Check out the new review at First 7500 Words!
From: http://first7500words.blogspot.com/20...
Characters:
5/5
Of course you're all probably thinking: "Well DUH, it's a memoir--all the characters are real people." Well I will tell you that memoirs are not video tape recordings and it still takes a very talented writer to pull them off properly. The characters in this novel, including our narrator, are going to captivate you. The author writes in a style that is very straight forward, matter-of-fact, detached-- but NOT cold. Have you read any Kurt Vonnegut? That's what this is like. Sometimes we go from one topic to another so abruptly that it feels like a tangent. And it is. And it's not. Everything is meaningful, just like a Vonnegut book. You have to read it twice to really take all you can out of the thing. All of the characters are so incredibly REAL, and you sometimes wish real people WEREN'T like this. The novel strips the mask off of the face of society and just tells us how shit is. It's so real. It's so awful. In the novel, it is described as a story about lies, and deceit and a world of non-sequiturs. I'm just going to call it a story about life and save myself the extra words. The characters are real, and you see reflected in them, yourself. You hate them for it. You hate yourself for it. You want to take a really hot shower to the point where you cannot breathe the air for its humidity. Then you write some emo poetry before hopefully finishing the novel if the state of the world doesn't depress you so much that you decide to jump off a bridge.
Setting:
5/5
Not going to mention much about this, just that you know what's going on/where you are, blah blah blah. It's a freakin' memoir.
Plot:
5/5
The plot is of course, real. This is why I wasn't going to accept non-fiction. Because it is hard for me to critique it on things besides grammar and stuff. But this plot is not only real and captivating, it is written perfectly and it will haunt you. It will make you question the state of the world. Are we civilized at all? How do people become the way they are? Even in the first 7500 words, I can tell that this is a superb introspective tale that will not only provide an interesting read, but help you gain some ancient wisdom about the world and people. This is how shit is. You know, I am always telling people to read Machiavelli's The Prince. Is it because I am secretly in love with a dead man? Maybe. Is it because he is a freakin' smart ass? Sure. But mostly I tell people to go read Machiavelli's The Prince, because Machiavelli just plains TELLS IT HOW IT IS. Of course everyone and his cousin seems to think Machiavelli a savage, a demon's spawn, a cretin scourge. But they don't understand the difference between acknowledging something and condoning it. And there is a gigantic difference. Like Machiavelli's The Prince, I am sure Turtle will be misunderstood by some people. Luckily, we don't have to deal with bad translators being bad. I know some people will read Turtle and be all "This is a depraved lot of nonsense." Well sure. It's depraved. But it's not nonsense. There's a severe problem in the world and that is the very fact that nobody wants to understand PEOPLE. The plot of this story will weave a web of philosophical insight around your mind that you will not be able to escape. This is not a story of what SHOULD be. This is a well-written example of what IS.
Grammar/Spelling:
5/5
I found nothing. You win.
Punctuation:
5/5
See above.
Structure:
5/5
Like I said earlier, anybody who loves to read Vonnegut, and that should be all of you, will delight in the very structure of this novel. It beautifully switches from scene to scene, jumping around in time to show us what we need to see next. There are seeming tangents by the loads and we lap these up like parched dogs. We feel connected to the author. When you read a memoir, the author is sharing a life with you. I have always said that Time is the most valuable of all currencies, and when we read a memoir, somebody is sharing that with us. It is a gift, the greatest gift you can give anyone, to share Time with them, to share a life, ideas, feelings, and stories. I had a difficult time stopping at the 7500 words.
Potential Beyond 7500 Words:
5/5
Preview it, buy it, torrent it, do something. Everybody needs to read this novel right now. Go do it. It's beautiful, it's awful, it's so wrong and so so right. You want it, you hate it, you don't know WHAT you feel. And that is exactly everything a book should be.
Characters:
5/5
Of course you're all probably thinking: "Well DUH, it's a memoir--all the characters are real people." Well I will tell you that memoirs are not video tape recordings and it still takes a very talented writer to pull them off properly. The characters in this novel, including our narrator, are going to captivate you. The author writes in a style that is very straight forward, matter-of-fact, detached-- but NOT cold. Have you read any Kurt Vonnegut? That's what this is like. Sometimes we go from one topic to another so abruptly that it feels like a tangent. And it is. And it's not. Everything is meaningful, just like a Vonnegut book. You have to read it twice to really take all you can out of the thing. All of the characters are so incredibly REAL, and you sometimes wish real people WEREN'T like this. The novel strips the mask off of the face of society and just tells us how shit is. It's so real. It's so awful. In the novel, it is described as a story about lies, and deceit and a world of non-sequiturs. I'm just going to call it a story about life and save myself the extra words. The characters are real, and you see reflected in them, yourself. You hate them for it. You hate yourself for it. You want to take a really hot shower to the point where you cannot breathe the air for its humidity. Then you write some emo poetry before hopefully finishing the novel if the state of the world doesn't depress you so much that you decide to jump off a bridge.
Setting:
5/5
Not going to mention much about this, just that you know what's going on/where you are, blah blah blah. It's a freakin' memoir.
Plot:
5/5
The plot is of course, real. This is why I wasn't going to accept non-fiction. Because it is hard for me to critique it on things besides grammar and stuff. But this plot is not only real and captivating, it is written perfectly and it will haunt you. It will make you question the state of the world. Are we civilized at all? How do people become the way they are? Even in the first 7500 words, I can tell that this is a superb introspective tale that will not only provide an interesting read, but help you gain some ancient wisdom about the world and people. This is how shit is. You know, I am always telling people to read Machiavelli's The Prince. Is it because I am secretly in love with a dead man? Maybe. Is it because he is a freakin' smart ass? Sure. But mostly I tell people to go read Machiavelli's The Prince, because Machiavelli just plains TELLS IT HOW IT IS. Of course everyone and his cousin seems to think Machiavelli a savage, a demon's spawn, a cretin scourge. But they don't understand the difference between acknowledging something and condoning it. And there is a gigantic difference. Like Machiavelli's The Prince, I am sure Turtle will be misunderstood by some people. Luckily, we don't have to deal with bad translators being bad. I know some people will read Turtle and be all "This is a depraved lot of nonsense." Well sure. It's depraved. But it's not nonsense. There's a severe problem in the world and that is the very fact that nobody wants to understand PEOPLE. The plot of this story will weave a web of philosophical insight around your mind that you will not be able to escape. This is not a story of what SHOULD be. This is a well-written example of what IS.
Grammar/Spelling:
5/5
I found nothing. You win.
Punctuation:
5/5
See above.
Structure:
5/5
Like I said earlier, anybody who loves to read Vonnegut, and that should be all of you, will delight in the very structure of this novel. It beautifully switches from scene to scene, jumping around in time to show us what we need to see next. There are seeming tangents by the loads and we lap these up like parched dogs. We feel connected to the author. When you read a memoir, the author is sharing a life with you. I have always said that Time is the most valuable of all currencies, and when we read a memoir, somebody is sharing that with us. It is a gift, the greatest gift you can give anyone, to share Time with them, to share a life, ideas, feelings, and stories. I had a difficult time stopping at the 7500 words.
Potential Beyond 7500 Words:
5/5
Preview it, buy it, torrent it, do something. Everybody needs to read this novel right now. Go do it. It's beautiful, it's awful, it's so wrong and so so right. You want it, you hate it, you don't know WHAT you feel. And that is exactly everything a book should be.
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