I liked the beginning -- the part which I didn't like as much was that, at the end, Patricia explicitly thinks about how, in one timeline, she was personally better off but the world was worse, and in the other, the other way around. I felt like I had wanted that to be just something that I'd noticed myself.
I mean, I guess it wouldn't make sense for Patricia NOT to notice that; she's a wise and introspective person, so of COURSE she'd notice that and think of it as worthy of comment to herself. But, I dunno. I felt kind of like it was showing off how the magic trick was done, maybe.
Of course, that's what makes the book work. If the world AND her life were worse in one and better in the other -- if one choice was actually BETTER than the other, rather than both choices being obviously both better and worse -- then the whole book would fail.
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Date: 2014-05-22 03:05 pm (UTC)I mean, I guess it wouldn't make sense for Patricia NOT to notice that; she's a wise and introspective person, so of COURSE she'd notice that and think of it as worthy of comment to herself. But, I dunno. I felt kind of like it was showing off how the magic trick was done, maybe.
Of course, that's what makes the book work. If the world AND her life were worse in one and better in the other -- if one choice was actually BETTER than the other, rather than both choices being obviously both better and worse -- then the whole book would fail.