Reviews

The Six by Anni Taylor

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alwayslol's review against another edition

2.0

This book held promise as an exciting thriller, but never delivered. The writing style was not at all interesting. Quite boring in fact. Then, switching from narrator to narrator in each chapter sounds cool and experimental, but it just didn't work. I kept getting confused as to whose thoughts I was reading and it just got tedious. The plot was something anyone could dream up in 5 minutes. You pretty much know what is going to happen, and that's what does. The characters were fairly flat; they met the basic criteria for what the character needed to be-father/husband, mother/wife, daughter, etc. and that was about it. The characters weren't quirky, interesting, specific, or contemplated. So, it wasn't interesting to read just to read, I didn't feel any attachment or love/hate factor in the characters, and it was all very predictable. Meh.

rmdavies92's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

bails_bookshelf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

librosconcafe's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I felt that it was good enough for me to push through it. I would’ve preferred more on the focus on the monastery instead of jumping between characters. Still, it had some surprising character twists in the end. A decent read overall.

ggallinot's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Horribly written.

Where to begin? First and foremost, nothing bothers me more than when evil villains have to explain their convoluted plots to the protagonists so that the author can relay poorly articulated, convoluted plot elements to the reader. This happens for like… the entire last quarter of the book. I mean chapters and chapters and chapters of the villains just explaining who they are, what they’re doing, why they’re doing it to such an exhausting degree that it’s borderline absurd. I can’t believe someone who read through this and think it’s at all ready for publishing. On top of that, every character sounds exactly the same.

I also take issue with how Kara is written. She’s supposedly a young, brilliant girl articulate enough to get into college early but her inner voice is a babyish little girl?

The challenges are… for lack of a better term… uninspiring. I don’t think they represent addiction in the slightest and just seem absolutely random, uncreative, and sloppily designed. Considering it’s a book that’s advertised as characters surviving dangerous challenges, it’s borderline dishonest. Sometimes I got the sense that the author didn’t even know how the challenges worked. The author clearly thinks the challenges are much cleverer than they actually are and did very little research into making creative, captivating challenges. For one, you just have to say “who else is here.” For another, you just have to look at a mirror. Really? Oh and then, everyone is super moved by the carnival-esque mirror challenge except Ruth except but OH WAIT SHE IS she was kidding about the fact that she was kidding about being moved because it’s the end of the book and now that she’s served her purpose as the unlikeable character it’s time to like her. Lazy. Lazy. Lazy.

Perhaps the worst part of the challenges though… it doesn’t matter who wins. Sure you win 10K supposedly for each challenge but the big win is getting your debts clear if you make it to the end. That’s why everyone is playing they say multiple times the ONLY was for their lives to get truly better is to make it to the end. So all of the characters are constantly worried about winning challenges to progress forward. Makes sense right? WRONG. After each challenge four people are eliminated… seemingly at random. Sometimes even someone from the best group in a challenge! There’s no real explanation as to how people are chosen for elimination and despite the fact that the arbitrariness should be FREAKING people out, no one EVER talks about it, thinks about it, or worries about it. Everyone wants to win and no one ever once stops to consider how to make sure they don’t get eliminated despite the fact that there’s seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. HUGE HUGE HUGE PROBLEM.

Oh and how about the fact that a society basically with the power of the Illuminati just… let’s the character that knows the most about them live for over a decade while that character researches them? And “keeping tabs” is how that’s justified? Or the fact that her lover feels the need to explain in a life and death situation why his relationship with that character isn’t “on again off again” but he doesn’t expect the villain to understand love? Are you kidding? How was that not cut? It’s laughable.

The end is predictable. Of course all the good guys become best friends and survive. The good guys were supposed to empathize with… like Evie who basically creates an excuse to go to the retreat by saying her husband frightens her when in fact he’s been nothing but loving. Classy. And the mother who left her kid home alone knowing the kid was afraid all the time to the point of having a knife under the bed because the Mom allows a culture of drugs in the house. Classy. Problematic protagonists are fine but they have to be written well.

This book is just a horrible, slow, first-drafty mess. Whatever deeper message it’s trying to convey, it fails utterly. Do not read. Ever.

readingnookreviews's review against another edition

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3.0

This book was pretty average, not one of my favorites but it kept my interest. It seemed pretty large but was actually a quick read! The writing style was extremely simple and it felt a little too predictable.