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Title: Hooked
Subtitle: A Thriller About Love and Other Addictions
Author: Matt Richtel
Narrator: Jason Singer
Format: Abridged
Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-24-07
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 3 votes
Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Modern Detective
Publisher's Summary:
Matt Richtel's first novel will leave you "hooked" at the end of every chapter. His thriller about love and other addictions is itself a compulsive listening experience, fueled by adrenaline and suspense and influenced by the pace and attitude of the Internet. It is a tour de force of romance and deception, and a haunting commentary on the impact new addictions are having on our lives.
Critic Reviews:
"A shrewd cinematic thriller, filled with knowing insights about San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the wired-wireless world." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
HAD POTENTIAL - NEVER QUITE GOT THERE...
This book definitely had a lot of potential, but it never quite realized it. I thought that not only was it slow in periods, but I just found myself disinterested altogether. Additionally, I would have to back-track and re-read certain parts to understand what just happened. It was unnecessarily confusing at times.
Then there were some totally implausible parts that took place near the end where the narrow-escapes were ridiculous and one part in particular where the main character bursts into a meeting looking like he'd been through WWII and the people in the meeting continue discussing top secret plans with him sitting in the room and participating - that was the worst.
The end of the book tries to clean up the loose ends and justify why I've read all that I just read, but it was a case of too little to late. Definitely ambitious, but doesn't quite make it as a recommendation.
Quirky and flat
I picked up Hooked because I was intrigued by the
promotion on NPR and because there are so few good
mysteries set in silicon valley. Unfortunately, the book
did not live up to its hype (including the "thriller"
part of the subtitle).
I had several problems with the book. The hero,
Nat Idle, seems to have a strange attachment to
his one true love, who died several years before
in a boating accident. The details of this past
relationship emerge in a series of flashbacks, but
it's difficult to identify with Idle, who, as his
name implies, can barely deal with events in the present,
such as a deadline for an article he is supposed
to write -- an expose on the effect of cellphones on the brain,
where the electromagnetic energy is tracked from the cell phone
tower, through the brain, and to the cellphone!
Richtel writes on technology for the NYT, and yet he seems
unaware that the only significant microwave energy that is
absorbed in the brain is due to transmission FROM
the cellphone. The rest of the "technology" in the
book is even more harebrained, as the unfortunate
reader eventually finds out.
It's very difficult to identify with the other characters
as well, including the obsessed-on love object.
Idle seems to be in a fog for the entire book, not knowing
who he can trust, and stumbling through, being much
more lucky than smart. He doesn't seem to have any plan,
and yet is able to figure things out far better than he
has a right to, and not get killed multiple times in
the process (as anyone else would have been). Many chapters
end with a new surprise for Idle, such as "I looked up,
and tried to mask my surprise.
