Skip to main content

Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card

By
Brief synopsis (no spoilers):
Children start disappearing in a town in North Carolina in the early 1980s. A young father of a Mormon family moves into town, working to keep bread on the table. Most of the book is spent exploring computer science and membership in the Church, while the real plot takes a back seat until the end.

Category:
Fiction

Why I chose this book:
Orson Scott Card

My personal opinion:
There are LOTS of reasons not to read this book. If you don't like language, stay away. It's not the "heavy" stuff, but there's more than there should be. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and you don't like any negativity around the Church or its members, stay away. If children being harmed is a trigger for you, stay away. If you don't like getting close to a major character, only to have them killed off, stay away. I cannot recommend this book to anyone, really, unless none of those warnings bothers you, and you're a fan of Stephen King novels.
This is one of the most esoteric novels I've ever read. In order to understand everything in the book, you have to be a member of the Church that has been in a leadership position. You also have to have a background in, or more than a basic understanding of, computer science. You also have to have children. That's a really small sliver of humanity.
It was definitely not one of my favorites, and I doubt I'll ever read it again. But the author is a phenomenal storyteller, and I basically could put the book down. Even when some of the plot twists were predictable, I still couldn't stop reading the thing. I also couldn't fathom how one character could possibly provoke so much rage in so many people in such a short time, all while basically trying to be a "good person".

Warnings
Language: regular, but mostly the milder words
Violence: children being harmed
"Adult" situations: yes, some with more detail than I like
Death: yes, including major character(s)

Movie rating equivalent:
R

Protagonist description: 
Step is a young father, just trying his best to provide for his family and be a good human

Point of view of story: 
First-ish. It flipped from third to first on a regular basis

Book length:
Medium-long

Story flow:
Great, gripping story

Grammar and spelling issues:
I believe that someone scanned and OCR-ed a paper version of the book, to make the Kindle version. There were many spelling issues.

Character connection (no spoilers):
None

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Game by Terry Schott

By
Brief synopsis (no spoilers) What if this life is just a simulation? What if our bodies are in another world, plugged into a virtual reality game, and our entire life is just one play in that game? What would our real life be like, if we could experience several full simulated lifespans, in our teen years, and then enter adulthood? That is the premise of this story. Category Sci-Fi Why I chose this book It was either free or discounted on Amazon, and sounded interesting My personal opinion (the review) Too many inconsistencies. For example: The real world is able to view the players in the game in "real time", but time in the game is sped up, so that a week in real life is worth a decade in the virtual world. How do real world people have enough time to experience the virtual world, in real time, while still being accelerated? Danielle enters the game 3 days behind Trew, but she only ends up being 1 year younger. If a week is a decade in the game, then 3 days should have be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mark of Fire by Richard Phillips

By
Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Two main stories: Carol, the daughter of Lord Rafel, wants to be a magic wielder. As she learns magic and grows in strength, she is unaware that she is being hunted by the greatest wielder in the world. The second story is about a ward of Rafel's, named Blade, who becomes an infamous assassin and works for the king. The king sends Blade to kill Rafel and Carol, but he warns them to flee instead. Blade wanders, to escape the king's justice, but finds himself in his own adventure. Category : Fiction, fantasy, possibly YA Why I chose this book : Kindle First My personal opinion : I really enjoyed the story line, the world the author created, and the depth of the characters. It was easy to lose myself in the story. I also really appreciate that the story is "clean" - no bad language, no sexual situations, etc. I feel comfortable recommending this to my teenage children. Warnings Language: none Violence: fairly frequent fighting "Adult...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

By
This is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl series Brief synopsis (no spoilers) Artemis continues his adventures, leaning farther and farther away from the villain role, and closer to the hero role. He's quite the teenager, with all the hormones of that age. He has discovered another group of the People (demons), and they need saving. Artemis Fowl to the rescue! Category YA Fiction Why I chose this book Next in the series My personal opinion (the review) Artemis is typically flawless. His plans execute perfectly, and when they don't, coincidence saves him. This time, he fails a bit. He loses some time, his body is a little less perfect, and not all of his plans go through perfectly. I like that- it makes him more real, as a character. Warnings : Language - none Violence - mild "Adult" situations - none Death - yes, but temporary Movie rating equivalent PG Protagonist description Artemis is a genius beyond description. He tends to be prideful a...
Post a Comment
Read more