phatdoan

There was a good story in there somewhere. It just got bogged down by the rambling, repetitive explanations of economics and the inner workings of speculative markets. I thought most of the characters were developed well with the exception of Big Sister Nor, which is kind of funny since she's the character that holds all the story lines together. I'm not sure how this is considered a book for 12-17 year olds. If I'd read/listened to this book at that age, I would have quit pretty quickly. I get that the majority of characters are young teens, but the intricacies of the plot and the before mentioned economic and investment lessons would have lost my attention. Which isn't to say that I won't try more Doctorow. I've heard good things about his other books, but this one just didn't gel well. Too many side notes that seemed to go on forever, tearing me out of the story as a whole. It's hard to get into a story that has five or six plot lines with entirely different sets of characters as it is. Throw in long, rambling, repetitive tangents and things are going to fall apart in places.

2022-11-14 13:42