
Member Reviews

I just found this underwhelming and not for me. The premise was cool but the actual delivery was underwhelming and really needed work on it for it to hit the goal i thought it would. The characters were a bit weak for me and were a bit 2d overall.

I went into this book kind of expecting it to be like otherworld or Ready player one and I was very disappointed.

This book was not what I expected in the sense that it made me truly think. The events that happened are not a stretch to imagine happening in the world today. I was hoping for a little more chemistry between the characters.

3.5 Stars. This was a hard one to rate. It was about 3 stars for my personal level of enjoyment but I’m giving the book and extra half star because it was well written. I picked this book up hoping for either sci-fi or something similar to The Hunger Games. Not the actual games part but the whole rebelling against an oppressive government part. I guess this book was a little bit about that, but not really in the way I was hoping for. Instead this book is very cerebral. And because of that the pace could really slow at times.
This is a story about what could happen if corporations took control over education. How you could get a person to learn only what you decide is best for them, thus keeping the population controlled, and the people in power in power. Considering who our Secretary of Education is, and the fact she would love to defund the public school system, this book was a little scarier than it should have been.
Since I mostly read lesfic I do want to mention I don’t consider this lesfic. This is more a book with LGBTQ characters. There is a slight wlw relationship but this book is not a romance.
If you want to read something really cerebral that will make you think, this might be for you. It wasn’t really my personal taste, but I do think the author wrote a well written book.

The best book is one that gets you thinking. One where a bad guy is not a bad guy, but someone who behaves in a way that is not always good for the protagonist. And who is the antagonist really, and who is the good guy?
Is it Charles, who plants dangerous ideas in the minds of young students, believing he will help them think freely? Does he really free them, or does he only add danger to their lives? Is it miss Barfield, who infiltrates and moulds the minds of young people? Is greed really all there is to her motives?
Reading this book, I realised my need to read more and differently. It has been too long since I read a book and thought about things like motives, deeper meanings, etc. I want to read more, more literature, more poetry. 'At the Trough' has rekindled my flame, and I want to thank Adam Knight for it.