Mr. Nobody: A Novel books review
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Emma Lewis is a leader in her field of memory loss and is chosen to work on a case that will challenge her to determine the diagnosis — is it retrograde amnesia, fugue or lying. It will require her to return to her home town, which she and her family changed their names and left 14 years ago. But Emma knows it’s a big opportunity for her career because these cases are so rare.
This perfect offer out of the blue, this opportunity, the chance I’ve been waiting for. But I’d have to go there? Why does it have to be there of all the places in the world? I’ve spent fourteen years of my life trying to get away from that place, what happened there, and now … now I find out that the only way forward, the only way out, is back.
...if I’m honest, it scares me. My face out there connected and connected and connected until it all leads back to that one night. The night when my whole world was shattered and it was easier to just throw the whole thing in the trash than try to fix it.
Both main characters have issues with the past — Emma hides her past whereas Mr. Nobody has no past. He was found on a beach and has no memory of who he is or where he came from. It’s up to Emma to determine whether she can help him to remember. But she is having problems of her own.
His world shrinks to a pinhead and then dilates so wide, suddenly terrifyingly borderless. He has no edges anymore. Who is he? He has no self. He feels the panic roaring inside him, escalating, his heart tripping faster. His mind frantically searches for something—anything—to grab a hold of, his eyes wildly scanning the landscape around him. But there is no escape from it, the void. He is here and there is no before. There are no answers.
I’ve been so focused on putting those pieces—and you—back together again that somewhere along the way I came apart at the seams.
What a fun ride this was! It had all the elements of a great psychological thriller — suspense, mystery, twists and turns, hard to put down, kept you guessing, etc. I was in the minority with my response to Steadman’s previous work (Something in the Water). It just didn’t float my boat! (LOL). I was hesitant to read another book by Steadman but ultimately decided to take the chance and I am so glad I did.
Mr. Nobody grabbed me right from the start and kept me turning the pages as fast as possible. The premise was fascinating and the execution did it justice. This is a compelling story that you won’t be able to put down. I thought I had figured some of it out but I was happy to learn I was wrong. Mr. Nobody is a unique story that you won’t feel you’ve read before. The premise is fascinating and the execution does it justice.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
Welcome to the disappointment palace! There is no vacancy for riveting thriller you’re looking for! Sorry! You had a bad start for the busy season.
I know when you spend your time with the beach, you noticed “Something in the water” and you enjoyed your experience with that book and I know you love short term memory loss, amnesia stories! For compensation: maybe you should request more upcoming thrillers and if your fairy godmother NetGalley likes your credit score, wow sorry reading performance, they may send you some better stuff (Or you may choose better stuffs dumbass! And stop dancing! This is not celebration. You hit your head at the 3 starred-nope it’s not even 3 star worthy, let’s say 2.5 and rounded it up for honoring the memory of the previous book of the author- mediocre train which moves to Switzerland.)
At the beginning I was so sure I found something so intriguing, delicious and exciting. A man opens his eyes at the seaside, having no idea who he is and what he is doing there. So the authorities bring Dr. Emma Lewis for solving the mystery and bringing the man’s memory back. Wait a minute!
Maybe he knows something more about himself. Hey, could he also know more about doctor’s past, the secrets she kept about her childhood and her family?
Well, I think first half of the book was crazy train ride. I didn’t want to stop reading. I carry this book glued to my body like a regular internal organ. My appointment with dentist was so entertaining because I was laughing so hard with excitement and flipping the pages without hearing anyone. ( My doctor forgot me locked in his office but I didn’t care. I had my laughing gas and this great book) But when we move to the second half I started to hear the alarm bells blaring in my head. This book could end in a twisted and surprising way or shit hits the fan and it loses its direction and makes you curse about the nonsense ending. Unfortunately second option happened.
The ending… arrgghhkk… yes the ending made me bring out the inner green giant ( of course I consumed 4 cups of Americano so I was green giant with shaky hands!) and I kept punching the wall and screaming: “What did you do? Why did you screw things up?”
And yes: my dreamy, riveting reading turned into semi-disaster: 5 starred reading turned into one star. So my average score fell to 3 stars ! It was really promising start and disastrous ending journey for me! Like going to honeymoon at Turk and Caicos Islands and trapped in your hotel room because of never ending rain. (Wow! Sorry that’s my honeymoon but at least I had a freezer full of alcohol and my husband watched at least 30 soccer games so both of us were so happy, delighted, over the moon! Yes it was not as bad experience as the book gave me.)
Overall: I was so close to love this book and gave so many shiny stars (I planned to buy a star and name with this book after my third glass of Malbec. Thankfully in the morning I reconsidered my decision.) but end of the book hurt my feelings.
I still want to read more works of the author because I enjoyed “something in the water” and of course first half of the book, two POVed story-telling were great. It’s normal to expect more from a talented author but fingers crossed I know I’m gonna love the next book.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for sharing this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review.
2.5 stars, rounded up
Catherine Steadman scored big with Something in the Water, although it wasn’t a particular favorite of mine. But I was still curious to see what she would do with her sophomore effort. The book opens with a man awakening on the beach, wounded, with only hazy memories. Among the missing memories are how he got there and what his name is. Dr. Emma Lewis is brought in to oversee his case. She wants to see if this is truly a fugue state, a case of Retrograde amnesia, the loss of all personal memories.
I’m not a big fan of books where the main character is privy to information that isn’t shared with the reader. Here, we quickly learn that something happened in Emma’s teen years that caused the family to move away and change their names. But we aren’t told what. It soon becomes apparent that Mr. Nobody knows what has happened as well.
Despite the irritation at the author’s little trick of misinformation, the book moves at a fast clip and kept my interest. The book is written so that Mr. Nobody’s sections are written in the third person and Emma’s in the first person. At times, it feels that she’s almost talking to the reader. It allows the author to slip in little psychological bits of knowledge, like defining blindsight. His sections bring you forward from the time he is discovered, hers don’t start until after he’s been in care for six days and she’s brought in to consult. So, there is initially a back and forth jostling in the time.
There are other characters which also kept my interest. In fact, my favorite part of the book was the drama between Chris and Zara and I wish their story had played a bigger part overall.
So, I was all happy with this book until about 80% in when it completely falls apart. The ending was so nonsensical that all my earlier happiness with this book just disappeared. Seriously, I would have graded the first part of the book 4 stars and the ending at 1.
My thanks t netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
I know when you spend your time with the beach, you noticed “Something in the water” and you enjoyed your experience with that book and I know you love short term memory loss, amnesia stories! For compensation: maybe you should request more upcoming thrillers and if your fairy godmother NetGalley likes your credit score, wow sorry reading performance, they may send you some better stuff (Or you may choose better stuffs dumbass! And stop dancing! This is not celebration. You hit your head at the 3 starred-nope it’s not even 3 star worthy, let’s say 2.5 and rounded it up for honoring the memory of the previous book of the author- mediocre train which moves to Switzerland.)
At the beginning I was so sure I found something so intriguing, delicious and exciting. A man opens his eyes at the seaside, having no idea who he is and what he is doing there. So the authorities bring Dr. Emma Lewis for solving the mystery and bringing the man’s memory back. Wait a minute!
Maybe he knows something more about himself. Hey, could he also know more about doctor’s past, the secrets she kept about her childhood and her family?
Well, I think first half of the book was crazy train ride. I didn’t want to stop reading. I carry this book glued to my body like a regular internal organ. My appointment with dentist was so entertaining because I was laughing so hard with excitement and flipping the pages without hearing anyone. ( My doctor forgot me locked in his office but I didn’t care. I had my laughing gas and this great book) But when we move to the second half I started to hear the alarm bells blaring in my head. This book could end in a twisted and surprising way or shit hits the fan and it loses its direction and makes you curse about the nonsense ending. Unfortunately second option happened.
The ending… arrgghhkk… yes the ending made me bring out the inner green giant ( of course I consumed 4 cups of Americano so I was green giant with shaky hands!) and I kept punching the wall and screaming: “What did you do? Why did you screw things up?”
And yes: my dreamy, riveting reading turned into semi-disaster: 5 starred reading turned into one star. So my average score fell to 3 stars ! It was really promising start and disastrous ending journey for me! Like going to honeymoon at Turk and Caicos Islands and trapped in your hotel room because of never ending rain. (Wow! Sorry that’s my honeymoon but at least I had a freezer full of alcohol and my husband watched at least 30 soccer games so both of us were so happy, delighted, over the moon! Yes it was not as bad experience as the book gave me.)
Overall: I was so close to love this book and gave so many shiny stars (I planned to buy a star and name with this book after my third glass of Malbec. Thankfully in the morning I reconsidered my decision.) but end of the book hurt my feelings.
I still want to read more works of the author because I enjoyed “something in the water” and of course first half of the book, two POVed story-telling were great. It’s normal to expect more from a talented author but fingers crossed I know I’m gonna love the next book.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for sharing this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review.
2.5 stars, rounded up
Catherine Steadman scored big with Something in the Water, although it wasn’t a particular favorite of mine. But I was still curious to see what she would do with her sophomore effort. The book opens with a man awakening on the beach, wounded, with only hazy memories. Among the missing memories are how he got there and what his name is. Dr. Emma Lewis is brought in to oversee his case. She wants to see if this is truly a fugue state, a case of Retrograde amnesia, the loss of all personal memories.
I’m not a big fan of books where the main character is privy to information that isn’t shared with the reader. Here, we quickly learn that something happened in Emma’s teen years that caused the family to move away and change their names. But we aren’t told what. It soon becomes apparent that Mr. Nobody knows what has happened as well.
Despite the irritation at the author’s little trick of misinformation, the book moves at a fast clip and kept my interest. The book is written so that Mr. Nobody’s sections are written in the third person and Emma’s in the first person. At times, it feels that she’s almost talking to the reader. It allows the author to slip in little psychological bits of knowledge, like defining blindsight. His sections bring you forward from the time he is discovered, hers don’t start until after he’s been in care for six days and she’s brought in to consult. So, there is initially a back and forth jostling in the time.
There are other characters which also kept my interest. In fact, my favorite part of the book was the drama between Chris and Zara and I wish their story had played a bigger part overall.
So, I was all happy with this book until about 80% in when it completely falls apart. The ending was so nonsensical that all my earlier happiness with this book just disappeared. Seriously, I would have graded the first part of the book 4 stars and the ending at 1.
My thanks t netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
Emma Lewis is a leader in her field of memory loss and is chosen to work on a case that will challenge her to determine the diagnosis — is it retrograde amnesia, fugue or lying. It will require her to return to her home town, which she and her family changed their names and left 14 years ago. But Emma knows it’s a big opportunity for her career because these cases are so rare.
This perfect offer out of the blue, this opportunity, the chance I’ve been waiting for. But I’d have to go there? Why does it have to be there of all the places in the world? I’ve spent fourteen years of my life trying to get away from that place, what happened there, and now … now I find out that the only way forward, the only way out, is back.
...if I’m honest, it scares me. My face out there connected and connected and connected until it all leads back to that one night. The night when my whole world was shattered and it was easier to just throw the whole thing in the trash than try to fix it.
Both main characters have issues with the past — Emma hides her past whereas Mr. Nobody has no past. He was found on a beach and has no memory of who he is or where he came from. It’s up to Emma to determine whether she can help him to remember. But she is having problems of her own.
His world shrinks to a pinhead and then dilates so wide, suddenly terrifyingly borderless. He has no edges anymore. Who is he? He has no self. He feels the panic roaring inside him, escalating, his heart tripping faster. His mind frantically searches for something—anything—to grab a hold of, his eyes wildly scanning the landscape around him. But there is no escape from it, the void. He is here and there is no before. There are no answers.
I’ve been so focused on putting those pieces—and you—back together again that somewhere along the way I came apart at the seams.
What a fun ride this was! It had all the elements of a great psychological thriller — suspense, mystery, twists and turns, hard to put down, kept you guessing, etc. I was in the minority with my response to Steadman’s previous work (Something in the Water). It just didn’t float my boat! (LOL). I was hesitant to read another book by Steadman but ultimately decided to take the chance and I am so glad I did.
Mr. Nobody grabbed me right from the start and kept me turning the pages as fast as possible. The premise was fascinating and the execution did it justice. This is a compelling story that you won’t be able to put down. I thought I had figured some of it out but I was happy to learn I was wrong. Mr. Nobody is a unique story that you won’t feel you’ve read before. The premise is fascinating and the execution does it justice.
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.
When a man is found on a British beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him, to international medical experts who are baffled by him, to the national press who call him Mr. Nobody, everyone wants answers. Who is this man? And what happened to him?
Some memories are best forgotten.
Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient in a small town deep in the English countryside. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for, and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same town fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.
Some memories are best forgotten.
Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient in a small town deep in the English countryside. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for, and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same town fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.
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