Review of Portals

[Tomah]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Portals" by Jon Zimmer.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Joe Huntley is an idealistic young man who becomes passionate about social issues as he transitions from high school to college, planning to dedicate himself to noteworthy causes. He's particularly concerned about the impacts of climate change and the lack of universal education, both of which call for massive changes in the status quo. Unbeknownst to Joe, however, there are larger forces at play beyond political ideologies and conflicting interests. A mysterious realm lies beneath our everyday reality, one in which we decide our fates or have our fates decided for us.

It's hard to precisely delineate or classify Jon Zimmer's Portals since the novel offers a unique combination of social commentary, existential musings, and metaphysics. The surreal imagery blurs the lines between natural and supernatural phenomena, producing ambiguous scenes that leave plenty of room for different interpretations. At the same time, we follow Joe's empathetic journey to make the world a better place.

Unfortunately, despite presenting intriguing ideas, the plot fails to explore them in detail or craft an engaging narrative. For starters, the frantic pacing leaves little room for proper character development and psychological exploration, leading to flat, shallow characters. This is a shame since Joe has many traits that should make him a complex and compelling protagonist (for example, his hard-working attitude sometimes leads to obsessive thoughts that negatively impact social interactions), but most of his conflicts are worked out in a few paragraphs or even sentences. It's hard to connect to Joe because almost everything about him is told by the narrator rather than shown through actions, dialogue, and subtext.

The plot's second main problem is its lackluster conclusion. While I have nothing against open endings, authors still need to lay the groundwork to make the finale feel suitable: each pivotal moment should converge to a central point that ties everything together. Instead, this ending seems to throw away most of the earlier events, delivering vague answers unrelated to the main themes and conflicts. After reading Portals, I struggled to pinpoint what exactly the novel was trying to achieve.

Besides several grammatical and typographical issues, the book features awkward sentences that take a while to decipher: "If you leave life, or should I say an Earth life, there is still an existence, possibly an eternity, or in a very plain simple word, an undying" (location 2078). The author also makes some decisions that add unnecessary confusion, such as naming two characters "Mary" without employing a simple, consistent way of distinguishing between them (an easy solution would be referring to one of them by surname, for example).

Portals is a promising story in dire need of professional editing for the prose, plot, and characters. I can't recommend the book in its current state to most people, though readers interested in stories that tackle philosophical discussions on life, death, and reality might find something to enjoy. I rate the novel 2 out of 4 stars since I enjoyed many of its ideas and believe in its potential, despite the lack of polish.

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Portals
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[maggi3]

I like the main character's dedication to social justice; the premise of this book sounds really interesting. It's unfortunate that the execution was lackluster, though. Hopefully the author will get a professional editor to fix the book's issues. Thanks for the review!

[Kanchan Sharma]

A clear and candid review. I would love to check it myself.

[El_limitless]

I'd love to know how Joe Huntley conquered the forces at play against him to bring the change he wanted to see. Great review.

[Adrian Rondon Salazar]

Readers interested in stories that tackle philosophical discussions on life, death? that's me. Good review, I'll give it a try.

[Urvashi Tripathi]

The cover is quite different and looking interesting. The plot seems good and something I would love to read about. But as you mentioned many negative aspects, I'm confused to pick this book or not. Umm..I'm adding this book in my TBR, hope so I would like it. Thank you for the honest review.

[NetMassimo]

This seems like a typical example of a novel with good potential that's not properly developed. Maybe, a professional editor might help the author with that and with proofreading. Thank you for your honest review!

[Satwik Mohanty]

The only thing I don't like in any genre of novel is an open ending. To me, it feels like the author did not want to give some extra time to get to a proper conclusion. Thanks for the honest review!