What readers think of A Visit from the Goon Squad, plus links to write your own review.

A Visit from the Goon Squad interpolates characters that are struggling with the process of aging while at the same time figuring out their paths and direction in life. Although the book was well-written with each chapter an engaging short story of its own, I did not like the book as a whole. The lack of plot and depth of the characters drained my focus from the book, although as previously said the chapters themselves were easy to read.
   Throughout the book Egan uses different voices to express her characters, even featuring a fifty page powerpoint presentation near the end of the book. The various writing views makes the book more intriguing, but once again I feel that the book doesn’t capture the depth of the characters personalities and doesn’t show the change that the characters made in time, it just plots their events throughout the years. Also, make note that before you read this book, there are a huge number of characters. I suggest to not spread out the reading, but rather try to read it consistently. I had to keep referring back to earlier passages in the book to remember who all the characters were and what their relations to other characters were as well. The number of characters made it hard to keep up with what exactly was going on in the chapters, but eventually you can piece together the relations and events.
   As a whole, I would not place this book as a “must-read” and it is definitely not a “relax, sit back, and enjoy” one either. As previously said, I did not like it, but different people have different literature tastes, so I can see how one would like it. However, I am not going to be recommending it.

The critics adored this book! In fact I never read such accolades: "extraordinary", "dazzling", etc. I couldn't wait to purchase it and begin reading. I'm reading it...and reading it.....but where's the good part? These people are uninteresting and unlikable. As a psychotherapist I was drawn in by the first chapter which takes place in a therapist office. Yes, I understand they were on a journey of aging (I wouldn't say growing), but there was no reason for me to care. Three-quarters of the way in, I just gave up. Left it on a plane so maybe someone else will find it and enjoy it. I wouldn't give it to any of my friends. To tell you the truth, I feel misled. Money wasted.

Yes, it is clever..but that doesn't warrant the accolades this book is getting. Not an arresting book at all..

I finished the book the whole time thinking when will this grab my attention. Very confusing each chapter a different character at different stages of their lives. Not alot of substance. A waste of my time. Would not recomend. It was book club book to read & discuss. Not a lot of discussing on my part.

After reading all the critics, I thought that this would be a great read to suggest for one of my book clubs. I'm 3 qtrs of the way through the book and would drop it except that we chose to read it in a book club. The charcters are all dysfunctional with few redeeming qualities, they are unable to connect with others in a significant way, they lack depth, and are totally self absorbed. I haven't found one of them to be interesting enough to care about what happens to them and right now I just can't wait to get done with this book.

I'm not sure why this novel won such accolades. The topic sounded interesting (the world of contemporary music) but about halfway through I realized I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them. That's the kiss of death for me, so I shut the book and never opened it again.

I hoped to like this book and gave it several chapters before closing it for good. I'm very surprised to see it get the rave reviews. I found it confusing, bouncing around with characters I could not recognize in their many incarnations, past, present and contrived future; and never enough to care about.

Also, for all its forward-thinking, there are parts of this book that cannot be read on a Kindle.

I could NOT get past Chapter 3. Very boring, stupid book. Got a recommendation on TikTok for this book and just can't read it.