Trey
This has the narrative style of word-of-mouth story telling, which is totally fine in other formats. In book format, I find it jarring and annoying.
For instance, a single chapter might be seen as a single story. The next chapter will pick up another story at a slightly different point in time and will backtrack or fastforward to connect details to previous chapters. Sometimes, the recapping of particular chapters if verbatim. Sometimes you're just left thinking, “Oh, I guess this is a whole new story,” only to find out 10 pages later that the new “main character” is connected to the previous chapters' main character.
I will say that this book is pretty interesting in the sense of looking at colonialism from the side of the indigenous people. It reinforces the simple fact that indigenous people had absolutely no idea what they were agreeing to when agreements were made with European colonists. That is infuriating, of course.
So, anyway, this book is fine. I have zero temptation to read any others in the series.
This is for the “colonialism” requirement of the 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.
Romance novels aren't really my thing, so I don't think I can really offer any substantive criticism of this book. I picked it because it was one of two M/M romance novels Book Riot suggested for their 2018 Read Harder Challenge.
I think if romance novels WERE my thing, though, I'd like to read this whole series. Some random thoughts:
- This is book #2; I haven't read book #1, but I got the gist of things.
- I really like how the main character gives the finger to the notion that gay men can't also be masculine
- This book definitely has some rather graphic smutty bits, but mostly the book is about two football players having feelings for one another.
- The character arcs are VERY shallow along certain lines of conflict. Specifically, Adrian's realization of his own bisexuality to nearly ready to throw away his entire career, friends, and family for Simeon is VERY fast. And goes through strangely few iterations before the final state. But, I don't think this particular story would have supported that much development.
It's an interesting idea, I guess, but it just didn't work for me.
This is one of those books where a plus-size woman, a bisexual cowboy, and a transperson go on an adventure in the early 1800's. That is to say, this is an alternate history western heist novel that is totally plausible. Especially the part where one character uses “they/them” for their pronouns and encounters absolutely no bigotry about this. The same for the bisexual cowboy; people love that he makes sex with men and women! Yay! Progressive pre-Civil War US!
I think I would have appreciated this more had it used more of the actual history and historical context than it did.
As is, it seemed short, underdeveloped, and cliched. Almost as if the author wanted to write a super butch, bro-y heist novel, but “subvert” the tropes with these alternative characters. But the tropes are not subverted.
All that said, at least there are several very likable characters in this book. And the whole notion of using hippos instead of horses is really fun/ny to imagine.
Very fun new YA series! I like that the majority story does NOT hinge on the notion that Arlo is a “boy with a destiny.”
The characters are cute and likable and the overall story is fun and exciting.
Two minor complaints:
- I feel like it's on the short side
- The emotional importance of the race probably should have been played up a little more.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this and I can't wait for Book 2!
This is a sweet book, but unremarkable in my opinion. This is mostly, I think, because this isn't a genre I enjoy reading much.
I do love the characters so much, though. They're such hilariously mean old women. And the social context – post-arpartheid South Africa – is intriguing.
But this is basically a very domesticated buddy story. So, yeah. Not my thing really.
HOWEVER if you do enjoy stories about very human relationships and you want something light and fun by the pool this is the book for you. It's quick and cute.
This is a really excellent book even for monogamists!
I read this one and Opening Up because I have several poly friends and I wanted to understand more. Opening Up focused on all different forms of open relationships. This book, though, focuses specifically on polyamory, having multiple romantic relationships at once.
Because of the focus on intimate, romantic relationships – as opposed to exclusively sexual or swinging – the advice in this book is much more focused and clear cut. Specifically, the discussion around how to communicate with partners, consent, and boundaries is excellent. I'm monogamous and I am excited to apply many of the techniques discussed to my own marriage.
So, I recommend this book even for people who aren't interested in polyamory, but who are simply interested in how to maintain healthy romantic relationships that are high in trust and communication.
Fun characters in an exciting story, lost in a book that desperately needs an editor.
I would not have read this book all the way through if it were not for my (now ended) friendship with the author and the love I had for the first (and to a lesser extent) second book in this series. But Gleaves's ambition and our friendship does not transform a bad book into a good book.
What's good here? Well, this book maintains the deeply researched tradition of the first two books. It draws heavily on the history of the region and specific locations that exist in real life Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. Gleaves takes special care in mapping out the various locations where the action takes place. We're also following the same characters from the previous two books and most of them are clear and interesting people that we want to know more about.
But the bad outweighs the good for me in this installment in the series. This book is full of stylistic problems and is easily twice as long as it needs to be. Plot holes and confusing action sequences abound and some of the characters behave in erratic, inexplicable ways. If Gleaves is working with an editor, I can't tell. If he isn't, he should get one.
The fact that this is the third book in the series is especially sad because the first book easily earned five stars from me. Even this book contains innumerable examples of Gleaves' talent with the written word. I have enjoyed the world he built and the characters he brought to life. I want them to breathe and thrive but this book does them no justice.
I'll probably read book 4, but I won't buy multiple copies like I did with the first three. I don't have much hope that it will get us back to the level of quality seen in Book 1, but we'll see.
=-=-=-=-=-=
In the comment thread below with the author, you can see that I've been accused of giving a low rating to this book out of some unknown (even to me) personal motivation against the author. Until I gave this book two stars on Good Reads, I actually thought we were friends.
Therefore, I want to offer some specific examples of problems starting with this passage:
“The New Jersey Palisades had cut the throat of the sun. She bled copious color into the water-blue sky, arterial scarlet and venous purple, then fell behind the horizon, into her grave, shrouded by aquamarine clouds. The Earth turned its face away and dressed itself in black, lowering a mournful veil of night, hanging crepe over the mirror of the Hudson. The moon filled with lamentations, the wind howled its grief, and the stars lit votives for the funeral of the day.
“Tarrytowners lit their candles as well. Those who'd charged their mobile devices before the blackout had learned from the village website that, though ConEd was hard at work, power would not return for at least three days. Wires had broken all over town, as if the barren trees had cleared out the cobwebs. Tarrytowners emptied the CVS of batteries and flashlights, fearing the fall of such total darkness, nervously aware of the growing emptiness beyond their windows. No streetlights would burn tonight, no shop lights. No TVs would flicker behind neighbor curtains. Only black shapes and half-glimpsed shadows out there now. Shadows festooned for the Halloween season. A dangling plastic vampire bat to startle Ms. Martins, out walking her terriers by flashlight. The skeletal remains of Groucho Marx to leer at Dee Harlow as she jogged past. The McDonald's on Wildey Street would raise a great black ‘M' tonight. Mayor McCheese would call for calm, but the Hamburglar would be at large, sneaking through a window to steal ketchup from Grimace. The blackout of Sleepy Hollow was absolute, and all the little ones could feel that... something was out there. Something bad.”
[Gleaves, Richard. SLEEPY HOLLOW: General of the Dead (Jason Crane Book 3) (p. 476). Turtlebug Publishing. Kindle Edition.]
The first paragraph is rather florid and very gothic. It's 100% appropriate for this book and, in that context, I think this is one of the most beautiful descriptions from all three books. It's vivid. It perfectly captures the mood of the overall book. And it gives deep emotional foreshadowing for what is about to happen. BRILLIANT.
But the second paragraph is bloated. It's far too long. Readers do not need that many examples of people doing things in a blackout to understand that this is a blackout and it's extra scary because of Halloween decorations. But the worst part of that paragraph is “Mayor McCheese would call for calm, but the Hamburglar would be at large, sneaking through a window to steal ketchup from Grimace.” It's clever, yes. Too clever by half because it utterly ruins the tone that was so beautifully set by the opening paragraph.
Structurally, there's that very long digression into Agathe's journal. It provides readers with key details about her magic and how the magic works and it illuminates some of her motivations, so – if I were editing this book – I wouldn't say it has to be cut out entirely, but it's too long. While reading it, I thought that it would actually have made for a better novella or accompanying bit of material apart from the novel. Or maybe just has some background writing to help flesh out the character. But 72 pages and 11 chapters is far too much and it drags the reader out of the flow of the book.
In terms of characters, I found Hadewych's rapid vacillations between being a abusive, negligent, money-grubbing, power-hungry homocidal lunatic and doting father to be confusing and jarring. I don't understand why the other characters – knowing the worst about him – bother trying to look at whatever good is in him knowing that he will probably Jekyll and Hyde on them in a minute. (BUT! I will say, this craziness made more sense to me after he started going literally insane because of the summoning rock thing.)
Valerie does some similar rapid switches. She has this beautiful arc that starts in Book 1. She's wounded, a victim of trauma and abuse, but she slowly starts building her confidence and coming into her own. My image of her literally blossomed in my mind from being a frail, old, deeply-and-irrevocably scarred woman to being a powerful, confident woman worthy of love. But, suddenly, one revelation later and she lapses into near catatonia. Then, also suddenly, she's fighting for what's hers. These switches are important to the character, but they're underdeveloped for the reader and come off as jarring.
This book is deeply flawed and needs extensive editing. That is why I gave it a low rating.
A horror classic. I get it. I've seen the movie a couple of times and I never really understood the ending, but maybe I was distracted while watching it. The book makes it much more clear and makes a lot more sense to me.
For a horror book, it actually has a pretty happy ending, all things considered.
I really hate reading books or seeing movies that I know are going to make me cry, so I don't know why I chose to read this one.
It's a beautiful and heart-breaking story of same-sex love and loss. It also has an ambiguous ending a la the movie version of Brokeback Mountain. So, the reader is left wondering about what will happen to Maurice next. If you're of a hopeful bent, you might choose to think they live out their days in a boathouse somewhere in France or elsewhere in realms where their love is not illegal. But if you're a pessimist, you may recall that it was not so many years after the time in which this story is set that Alan Turing was chemically castrated and driven to suicide for being gay.
I hope I can be an optimist when I think back on this book.
Not sure why this one didn't grab me, but I found it just OK.
Some of his assertions about the scientific evidence backing meditation and attachment theory are questionable in my mind. From what I've read and heard elsewhere, the case is not nearly as clearcut as he makes it seem in this book.
I also feel like the “ancient wisdom” schtick is just a schtick to sell books. He pulls quotations from ancient/old texts and then talks about how they are supported by current scientific theory. The problem is that those quotations are taken out of context and although he tries to provide the broader context, he often leaves out notable elements such as superstition and other irrational claims.
I also think there are several points where one could take up serious philosophical quibbles with his argument.
In spite of these problems he makes a lot of thought-provoking arguments that are worthy of consideration if not application in one's own life. I really appreciate his support of meditation, positive psychology, and cognitive therapy. So, overall, I guess it's really a pretty interesting book... but for some reason I just did not love it.
Not as awful as the second book; much closer to Book 1 in terms of quality. But still deeply flawed.
“Secrets no more we shall have,” declared the radiant, sparkling, beautiful queen!
“Agree says we!” Shouts the assembled court.
The queen then proceeds to tell lies and have secrets. Just these next fourteen times because she really, really, really neeeeeeeds to.
@#(! terrible. While the first book in this series was something I described as “if Twilight were better written,” the same cannot be said of this book. It's garbage.Among my complaints:- The overly dramatic antiquated sentence structures used at times.- The constant references to “males” and “females” instead of “men” and “women”- The incessant drama created from the simple fact that the characters don't sit down and have adult conversations with one another.- The disgusting sex scenes. As mentioned in my update, they're too vulgar to be considered romantic and too basic to be considered erotic. They're just gross.- Oh, the lead is from a society without religion, but she understands concepts of heaven and hell?- Why is it that every single time these people encounter a situation where someone else has something they want, the solution is to steal it? No one ever attempts to negotiate for it or simply ask for it. They're like, “Oh, they have this blah blah thing. I guess we have to steal it now.”- I absolutely hate the lead character. She is an idiot – emotional, unreasoning, rude – and exactly the sort of *female I hope my daughter never is.
I'm going to listen to the audiobook of the third book in this series because I made the mistake of buying it in advance, but I am already angry about it.
I really wish I hadn't gone ahead and bought the other books in this series.
There's nothing I would say is really WRONG with this book, but it's not my cup of tea. It's sort of as if Twilight were a fairy tale (Beauty & the Beast, to be specific) written by someone who can actually write.
It's dramatic and romantic and... not my thing.
It's come to my attention that I actually have several poly/non-monogamous friends and I wanted to learn more. Mostly, I wanted to understand the question of why people go into non-monogamous relationships. What are “good” reasons? What are “bad” reasons? How does it work?
This is a great book for getting across the message that there are LOTS of different types of relationships out there and people do this for a lot of reasons.
For me, a person in a monogamous relationship, there's a lot of good information and thought-provoking ideas in here. Reading it sparked a closer examination of what I need in a relationship, what I enjoy in my relationship, and what I could be doing better to make my relationship more satisfying. The emphasis on communication, consent, agreement, mutual satisfaction, and the concept of “compersion”are all things that I want to explore in my relationship.
There's also a very informative discussion around sexual health and legal considerations for poly families.
So, I would recommend this book even for monogamous people who just want a new perspective on romance, sex, and relationships.
Really great! It's a cyber punk noir detective novel. The mystery is challenging and multi-layered. The characters are rich and interesting. The world-building is elaborate and lustrous.
But it is a gritty novel. Definitely for grown-ups with some pretty graphic sex scenes and adult psychological themes.
Still, I would recommend it to fans of sci-fi.
A really fascinating – if a bit cynical – review of American history mapped along hoaxes, scams, (false) conspiracy theories, religion, cults, and other false beliefs in an attempt to describe and explain our current cultural and political state.
I think he makes a bit too much of some points – his denigration of libertarianism, video games, LARPing, Disney, Las Vegas, etc. – but the overall thrust of his thesis is quite thought-provoking. And I do appreciate that he attempts to balance his commentary slightly to avoid coming off as TOTALLY motivated in his reasoning.
I'd never even heard of this book until a friend mentioned it on Facebook as an example of dystopian fiction, but apparently all of my friends have and they loved it. I did not enjoy reading this book because it's horrifying and painful,, but it's a good book and a very quick read.
It's the story of a boy who is born into a society of near-perfect equality, but is assigned the role of “Receiver” for his community. And in training for his life's work, he starts to understand all sorts of horrible things about life there.
“It's up to you to make yourself happy in your marriage.”
I heard an interview with the author on The Art of Charm and was really impressed with her focus on individuality and being the architect of your own joy in your relationship. This book does not disappoint one bit.
Since I JUST finished it about ten minutes ago, I haven't digested it well enough to provide a better summary than that. But if five stars and those words aren't enough to convince you that this is a great relationship book, I'll add this: I can actually imagine re-reading this one.
