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There are currently 23 member reviews
for The Devotion of Suspect X
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Vivian Q. (Greer, SC)
Barely readable
I'd read a blurb about this book months ago, added it to my wish list, and was very happy when I won an Advanced Reader's Copy for review. I expected to be wowed by this winner of the Japanese Naoki prize which is similar to the National Book Award.
What I got instead, was a slow, boring and unimaginative read. I had to really push myself to finish it because nothing about the book engaged me - not the story, the characters, and especially not the writing. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
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Betsey V. (Austin, TX)
For fans of Nora Roberts
This was advertised as winning the Japanese equivalent to the Nat'l Book Award, so I was expecting something even better than Murakami. Well, this was just juvenile. Nora Roberts, tops. It was written on a 7th grade level, maybe 6th. It had some violence, so it wasn't for young readers, but I kept saying "See Spot run" throughout. The narrative was less than pedestrian--cliches cut and pasted together.
I mostly laughed because it was so preposterous and the characters were as thin and contrived as the pages they were written on. The basic outline to the story had potential, which was why I gave it two stars instead of one, but it was filled in with a ludicrous mess. The melodramatic ending was hilarious, but not meant to be.
