Nirvana by J.R. StewartMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
2.5 stars, and a trigger warning: the book contains several descriptions of sexual abuse.
The premise of this story is brilliant: when her husband Andrew disappears, Larissa searches for clues about what happened to him, long after the authorities tell her to accept his death. To escape the grief and exhaustion of her everyday life, she retreats into a virtual reality world called Nirvana. In Nirvana, she discovers Andrew's likeness alive and well in a field of apple trees. He wants her to believe that he is real, and Larissa must separate the actual from the virtual: is Andrew truly alive somewhere and trying to communicate with her, or is she being fooled by her own hopes and someone else's clever programming?
The narration uses first and third person as well as present and past tense, although it's not as confusing as it might sound: once you figure out the pattern, you can tell what's happening "now" vs. what happened in the past. The bigger problem with the narration is its omniscience: with every point of view that is added, some of the suspense seeps away. We lose the otherwise ever-present mystery of what other people are thinking. And even though we are shown many characters' perspectives, it's often only a surface-level view that doesn't make them seem more lifelike. My favorite parts of the book were Larissa's anecdotes about her life with Andrew, because those passages show intense emotion and a unique voice. If Larissa had narrated the whole story, it might have been more compelling. Although I wish she'd had some "quirk" other than bibliophilia - like most book-lovers in fiction, it comes across as an attempted shortcut to reader sympathy.
Even though I was curious about this particular dystopia - with people living in secluded "bubbles" and spending so much time in virtual worlds - the explanations didn't really fascinate me because they were presented in a series of vague info-dumps. The overall style of writing seemed a little clunky at first, but I felt that it flowed better as I got further into the novel.
Books are, in way, like virtual reality systems themselves: the reader wants to get immersed in the world, and to believe that the characters they encounter have beating hearts and unique minds. Nirvana did not quite convince me of those things, but I give it credit for a compelling premise that could potentially be developed further into a powerful story.
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I've found that when books that are written in 3rd person are also in present tense, they're difficult to get into. Maybe it's because it feels more like a report than an actual story. But again, I don't find particularly compelling present tense narrations. Sorry you didn't have a good time with this and great review.
ReplyDeleteVane at Books With Chemistry
That's an interesting point that I hadn't considered before, but I think you're right - 3rd person present tense can sound kinda like a report. Thanks for the comment, Vane! :)
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