Rachel
This book has a good message (It's never too late to change things and live a great life), I just don't agree with the execution.
First, this is no Dr Seuss. Yes. The words rhymed, but there was nothing special about it. And Seuss was about more than the rhymes, it was the drawing as well. These drawings are (sorry to say) very poor quality. There was nothing special about them. They were simple drawings you'd find scribbled in pen in a high school freshman's textbook. I can appreciate the attempt to reiterate “You can do anything” but I felt that it cheapened the book and the message overall.
Love me some scooby doo. This book was creative with some great illustrations, but the story was mediocre. There are stronger ones out there.
I listened to the One Voice Recordings audiobook narrated by David Ian Davies.
Narration: incredibly flat. Occasionally Davies would raise his voice, but shouting doesn't help with emphasis. It's just frustrates the listener.
Yes, I've heard the Charles Dance one is great, but BBC took it down. I couldn't find it anywhere else.
Story: from what I could follow, this was a good short story. A bookseller cheats old widows out of money. But now the jig is up.
I'll keep an eye out for the BBC version. I'd like to reread this. I suspect it'd garner a higher rating.
I love these collections. They're chock full of nostalgia.
This was a good collection. I didn't know most of the additional characters yet was still able to follow along easily. Harley's was my favorite.
Pinnochio. The story of a wooden puppet who becomes a real boy.
5 stars for world building
1.5-2 stars for character development
4 stars for creative retelling.
This is a highly original and creative retelling of Pinnochio. There is magic, talking animals, mechanical automatons, and a war between the humans and the Abatonians (magical creatures/land/race). The world was beautiful. The mechanical caterpillar, the flying soldiers, mechanical lion. Even the fact that pinnochio is an automaton was wonderful. It was truely an original retelling.
But as thrilling as the world was, the characters were dull. They were like a half baked loaf of bread. Good on the surface, but undercooked and douhy underneath. Most of the names and characters blended together. I wasn't emotionally invested in any of them.
I'm leaving it with a solid 3 stars. As much as I loved the world and retelling aspects, I kept putting the book down with little desire to pick it back up. I think this would make a great animated series. One that could invest time on building out the characters. I think the visuals would also help identify which characters were which.
More a 4.5-4.75
I thought this was a wonderful graphic novel. It is filled with wonderful illustrations, many which capture the art style of Claude Monet. It also does a nice job humanizing the painter. Too often we learn of historical figures but forget that they were also people and had lives.
I hope this sparks a trend on portraying historical events and biographies in graphic novel format.
Ah, The Beautiful Pretender. I needed something a little different and found this audiobook via my library app. I wasn't aware it was a christian fiction novel when I started. There were the occasional prayers, but the religion wasn't shoved down my throat. It started more as a YA style fairy tale romance. The second half is where the religious aspect picked up, but it wasn't as overwhelming as some other christian fiction books I've read.
With that out of the way I'll continue my review. The rest of the story is rather interesting. There is intrigue and raised tensions between the lords and ladies of the land. There was a mysterious fire. A death of a nobel. A hidden identity. A dating competition (kinda). Flirting. Suspense. It builds up as a masterpiece theater/bbc drama and ends as a hallmark movie.
It was a bit predictable (ok, it was a LOT predictable). A few scenes are straight out of the movies. The wolf scene was almost an exact copy of the wolf scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast movie. Still, it was a fun read that I wanted to finish until the end. I don't think the characters are very realistic. I think there were some very preachy moments. I also think the book was predictable. BUT for the genre, it was still a good book and a nice read for the afternoon.
Non-christians shouldn't be discouraged from the book. It's easy to gloss over those moments and enjoy the book for what it is.
Kinda fun, but also dragged. I found myself bored and started skipping ahead. insta-love, and makeout scenes in the middle of danger? Plus the constant mention of food? Yeah, girl I love my food too, but can we focus on the plot?
The good:
- Full of action
- Good narrator for the audiobook version I listened to.
The Bad:
- The main character! UGH. Self centered entitled prick.
- The author clearly felt like not describing somethings, so just simply skipped them.
- Weak characters
- The main character
- The main character.
I HATED the main character. This book should be fun. Submarine hyjack, dinosaurs, tons of action.... Instead it was like pulling teeth. If the book were larger this would have been a dnf.
Oh how I wanted to love this. I love Dean's podcast and was excited to read this book. It is written just like he talks, which could be a good thing, but not here. It's long winded and seems more like a first draft. Yes, he states in the beginning that the book needed an entire re-write. Instead he searched for a publisher that would take it the way it is. Sorry, but it would benefit from a trim. I could tell there were some gems of advice in the book, but it's surrounded by rubbish.
There were some good exchanges between characters but overall it was incredibly long. The murder occurs withing the first chapter or two, and the rest of the book is spent putting together the pieces. I made it to the halfway point before skipping to the end.
The part that stuck me was how “cool” the detectives were about there being a murder/murderer. If I was staying at the potential murderers house while he ran loose, I wouldn't have been so calm about it all.
In short, may be good for sherlock Holmes fans. Otherwise its rather boring and long.
Really well done. Great artwork. My only mark against this is that it's all in black and white. A little harder to read. Maybe a future addition will be colored.
My favorite collection yet!
I didn't know all the cartoons/characters being referenced, but that didn't matter. Sholly Finch does a great job summing up who is who and their defining characteristics without bogging down the story. It's easy to follow along and full of great references. My favorite were the little jabs to the old cartoons, and the asides to the reader.
Book full of really insightful tips/advice. Great use of scenarios and real life examples. Not the most exciting content, but the author did really well.
I would consider this a book that you have on hand and flip through when you have questions, rather than one you sit and read straight through. If you do the latter, it'll be difficult.
Main character was an idiot. Any by titling this book “Vampyre” It really took away any suspense in the story.
Stunning artwork, but the story is very disjointed and condensed. Should be a minimum of 2, ideally 3 volumes.
What a great Duology. I'm glad the author didn't drag out this story into an unnecessary third book. At the same time, I'm so sad this series is over! I love the characters, the writing, and the worldbuilding. Such a great story and I look forward to reading more by this author.
An interesting graphic novel about a young girl during the renaisance who don's a man's skin to learn more about her new fiance..
Hoopla Bonus Borrows suggestion for Aug 2022.
Oooh nope. DnF at 50%.
When she went to the pet shop to return the cat she was judgmental over the young teen working at the shop. Then asks for the manager. Then gets frustrated when she doesn't get her way.
I tried to give her a few more chapters, because in these types of stories they characters can grow on you. Nope. Not this one. She and her friends can stay on the library shelf.
This was a Hoopla 2022 August bonus borrows suggestion.
Fans of Sherlock Holmes would enjoy this. There was many references to Holmes, including the OG and adaptations. The MC moves around the storyline very similarly to A Holmes novel.
The story itself was clever and started strong. Some parts were definitely overembelished. By the middle of the story, my attention started the waver. The MC began to grind my gears. Her extra observant nature became obvious and her “better than though” attitude had me wishing they'd arrest her already so I could be done with her.
Buuuuuut I'd you like Sherlock then you won't mind this MC, because she is a wannabe Sherlock.
Unfortunately for me, I forgot that I can't stand Sherlock and his clever “this is how he did it and why!” Attitude. The act that everyone else is beneath them or not as clever or observant. Both he and the MC need a class on humility.
Ok enough complaints. The book was fine. Writing was fine. Plot was decent. Just not one I'll revisit.
Hoopla August 2022 Bonus Borrows Recomendation.
DNF at page 40.
I thought this was going to be cute of fun. Instead it's just... sad? pathetic? I felt my soul draining from my body when I tried to read this. Nope. No thanks. In the DNF pile you go.
This was a Hoopla August 2022 Bonus Borrows recommendation.
Illustration in the book is beautiful. The whale jumping out of the ocean was a particular favorite. The book itself does a wonderful job capturing just how important the moon is to earth and the many things it impacts (I.e. ocean tides, protection from asteroids, etc).
The one flaw was the placement of the facts about the moon and the verbiage. It was jarring and pulled me out of the story. Also, the verbiage might be too much for its audience. A toddler would have no interest in Clair De Lune or Emily Dickinson.
This book was an August 2022 Hoopla Bonus Borrows recommendation.
First of all, I wanted to love this. A book using pizza to demonstrate how to do geometry? FINALLY! Something I could understand.
Unfortunately, after reading this I still barely understand geometry. Instead, I'm hungry for pizza.
So what went wrong? Simply put, this book is chaotic. There are so many things to look at that it is hard to focus and concentrate on what is actually being displayed. My eye was jumping all over the place while trying to absorb the cute illustrations, the helpful hints and how to actually do geometry. At the end of the day there was just too much and I finished it feeling helpless, lost and overwhelmed.
Ways this book could have been improved:
- Have a universal background for the text explaining how to do geometry. This way the brain can say “Ok everything in the blue box on each page is what will help me understand the subject matter.”
- Add more spacing around the text and the imagery. It is so clumped together that it is chaotic. Many times I would try to read a sentence but a drawing was so close that my eye would start to follow the drawing. Thus I'd never finish the sentence I was reading.