Review by Naveraaa -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch
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- Latest Review: "The Nobel Prize" by Mois benarroch
Review by Naveraaa -- The Nobel Prize by Mois benarroch

2 out of 4 stars
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While The Nobel Prize by Mois Benarroch definitely didn't live up to my expectations upon the exciting premise, it's still a worthwhile read -- considering the fact that it's only about 62 pages long.
Despite the short length, The Nobel Prize orchestrates a highly fascinating plot, which seems to lose track of itself along the way: a writer is inspired by one of his old writer friends who has a peculiar mental illness where he takes on the personality of characters from books he has written. A good dose of irony and satire is included as well, giving a very hallucinatory effect along with the narrating style.
I absolutely adore writing styles where it feels like the narrator is a person actually telling you a story, painting the vivid imagery in your mind, and it works so well for this book. It hooked me to the very (disappointing) end. The entire setting seems like some sort of psychedelic parallel universe where many things just feel eerily wrong. The strange humor that every page has been infused with complements this atmosphere very nicely.
However, this book also suffers from many shortcomings, namely a lack of editing and a horribly unsatisfying ending. And the author might have gone a bit too overboard with the humor at one point.
Commas and capital letters are misused in several places, and the misplacement of quotation marks makes it really difficult to understand who is speaking as well as what is being said. The plot is equivalent to an elephant balanced on a small pebble -- magnificent at first, full of promise, but ultimately, topples over. To illustrate what I mean: there's an inexplicable sex scene with an alien from another planet (which was absolutely out of this world, ha, and not in the good way.)
I must admit the last line of this book is one of the worst, if not the worst ending I have ever read, leaving me feeling cheated. It starts off so well, tempting you with promises of a different plot, a tantalizing tale of what happens when writers go too far, and then leads you into a ditch. Whether the beginning is worth the ending or not is debatable.
My final rating is a 2 out of 4. The unique plot, humor, and direct writing style certainly earn this at least 2 stars, while the shameful ending and lack of an editor present keeps it from the other 2. Worth checking out if you really don't have anything better to read since it doesn't take much time to finish.
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The Nobel Prize
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