Khaya's review
The Speed of Light (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Elizabeth Rosner (Goodreads author!)
2.5 stars, grudgingly rounded up to 3 because I really couldn't give this the same rating I gave to "A Thousand Splendid Suns." (See what happens once you start with grade inflation?)
Initially, I found the rapidly shifting viewpoints jarring and annoying, and I felt like I just wanted to get into one person’s story and perspective. After a while I did get used to it and found that it moved the book faster; despite that, it’s not my preferred reading style. This was compounded by the fact that I found Paula’s viewpoint/story way more compelling than Sola’s or Julian’s. The Sola-Julian romance was extremely predictable and heavy-handed (could you remind me again that Julian is noticing Sola’s attractiveness or that Sola is fascinated by Julian’s mystery?), and I also thought Rosner was playing up their dovetailing traumatic histories way too much without showing us much else about common ground between them or the developing relationship. Paula’s story,...more
Initially, I found the rapidly shifting viewpoints jarring and annoying, and I felt like I just wanted to get into one person’s story and perspective. After a while I did get used to it and found that it moved the book faster; despite that, it’s not my preferred reading style. This was compounded by the fact that I found Paula’s viewpoint/story way more compelling than Sola’s or Julian’s. The Sola-Julian romance was extremely predictable and heavy-handed (could you remind me again that Julian is noticing Sola’s attractiveness or that Sola is fascinated by Julian’s mystery?), and I also thought Rosner was playing up their dovetailing traumatic histories way too much without showing us much else about common ground between them or the developing relationship. Paula’s story,...more
