Anna

Just like the previous book, the dungeon side of things started to feel a little repetitive to me but the outside story is slowly starting to ramp up and that I really enjoy!

Steve Erikson's writing is dense, which is why it always takes me quite some time to get through his books and Deadhouse Gate is no exception. But what keeps me going is the world building which is done so well. Every person, every tribe you encounter feels so alive, like there is a whole set of stories written about its people and folklore. It makes the world feel so alive and vibrant.

At the same time so much of this story takes place in the desert, and it can feel like it is dragging on a little bit. I also feel like this book was setting up a lot of what is to come. Especially in terms of character building but also in terms of the story. Suffice it to say I'm excited to see where the story will go.

I'm a sucker for a well executed wallflower story and I also quite enjoy the fake dating trope. So this book was right up my alley.

After quite enjoying the first book in the series, the second felt like a bit of a let-down. While I still enjoyed the characters, the love story fell a bit flat to me. Part of this is likely that I don't really care for enemies to lovers.

For me this book really picked up right where the last book ended. We still have the same in-dungeon mayhem, though this book feels more like epic all out battle, but still very much in line with the spirit of the earlier books.

At the same time, the outside dungeon story is really ramping up, so what started in the previous two book is really paying off right now. I'm so excited about the big finale in the next book!

The meta story really started to pick up in this one. It was great to see the outside story slowly ramping up. I feel like that next to the dungeon based mayhem and craziness, the meta story really adds some depth to the story.

I enjoy the Emily Wilde series as a nice and relaxing read.

For me the fourth book in the series brought a little less enjoyment than the previous ones. It felt a little bit slower, and I struggled to get as engaged and excited as I did about the previous books in the series. This might very well be an effect of having read all books back, to back, to back so far though.

I went into reading this book after having heard about it for a decade online. So let's just say expectations were sky-high for this one. I expected a really solid five-star read. And that is not exactly what I got, unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, I did really enjoy this book, but it just could not live up to the expectations. What I enjoyed most about this book is how the circus is built and the wonders one might encounter in there. I was surprised to find that by the end of the book, obsession and manipulation were such prominent themes. These themes are not immediately obvious, but the further along I got, the more prominent they became. I enjoyed the flawed characters. I found myself simultaneously rooting for them and rolling my eyes at them a little bit. I also really enjoyed the ending (no spoilers though). While a very good book, it just didn't give me quite as much of the magical whimsy and tragic love story I was hoping for.

This book raises some very interesting points about breathing and all the organs and physical functions associated with it. The point I found most interesting is the correlation between industrialized, easier-to-chew food, shrinking mouths, a shift towards mouth breathing, and an increased risk of infection. Fascinating stuff. These seemingly causative changes are really just correlations, with no real way of proving that they are actually causative. But in the book these are often presented as causative. Maybe that's just me nitpicking as a scientist, but when this kind of thinking has been drilled into you, it's difficult to let go whilst reading for pleasure.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for the “he wants her more” trope. The way the two main characters interact and their relationship grew made the romance feel earned. He actually worked to earn her trust. The third act breakup was also quite believable and felt honestly heart-wrenching. No suprises though, we have a happy end.

I had such a good time with this book. The shy wallflower falling for the popular, confident jock is such a common trope. But I'm a sucker for it. The banter between the characters and the chemistry is great.

I enjoyed this book. The romance was cute, but the drama in the book did, unfortunately, not really land for me. Whilst the topics were heavy—her dad is verbally abusive, and his daughter died young—neither feels impactful for the story. Other than, of course, the mandatory third act breakup. It enjoy it much more when I get to watch characters overcome their past issues. Throughout the book I never got the feeling I really got to know these characters very well. Which was quite the shame.

In “Into the Abyss”, dass im Original „The Unraveling” heißt (ich verkneife mir an dieser Stelle, mich darüber aufzuregen, dass es im Deutschen einen anderen Titel auf ENGLISCH gibt), ist ein Romance-Suspense Buch. Im Buch geht es um Trauer, die Beziehung zwischen Psychologe und Patient, eine verbotene Beziehung und Obsession. Im Verlauf des Buches trifft die Protagonistin mehr als eine fragwürdige Entscheidung und bringt sich dadurch in moralisch äußerst schwierige Situationen. Mir fällt es immer schwer, über eine/n Protagonisten/in zu lesen, die/der sich so verhält, und dann Sympathie für sie/ihn aufzubringen. Das kann für mich noch funktionieren, wenn das Buch dann nicht noch versucht Sympathie für die Protagonistin zu generien. Etwas, das hier leider der Fall ist. Vielleicht sollte ich mich grundsätzlich von Romance Suspense als Genre fern halten.

The crazy ride with Carl and Donut continues in this book. In the third installment, crawlers face a “new and exciting challenge” a metro-inspired system of tunnels and train stations.

While the fun and mayhem of the first two books continue in this one, new topics are being explored in this one. What I enjoyed in particular is that we see more of other crawlers and general collaboration. Also, the metaplot (I'll keep it vague so no spoilers) is being explored more, which adds an interesting layer to the story.

Just like the first book, it has been a fun and entertaining read, and I gobbled it up. For me, this second book hit just as good as the first one; it does much of the same and was just as addicting.

This book had me completely hooked! The premise is wild: an alien invasion of planet Earth sends survivors of the collapse into an RPG-like dungeon. Carl (our protagonist) goes into the dungeon with his girlfriend's cat (Princess Dounat the Queen Anne Chonk (what a completely obnoxious name)). Chaos ensues.

I think what brought the book home for me is the completely deranged AI that narrates all items, quests, and other occurrences in the dungeon.

This book is mainly aiming to entertain, and oh boy does it deliver on that. It was a quick, easy, and enjoyable read for me and sent me right on to book two in the series.

This book hit straight home for me. Starting with the solarpunk setting, beautifully described and executed, continuing with the main character who uses they/them pronouns, to the delightful occupation of the protagonist: riding around with their wagon offering people tea, an open ear, and rest from day-to-day life.

I heard pretty good things about the book and really wanted to give it a try but the story simply did not land for me. While the whole premise of a ship AI inhabiting one of its robot bodies and living on as that robot after the ship's destruction is very interesting, I just couldn't truly get into the book, if I'm honest. I felt that particularly in the middle the book had quite a hanger for me. That being said, I'd still like to give the second book a shot. A lot of the themes resonate with me and I felt like I got a little more into it towards the end of the book.

I really enjoyed Bell Hooks's All About Love. Especially the idea that love is something we actively do rather than a fleeting emotion, resonated with me, and I still find myself thinking about it. For that alone I would say the book was worth it for me.

Later chapters dive into intersections between capitalism, war, and patriarchy with love, which I found really interesting, but I would have enjoyed a more in-depth discussion of these subjects. Still very interesing.

Towards, the end of the book, it fell off for me a little bit due to the focus on Christianity and love which did not resonate with me as a non-religious person.

Loverboy, befasst sich mit der gleichnamigen Thematik, also mit der Ausbeutung junger, oft unsicherer Mädchen. Es sind auf jeden Fall Triggerwarnung zu beachten!

Während die Thematik wichtig ist, konnte mich das Buch an sich, leider nicht abholen. Das liegt für mich zum Teil daran, dass die Hauptperspektive des Buchs aus Sicht einer Außenstehenden geschrieben ist (der Mitbewohnerin des Opfers des Loverboys). Dadurch fehlt eine gewisse Nähe zu dem eigentlichen Vorgehen und emotionalen Lage des Opfers, die ich interessant gefunden hätte. Zum Teil wird diese Perspektive in Tagebucheinträgen des Opfers dargestellt, doch der Fokus liegt eindeutig nicht darauf.

Weitherhin, ist das Buch dem Genre “Romantic Suspense” zuzuordnen, es gibt daher neben den Thriller-Elemententen rund um die Loverboy Thematik noch einen romantischen Erzählstrang. Die Komination aus Romance und Thriller/Suspense, funktioniert für mich leider hier nicht so gut, da der Fokus mehr auf der handlung liegt, als auf der emotionalen Bindung zwischen den beiden Hauptcharakteren.

This book argues very convincingly that the cause of many of today's issues, the isolation of boys and mental health problems in girls, can be traced back to smartphone and social media use. I particularly enjoyed that the author tries to highlight possible solutions both on the large scale and the smaller scale.

At times I felt the author started having a pretty black and white look on smartphones and social media. I would have enjoyed a more in-depth discussion of possible advantages of smartphones or online communities and how they can be used for meaningful connection.

After reading the blurb, I had high hopes for this book, which were unfortunately disappointed. I had hoped for an interesting character drama focused on a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship overcoming differences after the death of their son/husband. This unfortunately was not the case.

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had not previously met, and the mother-in-law did not even know her son had married after dating the main character for just 6 months. So understandably, the mother-in-law was put off by the situation and the women who turned up at her son's deathbed. I had hoped to see the main character and her mother-in-law work through their grief and connect over this shared struggle. Instead, the mother-in-law disappears from the scene, only to reappear after some reflection, wanting to build a relationship with the daughter-in-law. While the story in and of itself was okay, I had very different expectations of what the book would be about and was therefore left disappointed.

Side note: I originally read the German version of the blurb, so this issue might be unique to the German blurb.

I really enjoyed this finale to the Green Bone Saga. The trend of time jumps, that started in the second book, continues in the third. We take increasingly big jumps in time. This does not take away from the story in any way, as the stakes keep on rising, and it feels only natural that time scales would increase as the clan war moves ever further away from the streets and into business territory. Through the time jumps, the book feels fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end of the book.

I felt like this book was a lot weaker than the first book (The House in the Cerulean Sea). Whilst we follow the same cast of lovable characters, it felt overall like there was less development of characters in this book. In the first book, we get to know all the people on the island and how they slowly open up to Linus. A journey which feels really rewarding. This sense of growth and of discovery is missing from the second book. Arthur gets a little bit more development, but overall I felt like most of the other characters didn't experience any growth. In this book, the characters start taking on the government, and it's policy on magical children. It moves away from the character focused narrative of the first book and becomes more story focused. I generally tend to prefer character driven stories, so that might be the reason this second book fell flat for me.