I read this having really enjoyed Larson’s first book, “Devil in the White City,” and hoping for more of the same…and while it was similar, it was definitely not up to par.

Spoiler Warning
The historical side was just way too technical and I guess over my head. In “Devil” he threw in things like…And this was how Corn Flakes was born!...and while there were a few famous names in this one, it wasn’t nearly to the extent of his first, which just made this historical side dull and maybe a little irritating.

The murder side was also dull, unfortunately. I rather pitied the convicted murderer than anything else. And then inconsistencies were thrown in to cast doubt on the murderer’s identity, which just irritated me. Outside of the descriptions of how the single murder was committed (which, admitedly was really gross but didn’t come till the very end), my morbid side was not satisfied.

Good parts: there was much more of a connection between the two stories in this one than in his first, which was kind of interesting. It was also kind of fun to read about how Larson did his reasearch.

it was really cool and ridiculously bloody. But too short :(

I really liked this book! It started out a bit on the slow side, and there were a few too many characters for my taste-though all of them were awesome in their own way, esp Mr. Tulip and Otto-but overall it was really cute and hit close to home since I too live in the newspaper business.

It’s a good way to spend a few days if you like to read. No…no one talks like that for real, and it’s a bit condescending, and the fact that a Harvard scholar can’t for the life of him read English text backward is a bit frightening… but eh. It’s pop lit. You shouldn’t treat it like it’s anything more.

Personally, I thought the historical information was really interesting, even if it did mean a few pages on the meaning of the number PHI. And it’s nice to get some background on a bit of this stuff.

If you want to feel like you’re one of the crowd but don’t want to feel intellectually bogged down, watch the movie. the end.

I definitely lost sleep over this one.

um…it’s really engaging and goes really fast which is nice. But did anyone else draw a parallel between this and last summer’s Nicholas Cage blockbuster “National Treasure”? I dunno…after I made that comparison, I really just couldn’t enjoy it as much as I should have….the way I see it, it’s a book you read to see things blowing up, only you can’t see the things blowing up because it’s a book! The way I figure it, “Da Vinci Code” the movie’s going to kick the book’s butt. But that’s just a guess.

In any case, the twist at the end of this one was amazing. And seriously twisted. Although (I think) a little predictable. shrugs

Oh and Dan Brown really has no business writing romance. ick. (Although I guess parts of the end were kinda cute….)

Such an eye-opener, whether you agree with her philosophy or not.

well I won’t lie, it is a bit on the long side…

Mostly mindless if you’ve got a few hours to kill…

Very engaging book if nothing else…I was interested the whole way through. But once I got to the end I realized I had no clue how all the different subplots really connected, not to mention that the ending was just really anticlimactic (though I guess I kind of expected it…

In a nutshell: Not a bad read, but not mindless fluff either

Finished the book…doesn’t end quite as well as the first one…really open ended and kinda dumb. Still a good book, I grant, but not as good as The Eyre Affaire.