Christine
Aw, it's over?! As I read books for the PopSugar challenge, I usually feel happy and satisfied at the end of a book because I get to tick off another prompt, but this one just made me feel sad that there wasn't more book! (Luckily Vols 2-6 are also available on ComiXology Unlimited - squee!)
So what makes this so great? Well, it takes all the best parts of Girl Scouts, weaves in equal parts weird fiction and whimsy, and effortlessly sprinkles representation throughout, with scouts of different ethnicities, body types, and gender expressions, girls and women out in the world kicking butt, and a possible same-sex couple (I ship it). Most fun though, is a genius take on profanity substitutes - instead of actual swear words, the girls swear by the names of notable women, mostly POC.
Here's the list from Vol. 1:
Oh my Bessie Coleman
Holy Mae Jemison!
Where the Phillis Wheatley were you?
What the Anahareo is that?
Good Juliette Gordon Low
I really liked the ideas in this story - creepy Paris catacombs and dangerous mutants, wary alliances, and kickass fights! Unfortunately the writing (as in, the grammar and sentence structure) were often confusing and would disrupt my momentum as I paused to puzzle out meaning. So, all in all 3 stars, but well worth an hour or so of your time if you like the Wild Cards world.
I'm not sure if this is an adventure story, a family relationship story, or a horror story. I think Paver set out to weave those elements together, and in many ways it's compelling. There's barely a hint of spookiness until you're well into chapter 7, which was a little disappointing and interfered with good pacing. But there are touches of true wilderness horror that echo the classic “The Wendigo,” and the brothers' relationship combined with altitude sickness and isolation leads to an unreliable narration that reminded me of [b:The Turn of the Screw 12948 The Turn of the Screw Henry James https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443203592s/12948.jpg 990886].And yet, this book consistently struck me as a wan imitation of Paver's superior [b:Dark Matter 8350864 Dark Matter Michelle Paver https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1504563569s/8350864.jpg 13203928]. For me, that book has much better characters and relationships, engages the reader's sympathy better, and is much, much scarier. It even has a higher quality dog! My advice is simply to read that (or listen to the exceptional reading by Jeremy Northam).
This was a ton of fun. Futuristic pharmaceutical piracy (complete with a stealth submarine!), evil corporations and capitalism run amok, forbidden (or at least socially unacceptable) human-bot love, issues of bot gender, sexuality, and . . . yeah, autonomy.
This definitely lives up to its name, allowing the reader to ponder questions about identity, free will, and love, by looking at a bot grappling with these issues, and seeing that his/her struggles apply equally to us.
But this isn't a stodgy think-piece - it's a swashbuckling tale with lovely characters and interesting relationships. Even the nastiest character gets some depth and sympathy. I almost think too much.
My one complaint is that this suffers from Quick Plot Resolution. Having artfully set all the characters in motion and developed their opposing points of view in a convincing and engaging way, the story left me a little disappointed when it wrapped things up quite suddenly. Where I expected the plot lines to meet, meld, and yield something new, they actually just intersected ever so briefly, which was the end of the story, except for a coda for each player.
It would have been interesting to see a little more detail and an actual redemption arc for the one character we see unapologetically choosing to murder people. There's a gesture in that direction, but I found it largely unsatisfying. I guess the explanation could be “aren't we all subject to programming that other sources installed,” but the story doesn't quite bring me to absolving everything on that basis.
Still, the trajectory set up at the end of the story does promise satisfying resolutions, and it's enough to hang your hat on. Given that everything up to that point was entertaining, thoughtful, and well written, I can easily give this 4 stars.
This was a fun and satisfying ending to the story begun in [b:Six of Crows 23437156 Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) Leigh Bardugo https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459349344s/23437156.jpg 42077459]. The characters are so vivid, I felt like I knew them as real people. There was a good balance of camaraderie and humor, action, drama, and romance. And a skosh of tragedy, but not too much. I was really impressed with Bardugo's crafting of characters with trauma that continues to impact them. These people have Stuff that goes far beyond a Mary Sue's “tragic backstory” and that causes them practical and interpersonal difficulty. And things don't get tied up with a “they won/fell in love and then everything was All Better!” bow. The places everyone ends up are mostly optimistic, but not Pollyanna-level.A specific shout-out should go to the plotting, with plenty of fun and surprising (but mostly earned) reveals. Kaz pulls off gambits that seem improbable unless you're a genius who's spent their entire life learning the workings of a whole city to serve an obsessive need for reven– oh, yeah. Kaz believably pulls of amazing gambits.Another area that stands out is LGBTQ+ representation. I'm an Old so maybe I'm easy to impress, but it's lovely to see a queer romance get equal billing (including kissing scenes) with the straight ‘shipping. Overall, it was fun, I feel like the Dregs are my friends, and I am going to check out more of Bardugo's work!
It took me five years to follow John Scalzi's advice and read this, but I'm so glad I kept it in mind. I do think that [b:Fuzzy Nation 9647532 Fuzzy Nation John Scalzi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316132345s/9647532.jpg 18280046] runs with the ideas with a little more success, but this is so charming, it really should be read for its own merits. Just the descriptions of Jack's interactions with the Fuzzies are worth it. Sure, the courtroom logistics are as tortured and silly as any Hollywood has ever turned out, and the “far future” is quaintly outdated, with baked-in sexism and amusingly analog technology. There are a few too many characters to easily keep track of. But the ones who stand out are so lovable and clever, it's well worth paging back once in a while to track whether a minor player is Company or Government aligned, etc.Check this out - it's a quick read, and it's full of wonderful characters and concepts.
Nothing better conveys my enjoyment of this book than the fury and disappointment I feel right now. You see, I read the Kindle version, and was humming along around 77% through the book, seeing some new threads develop, the building blocks of a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the hero, some kickass action, and delicious plotting.And then THE END.So yeah, the Kindle version has tons of sample material, acknowledgements, and so on at the end of this FIRST HALF of the story. So be warned. If you're into the story and you want to know what happens next, have [b:Crooked Kingdom 22299763 Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) Leigh Bardugo https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456172607s/22299763.jpg 42090179] on deck!So, why did I like it? It's a well-constructed heist story, set against a compelling world where some people have magical abilities (think air/water/blood/metal bending a la Avatar), and their mostly workaday powers become a pivot point for global conflict. The motley crew assembled to retrieve a vital player from an unbreakable prison all have their own backstories that brought them to this caper, and those stories slowly come to light as the adventure progresses. Each character is well-drawn, and the potential romances and URST add some spice. (This is YA, so nothing more than PG-13, but the tension is artfully written.)This reminds me of [b:Head On 35018901 Head On (Lock In, #2) John Scalzi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497994548s/35018901.jpg 45415409], despite them having nothing in common on the face of it. Both use standard storytelling structures (SoC a heist, HO a police procedural), but they use the tropes well, and set them in a world that raises interesting questions about the human condition. Add in fun, relatable characters who get us invested, and you've got a story guaranteed to keep the pages turning.Better wrap up so I can go dive into The Crooked Kingdom and neglect all my worldly duties till I finish!
I feel like an apostate, but I just didn't like this much. (Even #1 didn't wow me that much, and this didn't come up to that level.) It's just a collection of short stories with Dream shoehorned in. The art ranges from mediocre to dreadful (Calliope looks like she has 150% of the normal allotment of vertebrae, and I'm pretty sure it's not a deliberate attempt to make her look inhuman).
So. Yeah, not my favorite.
A heroine awakes in an imposing Victorian asylum, with no memory of how she got there. There's a shadow of hereditary madness, family secrets, and mounting paranoia. Journal entries and old letters are gradually discovered. Will this all end with the manse-turned-asylum in flames one dark, foreboding night? Probably. In summary, this has everything you could want if you love Gothic mysteries. I enjoyed not quite knowing what was happening, and slowly getting new clues. The paranoia is absolutely infectious, and there are several scenes where I felt real physical tension as a sympathetic character tried to elude or escape capture. At the same time, there are some fun, winking references to great Gothic literature, from Aunt Vida (who's surely a nod to [b:The Thirteenth Tale 40440 The Thirteenth Tale Diane Setterfield https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1346267826s/40440.jpg 849453]) to someone named after Dracula's home-away-from-home.As is typical of Harwood, the ending accelerates quickly, and reaches heights of melodrama and action that may seem a little over the top. But I still loved it. This is the perfect book to read on a dark and stormy day, while sitting with a cup of tea before a crackling fire.
This was a great, economical adventure. Sometimes I find YA to set the quality bar too low, but this is a shining example of a story told well for a young audience, without sacrificing artistry. In fact, I preferred the YA angle on this tale, because in a novel for grown-ups, the descriptions of how bad the camp was, and the abuse from other inmates, would have gone on for, like, 150 soul-crushing pages. Sachar keeps it efficient, giving us enough detail so we know how bad conditions are, but without belaboring the point and getting too depressing.
He skillfully treads the line between pathos and whimsy throughout, and gives a satisfying ending that ties up every thread - even ones I didn't realize were still running through the story! There's a reason this is an award-winning book, and I recommend it to readers from middle grade through adulthood.
Well, this was lovely. Do yourself a favor and sit down for 2 hours to read it. Useful things I did not realize until I had the book:
1.) It's incredibly short
2.) It's not fiction. These are real letters Hanff collected and published.
3.) 95% of the books discussed hold no interest for me, and that didn't detract in the slightest.
Sometimes Hanff would annoy me with her sass, but then I'd remember that she was a lady living on her own in NYC in 1949&c, and making a living as a writer. Sass. Earned. And her actions make abundantly, touchingly clear that she was kind and giving, so mock-irate messages about the quality of a Latin Vulgate are completely excusable.
This also gives an eye-opening window into post-war conditions in England. That people would be so grateful for even powdered eggs speaks more poignantly than any history book ever could.
This was a fun piece of fluff. The art is adorable, and it has a good helping of inside jokes and plenty of Groot. The plot is intriguing, but doesn't really advance much within this volume. Just as things get interesting, whoops, cliffhanger! I'll probably check out the next volume when I'm in the mood for something silly.
First, the most important thing: I couldn't stop reading this. So you know this qualifies as a really good book, no matter what the downsides were.
My reading experience had two layers: at one level, I was just absorbed in the melodrama. The characters are engaging, and somehow even though I knew the basic outcome of Helen's diary flashback, I was still driven to find out what happened next! The story is romantic and shocking; characters develop from ignorant and impetuous to wise and principled; True Love is viewed from various points of view - naive, cynical, selfless, and hopeful. It basically has everything to delight the romantic heart. (Well, the climax is overly complicated and delayed, and uses some romance tropes that are real chestnuts by now, but if you skim Gilbert's silliness toward the end, it's fine.)
On another level, I was reflecting on this as a modern, atheistic feminist. From this point of view, the story often reveals surprising insight into patterns that remain highly relevant (e.g., the “Nice Guy” who tries to maneuver out of the friendzone; the plight of an introvert at a party who is tortured by a well-intentioned extrovert; the dangers of using pantsfeelings to choose a mate; and the horrible choices faced by an abused spouse when their abuser controls their housing and money, and puts their children at risk).
But of course, there's a lot that strained my sympathy as well. Helen is admirable only in the context of the moral code of the time. If one doesn't share her Christian beliefs about salvation, marital sanctity, and the duties of a wife, she comes off as far too eager to play the suffering martyr. She makes you want to tear your hair out with her willful blindness, naivete, and ridiculous devotion to forgiveness.
At the same time, it's clear that the social restrictions of the day set women up for failure - they were sheltered to the point that protective relatives couldn't plainly describe a man's bad behavior and its implications for a marriage. “He has an infamous reputation!” has much less impact than, “He screws anything in a skirt, coerces his friends into alcoholism, abuses puppies, and will probably give you and your children syphilis. Run!” Not to mention that guardians often basically pimped out their charges - shopping for rich men willing to leverage their fortunes for what amounted to ownership of a much younger, virginal girl/woman.
This tension between crafting Helen to be the Most Upright, Most Patient, Most Honorable Epitome of Womanhood, and yet clearly questioning the cultural requirements that put women in so many lose-lose situations, is probably why this is considered one of the earliest feminist novels. And it's done so artfully, and against such a poignant romantic story, that I couldn't put it down.
Tony Chu has a weird psychic ability: he can sense the individual history of any food he eats. He's also a detective. You can probably figure out what disgusting-but-hilarious road this is heading down.
The fun surprise for me was the world this is set in - it's not just a cibopathic detective functioning in our modern society, but rather a near-future America where there's a thriving black market for chicken, and the conspiracy theorists might be on to something with their distrust of the most powerful federal agency in the government: the FDA.
This one is really hard to rate. I guess overall it gets a 3.5 from me - it starts out so strong, but suffers from inconsistencies and dumb science toward the end. Still, I loved the idea and the atmosphere so much, I'm rounding up my 3.5.
The key, enchanting question is, “What if Lizzie Borden did kill her parents, but she had a very good reason to do so, that must be kept secret?” It has to be a secret because no one would believe it, and she needs to stay free and prevent interference as she tries to defend her sister, her town, and perhaps the entire world from a force only her family has confronted . . . so far.
This was at its best when it was setting up the situation, establishing characters' relationships (the sisters' conflicted feelings toward each other, and the bond between Nance and Lizzie were key drivers of the story, and felt very genuine - also nice to see LGBTQ+ representation!). During the first half, the novel creates a sense of mystery and dread, and gets the reader invested in the players. The sense of desperation and isolation is palpable and touching.
As the story develops, Priest tries to create scientific insight and rules, a la your average zombie or vampire plot. This not only feels hamfisted, it also introduces a turn in the story where I feel like Priest or her editor lost their organizational and logical skills.
First, the wafer-thin scientific justification for a potential cure (becoming a monster involves symptoms x, y, and z, and this known infection creates symptoms y, z, and q, so . . . immunizing . . . er, no, infecting . . . ummm, both? will fight the monsters? Somehow?) is so silly as to be insulting.
Second, continuity errors suddenly abound. How many guns are in the house? (Early chapters two, later chapters, one) All the tables in the basement get overturned, but are magically back in order two scenes later. Lightning follows thunder. Tetanus comes from a well-understood pathogen, but also somehow comes from rusty iron. Lizzie hits a monster in the neck, explicitly missing its head, but two paragraphs later it has a head wound. It just becomes too much of a mess for suspension of disbelief, which is a shame because I was still very invested in the characters and I thought the evil (when not stupidly reduced to a scientific puzzle) was very compelling.
So, read this if you love eldritch monsters from the deep and Lizzie Borden, but go in knowing that it goes off the rails a bit at the end.
A comic written by Stephen King's son, with a blatant Lovecraft callout? Creepy house with magic keys? Mysterious entity in a well? Are we surprised that I like this?
Upon finishing this, I immediately borrowed the next volume (thank you ComiXology Unlimited!). Can't wait to see what happens next!
I originally got this as an Audible book. Yes - a comic book adapted to audio form. It works better than you'd think, but not well enough to stand on its own, in my opinion. I would recommend reading the comic first, and if you love it, check out the audio version so you can appreciate the great vocal performances without being too confused. Also, it would be a shame to miss out on the fabulous art by Gabriel Rodriguez!
A really fascinating and useful book, especially for anyone who has suffered chronic pain. As much as I knew that our brains create all our experience, this taught me a lot about how context and memory influence not just the ability to cope with pain, but the literal level of pain felt.
The book has a lot of theory, all packaged in friendly and straightforward terms any layperson can understand. Then it ends with descriptions of various exercises one can try (in conjunction with professional medical care) to decouple the “pain neurotag” in the mind from tissues that may no longer be damaged.
The only thing I didn't like about this was the art! I feel bad because they clearly made an effort to use art to keep the information accessible and fun, as well as to illustrate concepts. But the artist's style is very off-putting to me, reading as grotesque rather than whimsical to my eyes. Still, some of it avoided this style, such as charts and the stick figures demonstrating exercises. Those were quite useful and less weird.
Imagine a guy reads [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg 3627] and thinks, “Damn, that was great - I'd love to write my own novel about a creepy house!” Only he's also REALLY sick and tired of his wife spending every weekend antiquing instead of making him a sandwich. And he read some Lovecraft once but he has no idea how to evoke cosmic horror or handle a monster reveal (the key, Rob, is if you have no idea how to finish, at least have a cleansing bolt of lightning and make the last line italic!) Then the novel gets published, Stephen King reads it, and he makes a decent story out of the idea.TL;DR - just go read [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871336s/89717.jpg 3627] and [b:The Shining 11588 The Shining (The Shining, #1) Stephen King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353277730s/11588.jpg 849585]This gets more than one star due to an effectively creepy door, and a vividly disturbing moment in the pool that very effectively blurs the line between a realistic parenting lapse (dad takes a joke so far it becomes abusive) and the product of Evil Influences.Upshot - 2/5; distinct lack of burning or sympathetic characters, would not slog through again
This book is a ton of fun. I HIGHLY recommend getting the audio book so you can hear Greg Sestero's dead-on impression of Tommy Wiseau. And honestly, his affection for (and intermittent frustration with) him. There are a few “bless his heart” moments where Sestero stumbles over what is clearly Tom Bissell's wording, but overall he does a lovely job of bringing the whole tale to life, and generally seems like a nice, talented guy. The collaboration of Sestero and Bissell works perfectly - clearly Greg provided the story, and the emotions, and Tom wove it all into evocative, flowing narration.
This story does a wonderful job of showing that Tommy can be unreasonable, obnoxious, deluded, immune to feedback and indeed reality, but also that he's sympathetic in some ways. This was exactly the right tack to take. It lets the audience continue to laugh at Tommy's creation and at Tommy himself, but also recognize his longing for the Hollywood dream and appreciate his grit and hard work.
This was an interesting book, and I had a lot of sympathy for Susan. I like that she's not a stereotypical fair damsel - how often do we get a female protagonist who's stout and strong rather than wispy and beautiful? The limits on her power are realistic and extensive, and it's genuinely dramatic seeing her work within these limitations. Again, unlike a lot of protagonists, she isn't a superhero with a trivial “flaw” - she's so poor she barely even has possessions of her own, she's illiterate, and she's under the control of her abusive father. She's also impulsive and makes some truly awful decisions.
Eisdorfer clearly did a lot of research about nursing and wet nurses, and this content seemed entirely realistic. I only wish she'd managed a stronger sense of place and time. I was genuinely confused about what time period we were in for a while, and even when it's made clear, Susan's speech and attitudes seem far too modern for her background. It's also really confusing and messes with the suspension of disbelief when she directly addresses the reader. Isn't she illiterate? Is she supposed to be telling this story to someone who's writing it down? It's never really made clear. The disorientation is made worse by the blurbs by various mothers who used a wet nurse. They just didn't seem to fit in with the story.
The other drawback for me was the pacing - the story meanders around without a clear driving plot for a while, but toward the end develops an urgent goal that inspires some improbably audacious manipulation by Susan, who spends a lot of the story in a much more passive role. Don't get me wrong - I was rooting for Susan and I like how the story ends! But I have to acknowledge that it's not terribly believable how she pulled it off.
Still, this drew me in and was a very fast read because I wanted to know what would happen to our hero. She's likable and tough, and well worth investing a few hours in.
Utterly compelling. I picked this up because people said it's nonfiction that reads like a novel, and that's pretty close to the mark. I needed to find out what happened next, and I was fully invested in the personal stories. At times I was astonished at developments, and throughout I kept wondering how I'd never heard about any of this.
I highly recommend reading this to learn about the Osage nation, their paradoxical luck (good and bad) at the hands of the U.S. government, and the investigation of what was happening to them. You can find it all from other sources, but Grann does an amazing job of storytelling, and extends the story with additional research that connects points left unexplored by the original case.
This is a difficult one to review. The things I liked were in the four-star range, whereas the things I didn't like so much weren't actively negative, but rather just kind of blah.
What I liked:
- An interesting fantasy world that assertively rejects the hobbits-and-elves framework. This goes for more realism - many of the elements could have taken place in a non-magical Renaissance Venice. But this version of Venice is built on the remnants of a technologically advanced, long-vanished civilization, and uses alchemy as its technological driver the way steampunk uses Victorian brass-and-steam.
- An intriguing underworld society that has its own government and even its own secret priesthood.
- A likable band of rogues pulling off heists and confidence games.
- A conflict that mines revenge as a motivator (eventually)
- Some textured and interesting supporting characters (eventually)
- A lot of the themes do come together by the end of the book, in a pretty satisfying way
What I didn't like:
- Most of all, this is SLOW to start. You have to get through half of the book before the main conflict emerges at all. A neat setting and charming characters pulling off capers only maintains interest for so long, unless an actual plot is in evidence. And when the book is 500+ pages, waiting till the halfway point to engage the main narrative is particularly problematic.
- Coming a close second, Locke and his band of merry men are so talented and well-funded that they basically start the story with Story-Breaker Power, which then requires the villain to be nigh-omnipotent to pose a threat, which for me makes things kind of boring. It means either the bad guy will win (usually not allowed, and if allowed, rather a downer), or the good guys will have preposterously good luck to overcome him.
This is a shame, because the backstory does give younger Locke some flaws that could have fueled a more believable challenge for him.
Upshot:
Check this out if world-building is your jam, and you don't mind a leisurely interval where the author introduces background information and you get to know the main characters.
Overall, I think I might check out the next book, because now that the setting and characters are established, it could hook me earlier. And the setting is truly fascinating, plus the first story leaves some characters set up in a really intriguing way for further adventures!
I enjoyed this, but I could have enjoyed it more if I knew a bit more about where it was (or more to the point WASN'T) going.
About halfway through, I started to feel a familiar, suspicious sensation - it's the feeling I get when I'm reading/viewing something dreamy and weird, and there's a danger the whole thing is just a mindfuck. You probably know what I'm talking about - you get tense, waiting for the author to jump out from behind a door and yell, “The protagonist was really the bad guy all along!” or “All the characters are actually the protagonist!” or (God help us) “It was all a dream!”
The good news is that this does not happen. Sure, this story goes to some weird places; some of our assumptions may get upended. But in a general sense, the rug doesn't get pulled out from under us. Ben is a worthy hero, even if he has flaws. His love for his family is genuine. The story does actually go somewhere, and there's a satisfying conclusion.
Overall, this is like Alice in Wonderland mashed up with The Wizard of Oz and The Odyssey, with touches of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and The Matrix, adapted for screen by David Wong and directed by David Cronenberg.
Magary does a good job of juxtaposing fatalism and predestination with randomness and personal empowerment. It's a combination that should't work together, but does. The story keeps the reader slightly off-balance throughout - a reflection of the confusing sensations of business travel. We leave our daily grind of boring sameness and family obligations and set out on the road, only to find that we feel lonely and displaced, and we just want to get back to our loved ones, no matter how many fabulous buffets and bottles of fine wine we encounter along the way.