Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I finished reading this one last week. The premise is very much up my alley (I love a complicated, timey-wimey sci-fi story) and I don't at all mind reading books that take some extra effort to fit all the pieces together. But this one...I'm seriously not convinced that all the loose ends are tied up. Was I just not paying enough attention? Or are there really some rather large plot holes? It's still bothering me more than a week later!

You might get some more interaction if you set out some of the things that didn't make sense to you.

I'm like you, premise would normally be right up my street but I didn't particularly enjoy it. I honestly don't think I could remember too much about it though without some reminders to get it started....

Agree with Ali here because I read the book in the middle of last year. We read it for book club, and I remember the entire book club being like... whattttttt???

I feel like there were some pretty gaping holes but I don't remember exactly what the ending was lol All that to say, you're not alone.

I just read it. I liked it a lot and wasn’t bothered that I didn’t necessarily have a clear timeline of the events. If anything, I was disappointed in the moralistic ending. I didn’t feel it needed a higher purpose or even a logical explanation. I loved the feeling of “Whatt!.?”

I just finished this one as well and I struggled with it. The premise definitely appealed to me but I couldn't get into the book from the first page. I didn't enjoy the writing style maybe? I'm not sure what it was. I definitely got confused with keeping the characters straight - I had to write down everyone as I went.
It is definitely not a book you can guess the ending half way through, I had my theories and none of them panned out. I understood the ending and the "why" but I felt the ending could have been laid out sooner maybe and then a little more detailed explanation about the ending? I'm not sure.

this was a dnf for me because it just wasn't tying up so now reading this I'm glad I didn't continue.

From what I recall, having read this last year, I agree that the ending could have been left just a little more mysterious/unexplained. I feel like the explanation we got was so odd and so unlike the rest of the book. It's one of those that amazed me when I finished it but, looking back, I have some questions. I would love to see diagrams of the different timelines.

As a twin, I find it a bit irritating when the answer/part of the answer to the mystery is "oh there was someone else pretending to be her the whole time" (whether it is a twin or in this case, an actress/double).

I feel like this would be a great video game.

Unrelated to whether the story made "sense" but the author's fatphobia was so extreme with that one character that I found those scenes difficult to get through (so unnecessary).

I've just finished this book, and I was so confused about what happened in it...TBH I should've known that would happen as I'm good with different voices, or different timelines...but not different voices and different timelines!!!

I feel I would read more by this author, but not if its in the same confusing style.

I think this is one of those books where you really can't look behind the curtain if you want to enjoy it. I'm sure if you pick at it too much, it falls apart. I didn't rate this one well anyway, the fatphobia was so extreme that it really colored my enjoyment of the whole book.

I agree that the twin denouement wasn't the greatest but I really enjoyed the story otherwise. If there were any gaps or loose threads, I didn't notice them.

I hated this book so much. There were SO MANY things that didn't make sense, starting with: (view spoiler)[if you're trying to solve the murder of a woman, wouldn't you want to try being in HER body to see what really happened? Or the body of another woman close to her? but oh now that's a step too far. And how does any of this count as any sort of punishment in any way??? (hide spoiler)] This plot was full of hand waving and stupid metaphors and very little actual logic. Plus, it was sexist and glaringly, disgustingly fatphobic. None of the women in this story have any agency, it's all about the male protagonist, and poor Evelyn just gets murdered over and over.