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I appreciated the author's creative plot, but I felt he took too much artistic liscense, which led to some improbability, which tainted it somewhat. As if you'd been tricked.
The book started out with a bang, it dragged on and on in the middle, then delivered a worthy ending.
Worth reading though.
Good book, I would recommend for discussion. Everyone had a different interpretation of the ending. Must read the whole book to get the "twist" at the end.
Personally, I found the "surprise" ending intriguing enough to go back and re-read parts of this book, finding the author's purpose and premise of the story very thought-provoking! It made for interesting discussion in our group.
Our book club had a great discussion about this book. I had to go to the author's website (chrisbohjalain.com) to help unravel what "really" happened in the book. Without spoiling anything, let's just say that most of us were confused as to figuring out what was going on. But once cleared up, the light bulbs went on, and we had a great talk about the different characters in the book. One profound thought was that sometimes the people who need the most help are the ones who completely focus on helping others. We all know people like that. It made for really great spin-off stories. Overall, we liked the book and recommend it.
This book made me feel crazy and confused. Perhaps that was what the author was trying to do, if that is the case, he did a great job! It did make sense in the end but I didn't care for this book at all. I had the sense he was writing it so that it could be made into a movie, rather than just telling the story.
Great for discussion, but I was left angry after reading it...too many loose ends not resolved for me.
This is a real page turner and a great book to discuss. Throw in a phone chat with the author and it turned out to be one our best discussion so far. Bohjalian really added insight into the development of the characters as well as the plot. Bohjalian is gracious in offering his time to chat with Book Clubs who are discussing his book. The Double Bind and Chris Bohjalian are highly recommended by Niceville Public Library's Summer Book Discussion Group.
Interesting weaving of the plot with the well-known Gatsby.
I really felt duped by the author. One quote a member brought to our discussion was "a literary game not played by fair rules". It made for good discussion although only three or four of the ten of us present liked the book. But then one of the best discussions we've had was for a book not one of us actually enjoyed! On the other hand, if it's a book everyone loves, discussion is apt to be a little boring.
Our club was about equally divided between finding the book a real page turner and being able to put it down. The surprise ending helped make sense out of most of the events, but we had one of our best discussions ever as we gave our interpretations of what had actually happened. We agreed that discussing the book was very helpful and enhanced our enjoyment of it.
This book created a fantasy/reality world that really caught up the reader in its deceits, although I believe that the author gave hints at the underlying falsehoods.
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