The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Rating: 3 stars
I really wanted to love this, but it seemed a little thin & flat. I kept hoping for more details that would make the world seem more real. Even the “plot twist” didn’t grab me. It’s definitely no Where the Mountain Meets the Moon or The Chronicles of Prydain.
PopCo by Scarlett Thomas
4 stars
I’m not sure how to categorize this book. Modern fiction, with a bit of mystery, I guess. I enjoyed the digressions into codebreaking, history, philosophy, and ethics.
Unfortunately, the ending was very abrupt and unsatisfying. The solution seemed to come too easily to the protagonist. After scrolling past several “end of the book” sections of prime numbers and letter frequency that I thought were just appendices, I found there was another chapter which helped wrap things up a bit more. I almost missed it, thinking the story had ended before the appendices.