week, ranging from nonfiction, biographies, scifi, fantasy and lots of YA and kids book since I like to keep up with my 9 and 12 yo children.
I originally read this hoping to find a book to suggest to my 12 year old but soon realized this was not it, I struggled finishing this book, it was very long which would be fine since we do series all the time, but unfortunately I never cared much for any of the characters or the story, you spend little time with any of the characters and even when you do, you never connect with them, the story would jump around plenty.
The imaginative nonsensical, almost funny but not really. I am curious about the author since the scenarios and the characters, a combination of creatures, animals and objects, were really wild and this is why I feel like this was a professional writer pushing to see how far he could go, no editing and just practicing to see how crazy things could get, again I'm not the target audience and if you are a fan of this author I'm sure you would love his book, however for my introduction to his writing I was not impressed, I will try a different book and see how it goes.