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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Hooked starts with an explosion and an intriguing premise - a San Francisco journalist Nat Idle is sitting in a coffee bar when a mysterious woman leaves him a note telling him to get out of the building fast. Believing she looks like his former girlfriend Annie, who died in a boating accident, he follows her out of the café just as a bomb goes off inside. The novel however goes straight downhill after chapter one with further unlikely and ultimately irrelevant coincidences (the investigating police officer is the brother of a corrupt cop that Nat, a medical journalist, has exposed in one of his articles) poor characterisation and unconvincing depiction of the central relationships between the characters.
It's the credibility in the actual premise however that is the biggest problem with Hooked. I mean, without revealing the plot, towards the end of the novel even the villains laugh at our investigator when he threatens to expose their activities. Who's going to believe a story like that?, they tell him. Who indeed? Certainly not the reader. There may indeed be corruption in Silicon Valley, but I doubt the senior executives and businessmen are as naïve as the ones here seem to be. Even allowing for suspension of disbelief however, and seeing the theme as being a commentary on the addictive nature of home computing and our growing reliance on it, the lack of any particularly likeable characters makes the novel difficult to get hooked on.
It's the credibility in the actual premise however that is the biggest problem with Hooked. I mean, without revealing the plot, towards the end of the novel even the villains laugh at our investigator when he threatens to expose their activities. Who's going to believe a story like that?, they tell him. Who indeed? Certainly not the reader. There may indeed be corruption in Silicon Valley, but I doubt the senior executives and businessmen are as naïve as the ones here seem to be. Even allowing for suspension of disbelief however, and seeing the theme as being a commentary on the addictive nature of home computing and our growing reliance on it, the lack of any particularly likeable characters makes the novel difficult to get hooked on.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
49 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Buy the book before the movie comes out...
17 Nov 2007
Format:Hardcover
I picked up a copy of Hooked on a last minute book stop after realizing, suddenly, that I was leaving for my meticulously planned week in Tahoe with no email, cell phones or clients, but then, as of yet, nothing new to read.
I had thirty minutes to plan my assault on the local Border's so I texted a friend who dutifully responded back with some suggestions including Hooked, which he recommended because it was "a good page turner".
Turned out he was right, and it also proved an appropriate antidote for someone trying to take a breather from work-encouraged ADD and you know, get away from it all and things like that.
Hooked is a totally fun book about an overly sentimental Bay area journalist who stumbles upon a nefarious plan hatched by local venture capitalists who have created the next big technology innovation and they have figured out what we always suspected the Microsofts and Googles of the world were secretly up to...getting us feeble-minded consumers literally addicted to their products. There's love, mayhem, mystery and death...and truly, it becomes addictive as you try to figure out what's really going on. I read it in a day.
Trust no one, but read Hooked.
My only real complaint is that there wasn't a Part Deux for those of us who got hooked.
Makes an excellent stocking stuffer.
Or Hanukah/Kwanza gift.
I had thirty minutes to plan my assault on the local Border's so I texted a friend who dutifully responded back with some suggestions including Hooked, which he recommended because it was "a good page turner".
Turned out he was right, and it also proved an appropriate antidote for someone trying to take a breather from work-encouraged ADD and you know, get away from it all and things like that.
Hooked is a totally fun book about an overly sentimental Bay area journalist who stumbles upon a nefarious plan hatched by local venture capitalists who have created the next big technology innovation and they have figured out what we always suspected the Microsofts and Googles of the world were secretly up to...getting us feeble-minded consumers literally addicted to their products. There's love, mayhem, mystery and death...and truly, it becomes addictive as you try to figure out what's really going on. I read it in a day.
Trust no one, but read Hooked.
My only real complaint is that there wasn't a Part Deux for those of us who got hooked.
Makes an excellent stocking stuffer.
Or Hanukah/Kwanza gift.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Disappointed
19 Jun 2007
Format:Hardcover
HOOKED is a heavily hyped thriller from Hachette's new "Twelve" imprint. Unfortunately, this novel is a really weak effort that I can't recommend.
The beginning of the book is the best part. Nat Idle, a medical school graduate turned freelance journalist, is sitting in a coffee shop when a woman hands him a note. He then opens the note, and discovers that it's telling him to get out of the shop. The shop then explodes. Interestingly, the note is written in the handwriting of Idle's old girlfriend, lost at sea over two years ago and presumed dead.
Unfortunately, after this exciting beginning, HOOKED doesn't go much of anywhere. This book just isn't very tightly plotted at all. The story moves forward rather slowly, with an endless series of flashbacks detailing Idle's relationship with his lost love. To make matters worse, Idle is a remarkably bland leading man, and virtually all of the supporting characters are thinly drawn. A lot of their dialogue is stilted and lacks any semblance of style.
HOOK has some clever moments, but it really doesn't flow very well as a story. In the end, it just never grabbed me or even held my attention. My advice is to skip this book and read superior efforts by writers such as Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Greg Iles, and Tess Gerritsen.
The beginning of the book is the best part. Nat Idle, a medical school graduate turned freelance journalist, is sitting in a coffee shop when a woman hands him a note. He then opens the note, and discovers that it's telling him to get out of the shop. The shop then explodes. Interestingly, the note is written in the handwriting of Idle's old girlfriend, lost at sea over two years ago and presumed dead.
Unfortunately, after this exciting beginning, HOOKED doesn't go much of anywhere. This book just isn't very tightly plotted at all. The story moves forward rather slowly, with an endless series of flashbacks detailing Idle's relationship with his lost love. To make matters worse, Idle is a remarkably bland leading man, and virtually all of the supporting characters are thinly drawn. A lot of their dialogue is stilted and lacks any semblance of style.
HOOK has some clever moments, but it really doesn't flow very well as a story. In the end, it just never grabbed me or even held my attention. My advice is to skip this book and read superior efforts by writers such as Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Greg Iles, and Tess Gerritsen.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Great "listen" for a long summer drive
13 July 2007
Format:Audio CD
(Thriller on 5 CD abridged--also in hardcover)
Nat Idle, a freelance journalist who decided after graduating from medical school that he was better suited for a career writing about, versus practicing medicine, left the required residency program and never looked back.
The novel opens as Nat sits reading a book in a San Francisco cafe, when a woman places a folded note on the edge of his table, then, without pause, quickly exits the cafe. He picks up the note and attempts to follow the mysterious woman outside, only to catch a brief glimpse of her speeding away in a red Saab. He then reads the note...."Get out of the café-Now"! It was much more than the words that grabbed Nat, it was the script. It was Annie's handwriting-Annie, his deceased girlfriend, for whom his heart still ached. How? His swirling thoughts are interrupted, as at that very moment the cafe explodes, knocking him off his feet.
This single terrifying moment changes Nat's life once again, and launches the story into overdrive. Richtel takes the reader on a fast-paced journey, full of relentless action and drama. With the added dimension of Jason Singer narrating, readers can easily visualize the sharply etched, strong characters Richtel created, especially the ruthless, clever and devilishly ingenious Kendell family. The exact circumstances surrounding the loss of Annie aren't explained until later, which adds to the nail-biting tension and myriad of questions that urge the reader on. Nat appears to be a hopeless romantic unable to bury the past and move forward. But this too will be revealed as yet another ingredient carefully woven into this meticulously designed high-tech web of deceit.
Hooked is absolutely the perfect title for this debut novel from Matt Richtel. Undoubtedly after this reading (or listening) experience, there will be legions of fans hooked on Richtel's complex plots, endearing characters and strong delivery. Hooked will leave even the most astute suspense thriller fan in awe of Richtel's ability to weave the unimaginable into the very fabric of reality. You will never again surf the web or check email without a quick thought and then shake off the idea as ludicrous. But is it? Or.... are we already, hooked?
Armchair Interviews says: Hooked it is-whether you read or listen, you will be hooked, too?
Nat Idle, a freelance journalist who decided after graduating from medical school that he was better suited for a career writing about, versus practicing medicine, left the required residency program and never looked back.
The novel opens as Nat sits reading a book in a San Francisco cafe, when a woman places a folded note on the edge of his table, then, without pause, quickly exits the cafe. He picks up the note and attempts to follow the mysterious woman outside, only to catch a brief glimpse of her speeding away in a red Saab. He then reads the note...."Get out of the café-Now"! It was much more than the words that grabbed Nat, it was the script. It was Annie's handwriting-Annie, his deceased girlfriend, for whom his heart still ached. How? His swirling thoughts are interrupted, as at that very moment the cafe explodes, knocking him off his feet.
This single terrifying moment changes Nat's life once again, and launches the story into overdrive. Richtel takes the reader on a fast-paced journey, full of relentless action and drama. With the added dimension of Jason Singer narrating, readers can easily visualize the sharply etched, strong characters Richtel created, especially the ruthless, clever and devilishly ingenious Kendell family. The exact circumstances surrounding the loss of Annie aren't explained until later, which adds to the nail-biting tension and myriad of questions that urge the reader on. Nat appears to be a hopeless romantic unable to bury the past and move forward. But this too will be revealed as yet another ingredient carefully woven into this meticulously designed high-tech web of deceit.
Hooked is absolutely the perfect title for this debut novel from Matt Richtel. Undoubtedly after this reading (or listening) experience, there will be legions of fans hooked on Richtel's complex plots, endearing characters and strong delivery. Hooked will leave even the most astute suspense thriller fan in awe of Richtel's ability to weave the unimaginable into the very fabric of reality. You will never again surf the web or check email without a quick thought and then shake off the idea as ludicrous. But is it? Or.... are we already, hooked?
Armchair Interviews says: Hooked it is-whether you read or listen, you will be hooked, too?
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