Jane

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was a well-done story. If it was longer, I would probably love it as much as Song of Achilles. But, alas, it is just a short story.

Despite the length, it did give us a compelling look into the life of a woman so trapped by her “husband”. The man was not only controlling, he was a woman hater who sees value in women so long as they fit in the extremely narrow parameters he sets for them.

This book was not just a retelling. It’s a commentary on the wild and harmful rhetoric and philosophy of the red-pill movement. This isn’t just about incels. It’s about men who use women and then blame them for being used.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While I might not really say, I love this book so much, I did, however, enjoyed it immensely. I was quite saddened that this is a litfic and will not have a sequel. Or at least not with Marcellus. If he’s not a part of it, then I probably won’t want to read it.

Pros:

1. I loooooooove Marcellus. I was already thinking about borrowing this book when it was chosen as the Book Club pick for the month. The draw was the octopus.

2. Though the story did stray far from Tova’s interactions with Marcellus, very little of it felt unnecessary or filler. I’m not saying it’s devoid of it. But I can only think of 1 scene that I think this book could have done without or reduced.

3. The title of the book insinuates that it’s talking about the octopus or all octopi. But in the end it it’s about people as well.

Cons:

1. Not enough Marcellus.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Love but with notes

4.5 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book but still with notes

5.0 - Love it so much I want to highlight the book and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Family drama, bad romance, and underwhelming magical realism.

This was another book that had more than 1 story going on. But just like with Magpie Murders, I wished they just stuck with one. Maybe if the author focused on just 1 story, they could have made it more interesting. Unfortunately, that was not what happened. In my humble opinion, I ended up reading 2 unenjoyable stories for the price of 1. And I want a fucking refund.

While Opaline’s story dealt with a lot of interesting topics (forced arrangement marriage, sexism, abuse in asylums, forced adoption), those were not the topics I expected here. It’s not that I’m opposed to reading about those topics, but I have to be in the right mood to read heavy topics.

Martha and Henry’s current day story was boring. Disappointing given how this was the part with the magical realism elements. A good chunk of it was about their “relationship”. I put that in quotes because I am unconvinced those 2 fell in love. I mean, I guess they can. But maaaan, both were so uninteresting. It’s like 2 soggy pieces of white bread getting together.

Also, the title of this book is “The Lost Bookshop” but if they were honest, this book should be called “The Lost Bookshop Owner”.

Not all was bad, I appreciated the prose.

I am on the fence about DNFing this book. I don’t want to be a quitter but at 66% of this book, I kind of no longer care about the ending.

Updated:

I did finish this book.

After much thought, I thought that Opaline's story is ok. The end to her arc had somewhat redeemed this whole thing.

Martha's story was still boring though.

I would have enjoyed this more if they just stuck with Opaline.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This book was doing too much. It’s a story within a story that also included an excerpt of another story.

The main reason I didn’t DNF this book was because I really wanted to finish my Book Club’s pick so that I can have a meaningful discussion when we do meet up. If I had picked this up on my own, I would have abandoned it within the first 100 pages.

Basically, there are 2 main stories.

1. A mystery novel that had the last few chapters missing.

2. The search for the missing chapters that bloomed into trying to figure out what really happened to its author.

This book started with the mystery novel. It progressed as stories usually do.

Frankly I could hardly get myself to be invested in solving who killed the so-called victims in the mystery novel. Both seemed like awful people. To me, they had it coming.

Then as things in that story finally got me invested, it abruptly halted because the succeeding chapters were missing. The story of this book suddenly shifted to the current day story about the missing chapters and the author of the mystery novel.

The current day story was even more boring than the story in the mystery novel. There were so many long-winded red herrings thrown in there that trying to scrutinize them for clues, as to who killed the author and why, was basically pointless. They all, in the end, didn’t matter other than to hammer home the point that the author was a <b>BIG HONKING DOUCHE</b>.

Were the missing chapters of the mystery novel found? Yes. Honestly, it was an interesting end to that story.

However, the rest of the book? Ugh. Self-indulgent. I should have just skipped all the chapters related to the current day plot about the author of the book. As for it’s ending, it was not really that interesting. It was similar to the movie Gattaca.

<b>Side Note: </b>

<spoiler>This is the 3rd book from my Book Club where a house/building burned down.</spoiler>

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The book was both an easy and a hard read. It’s easy enough to read however the events in it just makes me want to put it down due to frustration. People were awful, including Ji-won, and I felt the need to just hit some of them. Credit to the author for being able to evoke such strong feelings in me.

While all the men in this book were pretty much scum, I feel the real villain here was Ji-won’s mother. Instead of helping her children cope with having been abandoned by their father, that self-centered, attention craving woman sacrificed her children’s comfort, self-worth, and safety just so she would feel attractive and wanted. She’s also training her children to be doormats for men. I can’t even see the mom’s action as cultural conditioning because Asian women are conditioned to sacrifice for their family even if it’s to their detriment. Her actions were all about her. There was no thought to her children, to the family. And she did it all for a man that was mooch and treated her like shit. Arghhh.

Given her parents’ actions and beliefs, I’m not surprised Ji-won was messed up.

The many rage inducing scenes in this book made the end very satisfactory to me despite it being open-ended. If it didn’t end that way, I may have thrown my book at someone.

Audiobook Critique:

I am peeved how the voice talent, in the audiobook, would speak slower for 2 of Ji-won’s former friends. They sounded like they were pre schoolers learning to talk instead of college students.