I didn't get very far with reading this book, unfortunately.

The formatting made it impossible to read, with all of the speech marks and apostrophes coming out as odd symbols and some of the sentences/paragraphs chopped up and repeating.

I did try retail sites to buy a 'clean' copy but was unable to source one so had to give up.

Apologies to the author and publisher for the non-review.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

The premise was really interesting but the execution less so. I wished that this had been edited a couple more times as this could have done with someone reshaping certain parts of the story.

I received an eARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, here goes. After starting and struggling a bit with this book I visited the website associated with this series (electricalhearts) and looking at the posted reviews there it seems its original title was ‘The Seduction Challenge’, which seems more appropriate given its content. If it had retained that title I would not have requested it.

One review described its main characters as “average, shagless losers”. The whole idea of the Rebirthers, the Challenge and the exploits of a group of ASLs, even with some fantastical elements, just failed to engage my interest.

No doubt it will appeal to some. One review on the website suggested it would “be of particular interest to young men who are frustrated by the online world”. That may well be but I am none of those.

Humour and satire can be tricky genres as for some readers it just will fall flat even if it appeals to others. In Britain the laddish ‘The Inbetweeners’ is very popular but I find it too cringe-worthy to watch for more than a few minutes. The book’s main group reminded me of those lads. So even if some scenes raised a smile it just wasn’t enough. I concluded that I just wasn’t in the right demographic of readers. I read over half before resorting to skimming.

I hate giving low ratings as I am sure the author put in a great deal of their time and heart into this project. No doubt there’s an audience for it but just not a book for me. The cover art was striking.

I do not even know where to begin with this book. I read about 50% of the book before I had to just stop because I did not know what I had read or where the plot was going. Plus, there was an extreme number of brackets that made reading choppy and distracting. They were too many and probably unnecessary for the effect that I am guessing the author was going for. Second, I could grasp the point of the weird humor and the lack of details. I wish the author all the best and apologize that I could not finish or like their book.

DNF. I am so confused ... this book is so bizarre and not up my alley. To be fair, I gave up at 21% so I might not have given it enough of a chance. I usually don`t DNF that quickly but with this one I just could not continue. I don`t know who I could recommend this book to. I hope it finds readers that appreciate the bizarrness.

Disclaimer: Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and synopsis really drew me into requesting this book. Unfortunately, it just wasn't quite for me.

I was never able to download this book, and honestly I haven't been able to find it on any website. Any one know what happened?

A "want to like" rather than an "actual like" - there are some good thoughts here but it's all so vague that it failed to grab me as a reader. I'll look for the author in the future but this was a missed opportunity.

Bizarre, and not in a good way. I still have absolutely no idea what was supposed to be happening. To be fair, I did give up pretty quickly as I knew it wasn't going to be for me. Would recommend to no one I'm afraid.

First problem. This book makes no sense. I don’t think this book could decide what it wanted to be, the synopsis suggests something Wonderland-ish, most of the plot seems to be about seducing women (by which they mean taking selfies with them?) but there are also half-monkey people because…reasons? I honestly don’t think I could explain the plot of this book if I had eight hours.

Second problem. This plot is kind of sexist. I say kind of. I mean very. This whole concept centres around these guys for whom I genuinely can’t think of a better name than ‘losers’. They want sex and they aren’t getting any so they turn to this kind of cult which gives them instruction in how to pick up women. Now had the whole book been about exposing these strange ideas that float around about how to pick up women by channelling some primal instinct (because we all want an alpha male of course) and making fun of them I might have enjoyed it slightly more. If it was trying to make fun of them the jokes just weren’t landing. So all you’re left with is characters who are irritating at best that you can’t relate to at all.

Next up, why was this prose so complicated. I felt like I was being beaten over the head with a science textbook every page, this is a convoluted plot as it is, I don’t want to have to sift through piles of useless information about fictional seduction cults to find out what I need to know!

I know. I know. I should have DNF’d this book. I really should have. Some stubborn instinct kicked in at around 100 pages in and I decided I was going to get to the end if it killed me. I am so glad that I will not have to read this again.

Should you read this? No.

My rating: 1/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This could have been a really good book but somehow it didn't meet my expectations.
I had some problems with the style of writing even if I found the plot and the characters likeable.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher

I was looking forward to this as being a Brit I love British humour but unfortunately this didn’t hit the mark.

The story was slow and the author loves using brackets in fact they were completely overused. The characters although somewhat believable didn’t come across as the geeks they were made out to be. Not all geeks are lonely and in need of dating tips.

As much as I tried to finish the book I just couldn’t do it. I got about 37% and I couldn’t bring myself to go back to it.

Unfortunately the book was unreadable due to formatting.