Charlie Jane Anders: City in the Middle of the Night (2018, Titan Books Limited)
400 pages
English language
Published Dec. 7, 2018 by Titan Books Limited.
Content warning Spoilers ahead!
Good beginning and plenty of interesting ideas throughout the book, but the pacing falls apart, and the characters lack of depth and real evolution.
(Also, by the middle of the book, it become apparent that one of the main POV character isn't very smart, and by the end, she's obviously dumb as rocks. And then, like that, the book ends.)
Interesting read this one. It took me a while to get through it, but in the end the world building was compelling enough to keep me interested, even if I didn't entirely get on with the writing style to begin with.
I have to commend the author for conjuring such a unique setting... the more I read the more I wanted to know about the histories of the two cities, the story of the mothership, and the mystery of the 'crocodiles'. It wasn't without annoyances though... the whole Bianca/Sophie dynamic was fascinating to begin with but became infuriating by the end. Mouth's arc felt more satisfying, but in the end the whole story kind of felt like it finished before it really got started. I read (after finishing it) that it's a standalone, which, frankly, shocked me, since I was sure it was going to be the start of a …
Interesting read this one. It took me a while to get through it, but in the end the world building was compelling enough to keep me interested, even if I didn't entirely get on with the writing style to begin with.
I have to commend the author for conjuring such a unique setting... the more I read the more I wanted to know about the histories of the two cities, the story of the mothership, and the mystery of the 'crocodiles'. It wasn't without annoyances though... the whole Bianca/Sophie dynamic was fascinating to begin with but became infuriating by the end. Mouth's arc felt more satisfying, but in the end the whole story kind of felt like it finished before it really got started. I read (after finishing it) that it's a standalone, which, frankly, shocked me, since I was sure it was going to be the start of a many-part series. The ending certainly felt that way.
I'd certainly consider checking out more from this author, if nothing else for their sheer imagination, but this particular one left me feeling kinda ambivalent.
Four.five, thank you
It does a perfect job of being informed by a weird scifi setting, but not being just an exploration of the world. It’s about love and family and the way we’re tied to people.
But Also about really cool aliens and a world that’s hard for humans to live on.
