Elisabeth Thomas

Ok, mixed feelings on this one. There's definitely a lot to like, especially with respect to the central "idea" of the story, but the execution is just, well, bad. Spoilers marked because what I consider the premise of the story (and, in fact, that there even is a premise of the story) isn't revealed until fairly far into it and isn't mentioned in the back jacket summary, but if I didn't mention it this would be a much more negative review.
Ok, I'll start off with what I don't like, which unfortunately can be summed up as "the writing". I don't mean that Thomas is a bad writer necessarily, but this felt like an early draft—there's a lot of unrealized potential. The characters are flat, hard to differentiate from one another, and frankly almost none of them need to exist, including our narrator who, after 320 pages, I still know almost nothing about. The idea here was an interesting one—very high achieving students who nonetheless have no other options, for one reason or another—is potentially very compelling, but I never really felt that either of those things were true for anyone other than Baby, who dies about a third of the way in. The setting was likewise disappointing; the cult-like tendencies and claustrophobia were mentioned frequently, but there wasn't any follow through. It absolutely baffles me that so many people call this "atmospheric" (unless what they really mean is "mostly empty"?). Consequently I found the whole thing rather hard to get through, even though the language itself is straightforward enough and it's not particularly long.
With that being said, there's also a lot here that's surprisingly well done, especially considering the aforementioned weakness with the writing in general. Normally I dislike when a book fails to mention its central plot (let alone its whole genre), but here I think it worked really well. The revelation of information about the "new materials" is impressive and works well with the otherwise unimportant period setting, and the potential of this idea (with respect to both the world of the story and the plot) is fully realized. The whole thing is genuinely really impressive and even more so because it was so unexpected.… (mer)

***Contains Spoilers***

DNF at 54%. This book is easy to read, I think that's why I made it so far without a plot point in sight. I can see how other people who may be into slightly apathetic slice-of-life stories could like this. I need something, ANYTHING, to happen to keep my interest. And, I mean, things DO happen. Things that should effect the main character profoundly, and she just continues with her routine like her best friend didn't just die suddenly. Also, if the plasm can legit mend things why don't they use it to fix the house that is literally falling apart?… (mer)