Book Review

Human.4 by Mike Lancaster

 

Human.4 was, very surprisingly, a good book.

I read this book for the pure joy of reading it, and found it when I was getting bored of reading the book The Odyssey and went to look for another book in the back of my class room.

So here's the 'official' Synopsis:

 

Kyle Straker volunteered to be hypnotized at the annual community talent show, expecting the same old lame amateur acts. But when he wakes up, his world will never be the same. Televisions and computers no longer work, but a strange language streams across their screens. Everyone’s behaving oddly. It’s as if Kyle doesn’t exit.

Is this nightmare a result of the hypnosis? Will Kyle wake up with a snap of fingers to roars of laughter? Or is this something much more sinister?
Narrated on a set of found cassette tapes at an unspecified point in the future, Human.4 is an absolutely chilling look at technology gone too far.

It was the cover that initially drew me in actually, yeah I know, don't judge a book by it's cover and all, but do you see that cover?! Who wouldn't take a second glance at a book that looked like that?

Anyway, This book follows the kid, Kyle Straker, and his adventure after a mishap when he got hypnotized. I don't want to give away to much- so I'll go ahead and just tell you that you need to read the book. This is definitely a good quick read for any High School and up students.

Onto the actual 'review' part.

This book is a very quick read, and while I wasn't thinking of it in a critical way when I first started reading, I'll go ahead and point out the flaws I can think of the book first.

The characters seemed a bit underdeveloped to me, they didn't seem to have much personality and the main character Kyle didn't stand out to me at all, and he's the one narrating the story. I'm not saying the author did poorly with developing the characters, more the focus of the author was not on the development of characters- which is what makes a good book a great book.  There could have been a lot more there with both Kyle and his friend Lilly.

I did like Kyle and Lilly, I just wish that we would have got to see more of their personalities, I feel like I was just getting to understand Kyle when the book ended. Lilly is different subject altogether, even though she is not the narrator I feel as though she has an amazing developed character. She is very well written, but I believe there could have been more. (There is a sequel coming out, so I'm crossing my fingers that if it is them there will be more character depth)

That being said, this plot and this idea is amazing. It is one of the most original books I've ever read.

It's very fast paced, and is the most confusing book (just because it simply doesn't make sense until the last ten pages) I've ever read, but a good read none the less.

My final review:
Put this on your reading list and read it ASAP. Great book.