Review of Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise

[Maria Pomoni]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise" by John K Danenbarger.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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2 out of 4 - okay, fair

"Advantages"
Entanglement was a good effort, I am not sure how experienced the author of the book is but the book has an interesting plot and some parts are very engaging—for instance, Beth's story at the beginning and how it unfolds. Also, the book uses an excellent range of vocabulary, and places, landscapes, and peoples' appearances are very vividly described. In addition to this, the author has done a very good job of describing the characters' feelings.

"For which audience, this book might be a good read?"
This book might be a good read for an audience who likes suspense, and slowly unfolding stories. Or an audience who is getting intrigued by stories where characters find themselves in very unexpected places with no previous building into the story.

"Some limitations of the book:"
I think the readers of this book might need to be warned that there is some reference to suicide, sexual violence, rape, violence, and drug abuse. There is also some swearing in the book. As some of the above might upset a certain audience, it is a good idea to be notified.
One of the things that in my opinion, made the book difficult to follow was that once the story starts to get unfolded there are some 'patches' of random very detailed descriptions e.g. of the landscape of the story, that they do not necessarily add to the plot. On the contrary, deviates the focus from what the story is. Similarly, when a story is about a specific person for instance Kevin's story in Chapter 4, a character gets introduced about 2/3 into the story and that is Leon Duprey who was never mentioned up to this stage. In this instance, I found myself trying to understand if this is a character that I should have know and I somehow missed. On the subject of introducing new characters, it might be good if the author could include 1-2 paragraphs with the most important info we need to know about this character instead of giving a little bit of info as the story goes on. I personally feel there is a risk that the reader might lose interest when it is a character who has not been properly introduced to them.
Another point I picked up, is that female characters especially Beth come across as a person with no agency. I am aware that certain people are more vulnerable, especially after drug abuse or living a period of time in homelessness, but it is difficult to believe that a person with this kind of 'street' experience would be a person who blindly trusts people and ask no questions. There were a few cases where Beth find herself in unexpected situations e.g. finding money in her bag, finding herself working for no money in some random people's house and she asks no questions. I felt this is not a very realistic character and I am not very fond of reinforcing the idea that women have no agency and they can be moved around, like objects, with no questions asked.
I personally would not recommend Entanglement as it is now But perhaps if it was shorter and the lengthy detailed descriptions were removed it could be a fair read.

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Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise
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