Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child was a good book.
Not a great book, not a bad book, a good book, but I will say that it was one
of the easiest books this term to sit down and binge read. It definitely read
like an old school horror movie. It felt like going to the cinema to watch some
black and white monster movie.
The novel is written very well, flowing together very nicely.
The chapters read quickly, and it’s also easy to read because of how much it
feels like a classic murder mystery, like Agatha Christy but supernatural. It
reminded me of the YA fiction I consumed feverishly as a teen, where I could
sit down and binge the book in a few hours. And that’s exactly what I did with
this book. That being said, the story did drag on a little for me though.
The book didn’t really get going for me until around Chapter
40, when the museum party started. But to be fair, most of the students so far that
have posted reviews of the book have said that the plot got good after hitting
the halfway point, and that’s for a reason. The second half makes it worth a
read. Not only that, but the ending to the book was a wonderful twist. I knew
it would be a monster because of our reading course being on monsters, but I
wouldn’t have guess that the monster was Whittlesey. And I love that I
didn’t guess that. Most murder mysteries are easy to guess the ending of, and this
one made sure to throw enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the
very end. And then even after the ‘end’, when Kawakita turns out to be sketchy.
However, on a less positive note, I’m going to say it: there
are too many characters in this book. I don’t mind having so many specifically main
characters, because it is easy to follow them all considering that they are all
classical stereotypes, but the main characters plus side characters being
referenced by name frequently was a little too much for me to coherently remember.
Also, as everyone seemed to point out, Margo drove me insane
with her constant mentioning of her dissertation. I feel like that happened
with a lot of the characters, the authors adding a ton of detail to define and
introduce them. Then, once introduced, those characters referenced the same
things over and over, like Smithback and his book. Once you hit hallway and the
plot got going though, those characters became interesting again. For some
reason, the many characters bothered me, but the many theories about what was
going on didn’t. Nicely done on the murder theories Preston and Child.
After I finished this book, I ended up Googling the monster to
see if what I imagined was what the movie depicted for the creature (I also
didn’t even know there was a movie until I read someone else’s post). The movie
monster was not what I had thought. However, I think I almost like it better
than what I had imagined.
Overall: Worth a skim, then an actual read at Chapter 40.
I had no idea there was a film. The picture you posted looks about how I imagined it, except I saw it with blue hair and a almost mutant big cat feature for a head. The head on the picture is even better than my original imagining if I am honest.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind books with a lot of characters. It makes me feel more there. Since, as much as I would like it to not be this way, we pass and interact with people all the time. When books have an abundance of named characters, it makes me feel more like this is happening in my world. Naming insignificant characters is something I love in novels, even if they are going to die in the next scene. Normally, we get the names of people we interact with even if it is a one time shot.
On the contrary, I despise movies with too many significant characters. Movies lack enough time and plotting to successfully have too many major characters. Average run time is two and a half hours. The isn't enough time to write a large cast well then execute it. That is one of my major issues with IT. People who never read the book (a lot, no surprise) found themselves confused. The book was the cheat sheet because books have time to develop a large variety of complex characters. I am not saying the film should have never been done, but there should always be more sentiment and encouragement to read a work that a film is based off for understanding purposes. Too many people struggle to grasp the amount of characters in films like IT. It is their own fault, but also so many people are moving away from reading (idiots, if I MAY comment on that LOL). So, film business shouldn't get the rights to cheat and use an already outlined/written plot and steal from the authors. (Yes, I know authors get some compensation, but not enough to have their entire writing stolen and turned into a film IMO). I hope that all makes sense.
For me, the movie version of the monster did not seem to share much with the novel monster. yes, there were some basic similarities but I imagined the novel monster to be smaller and a lot more "human". There is room for both versions but I think the movie version was way too "jurassic park" for me based on the book.
ReplyDeleteI think it was enjoyable but certainly not short of its flaws. Since people keep mentioning Margo because her dissertation is bothering her, I'll say the same went for just about every character. They were each completely blinded by one thing outside of the monster that clouded better judgment or just common sense. I think Margo's is the most noticeable because she is the majority of the story perspective, or at least it felt that way, but Smithback was far more unrealistically portrayed. I don't think he'd be completely air-headed and geared just toward making his book better by doing this or that. All the characters were incredibly flat, but I was able to set the poor character development for the well crafted suspense.
ReplyDeleteIs that photo of the monster in the film?? Definitely not what I imagined, either. One of my coworkers recommended the movie to me, which is the only reason I knew they'd made a film! I agree with your assessment that the book is good, not great. I did like the twist at the very end—I normally don't love epilogues, but I thought this one tied the whole plot together really nicely. The story is definitely stronger with the revelations in the epilogue about Whittlesey—it made me like the ending much more than I did at the end of the final chapter.
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