The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Marisha Pessl's eagerly and long-awaited second novel, Night Film, due out shortly.
This is one of those books that, under most circumstances, I would have tossed aside after 100 or 200 pages -- it's just not very good -- but I felt compelled to make my way through it because: I'd reviewed her highly touted debut, Special Topics in Calamity Physics (yeah, I didn't think much of that either) -- and hoped she might have grown as a writer; I review so little contemporary American fiction; I review so few 'big' books (i.e. the kind that will get reviewed in pretty much every major popular media outlet); I review so few books authored by women. (Much the same reasons why I'll probably get to that forthcoming Donna Tartt, too -- though I worry that that too will be a dud.) And this did sound like it might offer some decent suspense (though after 100 or 200 pages all hope of that had evaporated).
What's really disappointing -- and one reason I feel guilty about wasting my and your time on this -- is how much attention will be lavished on this thing, when there are so many better books so much more deserving of attention (and who would need the attention to come to the attention of readers whose time would be so much better spent with them than with this).
This is one of those books that, under most circumstances, I would have tossed aside after 100 or 200 pages -- it's just not very good -- but I felt compelled to make my way through it because: I'd reviewed her highly touted debut, Special Topics in Calamity Physics (yeah, I didn't think much of that either) -- and hoped she might have grown as a writer; I review so little contemporary American fiction; I review so few 'big' books (i.e. the kind that will get reviewed in pretty much every major popular media outlet); I review so few books authored by women. (Much the same reasons why I'll probably get to that forthcoming Donna Tartt, too -- though I worry that that too will be a dud.) And this did sound like it might offer some decent suspense (though after 100 or 200 pages all hope of that had evaporated).
What's really disappointing -- and one reason I feel guilty about wasting my and your time on this -- is how much attention will be lavished on this thing, when there are so many better books so much more deserving of attention (and who would need the attention to come to the attention of readers whose time would be so much better spent with them than with this).