Asta

Very much what I've come to expect from Emily Henry, now with an added side-story that brought more meat into the usual arc. Not as good as some of Henry's earlier books, but I cried at the end of it all the same.

However I must pick on one detail in particular: it's sex even if there isn't intercourse. I'm sorry this isn't clear to a 33-year-old writer.

The first half of this was on par with the first two books, even though Pip's insistence on "being fine" was just frustrating. Go to the effing doctor you idiot.

Then the last half, even the last two hours, happened and everything fell apart. There was potential for a good ending, and while I have to give Jackson points for not taking the expected route she will not get any for what she did instead. It was cringe, overly dramatic and just plain selfishness under the pretence of self-sacrifice. Was that on purpose? Was I supposed to hate Pip by the end of it all? I don't know, but I sure did!

It really feels like the author had the first two part planned very well, and then the last one was done in a hurry. There were points in the beginning, such as Josh casually mentioning a man who's watching the house???, that felt like they were put in to have meaning later in the book, but just never did. What's the point of giving someone a new character trait if it's not actually used in the plot?

There was also WAY too many conveniently empty streets. I don't know about the small towns you all lived in, but I grew up in a tiny one and there's NO WAY all that could happen without someone seeing something.

That ending made me mad, how dare you Holly Jackson.

A strong sequel, more so than I'd expected! There was some similarities to the first part, but it was just on the good side of making things feel familiar rather than repetitive. There were, again, some red herrings that made very little sense since they were never actually explored further, but less so than in the first part.

I appreciated the planning ahead that Jackson had done for this plot, and I felt for Pip's struggling with right and wrong and the unfairness of the justice system. Interestingly the heavy themes walked hand in hand with very chaste relationship-building (an I love you and what felt like a first kiss, what?), which kind of threw me off. Sure, YA stuff can absolutely be heavy, but surely it's okay to mention the fact that an 18-year-old might have a sex life with her - gasp - boyfriend?! It just felt very off, tone-wise. (Twilight-vibes anyone?)

I did tear up a little at the end and hope that Pip can finally have some peace in her life.

I've listened to a few of Jackson's YA thrillers and it's clear why this is the most popular! Well paced and makes you feel closer to the characters than in others (possibly because there's less of them?) with a well built mystery. Naturally the MCs insistence of doing everything herself gets rather painful at times, but that's just the burden of the genre.

On the bad side the main character supposedly has a friend group of five, only one of which gets to have an actual personality, the "say no to drugs and alcohol" -message is very blatant but apparently littering is completely okay and doesn't deserve even a guilty conscience and some of the "suspects" keep being brought up but are never actually looked into, which makes their inclusion feel rather forced.

As a whole a good listen, but not quite worth five stars.

Read(sounded?) very much like a debut book in the worst possible way. There was a lot going on and a lot of it could've been cut out without losing anything of importance. I might've forgiven all this if the ending had been satisfying at all, but instead it was rushed and made very little sense, WHY was the six-year-old alone at the cliffs right after the nanny was kicked out?

Just so many things were flat out bad, if I had been reading a physical copy I'm sure I would've DNFd. As an audiobook it made for tolerable background noise.

Oh, and apparently having any kind of mental illness equals to seeing and hearing things. I'd expect this sort of thing from a book published in the 1800s, not 20-bloody-20.

The author tried to add too many things into one book, ended up with a mess that was confusing and contradicted itself. The inclusion of the connection to Scarlet Letter felt like it was shoved in in an attempt to get more people interested in the book rather than genuine interest on the authors part, and it was mentioned occasionally as if put in after the book had already been finished. I also found the constant criticism of Dawson's "co-author" to be petty and the author herself to be quite self-indulgent.

I didn't realise this was the same author who wrote "American Sherlock" before she mentioned it in the book. I DNFd that one and won't be trying Dawson's books again.

I don't normally listen to sci-fi because of the amount of detail they tend to contain, but this was simple enough for me to be able to keep up yet also interesting enough to make me want to know what's going to happen next.

I didn't realise this was the first book on a series, but at least I have something to look forward to now!

After having read Pekkanen's books with Greer Hendricks and loving those this fell really flat. There's a lot, too much even, going on, everyone's a suspect, no matter how flimsily, and the climax was just.... eh.

I feel like I would've enjoyed the book more without Stella's backstory being thrown into the mix with all it's drama that just felt like it was there to add fluff. There was no need to go into her divorce or into the new fling, (which, btw, felt like a lousy copout for "fixing" Stella's situation of not wanting to have babies. The book was published in 2024, gay couples can have babies too!) the drama of her history would've been sufficient.

The ending felt like it would never come and was full of info dumping.

A very interesting story about growing up with a diagnosis that healthcare professionals don't acknowledge even though it affects every aspect of your life. The audiobook read by Patric Gagne herself was a great listen.

I was sceptical at the beginning, as the author made it sound like she was very aware of the nuances of how her mind worked as a child and teenager, rather than that she was looking at her behaviour through the lense of experience, but when I followed her into college and working life the feeling abated and I was able to enjoy the way she explored her own mind and that of those who were close to her at one point or another.

As always with autobiographies I was at times wondering how much was portrayed as it actually happened and how much was simplified for easier digestion, but Sociopath is all the same a book I would love to read again. It made me think about how I perceive myself and how it would be good for everyone (sociopath or not) to be able to like how they are and who they are. I have to admit I've never thought about sociopathy much at all, I can't even think of the word for it in my native language, and it feels like an interesting thing to look further into.

I wish Patric all the future success in deepening our understanding of the trait and on helping those who are like her.

I enjoyed the story but at the same time I felt like there would've been space for so much more. It has all the faults that the most awarded stories have in my opinion: it circles around an issue but doesn't solve it, even in its own reality.

So many interesting aspects that I would've loved to learn more about, all of it just dropped in as sidelines and hinted at, none of it actually explored.

Interesting but a bit too focused on the author's own life.

A refreshingly different kind of heroine who didn't find out the truth because she was witty, but because she had friends who she could trust.

Surprisingly wholesome for a murder mystery with a bullied mc, I look forward to listening to the next story about Molly the Maid.

Not as good as the first one, and felt often like things were happening just for the plot to get along. I didn't understand Justice of Torren's reasoning most of the time.

A very quick and easy read, though, and tackled the white saviour syndrome well.

There was a lot I liked about this book; Maia himself, the relationships he built and the struggles he faced were well told and kept my interest. Unfortunately there was also a lot I didn't like; the overly complicated language (I had to read some sentences multiple times and still not understand what was being said), the plethora of names that all sounded like each other and that entirely blurred together and the way Maia immediately knew how to be an emperor despite having been kept away from court all his life.  There were also some plot points that I did not understand at all, maybe because the story was relying on the reader being able to read nuance that I'd did not grasp, which is frustrating as in a lot of other things l found the writing to be telling way more that showing.

It's really not an usual book in it's construction, there was no great final battle, but the end felt satisfying all the same. I don't know if there's continuation to the story but I would happily read any there was.

Pretty mid, not great not bad.

Torn between 4 and 5 stars, so halfway it is. I loved the story, but at the same time I really think it could've been told in a lot less without losing the essence of it. It took me a month and a half to read, which is unheard of! I bet some marvellous human being of the Internet has made a guide on which chapters to skip and still be on top of the events. I can think of at least three off the top of my head, and even more that could've been paragraphs instead of entire chapters.

I loved the atmosphere of the story, the actual history of the time mixed with the imagined magical history of England. The fairies felt very real as a race and I love that Clarke went with the gender neutral term “magician” instead of “wizard”. (Which definitely feels wrong for the setting.) I really enjoyed the descriptions of Strange's war commission, no matter how gritty, and I sort of love how much I despised Drawlight and Lascelles, as that much emotion towards a fictional character is usually good in my book. I only wish the author had managed to bring the same emotion into the less shitty characters, as well. (Namely Strange. Norrell had both good and bad moments, as people tend to do.)

I didn't love the fact that there was a lot of information that had nothing to do with the story or with the history of magical England. Did we need to read two chapters about Jonathan Strange's family and his servant that didn't play much of a part in the story? I think not. Did we need to have a casually racist chapter about a French officer and his black servant, no matter how proud the officer was said to be of said servant? Not really.
A lot of things could've been said without so much attention being brought to it, which would've also made the reading experience less dragging. As it is, it felt half like a history book, half like a fantasy story. Sometimes the narrator was referred to, mostly not, and I feel like maybe there was just SO MUCH of the story that even Clarke herself got a bit confused. She didn't even name The Raven King before the halfway point, after which it was used constantly! It felt really clumsy and I don't understand why that would've been done on purpose.

I'm also not a huge fan of the ending, as it felt a bit rushed and like all the things I'd been waiting to happen just came ALL. AT. ONCE., slapped me on the face and ran away cackling. Bollocks at the magicians just running off into the sunset! Bollocks at the fairy's curse on Strange not dying with it's caster!

All that having been said, I am really happy I've finally read this book and I will most likely read it again at some point in the distant future. (Or sooner, if I find that guide for reading it faster.) Clarke's Piranesi is one of my favourites, and I was happy to find little details that reminded me of it, namely the King's Road with it's labyrinth-like qualities that brought to mind the House. At time Strange, too, reminded me of Piranesi and I loved that.

Tämä ei todellakaan ollut äänikirjaksi sopiva teos, minkä vuoksi en antanut tähtiarviota. Sen verran kiinnostava, että haluan lukea fyysisen version myöhemmin.

7 stars.

I was going to go for three stars, just because the dog stayed alive. Then she went and killed the dog.

Pacing was not good, the mystery wasn't all that mysterious and the epilogue was just cheesy. Oh, and there's a “just for fun” rape scene. How edgy.

A really bittersweet story, the last chapter left me feeling wistful.

I understand why this is a well loved story, but for me there were just way too many unanswered questions and events that weren't looked into at all. I would've loved to read more about the “science” aspect, but that's just not what he story was about.

Started really strong, I was half convinced this would become one of my favourites, but unfortunately the middle and end just didn't work for me as well as I'd hoped.

Worth a read but I'll happily hand my copy for the next reader, it's not one I'm eager to reread anytime soon.

So. Boring.

Todella lähelle viittä tähteä, mutta se, että Elinan kirouksen poistamista ei lopulta käsitelty lainkaan ja Jousian suhteen käsittely jää jotenkin vajavaiseksi. Toki kumpikaan ei ole kirjassa pääosassa, joten etenkin ensimmäisen voi ajatella olevan tietoinen päätös kirjailijalta.

Nautin tavattomasti Lapin murteen käytöstä paikallisten keskusteluissa sekä erilaisten otusten kuvailussa, väkiyö oikeasti vähän kammotti aamu yhdeltä lukiessa! 

Elina oli hahmona toisaalta tavattoman traaginen, toisaalta ärsyttävän saamaton, olisi ollut kiva nähdä hänen kehittyvän vähän enemmän hahmona ennen kirjan loppua.

Huikea suomalainen maagisen realismin teos, tällaista lukisi mielellään enemmänkin.

Very close to being a 5 star collection, I love the world Le Guin built with the Hainish series.

What kept it from that last star was the fact that the author's writing style, especially with descriptions, made my eyes glass over and mind wander so that I'd have to re-read pages or paragraphs multiple times before I finally managed to stay conscious while reading, or just gave up and continued without getting the details. I have no idea why that keeps happening but I had the same issue with every story (and with the author's other works) while going through the world building.

But the worlds! They were interesting, as we're their inhabitants, and especially the fantasy trope-like setup of Rocannon's World tickled my brain in a good way. I found the workings of the Planet of Exile interesting to ponder on and the people on City of Illusions fascinating yet distasteful.

Definitely a recommended read.

This might've been okay if it hadn't dragged for half as long as it needed to OR if the supposedly kidnapped woman hadn't been stupid just to make the plot work.

She made her kidnappers food every day and didn't think to mix some pills into his food when she found out how to get to them? Or she could've just stolen the car when he was asleep??? Now I'm starting to wonder why I bothered finishing this....

I laughed out loud multiple times while list ning to this, and yet still somehow managed to feel nervous at times. Great play on the tropes of the thriller genre and amazing use of memes. I do wonder if it'll feel outdated soon?

I do recommend only reading/listening if you're familiar with the genre!