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The Three by Sarah Lotz is presented as a non-fiction account of a fictional event, which is an interesting way to approach a novel. It's a compilation of interviews, news articles, chat room transcripts, official reports, and voice recordings, with a framing narrative by the journalist who has pulled it all together into a coherent tale. And that tale is of the three child survivors of four planes crashing on different continents on the same day.
It's very well constructed, and I thought the reportage style was very effective, especially in the audio version where two narrators (one male, one female) took on all the characters and made them all distinctive and interesting. I also think it's a compelling and believable extrapolation of what would happen in this circumstance in terms of media attention, reactions of the families, crazy theories and development of cults. It's a chilling picture of a world gone mad, and I particularly liked the fact that the reality of the situation is kept ambiguous until the very end.
I didn't have a problem with the ending as such, but I thought it was a shame that the framing narrative was broken in the very last section, making that not part of the fictional non-fiction book, as it were. But it generally worked and I really enjoyed the book as a listening experience. I finished it in a week, which is quick for a 14 hour book, and I consequently did a lot of extra walking, which can only be a good thing!
It's very well constructed, and I thought the reportage style was very effective, especially in the audio version where two narrators (one male, one female) took on all the characters and made them all distinctive and interesting. I also think it's a compelling and believable extrapolation of what would happen in this circumstance in terms of media attention, reactions of the families, crazy theories and development of cults. It's a chilling picture of a world gone mad, and I particularly liked the fact that the reality of the situation is kept ambiguous until the very end.
I didn't have a problem with the ending as such, but I thought it was a shame that the framing narrative was broken in the very last section, making that not part of the fictional non-fiction book, as it were. But it generally worked and I really enjoyed the book as a listening experience. I finished it in a week, which is quick for a 14 hour book, and I consequently did a lot of extra walking, which can only be a good thing!
