Impossibly dull.

I read this for Neil deGrasse Tyson's list of eight books every intelligent person should read. I don't feel like I can give it a rating because I didn't follow any of the math, but I did enjoy Newton's arrogance. It was amazing how much people could learn in the 1600s with the limited technology and religious influences that surrounded scientists.

Gave up at 29%. This was just a love letter to Moby Dick. It wasn't interesting and it barely talked about whales. It felt like a journal, full of personal experiences and insipid thoughts.

I listened to the audiobook and Marnell did a fantastic job narrating her life. But 12 hours is just too long for a drug addict memoir that ends with her still doing drugs. Her life is so fascinating (I could have read a whole book about her career at Conde Nast even if she was a teetotaler), and she is such a scintillating writer, that this book just made me sad because she is still a directionless addict.

I can't help but respect a wham-bam-thank-you-maam romance novel that is 150 pages and doesn't mess around with plot.

Weird, haunting, mesmerizing.

As Michael Chabon says on the cover, this is an "old-fashioned novel." It is slow, it is deep, it invites you to notice nuances in characters that you would never notice in people. It's lovely. But it is not very compelling as there is no driving force--yes, all three characters want to become actors, but that's not enough to move the story forward. It's the kind of book you pick up and put down a lot because it's hard to stay inside. But O'Connor is a brilliant writer and a brilliant professor and I still adore her, so I can't bring myself to give this a rating. But I would say go read her Master's Muse instead.

I liked it in the beginning; it was spooky and atmospheric with just enough romance to make it work. But the third act introduction of a new villain that sped the pace up from summer-slow to enough-caffeine-to-stop-your-heart ruined it for me.

I can't even put this under a spoiler tag, because there's nothing to spoil. NOTHING HAPPENS.

Darnielle completely fails to conceptualize any form of character. This was actually even worse than his Wolf In White Van. You will get a better developed storyline from 3 am infomercials.

Ward has this amazing ability to build an entire cast of characters that you feel like you know intimately. I was definitely expecting a romance-heavy book, but this one balanced the romance with a huge helping of drama and intensity--and she knocked it out of the park. I laughed and I cried and then I forced it upon my sister.