The Camel Club (The Camel Club, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 20, 2014 Katie Adee rated it it was ok

Shelves: contemporary, read-in-2014

I had a hard time getting into this book.

Here's a list of things that left me wanting to abandon halfway through:

1. Lack of world-building. Yes, the book takes place in the U.S., but it felt oddly empty. Baldacci often chose the weird, unhelpful details in building the scene: a departing airplane across the (empty) skyline, the history of a name of a park or street, or nothing at all. It felt like moving through a lot of bland cubicles.

2. Characters. As in: motivation? Sure, it's fine to leave i I had a hard time getting into this book.

Here's a list of things that left me wanting to abandon halfway through:

1. Lack of world-building. Yes, the book takes place in the U.S., but it felt oddly empty. Baldacci often chose the weird, unhelpful details in building the scene: a departing airplane across the (empty) skyline, the history of a name of a park or street, or nothing at all. It felt like moving through a lot of bland cubicles.

2. Characters. As in: motivation? Sure, it's fine to leave in a bit of mystery, but give me a break. Motivations across the board as basically left unaddressed until the last 1/4 of the plot. As in: do I care about the characters? I struggled to connect with them on any level. They seemed mostly defined by the work they do (which I hate when it happens to me, because I don't define myself as "receptionist" with a few hobbies on the side). That's how these characters came across. Also, I spent 99% of the book not quite caring if the Camel Club won or not. Bad sign.

3. Pacing. As in: the book felt longer than it was. Bad sign. Sure, build up to a spectacular ending. Jim Butcher's pacing leaves my heart pounding. Gail Carriger's characters draw me into their world completely. S.M. Stirling manages to give the impression of building up to something MASSIVE. Baldacci...meh. give me something interesting to hold onto in the meantime. If our main character goes out on a date, by God, please, make it worth my time reading, not just a bland summary of what they ate and talking shop. Bring me into the moment. And if they're supposed to have a spark, give them a spark! Sex not necessary, but at least make the date and budding interest believable. Jeez!

Perhaps I went into this book with too high of expectations of the term "thriller". Maybe dealing in politics just isn't my thing. Bottom line: not once did Baldacci have me staying up past my bedtime for "one more page" or carving out time in my weekend array of chores to spend a few more minutes with his characters.

...more

Like · see review

Jun 10, 2012 Jaret added it

This was an extremely well-written and well thought out book. Baldacci was very thorough in describing events and situations so you could easily visualize what was happening while you were reading. The only reason I rated this book so low (originally 2 stars) is simply because of my lack of interest. I just don't enjoy reading political thrillers. What bumped this up to a 3 star rating, however, was the wonderful cast of characters. The Camel Club members were a wonderful ragtag group with loads ...more

Like · see review