Reviews

Appleseed by Matt Bell

vrop's review

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.75

theaudioauditor's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

minionmalist's review against another edition

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4.0

At first I was not sure if I would enjoy this book but as the story unfolds rich with metaphor and insight weaving different timelines, I really began to enjoy this story. I always find I relate more to fictional tales than nonfiction and this is a great tale about what could be our future. Some things about it are far from real and magical but so much of it seems so real and current. I think this could truly be one of the great dystopian novels up there with 1984 and Brave New World, but with a future that seems much more plausible than those do now.

areuliz's review against another edition

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5.0

18th century, 50 years from today, 1000 years in the future. All connected through apples.

This book was like nothing I've read. I'm not even really sure how to do a review. The symbolism, connections, characters were all so well thought out. Like I said previously, I don't think I'm smart enough to figure it out on my own. I wish i had an English/Lit class to talk it through with.

I'd love to read this again with a group and talk through it together. Even tho I know that i missed so much, this book was incredible. Reminded me of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

mtaylor270's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

sarcasticnerdette's review

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jobatkin's review against another edition

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3.0

Not just one but three complex, fantastical and wandering plotlines make up this unusual dystopian novel. Nathaniel and Chapman are brothers in America's earliest colonial days, travelling through frontier country planting small apple orchards as a way to tame the wilderness, but Chapman struggles to tame the wild parts of himself, being a faun. John and Eury are high-tech scientists trying to save the modern-day world from climate change with the same goal but vastly different ways of accomplishing it. C-433 lives in a far-future world overtaken by glaciers and ice after the climate has rapidly cooled (thanks to John and Eury's efforts) trying to understand his past and purpose as one of the sole surviving descendants of humanity. Enough magic is present in the story that the standard rules don't apply, but exactly what the new rules are is never explained and feels very loose, with anything possible and little of it making complete sense. A very imaginative and unique tale where you're never sure what will happen next.

cate_with_a_c's review against another edition

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Maybe I’ll try again later but for now DNF

lady_elle's review against another edition

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Couldn’t get into it. Only listened to first 23 minutes and just had no interest in giving it more time. Maybe I’ll try again another day, but for now, returning to library

elizadin's review against another edition

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5.0

One of the signs of a good book is when you find yourself thinking about it often, well after you finish it. Matt Bell’s Appleseed is one of those books. The novel steers the reader through three plots: a story of Johnny Appleseed set two hundred years ago, a tale of a civilization on the brink of ecological disaster fifty years from now, and a story of an inhospitable Earth one thousand years in the future. Each tale is a strange and riveting journey on its own, each encompassing a vast swath of human narrative, from Greek myth, the Bible, Grimm’s fairy tales, to early American folklore, but the stories become even more fascinating as Bell starts to pull them together into one epic tale of humanity’s relationship with the planet.