Review of The Gambler's Fallacy
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Nzube Chizoba Okeke
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Review of The Gambler's Fallacy
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Gambler's Fallacy" by Philip Hennings.]
The Gambler's Fallacy by Philip Hennings is a story about how much we lose when we force ourselves to believe a lie.
Matilda's friends meet up in her bar every year during a hurricane. All her friends have shown up on a particular occasion, but she senses something is wrong. As she observes the antagonism shown to each other and her, memories keep coming into her mind. As each one comes, she begins to wonder what each one means and why she has been so blind to them all the while. She decides to tell her friends what she has realized.
The outcome of that decision would be greater than she had ever expected.
This book contains a valuable lesson and will be helpful to anybody questioning the value of certain relationships. It makes us see that we shouldn't believe things will change despite seeing evidence to the contrary. Just as Matilda can't see things right before her until she gets a sudden moment of clarity, many of us remain in dire situations while giving ourselves excuses for why things should remain that way. Unfortunately, this is the only thing I like about the book.
The book didn't flow well; it was repetitive and unnecessarily drawn out. The description of the interactions between the characters didn't have a natural tone, so I could not adequately picture it. Let me add some examples from the book.
"Patricia stared at Matilda. Her eyes glared and pounced on her like a raging fire."
"Her smile was big but empty to Matilda. It looked like there was anger in the smile more than joy. Patricia's eyes expressed fury on Matilda. She could feel it burning on her skin and into her body."
The sentences above were taken from a single scene, and this particular interaction between Patricia and Matilda was described using almost two pages. This was how most of the book went, and it became tiring at some point. There wasn't much going on in the book — just Matilda's friends doing things, Matilda overthinking them, talking to her family about them, and trying to figure out what to do about them.
The book lacked the quality that would hold it all together. It would have been more interesting if the author captured people's emotions more smoothly. Describing every minute detail of their expressions, hairstyles, etc., made the book feel very long and didn't improve the overall quality.
The way the book ended felt too clunky and forced. The author tried to tie everything together. Unfortunately, the execution could have been better.
There were many typos and grammatical errors in the book. I would recommend another round of editing to the author. Considering there were not many things I liked about the book, I'd rate it 2 out of 5 stars. I'd recommend it to lovers of narratives built around interactions between people, if they wouldn't mind the challenges I had.
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The Gambler's Fallacy
View: on Bookshelves
The Gambler's Fallacy by Philip Hennings is a story about how much we lose when we force ourselves to believe a lie.
Matilda's friends meet up in her bar every year during a hurricane. All her friends have shown up on a particular occasion, but she senses something is wrong. As she observes the antagonism shown to each other and her, memories keep coming into her mind. As each one comes, she begins to wonder what each one means and why she has been so blind to them all the while. She decides to tell her friends what she has realized.
The outcome of that decision would be greater than she had ever expected.
This book contains a valuable lesson and will be helpful to anybody questioning the value of certain relationships. It makes us see that we shouldn't believe things will change despite seeing evidence to the contrary. Just as Matilda can't see things right before her until she gets a sudden moment of clarity, many of us remain in dire situations while giving ourselves excuses for why things should remain that way. Unfortunately, this is the only thing I like about the book.
The book didn't flow well; it was repetitive and unnecessarily drawn out. The description of the interactions between the characters didn't have a natural tone, so I could not adequately picture it. Let me add some examples from the book.
"Patricia stared at Matilda. Her eyes glared and pounced on her like a raging fire."
"Her smile was big but empty to Matilda. It looked like there was anger in the smile more than joy. Patricia's eyes expressed fury on Matilda. She could feel it burning on her skin and into her body."
The sentences above were taken from a single scene, and this particular interaction between Patricia and Matilda was described using almost two pages. This was how most of the book went, and it became tiring at some point. There wasn't much going on in the book — just Matilda's friends doing things, Matilda overthinking them, talking to her family about them, and trying to figure out what to do about them.
The book lacked the quality that would hold it all together. It would have been more interesting if the author captured people's emotions more smoothly. Describing every minute detail of their expressions, hairstyles, etc., made the book feel very long and didn't improve the overall quality.
The way the book ended felt too clunky and forced. The author tried to tie everything together. Unfortunately, the execution could have been better.
There were many typos and grammatical errors in the book. I would recommend another round of editing to the author. Considering there were not many things I liked about the book, I'd rate it 2 out of 5 stars. I'd recommend it to lovers of narratives built around interactions between people, if they wouldn't mind the challenges I had.
******
The Gambler's Fallacy
View: on Bookshelves
Latest Review: Natural Relief for Anxiety and Stress by Gustavo Kinrys, MD
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Marina Flisvou
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I liked how you talked about the book teaching us about relationships and false beliefs. Your review helped me decide to be careful when reading this book. I appreciate your thoughts on it!
Marina
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Catino oracio Oliveri gaona
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"The Gambler's Fallacy" by Philip Hennings delivers a valuable lesson about the necessity of questioning our relationships when the evidence suggests change is needed. However, the narrative feels repetitive and drawn out, with overly detailed descriptions that impede immersion in the story. The ending comes across as forced. Rating: 2/5 stars.
