I think this is going to be a marmite book, you will either love it or hate it. I was not loving it or hating it. Defo worth a read as a bit different to my usual read. Many thanks to both the author and net galley for allowed me to read this book.

There will be an audience for this literary novel about brainy neuroscientists in a grant program at NYU. A debut novel, The Revelations is written primarily about a strange genius, Kierk, who hopes to further develop his theory of consciousness. The author, named Erik, is a neuroscientist studying the field of human consciousness. Full of theory and references to philosophical and classical works, along with aborted efforts at depicting romantic relationships, covert experiments, government surveillance, academic rivalry, and a possible murder; this landslide of ideas was not entertaining or pleasurable to read.

This debut novel has a little bit of everything: science, romance, mystery. But, ultimately, that’s what doesn’t work — it’s all over the place. Ultimately, I didn’t finish this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I feel a lot of ways about The Revelations.

1) I like the science and ideas about neuroscience and consciousness. Probably 2/3rds of the book centers on these ideas and Kierk's thoughts on them. It's interesting to me, but those without experience in or knowledge of research practices or general biology/chemistry/ life sciences could be confused. Not much is explained in lay terms.

2) I don't like the romance. Carmen is pretty awesome, Kirk is not. Kirk, though incredibly smart, has clear issues. He shows no redeeming or positive qualities. As an outside looking in, he'll be using his incredible intelligence to excuse bad behavior for the rest of his life. I don't think a relationship with him would be a glorified experience as the story has it. It's going to end badly, and I cringe when authors put good female characters in that position for no good reason.

3) The murder mystery isn't wrapped up on a first read. Perhaps it might become clearer on a second read. However, it seems that at the last minute Carmen throws out a possibility as the answer and we're left with that. A couple of other possibilities are half-heartedly investigated earlier and neither satisfactorily concluded. If you're looking for a tidy murder mystery, this isn't it.

I wish the murder mystery had either been completed or left out, and the romance cut completely. Neither add to the reading experience, but instead distract from what makes The Revelations so incredible. Kierk's unravelling as he tries once more to understand consciousness would have been a better focus. He's an unlikable character, but the way his thoughts are experienced in the story is fascinating. This complex weave of fantastical that is also scientific shows so much effort that the book deserves at least four stars. If that had been the focus, I would probably give The Revelations five stars.

I'd recommend this to readers interested in science and having their brains prodded.

An intellectual soup of consciousness, genius and animal testing with a suspicious death thrown into the mix – The Revelations is hard to describe, but very, very good.

After an intellectual breakdown of sorts whilst studying his previous PhD programme, Kierk is living in his car, having left the PhD programme. However, he has an offer of a place on a prestigious programme to study the nature of consciousness. Last minute, he decides to accept the place. I was expecting to dislike Kierk, but found him surprisingly likeable, along with the other students on the course.

Following Kierk’s manic thought processes is great – there is a lot of discussion of consciousness theory which I found fascinating but not overbearing, and I enjoyed the lengths he puts himself through to push his mind to the next level. The sudden death of one of the students places the others under suspicion, along with an animal rights group that has been infiltrating the consciousness research facility. Along with fellow student Carmen, Kierk sets out to discover just what happened.

The descriptions of the testing facility are very realistic and could be upsetting – I found myself clearly picturing the suffering these animals go through. I enjoyed the slightly disconcerting atmosphere of the book, toying with our idea of reality. The ending was sudden – and I think I’m going to go back and re-read it – I imagine there are more layers to this than I picked up on the first reading! Overall I really enjoyed it – a book that challenged me and really made me think.

Well written a book that is a mystery story and a book about existential thought.Sounds like an odd combination but for me it really worked and kept me interested engaged from beginning to end,

This book was a challenging read! I consider myself a strong reader, but it was complicated! I liked the main character and his personality twists- he was a man written with much depth- however the plot seemed as if it would never reach its conclusion.
Perhaps it just wasn’t my favorite genre and I’m not a science buff either. I enjoyed the romantic relationship between the two main characters but found several of the sub-plots confusing or disturbing even.
The details of the scientific testing on apes was sickening to me- well written in that I could truly visualize the brains with the clear half- circled - tops crusted on to their scalps so scientists could view their thinking - so visual it left me nauseating.

What. Did. I. Just. Read.

I consider myself a very advanced reader but this book was just a little to over my head. A group of neuro-scientists start out on a post-doc to define consciousness and how it affects the human physicality. Kierk who joins them has recently come off a stint of being homeless after having a large mental breakdown and epiphany before finishing his PHD. Utilizing this as a chance to return to society he finds that this was not the true fresh start he thought. Shortly after the program one of the scientists is killed in a horrid subway incident; Kierk bans with a colleague, Carmen, to find out if it was truly an accident or did it have involvement from an activist group that is attempting to stop the scientists testing on animals.

The writing in this book was done very well, character development was great as well. I'm not personally sure if this is how scientists communicate, not being one myself but I had probably 40x in this book where I had to re-read sections, make my own timelines, and I really couldn't tell what was real and what was not. It makes me wonder with the amount of detail if this would be a good movie or TV show instead.

I urge anyone that is curious about this to read it, it's got so many intricate layers and plot lines going on. Thank you NetGalley, Erik Hoel, and Overlook Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the description about the book I was excited but once I started I felt like I went down a rabbit hole. The premise of the book involve Crick Scholars researching consciousness and as they go about proving their theories they seem to become a little unraveled. There’s a mystery about a follow scholars death that seems sinister, but is never proven. Some of the scholars believe they are being follow but you don’t find out what or who and in the end I found myself anxious and spooked by the story. One part of the story that bother me a lot were the scientist in this story using animals cruelly to prove their point. So, if you are a animal lover beware that there are parts of the story that are disturbing.

I am going to have to draw a line under this one and move on. I just can't get into it and it isn't holding my interest at all.

I know there is a murder...somewhere, but it hasn't happened yet and I really don't care.

Just not for me.

This book is sort of a mix between a mistery novel and an academic paper on metaphysics and neuroscience. It can be a bit tough to get through all 350+ pages for those who are not really connected to the field, but it's still interesting to see a more serious story. This will not be a light read, so I recommend it to thoese who have a special interest in more depht.

Many thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
This is the story of Kierk, a brilliant young academic studying neuroscience and his relationships with people, reality and consciousness. It switches not only between perspectives, but between time scales, reality, dreams and beyond. The reader has to keep fully engaged or the story is lost.. I failed several times. It's not an easy read, but it's a worthwhile one especially if you are interested in what lies beneath our own consciousness. I can't say I enjoyed this book, and I wouldn't wish to read it again, but it is interestingly well written.

This was an extraordinary read. At first I found it difficult to get into the concept of consciousness but quite quickly the other elements of the story pulled me in and then I couldn't stop. Kierk is a likeable, engaging, central character and the pivotal person in this group of researchers. The story encompasses death, mystery and romance as well as raising awareness of animal testing issues.. A quite different style of read.

This was a challenging read but I really enjoyed it. I’m usually a quite fast reader but this one made me slow down and absorb the knowledge written which I enjoyed. The author is extremely detailed, which helps bring the scientific experiments to visual realities in my mind. While some might be bothered by the scenes of animal experimentation, I actually felt like I learned a lot from them.
This book is a wonderful work of fiction and gives us great detail into the search for consciousness.
The two main characters are Kierk and Carmen, Kierk puts his study of consciousness above everything else while Carmen keeps us close to reality. They’re both brilliant but while Kierk is more of a “mad scientist” type, Carmen is the driving force of the book giving us her curious and fun self all the while investigating what’s happened.
If you enjoy sci-fi, murder mysteries, and maybe even a little bit of romance, I would recommend picking up this book, the ending will blow your mind.

I was interested as it began, and then I was a bit distracted by how this ABD living in a car just managed to somehow magically get his appointment. And why he would think this whole endeavor was legitimate. Then we began the deep dive into neurscience terminology and theory, and I was lost.

The Revelations

I found this a very complex and challenging read. Some of the discussions/concepts were fascinating, but I didn’t find that all of the questions were answered at the end.
It was a little too philosophical for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and Abrams Books for a Digital ARC.


@Abramsbooks #NetGalley

I was in two minds about reading this novel. It is very long, and the description made it sound like it might be overly literary or overly scientific or both. These are all factors that put me off a book - despite being a scientist myself, so perfectly capable of understanding scientific themes in literature. I have little patience with gimmicky techniques or writing that tries to be too clever. And I feared this might be one of those novels. But I was intrigued by the subject matter and in the end decided to give it a go.

I'm glad I did. Whilst it's an intellectual sort of read - dealing with complex concepts and using long words - it is surprisingly readable. There are some sections - a few pages at most - of the main character's thinking and wondering which get a bit tedious, but you can skim them. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to find how easy the bulk of it is to read, and compelling as well. The long words are used appropriately, not for the sake of it, and I enjoyed looking up the more obscure ones.

The main character is Kierk, a tortured genius type who takes up a prestigious post-doctoral research position on a programme to understand the nature of consciousness. The programme seems too good to be true - well funded and with two tenure track positions up for grabs at the end of it. The eight young scientists chosen to participate soon get to know each other and start up work. But there is a constant undertone of the possibility of something more sinister. The research institute is constantly targeted by a militant animal rights organisation, with researchers followed and intimidated. Samples are taken from all of the students to be used for growing organs for research. And then one of the scholars is killed in what may or may not be a tragic accident. Meanwhile Kierk is demonstrating a unique skill for self-sabotage and it's doubtful what will destroy him first - his own twisted brilliance, or whatever external forces are threatening the institution - if indeed, anything really is.

It's this sense of mystery and uncertainty that gives the book its momentum and make it gripping to read. There are many strange goings on, but your mind changes from chapter to chapter about what the explanation might be. Is it all in Kierk's mind? Is it a kind of group hysteria? Is there a dark purpose behind the institute? Is it the animal rights group? Because the novel isn't - and would be hard to - categorised into an obvious 'genre', you don't really know what to expect. The fact it's a story about the nature of consciousness further makes you question what parts may be dreams, or imagination, or hallucination - particularly as Kierk is not the most mentally stable of people.

Kierk is an interesting character, although not a likeable one. I was happy enough to read about him but would loathe him if we met in real life. Although most of the book centres around him., there are also bits from the point of view of other characters, particularly fellow consciousness scholar Carmen - who is convinced their colleague was murdered and sets out most determinedly to prove it.

Overall, I found this book an absorbing read that was intellectually engaging without being dull or tiring to read. I felt that the ending didn't give me the payoff I'd hoped for from the build up and the number of pages I read to get there, which is why it gets a four star rating. But it's an ambitious and thought provoking story and quite remarkable for saying it's a first novel. This new writer is one to watch.

This book is demanding. It is not an easy read. Six fiendishly bright young students are gathered together in a program to research the nature of human consciousness. The story is mostly written from the point of view of one of them, Kierk who carries his intelligence not lightly but in a state of near torment. At times you think that this is going to be a science fiction story, dark forces are hinted at, an atmosphere of menace is created. At times you think that it will turn out to be a love story between the unquiet Kierk and his beautiful co-student Carmen. For a while it seems to be heading toward a murder mystery, since one of the six is killed in unexplained circumstances. The chewy prose demands your full attention and the tense atmosphere is cleverly, perhaps too cleverly, maintained by long complex sentences, words you need to look up (read it on Kindle) and scientific jargon. Just when the two protagonists seem to be facing both terrible danger and some kind of explanation for all the menace and mystery the book ends. "Wake up" are the last words. Wake up from what? What is the source of the mystery? Who killed one of the six? What will happen to Kierk and Carmen? What is the nature of consciousness? There are no explanations and speaking for myself I feel deeply annoyed that i have invested time and effort in this cop out. I don't think many people will enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Overlook Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Erik Hoel does a really great job of bringing a number of topics to the forefront. His treatment of neuroscience and the arguments of what really makes us, us was fascinating. However, I felt myself getting lost sometimes and wondering where the book was going. I thought it was well-written and a great deal of attention was given to the subject matter but it just wasn't a book for me.

This book was a challenging read! I consider myself a strong reader, but it was complicated! I liked the main character and his personality twists- he was a man written with much depth- however the plot seemed as if it would never reach its conclusion.
The search for “consciousness” was quite “meta” for me. Perhaps it just wasn’t my favorite genre and I’m not a science buff either. I enjoyed the romantic relationship between the two main characters but found several of the sub-plots confusing or disturbing even.
The details of the scientific testing on apes was sickening to me- well written in that I could truly visualize the brains with the clear half- circled - tops crusted on to their scalps so scientists could view their thinking - so visual it left me nauseating.
I felt a sense of tension every time the apes were described.
I would not recommend this tome as it was too long and I then found its ending abrupt. I’m glad the main characters escaped the scientific lab and the dark city - but felt I waited for too long for it to happen.