audge鈥檚 Year in Books

What did you read this year?

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2024

576

pages read

books read

audge

Shortest Book

288

pages

Longest Book

288

pages

Average book length in 2024

288

pages

Most Shelved

4,595,115

people also shelved

Least Shelved

2,653,653

people also shelved

audge鈥檚 average rating for 2024

4.0

really liked it

4.0

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.09 average

audge鈥檚 first review of the year

liked it

I liked the book for its simplicity. However, in terms of things like plot, structure, and overall themes, I can see why almost all of the reviews for this book were so polarized.

First of all, having read the book and scanned through many reviews, I have to admit that the plot was a little bland. Nora walks into an imagined, hypothetical library after committing suicide, and she gets to experience alternate lives in which she reversed her regrets I liked the book for its simplicity. However, in terms of things like plot, structure, and overall themes, I can see why almost all of the reviews for this book were so polarized.

First of all, having read the book and scanned through many reviews, I have to admit that the plot was a little bland. Nora walks into an imagined, hypothetical library after committing suicide, and she gets to experience alternate lives in which she reversed her regrets- this initially looked like a promising premise.

But then starting from the very moment that Nora entered one of her alternate lives and she figured that her alternate life was pretty rotten, I was able to guess the plot for literally the entire novel- that the plot would very likely fall into the cliche ideas of just "appreciating your life and making the best out of it", "leave your regrets behind", et cetera. I don't think that rounding the plot back up to something as vague as this would be helpful to readers who are struggling with mental health... it's like a fairytale retelling of deeply rooted problems like depression and suicide.

However, despite all of this I did manage to keep reading and speed through the whole book, but I spent a whole deal of time praying that the plot wouldn't fall into vague conventions (but it eventually did). But it's not that the book was entirely bad and uninteresting, though- some of Nora's alternate lives were interesting to read about (for example the glaciologist Nora) and Matt Haig's occasional remarks about life and philosophy managed to catch my interest once in a while, but other than that the book was shallower than I had expected.

All in all, the book wasn't bad, but it just wasn't super good either. I found parts of it heartwarming, but I guess that's only from the perspective of a reader experiencing mild anxiety and nothing more. I wouldn't recommend this to people actually struggling with mental health (since it isn't even that helpful), but for people who feel like they are encountering obstacles or dragging through life, this book is an interesting read. ...more

础鲍顿骋贰鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

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