selfiegrandpa's profile picture

selfiegrandpa 's review for:

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
2.0
mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I like what this book could have been; the concept of being trapped in an home that's not yours with strangers as things happen that you cannot explain. But oh my god is this book so full of itself, I had to constantly stop and ask myself if what the author was writing actually served any purpose to the story or if they were just trying to meet some type of word count. I am not sure if it's the writing that makes it hard to actually like any of the characters and flat out makes me hate that family. 

I feel this book suffers from too little real substance and too much yapping. The mystery really only works if I actually want to keep reading what the characters are going through. The last 15% of this book was where fun and exciting stuff actually happens. Other than that, it was just a bunch of weird sexual references, whole lot of swimming, and 50 words instead of the necessary one or two to describe an action. Also felt extremely shallow for what I think it was trying to prove as whatever message there was, was lost in the miles long paragraphs of overall ramblings that added nothing to the plot.

I was really excited about this because of that new Netflix movie (which I will now be watching), but alas I also have not heard good things it too.