#year of the locust
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Plot? What Plot?
As someone who aspires to become an author that will someday get on a Best Selling List somewhere in the world, I read a lot of books. While it's not on the level of professional BookTok-ers or those running BookTube channels, I like to think I get through a decent portion of them during the year. Especially when my books of choice are usually 600-page minimum behemoths. AFter all, with the rising cost of books (they're about $24 now in Australia for a standard paperback), I need to ensure I'm getting my money's worth!
However, ever since I joined the bookclub at my workplace, I've been exposed to genres and books I might not have usually thought twice on. Surprisingly, most of them have been much shorter than the books I usually devour.
But the most recent book we've picked is Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes. And, quite frankly, I've mixed feelings about the book. Spoilers ahead for anyone who might want to read this book in the future.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to spy thrillers. Hell, back in 2013, I even bought I Am Pilgrim after seeing the title being advertised nearly everywhere in the London Underground while I was there third-wheeling my friend and her then-boyfriend's relationship (you know you're close if you can get away with hijacking a trip overseas to see a significant other).
Did I love it? Not...exactly.
Still, I gave it a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars!
Year of the Locust, on the other hand, is a rough 2.5 stars (rounded down on Goodreads in this instance).
And I know you must be asking me why. After all, it's a 600-page behemoth. So, it would be in my usual wheelhouse of books I'd like to savour in just shy of a month.
Unfortunately, while I find the writing and sentence structure decent, my main issue are the characters and the surfeit of plot. This is no A Court of Silver Flames where Nesta and Cassian spin plates in the House of the Wind (and by that I mean the training, the bloody 10,000 step staircase and all the unnecessary sexy times), and the plot, when it is remembered, is scattered unevenly throughout before it all gets rushed through in the last few chapters.
No, no. Year of the Locust suffers from what I like to call the Scarlet Nexus issue. It's where the writers (or writer in this case), think any and all ideas are great and insert it into the story as some sort of twist. And in Year of the Locust, the second half has this in spades: space spores which fast-track human into evolving a white carapace, giving them a 'ridgeback,' and heightening their aggression; an experimental cloaking technology affixed to a submarine that somehow makes it travel through time.
Like, why? Why couldn't this be a separate story entirely?
Also, did you have to power up your villain into some video game bullet sponge? Uncharted 2: Honour Among Thieves this is not. But if you blink, the difference between Zoran Lazarevic and Kazinsky are almost non-existent.
Perhaps my gut instinct at the start of the book should have warned me that Year of the Locust would not go the way I thought it would. Especially as it opened with a completely different adventure with Ridley Kane going up against the Magus (which would later be revisited again in Part 3 - most likely to pad the book out because it added little substance to the whole Ridley and Kazinsky dynamic in any shape or form) to highlight a secret technique the dastardly spy would use against our protagonist, one he would repeat in the final few chapters against Kazinsky.
Another thing that rubbed me wrong was how often Ridley, as he recounts the story sometime in the future, would tell the reader how deadly all his foes were. All the while underselling his abilities as a Denied Access Area spy. Rather, our protagonist is just an ordinary guy who once wished to be part of a submarine crew and has mastery of multiple languages like Russian and Arabic.
The other parts I felt added little to the actual plot were the foreshadowing dreams Ridley has, and which many of the supporting cast attribute to PTSD. Why can't intuition just be that? Did Ridley truly have to emphasise he could hear 'gunshots from the future?' It's not as if he was ever shown to be clairvoyant about other things in his life.
Oh, and don't get me started on how much of the book 'tells' the backstory of all of its characters rather than simply 'showing' it. Did we need to have several chapters dedicated to Kazinsky talking about his childhood of hunting for mammoth tusks? How did it add to his characterisation? Did Ridley really have to exclaim to the rest of the CIA that Kazinsky was expositing to hammer the exact same point home to the reader?
By the time I reached the end, I was praying for the story to end. Especially when typical tropes began being pulled out: like Ridley refusing to go back in time and only did so when his wife (when did he and Rebecca even get married again?) died in his arms. The writing truly could be seen on the wall.
Also, how did the spores manage to travel around the world? How much was on some asteroid ore? And if they could become airborne, why couldn't people get infected after Devil's Night?
All I can say after reading the book was that the author definitely needed an editor. One who wasn't afraid to tell the author to kill his darlings if he wanted to write something that might not have been a complete mess. Or, at the very least, split the plot in half and write them separately with different characters. There was absolutely no need to mush two disparate ideas into one book. Especially given how strange the tonal change would be.
Do I regret that I read this book? A little. There are a million other choices sitting on my bookshelves. And yet, I also think it's important to read books one might not always enjoy. After all, such things help widen one's understanding of taste. If you're lucky, though, you might just find a new genre you'd fall in love with. Or a new favourite author.
While I know some might argue there isn't enough time in our very short life spans to read books you don't like, it's hard to distinguish what you do and don't like without experimenting a little. If one reads only the classics, thinking they ought to like them because of how they've managed to stand the test of time, it may deter them from books entirely. Especially if the writing might be too pretentious or too dry.
Besides, what someone else might like but I might detest is all very subjective. There are many people online who have elevated Sarah J Maas to such heights I'd not be able to reach while leaving other authors, who might be just as good, in the dust.
In any case, I know for certain Year of the Locust isn't quite the novel I expected. While there are some reviewers on Goodreads who love the rollercoaster ride they were presented with, it is this humble blogger's opinion that the story would have been better split into two separate novels. Coupled with a good editor who wasn't afraid to leave certain threads on the cutting room floor, those two separate stories would have been more tightly written and given Terry Hayes the springboard to leap into a wholly different genre.
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Poem: Cicada - Hosho McCreesh
Cicada Jason [The prequel?]
#something something in the dirt for a number of years only to emerge and scream#again- robin is like the larval form of gotham vigilantes in this essay i will- [gets overtaken by swarm of locusts]#jason todd#jaybin#jason peter todd#robin jason todd#batfam#jason todd robin#batman#dc robin#robin jason#red hood#dcu#dc universe#dc comics#dc fanart#my art
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24/11/24
Food and books, getting my wallpaper up, reading some more, chocolate cake, and the second Lilo and Stitch. Feeling a little scattered as I couldn’t do a lot of my usual Sunday tasks, but I’m telling myself it’s okay.
#ThisIsDore#daily post#busy day#kindle reading#little treats#currently reading#the year of the locust#and something I can’t remember the name of#lilo and stitch#redecorating
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frozen black locust trees.
#nature#trees#winter#ice#branches#winter aesthetic#black locust#my photos#i think this is probably our last snow event this year#which i am MORE than okay with
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the last post I wrote about dog communication was mostly about body language, but I'm doggysitting my little baby stepson again (he's a grown man ((neutered,)),) (this is punctuation hell I'm in hell,) and am reminded of how attentive they are to tonal language as well. After a while, saying "good boy! :)" and "beep boop! :)" in exactly the same tone has the same effect on the dog's attitude, same with "hey, no. >:(" and "din-gus. >:(". I love the fact that when I'm tired or only half paying attention to him, I can communicate in apelike grunts and he still gets what I mean (well mostly, he can only take so many minutes of minimal attention, you see.) In these moments I've abbreviated "that's a good boy" to "zzg'aboi".
Another thing in dog language is you can say "heh heh!" without actually using your vocal chords, like just panting twice quickly, and a lot of dogs will immediately get into play mode. I just did it in my kitchen and heard dog in the other room jump up and snatch his toy off the floor. So cuteee.
#I love doggy#this doggy i'm dogsitting has a ccl tear the year after he had an acl tear in the other knee#he loves physio because it means swimming and snuggles but my god do these purebreds cost a fuckton#at least physio costs less than surgery#if it's not musculoskeletal breakdowns or cranial pressure or breathing problems thanks to genetics it's insane allergies to everything#my goal is just to adopt a small mutt from the spca but i really wish vets weren't so expensive#it's the single thing stopping me from adopting my own: vet costs#but i aim to make more money and i'll get my doggy someday#his or her name will be locust (lolo and loca for short)
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Bug pussy is camp of the highest caliber if you can’t handle that idk how youd ever survive on my blog. The locusts
#pan you’ve been talking about this for 10 years#yes. buy my silence and the silence of my 30000 screaming spirit locusts. permanently
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DESPERATELY want to write character analysis for tht god forsaken marvel show but i dont even know where to start w it but its okay bc i can just finally act on the fic ideas i have for it instead but actually trying to write anything ever makes me feel like im slamming into a brick wall well thats fine ill just draw the comic ideas i have for it except for the fact tht ive been stuck in the worlds most heinous case of a months-long artblock. GOD. GOOD GOD.
#i am speaking#'hey none of the phrasing in this makes sense' 10000000 LOCUST PLAGUE ATTACK ON YOU FOR 12 YEARS. GOD GOOD GOD.
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having Lauren not have been seen in db since tmua is kinda crazy. fuck has she been doing for five years
#Just off in the desert? wearing skins and eating locusts John the Baptist style?#joyousposting#and what the fuck has Kevin been doing without her for five years? managing to run the town on his own? i doubt it
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Trick or treat!!! 🤠💀👻👻👻
woe Corne be upon thee
#happy halloween~#reply#was actually home for halloween for the first time in like 5 years#got to see the kiddie parade come through like locusts#also got to root around in my family's closets so i could make a costume for the conference dinner i went to lol#a productive evening for all involved
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Your name is LOCUST ZAHHAK and your mentor is an INSUFFERABLE PRICK
#making a homestuck au w silly little rvb references#Lolix is eternal and constant in my mind#Homestuck#homestuck au#Dirk strider#Locust Zahhak#Yes its a different spelling of locus bc it needs to match troll naming conventions#and reference is being used very liberally this is just 13 year old freak of a man locus visually and slightly personality wise.#I have no excuses#i just want to
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Pharaoh Cicada | Cicadas | Locusts #shorts #cicada #locust #cutecritters #bytesizeambs #truebug
I've been so excited about posting this YouTube short. The Pharaoh Cicadas (17 Year Locusts) are out! It is so amazing to watch them molt and just be.
NOTE: Video quality is better when watched via YouTube. Info on Pharaoh Cicadas in the description of this YouTube short.
EDIT: Since YouTube has decided to keep deleting the description on this one video, I'm posting it below.
We were fortunate enough to see several Pharaoh Cicadas (17 Year Locusts) molting last week. It was amazing to see and I was able to get one on video for this short.
Pharaoh Cicada (Magicicada septendecim)
The majority of the life of Magicicada septendecim is spent in an underground or subterranean habitat. The area in which a periodical cicada brood is located must contain a large population of deciduous trees, on whose roots the cicadas feed during the underground nymph stages. The trees are also necesary for the molt into adulthood, choruses, and egg-laying (Boyer 1996). (iNaturalist)
Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
Other Habitat Features: suburban
Cicadas can provide several environmental benefits, including:
Food source for predators: Cicadas are a valuable food source for birds, reptiles, insects, and mammals
Soil improvement: Cicada tunnels aerate the soil, and their decomposition adds nutrients to the soil
Tree pruning: Cicadas prune mature trees, which can lead to increased flowering and fruit production in the following year
Water filtration: Cicadas improve water filtration into the ground
#shorts #cicadas #locusts #pharaohcicada #bytesizeambs #bytesizeambsshorts
#bytesizeambs#youtube#youtube shorts#shorts#bytesizeambs shorts#amberlou#nature#hiking adventures#cute critters#loulouambrosia#cicada#cicadas#pharaoh cicada#17 year locust#locusts#cicadas molting#trending on YouTube#locust hatching
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youtube
i rly like this song. you should listen to it. in case you might like it too?
#i like many yamaji / litchi songs#but hyperlexia and locust are most shionish#have i made this same exact post before.... feel free to laugh if so#happens sometimes when youre a ghost that has been haunting the grounds for the past 400 years#tumblr is gonna automatically tag this w Youtube. grr.. die..#Youtube
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29/11/24
Spent the day in the den, doing some hobby stuff, catching up with my notebooks, having a 2025 notebook wobble, finished ‘The Year of The Locust’ which made me realise that publishers really will publish anything, and did some planning for the coming month.
#ThisIsDore#daily post#journaling#busy day#currently reading#the year of the locust#bad books#december planning#month ahead tarot#monthly planning
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still can´t believe the goat didn´t burn ):
#worried for the new year without the goat sacrifice#gonna buy/make a straw goat next year and burn it (:<#if theres gonna be another plague next year i hope it´s at least creature related. like a lot of locusts or frogs you know#this year i guess ):
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honestly being in some tall CRP grasses and brambles and brush would fix me <- a man who hasn't walked in the countryside in over a year
#i'd take the locust trees and briars and cockleburs i don't CARE scratch me up i just want to be OUTSIDEEEEEEE#there's barely any bugs this time of year too so i wouldn't have to worry too much abt ticks and mites and skeetos#i really am my mother's son. i don't need the outdoors as much as she does but i genuinely think i need to get out in the wilderness at#LEAST once a year or i start becoming (more) fucked in the head#cityslickers do NOT get the appeal of getting dirt under ur nails & whacked in the face w/ branches in a cedar stand but it is transcendant!#theres birds. theres deer. coyotes. turkeys. bobcats even. and the cougars are returning!! i wanna be OUT THERE#ik my granddad's land out there isn't proper prairie bc it has trees due to human intervention but like. god. i still need to be Out There!#i need to look for cool rocks and arrowheads and mushrooms and hunt for shed antlers and read a book while my mom hunts#maybe i should go to the local nature preserve sometime this week. it's small but beautiful and i NEED this i can't wait for october#len speaks
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