The Whole World: A Novel (edit title/settings)

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Didn’t Like It Rated 2 stars “When I won this on firstreads, I got excited. It looked really good. Polly and Liv, two American friends at Cambridge University, both find themselves for Nick, the perfect English guy. The three work together on doing research for a blind professor named Gretchen Paul, who wants to...” see full review » see other reviews »

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  • Rated 2 stars

  “ When I won this on firstreads, I got excited. It looked really good.
  
  Polly and Liv, two American friends at Cambridge University, both find themselves for Nick, the perfect English guy. The three work together on doing research for a blind professor named Gretchen Paul, who wants to write a book about her mother, a famous author. But one day Nick disappears and in the aftermath, secrets come bubbling to the surface.
  
  I was not a big fan of this book. I did not like the characters or the writing style, and the plot was just too outlandish. The story is told in 5 parts, each narrated by a different character. I liked some parts more than others. Liv's was just flat-out weird.
  
  The writing, I don't know.....there was just something that irked me about it. It was jumpy, never flat out just saying anything. It was hard for me to picture anything and the author assumed I could fill in the empty spaces. There was a lot of reading in-between the lines.
  
  And as I said, the characters were unlikable. They were compltely impulsive and I never knew what was up with them. They were just crazy sometimes. I never felt any sympathy for any of them.
  
  It takes a while for the plot to figure out where it wants to be, but by then, I was already dissatisfied with the book. The plot was pretty much all over the place, and pretty much completely unrealistic. It thrived off of coincedences. And also, I don't think the end wrapped up nicely enough.
  
  There wasn't much to enjoy with this book. There were some good moments, but I don't think puddling through all the muck was worth it to get to them. ”

  Morgan F wrote this review Thursday, March 18, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 3 stars

  “The book has strong characters and involves a murder mystery that unfolds in layers throughout the book; that will generate a good deal of discussion. I appreciated Winslow's character and story construction in this way, particularly since each chapter added a different point of view and a new happening, not a rehashing of previous chapter events with a few new pronouns thrown in for good measure.
  
  All of that said, the characters, while strong, are somewhat formulaic. One character is the tortured college girl, running away from a tragedy that happened at home; another is the girl who had it all, but is desperate to keep it; the main male character is a tortured Brit from a wealthy family. All of the characters have some torturous happening in their past and of course, they’re all racing toward a collision.
  ”

  rkiladitis wrote this review Sunday, January 24, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No