This last week was a bit less busy. Thank goodness. I was able to post quite a bit, and I even started a new post yesterday.
But that’s enough of a preamble. Let’s get into the wrap-up.
Tuesday 4/25: Chance Review
Last Tuesday, I finally posted my review of Chance by Matthew FitzSimmons. It’s a science fiction book that I was really on the fence about. I gave it ★★★☆☆.
Thursday was when I posted my review for the much anticipated, In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. It’s a sci-fi inspired retelling of Pinocchio. I gave it ★★★★★.
Yesterday, I tried out a new thing I like to call Popular Books That I’ve Read Never. This is a post where I make a little list of popular books that I’ve never read. That’s it, that’s the post.
For the most part, I want to keep up the momentum of what I’m posting. I also want to do my monthly wrap-up for April, hopefully tomorrow. I’d also, if the day allows, really, really like to post another Majestic Monday, since it’s been so long, and I just like book covers so much.
Concerning my book consumption, I definitely want to read more than last week. I really feel like I could’ve read more, so I want to do so this week.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!
So, I’m very happy to say that the reading slump is officially gone! I’m on my third book within a week! Yay! And it’s a great one, too!
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
A clone plays a dangerous game of life, death, memory, and murder in a twisting thriller by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Matthew FitzSimmons.
Cloning is a luxury for the wealthy. For Chance Harker, it’s a way of getting on with his lives. Five years ago, when he was sixteen, he and his brother, Marley, were murdered in a kidnapping gone wrong. Chance was revived—and his grieving parents met his existence with anger, neglect, and aversion. The public, though? They can’t get enough of the death-defying stunts he has parlayed into a social media spectacle.
But after Chance’s latest “refresh,” he awakens to accusations that he’s killed Lee Conway, a stranger Chance has never met. Has one of his clones? With no memory of his previous selves, and working fast before he’s arrested, Chance digs into Conway’s background, the mysteries of his own life—and death—and the tragic abduction that tore his family apart.
All Chance has to do is stay ahead of the LAPD; his kidnappers, who are back on the hunt; and a growing mob of incensed protesters outraged that a rich clone appears to be getting away with murder.
My Review
There’d been a purpose behind all this once, back at the beginning. Back when he’d stopped being a person and had become “the victim of a terrible crime.” Or, to put it more accurately, the clone of a victim of a terrible crime.
So, before I get into my review, I should probably mention that I jumped right into this series via this book. The second book. But I should also mention that the books in this series were written in such a way, to be also accessible as standalones.
But yeah, I kind of read it out of order. So what?
Anyway, let’s just let the cat out of the bag: I didn’t like this book as much as I’d hoped to. I really thought this was gonna be an easy five star read for me, but it wasn’t. Like, it definitely wasn’t that bad of a book – I did give it three stars. It just wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be.
Let’s start with the stuff I liked. I really liked our protagonist, Chance. He was a bit of an idiot, especially at first, but he was attempting to deal with his trauma, even if it wasn’t in a good way. But his development as a character is nice to follow, and I loved watching him grow and change.
Chance tried to remember the last time his father had hugged him and came up blank.
His complex and strained relationships with his family were also very interesting to read about. These were the most compelling aspects of the novel, in my opinion, and these moments were the primary reason I wanted to see how it all ended.
Other than that, the plot was pretty interesting, and I liked all the science-y world building around the clones and the other futuristic tech.
But yeah, that’s kind of it for the stuff I enjoyed. I didn’t really care about the rest of the characters, or find them interesting. I didn’t even care for the antagonists.
Also, and this might be because I didn’t read the first book, but I didn’t really like Con D’Arcy either. I know that she was the protagonist of the Constance, and that a lot of people seemed to like her, but I just kind of found her annoying. Sorry.
The POV and voice also didn’t feel like it was coming from a 21 year-old guy. You should be able to discern a character’s voice regardless of what POV it’s in. Their personality should shine through more than it does in this book.
She looked at him sadly. “Did you know that the more money a person has, the harder it is for them to identify facial expressions in others?
Chance also felt exceedingly preachy at times, and this is the biggest reason why I felt turned off by it. I hate it when the characters appear to be mouthpieces for the author to launch into their opinions and grievances about the world. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I just appreciate it with a lot more subtlety. Which is something that this novel didn’t have. At all.
Other minor criticisms include: reiterating the same thing a character said or came to a conclusion about less than a page ago multiple different times; unnatural dialogue; and weird descriptions. I don’t care about what this same-y area looks like describe the goddam characters.
Guys, I just want to enjoy a story. Is that so much to ask?
But nothing stayed hidden forever, did it?
Chance by Matthew FitzSimmons was a very mid, very preachy, sci-fi story set in the near future. I liked a few things about it, but so many things about it irritated me at the same time.
I recommend you definitely read it if you read and enjoyed Constance, and I think you should give it a shot if you like science fiction stuff set in the next few decades.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and have a great day/night!
Okay. So I’m not reading nearly as much as I had been last month, and that’s slightly disappointing. But that’s cuz I, very unfortunately, fell into a bit of a reading slump midway through last week. So I’ve been holding off. But I’ve recently started a new book that I’m excited to read, so hopefully that slump is ending!
WWW Wednesday is a meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!
