Get Access Ripper Put Together By Isabel Allende Accessible Through Document
Many. Descriptions. Of. People. Have we not heard of "show don't tell"
It was like, Indiana is a reiki healer, Amanda is a geeky teenager, Ryan is an exnavy SEAL, Michael is a painter. Carmen is a psychic. with like, a twopage description of what they do and what they look like and who they date and what they read and what scars they have and where they live and who they're related to and what's their job and their pets and etc and etc and etc omg.
I forgot what all the names were but you get the idea Isabel Allende is certainly not a writer known for her thrillers and in fact this is not a canonical thriller.
The plot revolves around two women: Indiana, the mother, and Amanda, the teenage daughter,
Amanda has an above average intelligence, beats anyone in very difficult games and has a real obsession with the criminal world, investigations and the disturbed psyche of serial killers she is not very happy with her peers and instead has a good relationship with Blake, her maternal grandfather who shares with her the passion for Ripper, a strange online roleplaying game she invented and which hinges on the story of Jack the Ripper.
Indiana is a very beautiful and sensual hippie, divorced from Bob, Amanda's father and head of the San Francisco homicides she works in a holistic clinic and has a lover.
Why did I define “strange” the online game Ripper Because it is a game set in the London of Jack the Ripper and has onlyplayers, scattered all over the world and who only know each other virtually, "playing" to be detectives.
At some point, there are strange murders in San Francisco that apparently don't seem related to each other Amanda, however, who, as I said, loves the dark aspects of killers, proposes to the other Ripper players to change the scenario of the game and set it in San Francisco in order to investigate these murders closely.
Amanda saw it right, even before the police, and slowly it turns out that the crimes seem to have a connection and that a serial killer is behind them all.
One day Indiana, Amanda's mother, also disappears, and it seems that this disappearance is connected to the killer but only Amanda seems to understand something only she seems to understand that the common element is the figure of the Wolf and it is precisely the symbol of the wolf that leads the players to understand the true identity of the killer.
In the first hundred pages of the book, the story seems almost conceived as a book for teenagers but then
the intellectual part of the game comes out, with its fascination for crime and justice.
The rhythms are raised and also all the parallel stories that at a certain point we no longer understand what they are for, prove to be important for understanding the ending.
Aside from the idea of the online game, the storyline isn't very original, but it's still well organized,
Allende does not fall too much in the easy truculent scenes and diverts our attention on psychology and investigation: this on the one hand is good but on the other hand perhaps is not, given that there is too much reasoning and little thrill, to be able to define Ripper a great thriller.
Well, maybe the publisher, on the back cover, could avoid making this book look like a great thriller worthy of Agatha Christie or Clive Cussler or James Patterson.
The story even ifpages long, . . however is very enjoyable and exciting, without moments of boredom which often are not lacking in Allende's books, But we understand very well that the thriller is not the field of Allende and you almost want to tell her, Ripper grabbed me from the start with this line "Mom is still alive, but she's going to be murdered at midnight on Good Friday.
". Racing through its last pages an earthquake couldn't dislodge me from my seat, An entertaining good read with a game worked into the plot,
Looks like I'm going to be the rogue reader here, I really liked Ripper and here's why,
Allende does characters studies well and those in Ripper were solid if a bit quirky, I liked them, wanted to know them and cared about what happened to them, I particularly liked the main character, Amanda, Like Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley I found Amanda a smart thinker and fun, Amanda's older but quite wise and her team of sleuths are interesting associates, Her grandfather describes Amanda as "idiosyncratic of appearance, timorous of character, but magnificent of mind", Agreed.
Second most liked character is the Purebred Belgian Malinois, Attila, "smarter and stronger than German Shepherds, and they keep their back straight, so they don't suffer hip problems.
" A former war dog, you'd not find a more loyal companion, He was rescued by a former navy seal, discharged honorably after he lost his leg in combat, "Attila had been trained to defend and attack, to sniff out mines and terrorists, ward off enemies, parachute, swim through icy waters, and a variety of things that were not much use in civilian life.
" Long after Ryan, the seal, had been discharged, Attila was severely injured by a bomb, expected not to survive but not left behind as in battle "you never leave a fallen comrade behind" Now eight years old, the murders gave him a new purpose in life.
Allende is a storyteller, There are a few skips in plot and some stumbles but all in all I enjoyed the story,
Allende's stories always include some magic realism and there's enough of this here for me,
One reviewer turned up his nose claiming Ripper could only satisfy an undemanding reader, Guilty as charged. Most fiction I read fits this bill, If I want demanding I'll find it somewhere else, I read primarily for my own entertainment, not to make it work,
I loved the idea of a group of teens playing a roleplaying game that soon becomes a race to find a modern day ripper let loose on San Francisco.
I wanted to play and hope I'm invited if there is another book,
Translated from Spanish, Ripper originally was to be a collaborative effort of Allende and her husband, Willie Gordon, but that was seen as a fast road to divorce.
My sincere thanks to Harper Collins for allowing me to read this before it's publication date of January, The problem with being too nice, is that sometimes you let the bad ones in.
In this novel we learn the story of Indiana, a masseur and exceptional healer, Innocent, sincere, and open to life, but with several love problems, Her path invariably ends up crossing the one of an implacable serial killer, Her young daughter, Amanda, and Ripper, a role playing game, may just be the only thing that might be able to stop him,
Promoted as Allende's first mystery, in truth it appears much more to be a romance novel vaguely disguised as a crime one, A pretty entertaining read, but with some reservations, The novel takes some time to start, but after the first quarter it becomes really quite gripping, the other three quarters of the book went by in a blur.
However, something that I cannot forgive Allende, is that you can't end ap novel in ap epilogue, That is just simply wrong, It practically lacks of closure whatsoever, Unforgivable. But even still, a worthy read,
PERSONAL NOTE:
p Romance Not Recommendable
El problema de ser demasiado buena, es que a veces dejás entrar a los malos.
En esta novela conocemos la historia de Indiana, una masajista y sanadora excepcional, Inocente, sincera, abierta a la vida, aunque con ciertos problemas amorosos, Su camino se termina cruzando invariablemente con el de un implacable asesino serial, Su joven hija, Amanda, y Ripper, un juego de rol, puede ser lo único que pueda llegar a detenerlo,
Promocionada por Allende como su primer novela de misterio, a decir verdad parece mas bien una novela romántica levemente disfrazada de novela policial.
Una lectura ciertamente entretenida, aumque con ciertas reservas, La novela tarda bastante en arrancar, pero pasado el primer cuarto del libro se vuelve bastante atrapante las otras tres cuartas partes del libro se nos pasó volando.
Sin embargo, hay algo que no le puedo perdonar a Allende, y es que no se puede terminar una novela depáginas en un épilogo de, eso simplemente no se hace.
Prácticamente carece de cierre, Imperdonable. Pero aún así, valió la pena,
NOTA PERSONAL:
p Romance No Recomendable
Sorry Allende, I just can't read this one, I gave up due to so many shortcomingsshallow, twodimensional characters, a plot with an identity crisis, and no audience awareness, Who is the target audience of a book about grisly murders and YA gamers that references Eva Perron, Charles Dickens, andsstyle new age spirituality I have no idea, but it's certainly not me.
I feel so disappointed, so let down, as I have read every one of Allende's previous books and loved each and every one with the exception of "Maya's Notebook" which was nowhere near equal to the stellar quality of her historical fiction and magic realist works that preceded it.
I did, however, slog through "Maya's Notebook" out of respect for one of my all time favorite authors, But as the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me, " With that in mind, I gave this one mypage test wellextra pages, since it is Isabel Allende after all, then stopped at p. because life is simply too short to read books that aren't great, and my toread list is miles long, so I am moving on,
One strange, lightly veiled, autobiographical quote from "Ripper" stood out:
"Blake Jackson was a pharmacist by profession, a book lover, and a frustrated writer until he finally took the opportunity to chronicle the tumultuous events predicted by Celeste Roko.
In his novel, he described his grandaughter Amanda as 'idiosyncratic of appearance, timorous of character, but magnificent of mind'his baroque use of language distinguished him from his peers.
. . The critics were vicious, dismissing his work as magic realisma literary style deemed passebut no one could prove he had distorted the events to make them seem supernatural since the San Francisco Police Department and the daily newspapers documented them".
It sounds like Allende has an ax to grind with some critic who didn't appreciate her brand of magic realism, My question, why on earth would an author as talented, accomplished, and successful as Allende give a damn about what some clueless and illinformed literary critic thinks However, judging from what she said in a recent interiew, she has internalized this criticism that magic realism is passe so much that she has let it adversely affect her latest books.
What a terrible shame. And if magic realism is passe, don't tell Eowyn Ivey "The Snow Child", Alice Hoffman, Toni Morrison, or countless other contemporary authors who are still turning out beautiful and engaging magic realist works.
Is "Ripper" possibly a brilliant metanarrative, making fun of the kind of crap contemporary audiences want If so, I guess I will never find out, because I was just looking for a good Isabel Allende novelrichly and historically atmospheric, "baroque" to borrow Allende's term well written using big words, with deeply complex and sympathetic characters.
"Ripper" has none of these qualities, When I first found out that Allende's new novel was called "Ripper," I thought is was historical fiction retelling the tale of Jack the Ripper, and I imagine that's the kind of story Isabel Allende would masterfully tell.
Maybe that could be her next novel, . . Se me ha hecho un poco cuesta arriba este libro, que si no fuera por el Popsugar Challenge nunca hubiera leído, y eso que Isabel Allende es una autora que conozco bien y con la que suelo disfrutar.
La primera incursión de la autora chilena en el género policiaco o de misterio no está a la altura de sus otros trabajos.
Le cuesta arrancar y, aunque es cierto que al final se vuelve más entretenido y la resolución me ha gustado, la trama no se centra en los asesinatos sino más bien en la vida de Indiana y quienes la rodean, se ve venir quién es el asesino de largo y he echado en falta, tras tantas páginas de paja al inicio, un cierre/epílogo más extenso.
PopsugarReto: Un libro acerca de un juego de rol This was horrible, I'm all for a good serial killer book, but not this, This book was all over the place, I just had to stopin, I was done. Stick a fork in it, Dnf Fortunately, after having read some negative reviews of this book, well, many actually, my local librarian recommended it to me and I decided to toss all caution to the wind and give it a try.
I'm very glad I did as I thoroughly enjoyed it and have concluded that the book is getting a bad rap,
First to dispel the preconceived notions, This book does not even come close to resembling the much loved and admired House of Spirits with the exception that it is written by Isabel Allende who has such a beautiful writing style.
For those of you who, afteryears, are still pining away for another House of Spirits, I would recommend, . . drumroll rereading House of Spirits. It has beenyears. I'm sure you've forgotten as much as I have,
This book is also not a thriller, nor fastpaced,
Yes, it does have a plethora of characters, the majority if not all of whom are parodies of themselves, all with detailed backstories.
For me, that was a feature and not a bug as it was pure reading pleasure, Wouldn't you rather play the game of Clue with allcharacters It makes it much more fun to sleuth, And who wouldn't laugh at the healer whose favorite patient was an arthritic poodle Or the mother who when interrogated by the police, denied her son was on drugs.
. . "well, only the marijuana and some kind of crystal stuff" I found it all very humorous and entertaining,
The mystery itself is not quite as engaging as it does tend to get mired down amidst all of the drawn out characterizations.
I loved the premise of the Ripper online gamers solving the reallife crime, Unfortunately, the "who" in the whodunit is glaringly obvious, There were some minor twists and clever turns that were satisfying, but if the book falls a little short, it is with the mystery, That being said, I would recommend giving it a try, It will either grab you like it did me, . . or it won't. .