Review: The Oracle Year by Charles Soule + Giveaway Winner

“Belief is a commodity. It can be packaged, bought and sold. It’s true of saint’s bones, and it’s true of my ministry.”

If you are looking for a fun, mindless book that goes by quickly but is also a page turner – look no further because, this is the book for you. Main character, Will wakes up with 108 prophecies about the future, from insignificant things like knowing that person x is going to buy chocolate ice cream at a particular date and time to significant ones like predictions about the President of the United States and other major world events.

He starts putting some of these predictions anonymously on a website. They find their way to Reddit and when the first 3 predictions come true, the whole world starts calling him “The Oracle” and he begins to garner buzz. He also starts selling some of the prophecies about the future to huge corporations for a shit ton of money and as more and more of the predictions start coming true,  the buzz is elevated to a full on obsession on finding out who the person behind this is. Unsurprisingly, he makes massive enemies that include a well known televangelist Fox News type character andthe President of the United States.

I found the beginning of this book to be the best part because it hits the ground running from the very first page. The action is fast paced, you’re trying to learn all the characters and discern who you should be rooting for. Then you get to the middle and the tempo just drops down and all you want to do is get to the end see how it ends.

I hated the main character. He was so freaking whiny and I wish he had been more of a smart and cocky individual that didn’t spend all his time thinking “woe is me, I have such a hard life, ooh all the millions in my bank account” and there wasn’t a single character that I found well written or likable, they were all just bland caricatures.

I found the plot of the book original. I kept thinking it was such a great idea for a book and would make an amazing movie. This would have made a better screenplay. Which is funny because even though this is a debut novel for Charles Soule, he is a seasoned comic book writer who writes for Marvel. An editor should have taken a hatchet to it and weeded out the many arcs that the book could have done with out. So many things bogged down the plot and slowed down its progression. It was as if the author was like “I need this book to be 400 pages so what can I throw at them and try to make it stick?”  Fun fact: most of it doesn’t stick. 

The cons of this book not withstanding, The Oracle Year worked for me as a breezy read. This is a proper summer beach read. A spy chick-lit type book, if you will. Think of it like Gossip Girl or Empire (in its earlier seasons). A show you don’t take seriously and is not the best but you also can’t get enough of it. I would recommend this book if you’re looking for something to pull you out your reading slump or you just read a very heavy book and need a reading palate cleanser. I gave this book 3 stars because it did the job I expected it to do – it entertained me.

Have you read this book? If yes, what did you think? If no, do you think you’d give it a chance? Let me know in the comments!!

Leggy

AND THE WINNER IS…*drumroll*

And the 11th commenter was @Neuyogi!! Congratulations! We will reaching out to send your gift card your way.

Thank you all so much for commenting and following and we hope you continue to support us. We appreciate all the love and support!