my The Marbury Lens review

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Short version: This, this, and also, this.



Long version:



Okay, contrary to popular belief, this book isn't very graphic. Personally, I've been scarred worse that time I accidentally came across some Richie Foley/Virgil Hawkins fanart. Or that time I decided I wanted to know what a manikini was...(FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T GOOGLE THAT!)



Moving on, yeah, I thought that it was going to be terrible and horrible. I expected to run screaming away in pure horror. In reality, The Marbury Lens is, in all actuality, less graphic than any other YA book I can think of, or even The Color Purple which is a book most people have to read for school.



Maybe this is because I have a thick skin. I don't know. But I do know I wasn't impressed. Sure, sure, you're probably thinking "She's got to be shitting me. THE MAIN CHARACTER IS KIDNAPPED, ALMOST RAPED TWICE AND SHE ISN'T PHASED? Yep, sociopath." But I'm not a sociopath. Really. It's just that it isn't as bad as people say.



As for the book itself, the whole thing was a big fat MEH. Basically, it's sort of like Narnia only you have these goggles instead of a wardrobe. Also, for every person in what I'll call the real world, there is a counterpart to them in Marbury land, which is the place you see once you put on the glasses.



Another thing, apparently the glasses are really addictive, so you don't want to come back to the real world. Well, you do, but you want to go back to Marbury land after you come back to the real world. It's really confusing. If you think you're confused right now, imagine how I felt reading the thing.



To be frank, I just didn't care. Marbury land was boring to me. I just skimmed and ended up skipping the chapters with Marbury in it, and that ended up with me putting down the book. How can the fantasy world your book is about be so goddamn boring? I don't understand that.



I did like Jack, though. Poor kid was a target for danger. First, in the beginning of the book, he wanders away from an underage drinking party and gets kidnapped and nearly raped. Then, while on the plane to England he gets molested by some creep sitting next to him. THEN, he gets stalked by some weirdo who gives him glasses that shape his worst nightmare. Kid can't catch a break, for god's sake.



Between Jack and his friend, Conner, there seemed to be a lot of pent up sexual tension that the author seemed to acknowledge and tried to halfway relieve by making jokes about it. "We're sharing a bedroom. THAT'S SO GAY!" "We're sharing a bed. THAT'S SO GAY!" "The room is so small we have to shower with the door open. THAT'S SO GAY!" "Jack's never had sex with a girl before. THAT'S SO GAY!" I would have thrown the book across the room if it hadn't been for the fact that I as reading the thing on a pdf, and throwing my computer across the room to relieve my stress seemed counterproductive at the time.



It might seem abrupt to end the review here, but I can't think of anything else that was in my mind while reading the book. So, farewell my darlings. Thank you for your time.