Ronan

Really enjoyed the start where it was practically all lore dump. The ending kind of dragged on for me and I was just waiting for the battle to happen. Don't know if I'm too keen on reading the rest of the series (or at least the first three).

I did really like the excerpts from in-universe books at the beginning of each chapter though.

Such a profound story with so many interesting concepts. Short book but took me awhile to read because I kept pausing and thinking about what was being said.

The title drops were insane

A good read. I liked the way each location/building was described. Some parts were hard to read

Around a quarter of the way through he mentions that he never had a big interest in poetry/writing, that is very obvious. The writing style is very bland and made me feel like I was reading a (obviously fake) Reddit story. The stories told are very disconnected, they're not always interesting, and sometimes pointless. It just comes across as random stories in his life without any focus. I don't think I gained anything from reading this book. I did like the casualness of him trying ket near the end.

The intro by Bill Gates was also worthless

I thought it was grand for most of the book but the last quarter of it you knew something bad was coming it was like a horror. I really liked the quote at the beginning that was along the lines of “not all of this happened, but that doesn't mean it's not true”. The unreliable narrator bit was my favourite part of reading the book

I loved this book, the way it was written, the story, and the characters. I didn't know about the different POVs before reading the book but my favourites were Ciarán's, Lara's and Claire's. I found the connections between different stories really interesting and the way it tied New York to the constant developments everywhere was really interesting to read. I liked the way related characters had similar train of thoughts (like Claire and her husband, the judge, both made long lists in their heads). I loved the way scenes were detailed too.

3.5
I am happy I read this but I wouldn't really recommend it. I liked the ending, I found the bits in Ithaca a lot more exciting than most of the adventure part. There are some exciting parts but it was also such a slog to get through it all. Some of time it just felt like “so this happened so then they went here and then they did something and then the moved over here and this happened”.

A lot of strengths about Ulysses aren't really shown too, he gets a lot of advice from Minerva and if she doesn't guide him, it starts to go badly for him. I did find it funny whenever it would be like “you should go here, do this, and say this” and then Ulysses would go there, do what was said, and copy what he was told to say word for word.

First fantasy book I've read in a while. I really liked the world it was set in, but I didn't care about the characters or plot so the last bit really dragged on for me with the “romance.” I liked how they were constantly moving, even if it wasn't always necessary for the story. I did find some of the “twists” obvious and have mixed opinions about the ending. Don't think I'll read the rest of the series but might read a summary of what happens out of curiosity. It did get caught in the bit of fantasy i don't like where a thing is only revealed to be possible when it becomes necessary to the story (like we only learn vampires can enthrall people after they've enthralled someone).
3.5 stars tbh.

James Bond's cool but I'm cooler. The villain doing poppers multiple times while playing cards was not something I expected but did enjoy.

Cool insights into the music landscape. The writer is clearly very passionate about music and knows a lot about using data. Would have preferred if it went a bit more indepth at parts but happy i read it, even though I'll probably never look at it again

This book was just weird tbh. It was largely character driven but none of the characters were very likeable, especially since the first thing we learn about the main three is they were in this weird cheating triangle. Darcy, the protagonist, has a lot of thoughts but is largely just a pushover who does whatever anyone else asks so there's not much to root for. I also thought her train of thoughts weren't realistic or relatable. They kind of went all over the place. Even at the end I couldn't tell if Darcy had changed much, she walks into a building without waving back to someone and I think it was supposed to be a big deal?

The book is also kind of weird on the “wokeness”, I could never tell if it was supposed to be ironic or not. I didn't find the dialogue very engaging or accurate to how people talk either. There were some good parts in the book, bits with Darcy granny and the mental hospital, but there was a lot of fluff that added nothing to the story just lead to a worse read (what was the point in that cat). I think if it focused on less issues it could've made for a more cohesive read, the part with Kim felt kind of disconnected from the rest.

Favourite line was definitely “Darcy made out Dom standing, his rizz on point, leaning against a bar...”

I haven't read a lot of sport biographies but I thought this gave such a good insight into the world of tennis and making it big, I never realised how much it was like the music/film industry. It was great reading about the highs and lows of his career and his personal perspective of them. Even though they were rare, I loved the parts where he was describing the tennis match themself. A bit more on what he's doing now would've been nice, but I suppose that's not really what the book is about. #LimerickMentioned

It's written very well and the descriptions are lovely but it just didn't keep me interested. There wasn't enough plot and it was so repetitive. I might try a shorter book by him at some stage but not for awhile.

I hate to say it but I just wasn't interested in most of this book. I never felt any particular investment to any of the characters and the book only gets interesting for the last 75-90%, but even then I didn't feel like anything original or unique was said. I don't think the epilogue should have been included too, that kind of dampened my experience of the whole book and I thought the original ending was a lot better. Was considering giving it three because I did sleep fantastically every night after reading it but that epilogue brought it down again

Better than I expected but I had low expectations.

I felt physical dread every time there was a chapter about her in the hospital. This book was so long and so much wasn't needed. The joke of her wearing “lady chinos” made no sense and was repeated so many times. The only entertaining part happens near the end but since the book uses time jumps it's resolve like a chapter later. The book also tries to use the time jumps to hide secrets, like the main character has an ex she refuses to talk to/think about in the current day. Shockingly that ex is the only man mentioned in the book at that point that isn't the ex-husband and isn't related to her.

None of the characters were enjoyable. They were pretty much either boring or just annoying. Their characters weren't consistent at all either, it was just whatever the “plot” needed. They had so many side stories that either didn't get resolved or just stalled till the book was over. Why did her son start doing yoga and why was it such a big deal to everyone?

There were also some weird parts, like the constant mention of food/calories/exercise and any time it was revealed a character was gay there's be a “but we're okay about it” line. Money was also all over the place, Stella's supposed to be lower class but has multiple properties, and constantly has random savings that she didn't spend. Once again with the time jumps she always seems to run into a point of low money but different saving stockpiles always appear.

There was something I liked about this book but I don't really know what. I didn't really like any of the characters but I found them interesting. I didn't care about the content itself in the emails but found it cool based on what it revealed about the characters.

I can see why people don't like it, it is mainly just four melancholic characters going about their lives without much plot but it was good to me.

Loved this one again. The characters were great and both mysteries were interesting and tied together nicely. Stephen is still my favourite character and I really liked the interactions with him and Bogdan and/or Elizabeth. There were some B plots I thought were a bit irrelevant, like the police on the TV show and Pauline's character never seemed consistent but I enjoyed reading it the whole way through.

Some good short 1/2 pages stories but also some useless ones. Finishing with the Loss section was kind of a downer and I thought it had some of the weakest writing of the collection.

My dog also snacked on the book

This wasn't exactly a good book but it was easy to read and entertaining enough. There were some points where I was kind of shocked at what was going on but I don't think the book did that on purpose

None of the characters or plots were exactly unique or interesting. I've never watched sex in the city but I imagine it's something like this.

Some topics, like racism, are brought up, acknowledged by characters, and then just never talked about again with no conclusion or goal which was really weird.

Also one of the characters is supposed to have this big change which is supposed to be a driving force of the book, but she doesn't really change? She's the exact same person except now she donates

There's also a comparison between Sasha and her ex with her being a part of cords family and the book says they're in the exact same situation, when they just aren't?

I was in between a 2 and a 3 tbh. I liked the dialogue if nothing else. At first it was an easy read but it turned into a weird erotica after the intro. I didn't like any of the characters that much and I thought the ending was a cop out.
Don't think I was the target audience tbf, also the random r slur at the end really took me out

The book picked up for the last 20% or so but I didn't enjoy it for the most part. It just felt like a series of stories of “here's this insane thing that happened to me” that are loosely tied together without any lesson or revelation at the end. Some of the stories are good but I never really found myself caring about any of the people and the writing itself wasn't anything special in my opinion.
I didn't know much about her before reading this book besides she dated Kanye, was in a Charli XCX video, and is the voice behind some tiktok audios.
I was told that it's better to listen to her audiobook while reading this book but I couldn't find it and I'm not a big fan of audiobooks in general.
I also found it weird that around 70% of the way through the book she mentions she wrote an autobiography about her life, so only the last 30% is a story that she hasn't told before?

Really enjoyed this book and found the characters very entertaining and colourful. I know this is based off real life but I found myself really caring for the characters and hoping for the best for them, getting nervous that disaster would strike near the end.
I'm not big on philosophy books and all that but I found it enjoyable how the theology of different countries was weaved into conversations etc, I also liked the Count's random insights into the beauty of random (and sometimes mundane) things.
The book is split into five different sections and I switched to a different book after each section. I think if you were to read it all in one go it would get quite repetitive - everything and everyone in the book is described as the best X, which suits the Count's personality but I think it would get annoying reading it for 400+ pages straight.
The hotel, and especially the restaurant, really feel alive in the book.
The book also tells a bit about the history of Russia, I knew the general overview but the book has notes at the bottom of some pages explaining context. I read them all cause they were pretty funny.
One final bit is I started reading this in summer and it is definitely a winter book

Entertaining characters and I loved the reveal at the end - even if I only clocked it three chapters before it was fully announced.

I read this after watching the Netflix show but I still really enjoyed it. It's a great story with great characters (Dexter's Mom is still my favourite). I think the Italy chapter was my favourite but I like the concept of the ‘one day a year ‘. I also enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each part - especially the last one. I was also struggling to get to the end since I knew what was coming though.

Dexter and Emma's flaws shine through a lot more in the book, and how they balanced each other out and made each other better was really seen, more than the show. They're still very likeable, even when they know they're making the wrong decision. I really liked the humour in the book too, it balanced out the heavy.

I was in between a 4 and a 5 stars, I read it while on holidays which really suited it. If it sticks with me long enough I'll bump it up to 5.

It picked up more as it went on but I thought the beginning was pretty slow. I think the time jumps weren't used as well as they could've been, even if there were some good reveals. There were some great chapter cutaways, I liked the one on Mrs Campbell especially. None of the characters' developments bar Mungo were that interesting to me though.

3.5 stars would be more accurate for me but that's not an option and alahna said the same thing but she gave it 3 so I'm balancing it out