corrigan's Reviews (451)

I liked this 3 stars worth, but after talking about it during book club, it earned the extra star. I love a book that provokes as much discussion as this one did. I'm also a huge fan of books, movies, etc. that cause us to evaluate our ideologies rather than just playing to what we already believe. Just how important IS truth? How important is justice? Can we ever REALLY atone for our misdeeds? Are there such things as objective facts, or is absolutely every situation subject to interpretation? Atonement makes you think long and hard about these sorts of questions, and it never answers them for you.

Just had a conversation with a guy in the library about this book that almost makes me like it more. I think I've concluded that I would actually enjoy this without the mysterious creature lurking through the story. The location itself is enough of a "big bad" without adding some being to terrorize them.

It's been a while since I read a YA book, so it took me a minute to get into the writing style. Once I did, wow. I look at this book a little like I look at movies like ET or Super 8. Rather than capturing some sentimental idea of what children and teenagers are like, they force you to come to terms with the fact that kids are obsessed with figuring out what sex and swearing and sin are. In my high school days, I knew all the characters in Looking for Alaska. I could almost put the names and faces of my peers to Takumi, to Alaska, to the Colonel. They felt real. And I look back at elementary school and middle school, when we were searching for what it meant to be an autonomous adult, and I could picture my friends and I huddled in the corner of the library reading snippets of this book out loud to each other in hushed tones, like we did with the Alice books once upon a time.

As an adult, the book hits home on other levels-- finding our way out of the labyrinth, seeking some idealistic Great Perhaps, and dealing with deep, soul crushing guilt.

This book has haunted me ever since I was a small child and we read a few stories from it in my 2nd grade class. I spent years trying to track it down, not knowing the title. Then I stumbled across it in the Cedar Hills Powell's one day and recognized it IMMEDIATELY. If you've read it, you know. These stories stick to you.

I wish there were half stars on here. Three seems like too few, but four seems like too many. I liked this book, but it took a lot longer to get into than her other novels. I spent over a month on the first hundred pages. At around 200, it starts to really pick up the pace. I had foreseen the outcome fairly early on in the book, though, so I was a little disappointed. Tana French is brilliant at making you think you know what happened and then flipping you on your head. Maybe it was because there weren't as many characters in this novel, but it wasn't really surprising. Not like The Likeness, where I was sure I knew whodunnit at least five times and was wrong each time. Regardless, it was good enough that I have not even begun to lose faith in Tana, and I look forward to what she comes up with after this. I wonder who we'll follow in the next book...