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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Suffers from sequel syndrome., May 30 2003
By A Customer
I've read 4 Ripley books, in order.
I have found the quality tails off as you read through the series, finally hitting rock bottom with the Boy who followed Ripley. To be fair the second and third are perfectly readable, just not as good as the first. The Talented Mr. Ripley deserves all the credit it gets, it is a well written and attention grabbing tale.The plot is reasonably straightforward, but I get the feeling that much of the substance remains in the authors head - there are many instances of unlikely events that Tom for some unfathomable reason imagines will happen, and lo and behold, they do. He instantly recognises who the boy is, with little evidence. He immediately comes to the conclusion for no apparent reason that certain things will happen to the boy (I won't spoil it), they all happen. These in our world are called coincidences, in Ripleys world we are expected to swallow them one after the other. I found myself skimming paragraphs, as I knew what would happen, because Tom had thought about it happening 10 minutes before. The character of the boy himself is woefully undeveloped. The premise of the boy 'worshipping' Tom Ripley is thought sufficient to explain why the boy meekly does everything Tom tells him to, whether or not it makes sense. Still, I'm not going to give it no Stars at all. I did manage to finish the book, and I certainly couldn't do any better! This is not her best work. I found myself turning to my wife and saying 'Boy, this book is boring'. A first for me.
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