Mona Lisa Overdrive (6 pts): I Should've Read the First Two Books to Know What's Going On

     Oops. After reading a good chunk of Mona Lisa Overdrive and STILL not understanding the world and the people in it, I eventually relented and googled the book's plot, only to find that it was the LAST BOOK in William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy. No wonder I was so confused. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one confused, which was why I could fully relate to Kumiko Yanaka and her story in the novel.

    Kumiko was basically thrown into the story with zero knowledge of what was going on around her. Her father shipped her off to England while he dealt with some Yakuza business, leaving her all alone and alienated in her new surroundings. Fortunately, she meets Sally Shears (who I read was actually named Molly Millions from the first books... which I SHOULD'VE read...), who drags her around London to meet with people with weird names. Even in her chapters, Kumiko feels like an outsider looking in, with Sally feeling like more of a star, most likely because she's not a new character in this series. This is why I related to Kumiko so much throughout this book. It's evident that she has absolutely no idea what is going on a lot of the time, especially when Sally takes her to meet people like Tick and the Finn. Both me and Kumiko don't know these people, and are both pretty confused about the stuff that's going on around us, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the ending scene featuring her, Tick and Colin.

    Ok. I get that there was going to be some sort of dramatic confrontation between Kumiko's mother and herself, but it was totally ruined by the cheesy dialogue and just... strange imagery? To start, Kumiko's "mother" is actually this lady named 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (who are apparently bad guys in this series) and her dialogue is just horribly cheesy. Like... screaming "Die! You'll die! I'm killing you! Now!" (Page 98) can't let me take her seriously as a villain. And then there's Colin who pulls up on a paper horse and just... explains to the reader why 3Jane is doing all her evil deeds? Both me and Kumiko have absolutely no reason to care for this woman and her villainy and it just feels anticlimactic.

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