relentlessly hopeless with no resolution
589662
I gave this book 2 stars because the premise was original and the prose was lovely. Having said that I came away from this book completely dissatisfied. So many questions were simply left unanswered. So many plot lines left hanging.  For example, (spoiler alert)

-why did her father leave the village?
-why does her mother expect him to come back?
-how can her brother be so dismissive and cruel to her?
-what secrets the sisters are keeping?
-how did the villagers gather livestock and expand the fence?
-who was Gabrielle and why did the sister's keep her a secret?
-why was Gabrielle extra fast?
-how was the fence in Mary's village breached?
-what's up with Travis and why if he loved Mary all along did he propose to Cass?
-why was communication cut off between the villages?
-how was Gabrielle's village breached?
-why if the zombies hunger for human flesh do they simply bite and move on, with out devouring their prey?
-why don't all the zombies eventually run out of steam like Gabrielle. Are they being replenished in some way?

I kept turning pages hoping for answers only to be confronted with another zombie attack. It wasn't creepy, it was just boring. And the romance. Yuck. Nothing real there, just lust and when that burns out Mary loses interest. I really wanted to like this book but there was no payoff in the end.
501499
I generally enjoy Grisham's novels, but for me this book was pure torture.  I expected a legal-battle type of story line, but instead had to suffer through a long (seemingly never-ending) journey of constant and non-believable disappointments as  a reverend attempts to bring justice to a 10-year old murder case.  Anything that can go wrong indeed does go wrong as the author heaps upon the reader an insufferable series of almost laughable negative hurdles, and - worst of all - does so in the slowest possible fashion.

This becomes a "page turner" only because one feels the need to move the story along .. he/she certainly gets no help from the author.
4862991
This was a rough read. I read until the end because I thought it would begin to make sense at some point, even the last paragraph. I held out hope until the last page. No Cigar!!! This book had lots of promise but it was a pointless read with an absurd ending. I am still trying to figure out why I continued to torture myself. The main Character needed to be smacked across the head, she was just stupid. The dad leaving his daughter for dead, to go search for the son, the dumb message on the cell that made no sense, and the fact that as a reader, by the last sentence, you still can't figure out if she imagined it all or if any part of the story was real was not whimsical or mysterious, it was instead pointless.  The middle of the book made me wonder if the author fell asleep on the keyboard, it just dragged on and on. The whole story just unravels into a huge waste of time, and the loss of $3.99.
4286833
What a depressing, wordy bore. Understanding and sympathy for any of the characters in this book is impossible.  They are all lacking substance, and the story jumps around, leaving you dizzy and confused. Also, there is no ending. The story was left uncomfortably unresolved.
1499424
I hung in there trying to make it through the series but I'm finally giving it up as a lost cause. I'd hoped that it would get better but instead it gets sillier and sillier, literally cartoonish. Unrealistic, it often contradicts itself within just a few pages. The bad guys are caricatures of evil. No remorse and entirely sociopathic. Genocidal monsters, so monomanical in their lust for power that it seems to be a job requirement... That the author hopes for monetary compensation for this pathetic effort is embarrasing. Thank goodness for kindle unlimited. It's high rating is inexplicable.
4568990
okay, I'm throwing in the towel on this one. As much as it pains me because it just goes against my reading grain to give up on a book, I'm giving up on this one. I can't do it. My goodness, can this book be any slower? I keep drudging through it in the hopes that it'll eventually pick up and thrill me in some way, but no, it just continues on chugging away lifelessly along. Wow, so much potential and such lack luster execution. I don't know, the synopsis seemed so exciting and the reviews hinted at so much more than I encountered. Sadly, I hate not finishing a book, but I can't continue to waste my time and hope on this when I have hundreds of great books waiting to be read.
659973
It absolutely pains me to give this book just 1-star, but as an unbelievably horrendous conclusion to a previous pair of wonderfully written books -- This final installment falls flat on so many levels.  I will give a spoiler warning below, but my general consciousness is this -- Justin Cronin masterfully crafted the first two novels of this trilogy, however, I don't think he had a specific path to it's conclusion, and ultimately, The City of Mirrors comes off as disheveled, pretentious, convenient and anti-climactic.  A real let-down to an almost 1800 page journey.

Now the ******SPOILERS********

You've Been Warned!!  *********SPOILERS**********

Within the first few pages, we learn that Alicia had become pregnant from being raped in the previous installment, however, her daughter was stillborn and being buried by her mother, somewhere in the secluded wilderness.  Right off the bat, this seems to more of a shock value tactic, and it serves as a vehicle that almost completely re-invents Alicia from a strong character female character, to one who tracks down Zero ... only to break down into his embrace and service ....

We are then, for the third time, thrust back into the past -- this to learn about Zero's life, aka Fanning, who actually tells the 200-page (of 597) story of how he became the destroyer of the human world.  And wouldn't you know it; it's two hundred pages about him attending Harvard.  Two hundred pages of his anxiety and social climbing while attending the university and his falling in love with his best friend's wife, only to have to suffer witnessing the two become engaged to marry.  He still harbors feeling for the woman, who turns out to have cancer; he goes searching for a cure with her husband (Lear), gets bit and turned into a vampire and decides to destroy the world.

I cannot think of a more lackluster motivational story for a villain than this.  It is one of the most drawn-out, pretentious back-story's I have read in recent memory, and it really becomes a chore.

Now, fast forward fifteen years and we catch up with the main group.  I won't go into any more specifics regarding the our heroes fates, but I can tell you this: Twenty years have passed, an everyone seems to conveniently have forgotten what a viral is.  People have all moved out beyond the walls and the hard-boxes, weapons, history of the world's destruction and all common sense seems lost on our helpless survivors.  Pets begin to go missing, then large groups of people go missing -- by large I mean thousands -- and nobody can seem to figure out why ...?

We are treated to endless visits and wordy chapters of Amy and Carter, meeting in this type of purgatory.  At first, I thought it was just the mental state in which Amy and Carter communicated, but apparently Amy and Peter meet there, too.  And Fanning and his lover ... because you know ... God and Angels, shoe-horned into the story, without any real explanation.

Carter and his army of Dopey's are built up for almost two-full books now, only to finally unleash themselves ... and literally die in less than two pages with such blatant disregard, I again was reminded what a chore it was to continue reading this book.

Fast-forward towards the climactic "battle" (I use that term as loosely as possible) as Amy finally faces off against Zero, in the most anti-climactic few pages ever.  Amy is 100% useless and weak, getting slapped around by Fanning, who at best, is in villain-of-the-week mode; acting in a completely inane manner.  Amy is not able to do a single thing right, not that she barely tries, and ultimately has to be rescued, which results in Zero's demise in the lamest, most unsatisfying manner.  Altogether, the "battle" lasts about 15 pages vs. 200 pages about Harvard.

The reader is then treated to the final 100 pages of this unfocused novel and it's drawn-out, unsatisfying ultimate conclusion.

An absolute let-down, and sloppy mess.
4317592
I tried so hard to persevere with this book, hoping it would give me really good tips, but just gave up on it.  I've never read so much drivel in my life!!
4847028
This book has just been a horror to read (I have yet to finish the damn thing) but I persevere in hopes that it may somehow redeem itself or kill me off in the process and put me out of my misery.

It starts off simply and then moves along at a struggling pace then the story seems to round in on itself and repeats scenes and themes.

The main character Lotto is annoyingly humble, does not want his magical powers (and moans about it often).
He is always confused about something and you basically want to put a boot up his backside to get him moving.

 The other characters all meld into the same "tutor" "friend" "father figure" category with the exception of the love interest who is equally as annoying as the main character and just makes you want to back hand her.

Save your three bucks and your sanity and move on.
3270486
The story of Charlotte is peripheral to the eventual all-pervading horror of the treatment of Andre and Jacob. In its never-ending awfulness, you want, desperately, to reach into the book and save them. Of course you cannot and so are but a helpless observer as they pass from one hell to a worse one and then on to their deaths. I have never felt so emotionally drained by a book. I now carry these images with me. I wish I didn't but I know I, and everyone else, should. The final 150 pages are very difficult to come to terms with. But then, why should we ever find it easy to come to terms with genocide?
"It's only a story," someone said to me. Except, of course, it is anything but.
1087080
I got this book because I saw a review of it on TV that called it "Dracula meets the Da Vinci Code" - and I thought, "wow, that sounds great"... Well, I'm on page 374 - I keep forcing myself to read this book a little every day - but I just can't do it anymore.  I quit.  I can't take the endless details about EVERYTHING.  I hate the way the story jumps around from so many different points of view.  After 374 pages, NOTHING has really happened.  It's like watching a movie with no plot.  It just goes on and on...I generally have no patience for too much detail in books, and just speed read past the dull bits, but I don't see any light at the end of this tunnel.
4434845
I am very hopefully awaiting the arrival of the book.  I have a daughter in law who is severely bi-polar and am still hopeful we can find some kind of help for her.  Her family, for the most part, has tried to isnore and deny that she has a severe problem. Having said  that, we found out they put her in the state mental hospital when she was eleven. Her Mother ignores the name calling and says she is just mad at something.  Her brother simply tries to avoid her at all costs.  The poor girl cannot be left alone with her children; much too dangerous.  Unfortunately, ALL mental health facilities in the state they are in were shut down in 2001/2002.  The patients were given a years Rx for what ever drug they were on and sent on their way.  She has gone down hill dramatically and her episodes have escalated into screaming violence from which her children must be protected.  She has had episodes where she broke vertibra in her husbands back; where she threw a coke can and cut his face...too many horrible things to mention.  Still,
 he feels that God means for him to take care of her, since there is no alternative.  He cannot leave her to go to work, he cannot trust her to be there when the children get off the bus.  She has  been on Geodon (sp?) with disasterous results.  She now takes some kind of drugs that make her slur her words, close her eyes and then scream about nonsense.  I am hopeful this book will shed some light on the horrible disease for the family.
999151
This book finally addresses the POV of the some of the characters we all really want to hear about. However, Martin tends to write too much about nothing and has chapters that are completely unnecassary. Furhermore, the only resolve that ever happens is predictably more doom and gloom. FYI . . . I'm only 1/4 of the way into this book and the only way I could possibly be surprised about anything would be for anything to resolve in even a remotely positive way. I know bad things happen to good poeple but so far Martin comes off as a sadist who only likes to upset and frustrate readers. At this point I'm only reading this series becuase of the number of pages already vested. If Martin ever finishes this series (7 books) I am hoping he blows us all away with a fantastic ending. So far, comparing this unfinished work to "Lord of the Rings" is a complete joke. Tolkien he is NOT!
4331228
Oh how I wish I had read the 1 star reviews before buying this book.  Mere words cannot possibly convey how terrible it truly it is.  It took every bit of resolve I had to finish it and even then, there really is no ending.  Wow, so bad.  So so bad.
4109754
Despite the talents of Mr. Martel, this is a failed effort, in my opinion. The problems are as follows.

First, the total lack of any plot. Indian zoo-owning family leaves old country by ship, ship sinks, boy survives, boy deals with stow-away tiger, boy finds land. End of plot.

Second, the absolute, unrelenting, painfully detailed brutality which makes similar survival books pale by comparison. Maybe that's realism, but what a gruesome, ugly, utterly brutal novel.

Third, the religious ramblings of the central character are non-conclusive and weak-minded, and do not show any internal struggle or doubt in the face of unimaginable suffering. Just love and faith all the way. How very naive. How totally improbable.

I just had to read it because of all the good ratings, and I just had to find out what the hype was all about. I must admit that it was a fast, compulsive read, in spite of the problems. Some parts are actually quite amusing and humorous, but humor is no saving grace in this instance. No re-read for this one.
2436089
I wanted to like this book, but it was impossible. It's long on raging against the machine, and very, very short on any useful content. Yeah, the world sucks 'cause it ain't like it was in the old days. But boy are the humans going to have the last say. Yup they really are, and this should make you feel better, if only Coplin got past the platitudes and gave any meaningful strategies for actually making a positive change.

At the level of detail this book gives, it could be condensed to about 15 pages. Might make a good TED talk, if someone else gave it. I finally surrendered about halfway through and just stared out the bus window for an hour. It was that repetitive and content-free.
4760705
Eight months of constantly finding a pin to poke into the tiny reset hole, feeling like I'm doing progressivley major damage to delicate innards. Takes more, longer, deeper poking each time. Something's changing in there and that's not good! And every time it freezes up, which is all the time, you poke & poke, wait & wait for it to reboot, then you must re-navigate thru lots of tiny, unreadable, moving banners just to get back to your place. If you can't find your glasses, you're not quick enough to read the banners and then it shuts off. Plus, I got it for listening to audiobooks, and the tech reviews suggested this model cuz of its available bookmarking, but the bookmarks are mostly worthless because they're so awkward to use, both setting and accessing. And the radio, which I wanted so I could listen to a favorite program, is useless. Hardly any channels, nothing but static. I wish I had spent a little more and gotten a real mp3 player. This one's just junk.