A real disappointment
342547
My sister purchased this for me as I am an avid hiker and mountain climber. This story, in addition to being almost entirely incoherent, and lacking in style, was completely misrepresented in the publishers description. All of this business about self-examination I found to be immature and whiny .. .Save your money
1059416
the words above do not even begin to define the problem I found with this book, and to some degree the last one. I have read everyone of these novels as they came out and waited with happy anticipation for each. So disappointing of late that I don't know if I will even look for the next one.
The characters do not have the depth that they had before, the events are not as detailed, the plot is really predictable and the book did not make me pack a bag and revisit Charleston. It feels tired and uninspired. With all of the plots and crimes in the press everyday it seems to me that an author could be better inspired than ever before.
Sorry, I really loved this series and these characters.....now not so much.
1804241
As some have said, what a disappointment. Although I didn't care for the convolution of the racial issues(overkill)in the first book I still liked it.  So much so I thought what the hell let me give this a try (regardless of the sensible voice inside my head). Boy, was I wrong. Victoria tried my nerves in the first book but what I've read in this one is downright idiotic. I guess I should say I only got up to 40% before I decided I'm done because I could see where this sorry plot was going and couldn't stomach it one more page. This book is entirely too pricey for the lack of the quality I had expected. Therefore as another reviewer stated don't waste your money!
25672
I was very disappointed. I had hoped for a story line. I was disappointed in the art work as well. There. Is nothing to set this book apart from dozens simular to it.
3163387
I went into this book with very high expectations given its reviews from both accredited literature critics and the amazon community, which has been so helpful in the past. I wanted to like it, I really did. Alas, despite my best efforts, it was not to be.

It's obvious that Aciman is a gifted linguist and that he enjoys writing, but I found this book to be excruciating. Behind his impressive (sometimes to a fault) vocabulary, this book has very little character development and a plot that is simultaneously predictable and dull. I'm not a reader who insists on lots of dialogue--I will happily settle for scores of beautiful imagery--but this book has neither. The majority of the prose here is simply the narrator prattling on and on about his obsession with the other main character. It reminded me of reading the diary of an extremely verbose, well-read thirteen-year-old girl in that it takes itself EXTREMELY seriously. This love is THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME and could move mountains and surely no one else has ever felt this much PAIN and OH did you see how he looked at me at lunch today? Do you think that when he blinked twice and scratched his nose it means he loves me? Or hates me?

...You get the idea. I said his vocabulary is good to a fault because I felt that Aciman tries to compensate for what amounts to a lack of substance by including as many GRE words has he could come up with. As a college instructor, I am certainly familiar with my share of big words, but I'm also familiar with papers that look like the student sat down and used a thesaurus on every other word. Now imagine reading a whole book of that.

Reading Aciman brought to mind Jane Austen and everything I love about her writing, because Call Me by Your Name was in such striking contrast. Austen DOESN'T take herself seriously at all, which I find to be the most important quality both in people and in prose. (And she still manages to entice readers with multi-syllabic words that are appropriately placed and not just inserted for show!) Call Me by Your Name fails miserably on this count. If I were to meet Elio, the narrator, I would ask him if he could hear the sound of the world's saddest, saddest song on the world's tiniest violin and then roll my eyes. If I wanted to read about angsty teens, I would have picked up the Twilight series.
360503
I was very disappointed in this book. Before purchasing it I read the reviews , which were very positive, and, having read several other books on The Blaskets I expected nothing less of this book. I don't even want to finish reading it - unlike the other books, which I didn't want to put down. really disappointing .
4224957
If I could give this book a negative number, I would!  A great disappointment from an author whose works I've enjoyed in the past.
3904016
I like romance, I like suspense and I love medical crime......so I was really looking forward to this one.  It truly was a disappointment and I would not recommend it at all.
1862985
Truly disappointed, not inspirational at all, a rehash of previous books & a waste of time & money, I was expecting so much more
3571998
I'm with the reviewer who posted "Sheer Boredom".  I greatly enjoyed the Lytton family trilogy, but this one is a real disappointment.  In part, it may be the lack of historical trappings, along with the singularly uninteresting contemporary British political backdrop (and the author's pet peeves about socialized medicine), but I think the far more serious problem is the lack of character development.  It's simply hard to care what happens to these cardboard cut out characters.

I haven't given up totally on the author, but will be cautious going foward.
4270782
What a disappointment.  I was really looking forward to this book, having enjoyed the other 3 so much, but honestly I think they cut corners on editing or something.

First of all, I honestly can't figure out what the main plot line was.  There was just so much going on, all at once sometimes.  There was no one thread to hang on to that the others wove through, it was a hot mess of subplots fighting for domination.  I guess the Leo subplot won, but it didn't dominate most of the book.

Second, since this book focused on Emma's job as with the celestials, you see them a lot.  since they all have more than one name that got very confusing and she did nothing to help you out- no visual assistance or anything, and sometimes she would switch from one name to another.  Often she introduced new characters with very little explanation and to the English speaker the names are similar enough you'd wonder whether it was someone you were supposed to know.  I spent a lot if time lost even having Chinese family and having read the first trilogy.

Third, it was boring.  Seriously, I didn't care about a lot of it.

And lastly, Emma came off as a terrible guardian and as a total doormat.  People would say cruel, nasty things or try to kill her or whatever and she would say "I don't blame them."  What?  That isn't the sassy warrior bride we got to know in the first trilogy!  And Simone is 15 and Emma is saying "she needs to make that decision, I can't push her" and is too busy to help her with school- not sure if this is a cultural difference, but I have a 15 year old daughter and she still needs a parent. It made me dislike her and want to slap her silly.

 So overall not good.  Undecided whether to give the next book a try.  I am not sure why a book without John was even done.  He made the books.
3687827
A real disappointment. Everything about the main character and the other characters is low-life. I almost gave it up after 2 chapters, but at the way overpriced value, I had to see it through.
2019014
So I must be honest and say that I bought this book after playing the video game in the series.  And I must say, i'm hugely disappointed.  I thought the book lacked any real story that I even cared to follow.  It seemed to be reaching way too often for some very deep, emotional, psyche to come out of and really, it just made no sense.  Plus, the real issue I had, is that it deviates from Batman as a character. I kept reading and saying, Batman would never do that, or that, or that.  It was just very inconsistent for me and a total letdown.  I wish I wouldve saved my 15 bucks.
223323
What a disappointment. This book was as flat out Un-Funny as his earlier works were hugely enjoyable. The only 'puns' presented were lifted from a thesaurus by a research drone looking for different terms for Moist, and even they failed to amuse.

It reads like it was written by an Affirmative Action committee trying to sanitize prior characters as an apology for being entertaining. The names are the same but they bear so little resemblance with the classic heros of such gems as "Guards Guards" - as to have come from a turtle of an entirely different shell.

The book was simply Not worth the effort to carry home - its time to end the party before it becomes even more boring.
2646078
I had high hopes for this book, but it has been a big disappointment.  Its subtitle is "A History of mAncient Rome," but it is not a history.  Rather, it is a string of disconnected miniature essays on Roman subjects.  Quite a few of the essays are interesting, but I would rather have had a conventional history.  Moreover, the book has many errors in grammar and diction.  They resemble the errors that I used to correct when I taught Freshman English.  The author and the editor have insufficient knowledge of the English language.

  a reader
3213703
I was very diappointed in this book.  It was so hard to finish reading.  A waste of time really.
4502546
This is the first review I've ever submitted, if I remember correctly, and I had to do it because I was so disappointed in this book.  I thought the first book was cute - if not overwhelming - and looked forward to this one.  What a letdown!

Don't look to this book for more of Genevieve's opinions on much of anything.  Most of the book is about Denny's life, with hardly a nod to the dog's point of view.  Denny's eating habits, how he became vegetarian, his running, his camping, his hiking, his supermarket shopping, what he likes/dislikes about restaurants, etc.  Even "a day in the life of" is actually a day in Denny's life.

Additionally, the language has deteriorated badly in this one.  A friend borrowed my copies of the books to preview before giving to her 10-year-old daughter, who loves dogs.  This book came right back with the comment that the language was totally unsuitable and unnecessary.  (An entire section is given to this very topic, Denny's extensive use of foul language.)  While it's not nearly as bad as many movies and TV programs seen today, it's certainly far beyond what would be expected in this type of book.

Bottom line:  Denny apparently ran out of things to say for/about Genevieve and thought we'd all enjoy hearing about his life instead.  Not one of his better ideas.