Friday, May 10, 2019

REVIEW: Release by Patrick Ness


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Adam Thorn doesn’t know it yet, but today will change his life.

Between his religious family, a deeply unpleasant ultimatum from his boss, and his own unrequited love for his sort-of ex, Enzo, it seems as though Adam’s life is falling apart.  At least he has two people to keep him sane: his new boyfriend (he does love Linus, doesn’t he?) and his best friend, Angela.

But all day long, old memories and new heartaches come crashing together, throwing Adam’s life into chaos. The bindings of his world are coming untied one by one; yet in spite of everything he has to let go, he may also find freedom in the release.




MY THOUGHTS
I kind of made a mistake with this book by not reading the synopsis before reading. I love Patrick Ness' books, so I automatically wanted to read this book. Unfortunately, I did not know that it was a nod to Forever and Mrs. Dalloway, both of which I have not read. I had difficulty understanding this book and I wonder if that had something to do with it.

The book follows two separate storylines. The first one is Adam, who is dealing with many things at the moment, such as his strict, religious family, his boyfriend who he wants to love, his ex who he still may have feelings for, and many other things (and this all takes place in one day). I understood this story pretty well. The other story was...confusing. It was about a girl who was dead but not dead? There was a Queen? and a faun following her around? I really struggled with this section and that did bring the rating down a little. I was more than halfway through this book and I couldn't even tell what this story was even about. Heck, I'm still not quite sure what these sections were telling me.

The writing of this book is fantastic, though, which is to be expected. Patrick Ness is a fantastic writer. I do wonder if my disappointment comes from just my unfamiliarity with the references, my struggles with the second plot, or even just the time which I read it. I read this book while on vacation, which meant I had little time to read. This gave me difficulty with the Adam story because every time I picked up the book, I expected it to be a different day in the story (because it was a different day for me). This does seem more of a book to read straight through, with few interruptions. Unfortunately, it took me almost a week to read this.

IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I was disappointed by this book. I will say that despite my troubles, I did think the ending was interesting and while this has to be my least favorite Patrick Ness book, he is one of my favorite writers so I will continue to read his work.

I hereby give this book
2 Stars
Meaning: It was okay

4 comments :

  1. Sorry it was disappointing. I like Patrick Ness, too, but I haven’t read this one yet. I’ve read (and hated) Mrs. Dalloway, so maybe I’ll get those references.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. Some people had better luck with this book than me, so if you do happen to read, you might enjoy it more (despite the Mrs. Dalloway references).

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  2. I didn't like Mrs. Dalloway when I read it, so maybe I won't tackle this one quite yet!

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    1. From your comment and Aj's comment I don't think I will be reading Mrs. Dalloway anytime soon!

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