The Arena of the Unwell
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Posts
It wasn't badly written at all, especially for a debut novel. But the characters were INFURIATING. I did have my issues with them, it wasn't a pleasant experience in any way. It focused too much on things that were boring and/or annoying (for real) and it should have focused more on other things because it did have interesting moments! I feel like it's got some of the same problems many short stories suffer from. It should have started waaaayyyy later in the story. I loved the music aspect of it all, but there wasn't really a golden threat when it came to that. The band was interesting, but what do you mean we never even get to know why this photo existed? It didn't make the character more interesting if that was the point, and I'm not a fan of "well, that's life, we don't always get to know everything" - that's just lazy writing. Too many loose strings. Characters were all dickheads. Plus, the protagonist was such a whiny little bitch, wooaahh. Writer paints him as someone with high anxiety, depression and suffering from loser-syndome (while being fully aware of it) - how come that one day he can't stand going to pubs on his own and further down the line he tells us that he's doing that all the time? Math is not mathing, ma dude. He could have given us great friendships, I know that the protagonist actively persuades himself that these are his friends when it fact it turns out they are not, so that makes sense, but it still read a bit pathetic. Would have much rather loved to read about the band or more about Fraser at least. 2 1/2 stars - and the 1/2 just because it's about the English music scene and there were MOSH PITS Angry Mai out.
Posts
It wasn't badly written at all, especially for a debut novel. But the characters were INFURIATING. I did have my issues with them, it wasn't a pleasant experience in any way. It focused too much on things that were boring and/or annoying (for real) and it should have focused more on other things because it did have interesting moments! I feel like it's got some of the same problems many short stories suffer from. It should have started waaaayyyy later in the story. I loved the music aspect of it all, but there wasn't really a golden threat when it came to that. The band was interesting, but what do you mean we never even get to know why this photo existed? It didn't make the character more interesting if that was the point, and I'm not a fan of "well, that's life, we don't always get to know everything" - that's just lazy writing. Too many loose strings. Characters were all dickheads. Plus, the protagonist was such a whiny little bitch, wooaahh. Writer paints him as someone with high anxiety, depression and suffering from loser-syndome (while being fully aware of it) - how come that one day he can't stand going to pubs on his own and further down the line he tells us that he's doing that all the time? Math is not mathing, ma dude. He could have given us great friendships, I know that the protagonist actively persuades himself that these are his friends when it fact it turns out they are not, so that makes sense, but it still read a bit pathetic. Would have much rather loved to read about the band or more about Fraser at least. 2 1/2 stars - and the 1/2 just because it's about the English music scene and there were MOSH PITS Angry Mai out.