PaperbackReader reviewed Liminal States A Novel by Zack Parsons
Review of 'Liminal States A Novel' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This was such a frustrating read, though most of that is because of my disconnect with the narrator. James Patrick Cronin is, I'm sure, a lovely man, but his even and unhurried pace and tone felt so at odds with the tone of the story. There were segments of the story that were written as machine-written transcripts, but JPC carried that impersonal tone throughout the novel.
Also, there was an element introduced at about the halfway mark of the book, The Type 1's, Type 2's, and Type 3's. Mr Parsons makes no obvious attempt to explain it, and I was left wondering until about the 90% mark how the hell people could tell them apart, when it finally clicked for me: The Type 1's are the Gideons, Type 2's are the Warrens, and Type 3's are the Hollys. This would have made WAAAAY more sense if I hadn't walked into …
This was such a frustrating read, though most of that is because of my disconnect with the narrator. James Patrick Cronin is, I'm sure, a lovely man, but his even and unhurried pace and tone felt so at odds with the tone of the story. There were segments of the story that were written as machine-written transcripts, but JPC carried that impersonal tone throughout the novel.
Also, there was an element introduced at about the halfway mark of the book, The Type 1's, Type 2's, and Type 3's. Mr Parsons makes no obvious attempt to explain it, and I was left wondering until about the 90% mark how the hell people could tell them apart, when it finally clicked for me: The Type 1's are the Gideons, Type 2's are the Warrens, and Type 3's are the Hollys. This would have made WAAAAY more sense if I hadn't walked into that second half thinking that dozens or hundreds of people had been given access to the Pool, which is what that whole "tell the world we've found the secret to immortality, tell folks they can be young forever" speech in '73 led me to think was gonna happen. I didn't realize that despite that reveal, those three were still the only ones to enter the Pool.
/grumble