Kay

I read this book (and Twilight) out of sheer stubbornness. I wanted to understand the cultural phenomenon that it has become, though I didn't really have any interest in it. the frothing fan base really turned me off of the whole series. To be honest, I was disappointed that I didn't hate the first book. It was okay. Just okay; it wasn't good. I would probably have really liked it when I was 14, which is a good thing, since it is a young adult novel. I moved on to New Moon with tenacity, but I was absolutely bored to tears by it. While the first book was largely a long deliberation on how pretty Edward is, this one was a long lamentation on the fact that he wasn't there any more, and (to me, at least) there was absolutely nothing there that sparked any interest. I will probably read the rest of the series out of pure stubbornness, but I would tell anyone else who wants to understand the crazy cultural phenomenon that no, they don't.

I went into this book not really realising what it was about, so it is partly my fault that I didn't enjoy it, but: What I was hoping for was a book about personal habit forming, and trying to adjust habits at an individual level, with an aim towards helping people.

What I got was a book about the large-scale ways that sales people, marketers, data scientists and leaders of organisations have manipulated large groups of people out of their money or free will without them knowing.

The book approaches this from the lens of the organisation, framing it to talk about how fascinating and brilliant and clever and amazing all these innovations are, and it leaves me wanting to quit the internet, never interact with a store again, and live under a rock for the rest of my life.

But there is like a half a chapter at the end about how to change your own habits as an individual I guess.

I'm invested in the story and the characters, but I really started to feel dragged down by the fact that literally nothing goes right for literally anyone in this book. Many elaborate plans are made by multiple different characters, and many many times the goal that they want is snatched out of their hands in the final moments before their success, in some shocking twist. It makes for an exciting story, but it is also just vey miserable.

This book is a thought experiment on grief, dying, and cultural death practices masquerading as a sci fi novel. (It is also a sci fi novel.) It takes a super interesting guess at what life and society would be like in a world where so many people are dying every day that it reshapes how everyone deals with death and grief at a huge scale. It was thought provoking and sad and also kind of weird but I loved it.

This book has been a total slog to get through for me, just because of its writing style, and the fact that it's clearly targeting a younger audience than me. (That is not a secret.) I found it really difficult to care about or be interested in the anecdotes, and I felt like the bulk of the content was anecdotes.