My first thoughts after finishing The Oracle Year: wow. That was a ride. Agreed, the book can be somewhat slow burn at first, but when it gets going, it just keeps on going. I couldn’t pull my face away from the page for the last third of the book!
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★★★★★ 5 stars
The Oracle Year starts when Will, a struggling New York musician, publishes a set of predictions anonymously on the internet after hearing them in a dream. At first, nobody pays attention, but then they start coming true. Soon, the Oracle is the only thing anyone ever talks about. And for Will and his best friend it might even prove to be lucrative. But how long can they keep a lid on it? And how do they know that the predictions aren’t serving some deeper, darker end? What if it’s all much, much bigger than they thought?
A Flawless And Very Intriguing Plot + Brilliant Pace
The first thing that comes to mind about The Oracle Year is that it just has such a well laid out plot. You don’t come across that many books that have just the right pace, when it comes to setting the tone, getting the gears in motion, and then rolling off. And especially when it comes to wrapping up! Despite all odds (and I won’t say why “despite”), the ending is so incredibly satisfying. And it’s not because of the conclusion – I’d say it’s more due to the fact that your hormone levels are settling down after a very active and knuckle clenching action section. It’s like that feeling you get after you get out of a fast carnival ride and you’re filled with the feeling of being alive and also glad you’re on firm ground again. That’s the thing about The Oracle Year, and that’s what I mean when I say “well laid out plot”. Things happen at the right place. The author knows perfectly well which ropes to pull to make the reader follow the story so deeply, they’ll forget to take breaths between paragraphs. (Certainly what happened to me.)
A pencil illustration of a girl flapping her arms, standing next to a book, with question marks and exclamation points above her head. The caption says, “me, pacing around while reading the final chapters of The Oracle Year
Real, True-to-life Characters
Another thing I really loved about The Oracle Year were the true to life characters. They were all so real – both the positive and the negative ones. I would dare to say the baddies were even my favorites! l’m not one of those people who likes dark characters much, usually, so I was very surprised when I was almost filled with awe for the Coach – a truly formidable woman. You could call her a spy or an influencer, but lets just say, you’d never want to meet anyone like that. EVER. And yet, she’s such an amazing character – she will put any government prick in his place, and she has a finger in every jam jar. While she’s a true terror and I can’t really “like-like” her, I’m in awe of this character, and especially glad the author wrote her as a woman, because it truly breaks the stereotype of a powerful political stakeholder.
A pencil illustration of me, holding up a sign that says “strong female characters!!!”
Ultimately, there’s not a lot that’s new that I can say about such a well-known book – especially without spoiling things. But I can definitely recommend The Oracle Year. It’s an adventure, it’s written incredibly well, and you just won’t be bored reading it. More than that, the idea behind it is pretty original. I’m sure I haven’t read anything like it. You can’t quite put it with scifi, adventure or anything definite – at best, I’d say speculative fiction. But I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it!
The Oracle Year is a real adventure – it's written incredibly well, and you just won't be bored reading it. What's more, the concept is really original, and the pace is great. ★★★★★ 5 stars: Click To TweetBut Beware Of The Triggers
Triggers include: violence,
What’s the last book that kept surprising you with twists and kept you guessing all the time?
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
It seems that this book has everything to be a winner indeed Evelina!!
Yep 🙂
The picture of the book cover you posted grabbed me first. Then I read enough of your review to decide I want to try to read this book. I say “try” because any kind of fantasy / scifi / or other such genre is a struggle for me and I rarely can finish such a book. But then in the Goodreads blurb it said “perfect for fans of Joe Hill and Brad Meltzer, or books like This Book Is Full of Spiders and Welcome to Night Vale.” Welcome To Night Vale? I love Welcome To Night Vale!!!! Ok I”m in.… Read more »
This isn’t actually scifi so much! It’s more like speculative, so no space ships or technology. Just people living in a time where something odd happens and they’re trying to figure it out. So if you don’t normally read scifi, this could still work. I haven’t read those other books though, I wonder if I might like them too 🙂 oh wait, I think it’s your short review that I just read on your blog, isn’t it? I’m replying comments backwards 😀 seemed like you like it – so I’m very glad to hear 🙂
Great review Evelina. It has such an intriguing plot. I’ve never really heard about this book before now though. This book remind me of a movie, I can’t remember the name but it gave the same feel of everyone being a puppet controlled by a puppetmaster. I could be wrong but that’s the vibe I get from this book based on your review.
Thank you 🙂 this book was quite big last year! But it was bigger in the scifi circles I guess. And yes, it reminded me of a movie too 🙂 I’m sure you’d love it. Yeah, it did have the puppet master feel, but not in a dark sense, more like… ‘there’s a purpose’ sense.
With such a great review, how can I not read this now, Evelina!
Hahah, thank you! 🙂 I’m sure you’ll love it though 🙂
Sounds like you really enjoyed this one, and that picture of you is adorable. Hugs..RO
Haha, thanks 🙂 and I definitely did!
I had this book on my TBR but, for some reason I can’t remember, I removed it from my GR shelf! And this review is making me want to add it again but cancer is kind of a trigger for me. Can you tell me if it’s a center piece of the plot or just a short mention? I don’t mind if you spoil me, I’d rather know what I’m getting into.
You know, I can’t guarantee now, but the fact that I don’t remember where the mention of cancer was probably means it was just an aside kind of thing! Oh yeah, I was looking up the synopsis and remembered before it loaded. It’s just one of the bad side characters, and they don’t even get it, rather are told they will, so they get paranoid over it and keep checking. But it’s minor, and it’s not a guy you want to have a good life either, hehe. So not the central plot at all. None of the main characters and… Read more »
[…] couple days ago I saw this review of The Oracle Year. It sounded good to me and I loved the book cover so I grabbed a copy via […]
Thanks 🙂
Wow, that book cover is….really dizzy-ing. Well, it’s really fitting XD. Five stars! Damn, I guess I have to check this book out now. Great reveiw!
Yes, I also didn’t like looking at that cover too much 😀 thanks 🙂 it’s a really good book.
Ooh I love reading 5-star reviews It makes me wildly excited for books (even if they’re not my typical genre haha) and I LOVE your illustrations so much!!
Thanks 🙂 it’s a shame I can’t come up with illustrations for all my posts! Doesn’t work much on serious books somehow.
I own this one and need to actually read it!
It’s very good! You definitely want to 🙂
I don’t even remember when I put this book on my TBR or where I learned of it from, but seeing the cover again jogged my memory. You’re the first blogger that I know that’s talked about it! I’m so glad to hear that the pacing for this book was good and that it was actin packed, this makes me more excited to read it finally. Great review Evelina, and thank you for reading and reviewing books that aren’t so mainstream!
Really! Wow 🙂 it must’ve been a haul or something. I really enjoyed it 🙂
I’m glad you loved this too, Evelina! Such a great read, and I’m happy because he has a new book coming out soon:-)
I think I actually might have first seen it on your blog too 🙂 but I wasn’t sure. A new book? That’s awesome, I’ll have to look into it. What’s it called?
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Thank you 🙂