#year of the locust

[kyndaris]

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.

[daredevil-vagabond]

Poem: Cicada - Hosho McCreesh

Cicada Jason [The prequel?]

[hungerpunch]

the way that the oscar-winning 2017 film, call me by your name, launched timothay chalamay from relative obscurity to a leading man & household name and would have propelled the chronically-mediocre armie hammer to new heights had he not been exposed as a cannibal

versus

how no such thing happened for the leads of the oscar-winning 2016 film, moonlight (ashton sanders, trevante rhodes, jharrel jerome, andré holland), who have all toiled for small parts or infrequent leads in the years since their accolades.

i truly hate society.

[geddyqueer]

harvested a 510g/1 lb 2 oz tomato today lads

[the-reclawmation-studio]

Migratory locusts pinned in 3 different poses. Which is your favourite?

These are natural deaths from my breeding colony.

[tado25]

[socialbunny]

Let's watch the show!

[los-plantalones]

frozen black locust trees.

[hellsvestibule]

Bug pussy is camp of the highest caliber if you can’t handle that idk how youd ever survive on my blog. The locusts

[mudstoneabyss]

having Lauren not have been seen in db since tmua is kinda crazy. fuck has she been doing for five years

[humming-fly]

Trick or treat!!! 🤠💀👻👻👻

woe Corne be upon thee

[valveorangebox]

Your name is LOCUST ZAHHAK and your mentor is an INSUFFERABLE PRICK

[bytesizeambs]

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

[barksbog]

still can´t believe the goat didn´t burn ):

[kenobihater]

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

[kagender]

art about pet loss speaks to me more than anything else. idk