Didn't feel like a real book.
938914
I've read all of the books in this series several times and I was never quite as disappointed as I was while reading this book.  I know it's a series, and the books aren't meant to standalone, but this just felt like a book about nothing.  I found it very difficult to read because the narrator jumped continually with little or no indication of who it was.  It was very irritating to read nearly three pages with no clue who was narrating.  I've been trying to remember things that actually happened and I just can't think of any actual events that took place.  Maybe there were some revelations and I'm sure that people were put into place for major events in the next book.  However, I feel very cheated that I paid over $14 to read a book that was all staging for another book that doesn't even have a publication date.  I'm not done with this series by any means, I'm just disappointed in this release and feeling very cheated.
4421759
I was drawn in by intro... went down hill from there...i felt like it was just smallm talk written in book form
3965958
Well written but in play format rather than novel. Did not feel the scenes were as fully developed.
1080396
No real story advancement, just sex. It didn't feel like a novel, it was more like a novella or short story.
2751283
It's a great book, but I wouldn't consider it "light reading". Kind of reminded me of a text book.
1541868
Everything about the cover of this book screams middle grade. But what's inside is not. I was expecting something along the lines of The Humming Room by Ellen Potter, but reading this felt like I was reading The Great Gatsby or The Picture of Dorian Gray, but aimed at middle graders. I wish I could say I meant that in a positive way.

There is nothing wrong with big vocabulary words--I think books should never "dumb down" for young readers. But the stories should still feel as though they are written in the pov of a child of that age. Clare is twelve or thirteen, but her thoughts come across as far too mature. This is not an intelligence issue--it is a life experience and developmental issue. The insights she has are tinged with the feeling of someone looking back on their childhood and it inserts the wisdom/experience that has been gained over the years since then.

In other words, it does not feel like a middle grade book. I can't imagine kids of that age really getting into this story. It is a lot of wondering over the world and not really doing a whole lot. The "plot" felt pieced together with no real flow or feeling of forward movement. I found myself skimming past Clare's observations and flashbacks and bits of back story in search of something happening. I wanted to feel a sense of adventure, of discovery, particularly regarding the ghost, but Clare's initial contact with Jack was anti-climactic. Also, I never connected with any of the characters. They never became anything more than names on the page for me.

The author can turn a phrase rather beautifully--so don't think I'm calling this book drivel or anything. But a middle grade book should be a middle grade book and reviewed as such.
1639973
The book started off very inspirational. It was like the beginning of something new and you could feel the excitement. The rest of the book was interesting but not inspirational like The Alchemist or some of Coelho's other works. I felt bogged down in details and negative imagery while I was reading it. Fiction might be better than truth in this case.
3842976
While reading I did not feel like reading full book. It is just like extract of important things in the book.
2459281
I don't mean I think the copy I downloaded is glitched and I am missing pages. I mean I feel like some of the story is missing. Everything moves too fast, so a lot of things are glossed over. Also, it doesn't really feel like it fits together. I'm sure there are reasons for (SPOILER ALERT) radical Muslims and drug runners to work together, but the reasons given in the book don't really make sense. (It pretty much comes down to "they are working together because they just ARE!")

I wanted to like this book, and there were a lot of good things. But not enough to really raise the rating.
517420
Light Boxes is described as "a novel," but I think even calling it a novella would be a stretch.  Sometimes the repetition and the artsy use of text border on poetry, and many of the 147 pages have very little text.
While I applaud Shane Jones for doing something different, this particular "something different" didn't really work for me.  Most of my thought process as I read was dedicated to figuring out what was really going on, which didn't leave much room for becoming emotionally attached to the characters.
The book is definitely unique and has some intriguing ideas, and it is a nice quick read.  While I was reading it, though, I wasn't so much enjoying a good story as feeling that I was having a befuddled, codeine-inspired dream.  Light Boxes would be an interesting thing to check out from the library, but I doubt I'd recommend purchasing it.
667070
I was really excited about reading this book-- which i didn't realize was a novella until i got it from the library. I was surprised at how slim it is, since i was expecting a novel.

I have mixed feelings on the book, and it's in part to my feeling that it might've been better as a novel. It feels that things in the book happen too quickly, and sometimes feel disjointed (especially when Binti is "treeing"-- which i still honestly don't understand). It felt often felt rushed. It didn't feel like there was a lot of time to really get to know Binti and the world in which she moved through-- admittedly, she was moving forward into an abstract "world" that was strange to her, but she has knowledge of this world. I would've liked to have spent more time learning about the various facets, even just what an astrolabe, in Binti's futuristic time, now is.

That was something else: often, it seemed there were concepts introduced, but not really explained. It felt like being thrown into a strange world that was in mid-story. Even Binti's pivotal role as a "master harmonizer" feels like it could have been explored further, if the format was a novel, as opposed to a novella.

Part of me likes the ending, and part of me agrees that it doesn't really make sense. It does come across as far too neat, too pat, too tied up with a bow. I'm sure it's meant to attest to Binti's ability to create harmony, but again, since that ability felt largely unexplored, it left the ending feeling flat. How can we feel the full gravity of the moment if we haven't been able to really grasp what it means for Binti to be able to create harmony? This also goes back to concepts/themes that felt unexplored: it's one thing to tell us that there has been a vicious war between humans and the Meduse aliens, but it doesn't feel shown as much, with the exception of [the murdering of nearly everyone on the Third Fish.

This also makes the ending fall flat. The Meduse murdered hundreds of people, including young adults who were heading to the university. At the very least, one would think their families would be told afterward, and that they would be more than a little upset. It feels false that they should "get away with" this, essentially, with no push back. Because of this, because the war doesn't feel fleshed out, because Binti's harmonizing doesn't feel fleshed out, the ending feels like nothing. It feels like a shrug.

There's just so much that doesn't feel explored or shown. We're told a lot of things, and it feels like we're expected to just accept it. But what is treeing? What's Binti's astrolabe like? What sort of views and feelings have been caused by the war against the Meduse? What's Binti's harmonizing; how is she so good at it and what does it mean for her and others? How is she able to go into such a trance state? What dimensions were in her friendships, past and present? Again, it's like being dropped into a story in the middle, and just trying to go with the flow while being rushed along. It feels disjointed and awkward.

The pros are that, despite how confusing it could be, the story held my attention. At times i kept thinking "wait, what's going on?" but i wanted to see how it would pan out. Nnedi Okorafor's writing style also draws you in, and Binti is a great character. I want to know more about her, to really spend time with her. I loved her remembrances of home, of the scents and feelings. I wanted more of that sort of insight-- which, since she was in a survival situation, i know sounds silly, but it could've helped prior to her situation. It would've helped to deepen the friendships on the ship that were only briefly mentioned, for example.

I did see that there is a book two to the story, which i may check out, to see if it expands on anything introduced in the first one. I would like to learn more about Binti, and get to know her better.
2792699
I choose this rating as I felt that some of the character's left me feeling they were not real but alien. Not sure through the book whether I liked it or not, though I did read it through to the end.
319990
Very little drama. It felt like the author gave up on the book/characters. I was disappointed in the humdrum feel. I normally feel sad or as if I lost a friend at the end of a series but not this time.
1737492
This book had the feel of being the authors first book. The story line was ok, but the characters came off as being a little "simple".
2241848
I'm a big Potter fan and this really does feel like a Potter story, but why they released a book in script form is beyond me.
The story is there, it wouldn't take much to write it out as an actual book.
1134318
This didn't feel like a James Patterson book.  I don't know who David Ellis is but perhaps he wrote it by himself.  It seemed to be written by someone who didn't have much writing experience.
345323
It didn't really live up to its description. It was  more like a magazine article than a book.