Christine
I'm glad I went ahead and bought the audio book version, so I can look forward to Nigel Planer reading me to sleep as I revisit this in the near future. Like the other City Watch books, it calls for re-reading both because of the liberally sprinkled jokes and wordplay (parsing the delights from the pure groaners is no doubt a matter of taste), but also because it's so obscure what's actually happening in the early chapters. I like going back and covering that ground again with full knowledge of the mystery.
As always, the characters are wonderful. I certainly hope to see more of Wee Mad Arthur, and Vetinari is his usual dry and calculating self in all the best ways. Once again, I'm missing Sybil, but you can't have everything.
This was really good, and greatly enhanced by the reading by Will Patton. This is such an effective thriller, I feel like recommending some Xanax along with it. As usual, King is so good at crafting the villain, it adds even more tension. Seeing things through Mr. Mercedes's eyes as well as Hodges (and occasionally from other points of view) creates both engagement and anxiety.
There were a couple times when Hodges drove me insane with his foolishness. I'd say the biggest hurdle with this story is accepting the decisions to keep the authorities uninvolved. It's an essential conceit to keep the story going, and all in all I can swallow it as the price of admission to a cat-and-mouse story between a mass murderer and a retired cop.
The other thing that can be hard to take is the graphically terrible things that happen. The story starts with such a nasty event, which is horrifying on its own, but also establishes real stakes for the rest of the tale. If THAT happened in chapter one, we understand that no one is safe (well, aside from the spoiler embedded in the book's subtitle I guess!)
In fact, if anyone is interested but a little wary, here are some high-level spoilers, including what happens with the dog: the dog is safe and sound; the concert full of tweens does not get blown up; however, some characters do die along the way
It's not unexpected that this wasn't my cup of tea. I read this to check off the “Nordic Noir” prompt for the PopSugar challenge, and I struggled to find a qualifying book that I could tolerate - it's just not a genre I like much. Noir in general isn't my thing.
The police procedural component was serviceable enough. The mystery wasn't terribly satisfying, but the investigation was interesting. But that was only about half of the book - the other half concentrated on the main character's personal experiences, which can be roughly summarized into the categories of being pathetic and getting injured. But I guess this is also a pretty classic noir trope.
Oh well, I tried something different - and it had the virtue of being pretty skimmable!
“Liked it” is the correct zone for this one - it was reasonably entertaining but not nearly as good as [b:14 15062217 14 Peter Clines https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1338999953s/15062217.jpg 20716929]. I think your affection for this story will turn on your feelings about the central Macguffin. No spoilers, but I actually found it pretty stupid. Overall, I feel this suffered from over-explaining everything. Looking back, I wish there had been a bit more mystery, beyond the repetition that Harry has only heard these things through the grapevine.The characters were OK, but could have used more detail and flair. The main character's only notable characteristic is that he's never left his poky old small town. The bad guys are the most interesting, but still come off more as serviceable imitations of villains from Stephen King and Joss Whedon than original inventions. That's not a terrible thing - King and Whedon are masters at intriguing and scary villains! This was a fun diversion - nothing earthshaking but it was a fun ride once I just went with it. The travel premise and the road trip aspect are compelling, and leave opportunities for more stories - which might actually be more fun now that the groundwork is laid and the central goal of this novel is squared away.
This was extremely useful for me as a parent of a 14-year-old girl who just started high school. My kid is bright, beautiful, and very capable, but she still struggles enough to make us worry for her. This book really illuminates how being a teenage girl is inherently a struggle, and really your daughter needs to experience some turmoil, baffling swings in maturity and judgment, love-hate parental interactions, friendship drama, skepticism of authority, and other challenging stuff. This is part of the work of becoming a self-sufficient, healthy adult.
I appreciate this focus on normal development and the fact that normal can look and feel so irrational and scary sometimes. Raising a daughter can feel so frightening, overwhelming, and even depressing. It's quite consoling to be reminded that this is a crazy, hard time for just about every girl. Even in areas where I finished a chapter and said, “Yeah, I was already knocking it out of the park on that!” it was nice to have reassurance!
While the focus is on normal development, each section has a brief discussion of warning signs that your kid is outside the bell curve and could use some intervention. It's nice to have that barometer for the moments when you wonder if you need to bring in help.
I would say this book is worth picking up just for three key takeaways that have stuck with me: the metaphor of parent-as-pool-edge (sometimes she needs to be able to hold onto you, and sometimes she needs to push off away from you), the explanation of externalization of negative emotions (kid unconsciously finds a way to make YOU feel the anxiety or upset she can't cope with), and the Veil of Obedience (certain parental behaviors are more likely to inspire a nod-and-smile response where none of your precious wisdom gets taken seriously).
I thought this did fairly well on the “woke” front: it includes LGBTQ+ relationships in its treatment of romance, leaves a neutral door open on how to talk about your particular values surrounding alcohol, drugs, and sex without assuming what those values are, and though there's a brief mention of the supposed danger of obesity, the overall thrust is quite skeptical of dieting and good about emphasizing girls' bodies as vehicles for their own fulfillment rather than pretty objects.
Tons of fun, and completely effortless read now that I know the world from Book 1. But Lock In isn't required reading - Scalzi includes enough background and catches new readers up on the world of Haden's Syndrome.
This rests on a pretty standard police procedural framework - and that story is intriguing and generally well-told. There are multiple times when things are a little too convenient for Chris - imagine the luck of living with a ready panel of experts on all the elements of the case! It's unrealistic, but it also avoids rabbit holes exploring tedious FBI process and introducing a bunch of characters we don't care about.
But anyway, for me the investigation is just the required foundation for:
1.) great interplay between characters (Vann is just the best)
2.) speculation about everything from VR and wearable tech to post-gender culture.
3.) Scalzi setting up a parameter then playing with the idea right to its limits. I found the idea of near-teleportation fascinating, for instance.
4.) And of course, there are themes regarding disability, healthcare, economics, cultural identity, and discrimination. All woven neatly into an entertaining narrative.
(There's also a terrible/wonderful throwaway joke late in the book, that plays with the title. I groaned and laughed in equal measure! Won't spoil it - just go read this!)
This was lovely and funny. I feel so much affection for Cassandra - she's at her best when she's sharply witty in her observations, and I can forgive her boring wallow in teenage romantic self-pity, since it doesn't last too terribly long, and only occurs after I've gotten to know her well. It also winds up in a very artful way, in my opinion.This book reminds me of two other books in very different ways.First, this seems like an inside-out version of [b:We Have Always Lived in the Castle 89724 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415357189s/89724.jpg 847007] - first-person narration by a teenage girl we can't always trust to be accurate or objective, telling about living with her sister in a Gothic pile and how a potential suitor entering the picture affects their relationship. Of course, this was published earlier, so Shirley Jackson's story would be the funhouse mirror version while this is the original. I can totally see Jackson reading this and saying to herself, “I could write a completely NFBSKed-up take on this story.”The second book it puts me in mind of is [b:Drama 13436373 Drama Raina Telgemeier https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1330157763s/13436373.jpg 18940474], because they both tell stories about romance that aren't “romances.” The relationships don't necessarily follow a predictable arc, and interactions can be frustrating, ambiguous, confusing, and uncertain. You know, like real life teenage romantic relationships! Cassandra's struggles with love are very true to life.Sometimes this suffers from extreme tonal shifts - most notably depictions of depression and guilt suddenly making way for extreme farce at one point. But overall it's just enjoyable to see the world through Cassandra's eyes and meet all the loving, comical, flawed people she knows.
I'm so glad I read this. Lindy West has a way of saying important things in an engaging, witty way. And she's extremely talented at conveying opinions on controversial topics in a way that emphasizes human connection and kindness.
The book starts out incisive and funny, and moves pretty steadily toward incisive and upsetting (but with sprinkles of mordant humor). By “upsetting,” I mean it made me concerned, angry, and finally empathetically sad. Not in bad ways, but the tone definitely shifts away from lighthearted. The later chapters cover West's struggles to shift comedy culture, and then her very personal challenges with her romantic partner and dealing with her dad's death.
I actually don't always align with West's opinions and priorities throughout her essays, but even when I see an issue from a slightly different angle, her personally engaging stories create room for compelling reflection.
What if two women took standard women-in-prison exploitation tropes and upended them to satirize all that is misogynistic in our culture? You wind up with something that makes you laugh, and cringe, and pause and say “that is so over the top,” only to realize that there's a real-life analog that is actually way too close to the exaggerated depiction for comfort. You get women kicking ass and refusing to comply. You get shower scenes that start just as one would expect from the exploitation movies, and end up in a very different place!
It's all I can do to stop myself from buying the next collection and finding out immediately what the deal is with President Bitch!
This was a re-read just because I adore the Lenny Henry audiobook, and BBC just released a radio play based on the book, with all sorts of awesome actors, including Lenny! Wanted to refresh my memory before listening to that.
This was every bit as fun as I remembered. I have so much affection for Charlie, and love how his character develops. But all the characters are delightful, from the mischievous Anansi to the odious Grahame Coats; from the earnest and fun Daisy (Evildoers beware!) to Rosie's mum, who lives on vitaminized water, rye crackers, and spite (but turns out pretty awesome in her own way).
If you've ever enjoyed Brer Rabbit or Bugs Bunny, or if you've ever wondered what your personal theme song was, or if you just love stories, go read this! (Or better yet, let Lenny read it to you.)
This is a fun superhero origin story, with a new kind of American hero - a Jersey girl of Pakistani extraction, who battles her own identity issues and her family's expectations at least as much as bad guys.
This was an intriguing start, but I felt like there should have been more story - it's more the setup for an adventure than an adventure itself. Still, I can't complain, given that it was free to read on Kindle Unlimited. I'll definitely check out the next volume!
Thought-provoking, with some memorable characters, but the allegory was as subtle as a sledgehammer, and became a bit tiresome. I feel like Alderman had the chance to make this more ambiguous and elegant, but bowed to the urge to send A Message, as well as wanting to tie the plot up a bit too neatly.
Still, I think this is compelling, and perhaps the moments when I went, “That is just too preposterous” are the point - maybe the broad strokes about violence, corrupting power, and gender stereotypes are meant to provoke that reaction, then make you reflect “wait . . . I suppose the reverse really is/has been true - maybe this story is precisely accurate, and our society is preposterous.”
This probably deserves 4 stars just for the creation of Long John Silver, one of the most magnificent characters in English literature. The reader winds up rooting for him as he manipulates his way out of each scrape, even though we know he's a conniving murderer. Stevenson is probably responsible for the entirety of modern pirate lore - our mythical notion of piracy full of amiable rogues and high adventure. Everything from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean to Talk Like a Pirate Day to Spongebob Squarepants owes so much to this story. And this story still stands up well against its more modern iterations.
I'd say the only thing I didn't like was the repeated cycle of Jim acting like a colossal idiot, only to find that his brainless decision has saved the whole crew. Often I'd pause and think, “Yup, this was clearly written to entertain a 12-year-old boy!” But at least Stevenson has the Doctor call Jim out on it!
I finally finished my Jólabókaflóð gift from last year! I'm not sure what took me so long - I guess there is a double challenge at the start of the story. First, we're introduced to a whole cast of characters (of course - you need a pool of suspects!) and it's tricky keeping them straight at the beginning. Second, this is chock full of contemporary slang and cultural references, so it can be downright baffling at times.
Still, this is a great classic murder mystery that almost out-Christies Christie. A bunch of people congregate in an English country manor to play “The Murder Game,” and of course someone actually gets murdered. It follows all the beats, but does a pretty good job of it. It definitely had me paranoid about who done it! And there are some fun side-notes like the gardener's daughter, and Inspector Alleyn himself is intriguing - sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, and sometime and verging on sociopathic in his dedication to solving the crime. If I read more Ngaio March, it will be to find out more about him.
Nota bene: Before reading this novel, I read and loved the short story [b:The Events at Poroth Farm 7055789 The Events at Poroth Farm T.E.D. Klein https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1458812325s/7055789.jpg 7307112]. This book is an expansion of that story.Having read T.E.D. Klein's novel, I can only say he's a great short story writer. OK, kidding aside, my reaction to this was heavily colored by my previous reading of the short story. I think any reader will probably find the version they read second will suffer by comparison. Once you're familiar with certain plot points, it's hard to see them retold in a different way. I do think the short format allows more ambiguity and dangling threads, which are harder to tolerate in a novel, but are essential for building true dread.I'd say regardless of the comparison, this book does suffer from some independent flaws: - It's overly long at 500+ pages, and would have benefited from some editing. Too many side characters, too much meandering with the Brethren, Sarr's mother's plot takes significant time, but pretty much fizzles out, and a lot of the descriptions had me thinking, “OK, we GOT it - can something actually happen now?”- We get a pretty straightforward explanation of the evil forces, and ride along with the bad guy as he carries out his plans. This tends to defuse any horror for me.- The main characters are not engaging individually or as a couple. Jeremy is obnoxious, Carol is a twit, and they have zero chemistry.However, this has a lot going for it too:- The prologue is a humdinger - super creepy and draws you right in.- The initial description of the community and the farm are very effective. It's clear that nature holds sway here, so when something corrupts nature, things are going to be Very Bad.- This explicit homage does capture the distasteful horror at mysterious pagan rituals that Arthur Machen evoked in The White People, successfully transferring it to modern day America.- Bwada is just as creepy and unsettling as in the short story. You can't help but wonder if Stephen King read this before writing Pet Sematary.Overall, I'm giving this three stars, erring on the charitable side because I know I'm prejudiced. If someone asked me whether to read this or the short version, I'd probably say stick with the short story, but this was pretty good too.
A very clever re-imagining* of The Horror at Red Hook, which is arguably Lovecraft's most racist story. Which is a shame, because the plot has some interesting possibilities that would require acknowledgement of the race issues (rich white dude snubs his family to hang out with immigrants and people of color), but allows for arm's length commentary on those issues, rather than whole-hearted endorsement.
And The Ballad of Black Tom mines a lot of that potential. The portion of the novella told from Tommy's point of view is definitely the more powerful. The Malone point of view has its moments, don't get me wrong. Seeing the Irish mystic who thinks he knows about the occult try to cope with unfathomable cosmic horror has its own satisfactions.
You don't need to read the original story to appreciate this one (and I understand if the racism is just too much to deal with), but knowing the Lovecraft will definitely deepen your appreciation of this story.
*The story itself gives some clues about the in-world relationship with Lovecraft's story, but I won't spoil any of that here.
I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore at how awful humans can be, but I'm just flabbergasted that there's a Grimm fairy tale where the protagonist tortures, robs, and procures the execution of a Jewish man.
At least this tale does a wonderful job of upending that story, telling it from the point of view of the Jewish man's daughter. This short story does a great job of establishing a feel for the time and place while also making the characters completely relatable. The way Itte's mother carefully weighs every decision to avoid the ire of Christians is heartbreaking, but we also see how the family goes about their daily lives in a pretty normal way. Of course, it only takes a single incident to destroy that normal life.
Itte's revenge is perfectly drawn, and ultimately echoes her mother's attempts at balance. It also sadly brings home how far we still have to go before that Grimm fairytale is only a curious artifact of our bigoted past.
I still love you, Mike Carey, but I just can't with this. I felt like I'd been reading forever, only to discover there were still 337 pages to go!
I kept waiting for the setup to end and the real plot to get going, only to realize that this was mostly going to be a drama about corruption and brutality in a prison, not a ghost story. The actual ghost story has an intriguing hook at the start, and then goes pretty much nowhere. Flipping to the end of the book shows me that the big reveal for that storyline is exactly what I figured out in the first two chapters.
If you're interested in a grim realistic story of prison life, layered with a kind of spiritual journey, this may delight you. I came for a ghost story, and I'm leaving early and unhappily.
Compulsively readable, suspenseful, disturbing, ultimately touching, and on a couple memorable occasions, absolutely disgusting. So, great horror novel!
I'm not sure if this will resonate with everyone as much as it did with me. It was pretty much a bulls-eye as far as my nostalgia target goes - girl friendship set against high school in the late '80s. But the characters are drawn so well, and the relationship set up so poignantly and believably, I think anyone could get invested in this story.
If the supernatural story doesn't quite hang together for me, I have to say the allegory remains rock-solid: when you're friends in grade school, sometimes the changes that hit during middle and high school can seem like your friend is suddenly possessed. The exaggerated and fictionalized story of actual demon possession cleverly mines the more mundane realities of teen friendships and their challenges.
And as far as the face-value story, Hendrix kept me guessing throughout the climax. I really couldn't imagine how he was going to wrap things up, and ultimately I like how he handled it.
I'll have to let the nonfiction Paperbacks from Hell satisfy my craving for more Hendrix for now, but the next novel he publishes will be at the top of my reading list for sure!
Some amazingly gorgeous artwork here, but what the hell was going on?
That question applies from the most literal (frequently throughout, I could tell that an action scene was being depicted, but not what was happening, where people were in relation to each other, who was hitting whom with what, or what the results were)
. . . to the individual (who are these people? what is their relationship with each other? who is that in that mask? who is that in that other mask? is this person literally transforming into a monster or is this a metaphorical depiction of their insanity? Both maybe? Is Tuya her sister? lover? friend? How are all these witches and nuns interrelated? Are there witch-nuns? Wait, now there's a shadow council or something, literally descending from the sky like a mechanical deity in a Greek play?”)
. . . to the meta (do they intend to start us in medias res and fill in information as we go, and they're just really bad at it? Did I literally miss some kind of prequel? Oh, great, here's an clunky infodump accompanied by drawings of cats - that doesn't make it any less yawn-inducing.)
It basically seems like they wanted to reveal an incredibly complex universe and an intricately related web of characters spanning generations, and tried to do it in one comic book instead of the trilogy of novels that might have covered the needed information.
3.5 stars, really. There were times I laughed out loud, for sure. And I enjoyed learning more about a mythology I'm not very familiar with. I liked the story about Fenrir the a lot - partly because Neil Gaiman does a great voice for him. But at the same time, similar story elements recur constantly, and listening to this straight through became a little boring at times.
I feel like the best way to read this would be to read it aloud, a bit at a time, with a child. I guess it's not unexpected that myths would show to their best advantage when being told at bedtime as individual stories with a recognizable cast of characters.