I really enjoyed reading this book, and I would have rated it higher, but there isn't really any ending...? Is there a planned sequel? I'd be on board if there were one, for the record.

I wanted it to go on for another hundred pages. Or at least long enough to have an ending. It just sort of stopped... on an uphill note, to be sure, and I guess I am supposed to finish it myself. But I CAN'T finish it; if I could, I would be a writer, duh. That's what I pay WRITERS for.
I liked it. I liked all these people and I WANT to know what happens next. I just don't know what that IS

Adored this book, a blast from start to finish - utterly believable conspiracy theories wrapped in a warm and twisted love story.

What I liked:

1. likable, interesting, well-developed characters, especially Leila (one of the three protagonists) and one of the minor characters, Leila's sister, Roxana

2. three separate plot-lines (the stories of the three protatonists: Leila, Leo, and Mark) slowly and subtly and and nicely woven together into a whole

3. cool super-rich super-villains (Straw and Pope)

4. intriguing sci-fi elements--both that of the Committee (the bad guys) and Dear Diary (the good guys)

5. a David Foster Wallace-ish dark sense of humor in many places; many of the rehab scenes are strongly reminiscent of Infinite Jest


What I didn't like:

1. kind of read this book last year: it was Dave Eggers's The Circle, though The Circle is less sinister (its bad guys aren't quite so bad) and yet also more sinister (its techno-dystopic vision is far more realistic and thus more frightening)

2. the aforementioned sci-fi elements were interesting but were not fleshed out in any good detail and were, to be honest, really just too far fetched (the test, the Dear Diarists' numbers, the plant-based computers, the Committee basically having infiltrated and turned almost the entire US intelligence apparatus)

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okay, so the ending bites: basically, there is no ending; the novel ends just as the adventure is really getting going as Mark is heading out to carry out his mission against Straw/SineCo/the Committee; I'm assuming (hoping? am I hoping? I don't know) that there's going to be a sequel, but I'm quite irked that none of the promotional materials, none of the early reviews, nothing on the dust jacket indicated that this was the first in a series--that would have been nice to know going in


so, overall assessment: entertaining but with some big flaws and a bit of a been-there-done-that feel . . . if there is a sequel (and I can't imagine that there won't be), I'm not sure I'll read it, which says a great deal about how I felt about this novel

What the hell happened to the last chapter?! A very abrupt ending, and up until that point I really enjoyed this book. If movies National Treasure and The Net had a child, it would be this book. There are spies, conspiracies, intrigue, technophobia, and clandestine meetings. A fun adventure!

Hugely enjoyable, if light. I read it in a couple of days, which I think is how it's best read.

I need to think on this one for a bit. I'm not sure I would have gotten through this book had it not been on audiobook, though I think I should have been paying more attention as the ending caught me unaware.