A Visit from the Goon Squad in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Sep 01, 2011 Shannon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A Visit from the Goon Squad was innovative without being annoying, told from multiple points of view without being confusing and used ideas similar to other books I've read without being repetitive. Each chapter of this book is written from a different character's point of view. In some ways this book reminded me of Olive Kitteridge, but unlike that book, this one wasn't a collection of short stories. It was truly a novel. Yet the varying points of view left me feeling like I'd meandered my way ...more

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Feb 20, 2023 Jana rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, fiction, 2023

I don't know how I missed reading this years ago, but I finally read it since I heard there was some overlap between this and Egan's new book Candy House. The style seems a little cutesy now that I've read so many copycats, but I loved meeting these deeply flawed characters and seeing their stories revealed at different points in their lives. ...more

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Mar 05, 2015 s_evan rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Obviously Egan is a skilled writer, but this novel was overly complicated, and the sprawled storylines detracted instead of added. I put it down mid-way when it got to be too much and then the momentum was lost. Maybe if that hadn't happened, or I was reading this in a lit class, I would have seen the brilliance to the complexity. ...more

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Aug 26, 2014 Roman Colombo rated it liked it

I didn't find it so amazing as to live up to the accolades it has received, but some of the stories were really good. I think my favorite was "The General." It felt like it had the most potential to be more than what was just in the confines of the chapter, where as the others really felt like Egan had nothing left to say. ...more

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