Sylvia Chi

There were many parts of this book that I found problematic (the absurdly flat, semi-misogynistically-written female characters; the incoherent critique of television) but could have chalked up to interesting ambiguities until I read the Afterword and Coda by the author, who turns out to have written this polemic/parable as an ill-considered response to criticism (you know, censorship by women's-libbers and homosexuals) and new media.

Otherwise, Bradbury is clearly a virtuosic writer in a showoffy way, but the story pacing and structure is pretty strained. Although Captain Beatty is a pretty terrifically villainous bad guy.

This is another book that's billed as a thriller but isn't really a thriller. It's a fine family drama and explores some really important and interesting issues, but not what I was expecting. To the extent that trigger warnings are useful, it should maybe come with a trigger warning for child abuse.

This is a gorgeously written book – in some ways, more of an extended exercise of wordplay than a novel. The other two things I liked most about this book were: (1) reflecting on how poorly suited it is for a film adaptation; and (2) the new words I learned (crozzled, salitter, discalced). It perhaps could only be improved by the addition of zombie killing, but then that would probably be a pretty different book.