Asta

It took me some time to get into the story, but once I did I was hooked! My favourite Wells story after The Murderbot Diaries, and well worth going into without looking at the blurb. I had no idea what was coming and it was a wild and interesting ride. The conclusion could've maaaybe used a bit more explaining, such as going a bit more into Constans' motives, but it's also nice to have something to ponder on myself.

Read aloud with my partner. You never truly realise how complicated words an author uses until you have to say them out loud! Even my British native partner had a hard time with some of the ones used in this.

Definitely recognizable as an Alexis Hall -story, just less polished than their current work! That being said I didn't really enjoy this one, the pairing didn't feel genuine and felt like they were just too different to be realistically a couple for the long run.

Also, the choice of narrator was very off-putting. He sounded like he was a lot older that the characters are meant to be, and his female voices were killing me.

Bonus:
I spent the whole book thinking Niall's name was Nile, made a mental connection to Miles in the London Calling universe and kept wondering if there's a Biles that once broke Hall's heart.  I'm a bit sad that I now have to let go of that short-lived mental image. 

This one managed to completely surprise me! I fell for the red herrings and did not expect that ending.

I never thought I'd enjoy a book full of politics, but here I am! A Memory Called Empire would've been a five star read if there had been more about the characters, as the book is now I feel like I didn't really get to know them, and the things happening to them didn't touch me much because of it.

I found myself fascinated with the culture and history of Teixcalaan and enjoyed getting to know some it's depths with Mahit.

Very confusing, not sure if it was me or the book!

This is a really hard book to rate. On one hand it's good, and yet on another its unbelievably boring. I knew halfway through that I'd finish the first part but not bother with the last two, and that stayed through until the end.

If there had been more to the characters I might've been more interested, but as they were the characters were simply the means to move the plot forward, and the plot felt like it was simply a device with which to explore different ideas in physics. 

And the aliens.... Classic bad guys.

Honestly not the best book in the series, but it's Murderbot so it's a 5 stars.

Vau, tää oli upea! Teksti ja kuvitus kulkivat käsi kädessä, toisiaan tukien. Välillä teksti kertoi jotain, mitä kuvitus ei, välillä toisin päin.

Stälenhag onnistui luomaan kiehtovan maailman novellin verran tekstiä sisältävässä tarinassa, ja huomasin uppotuneeni täysin sen salaisuuksiin.

A really important book about the importance of listening to others and how social media has made us listen, and therefore connect to others, less. I learned a lot, and I know a few people who would absolutely benefit from reading this.

A super lovely cozy read, perfect for autumn! I enjoyed reading about the buildup of a new enterprise and how Baldree built the background of a coffee shop in a fantasy setting, it felt plausible, and who else in a fantasy world would come up with an espresso machine than the dwarves?! 

This would've been a five star read if it hadn't been for the romance that felt quite forced. I'd enjoyed the story more if everything had been the same, just with friends being friends. There's no need to insert romantic elements into a thing that works just fine without it!

Mielenkiintoinen lähtökohta, mutta toteutus jäi mielestäni vähän ontoksi etenkin loppua kohti. Herättelee paljon kysymyksiä mutta ei anna valmiita vastauksia.

An interesting look into the world of autistic women, felt relatable. I wish there had been less jumping around as now this felt more like a train of thought than a cohesive book. More editing, maybe?

This was a mesmerizing, beautiful read. Reminded me of Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary in a lot of ways, but with less action and jokes. 

The beginning was not for me and it took me a long time to get properly started, but once I did the rest was a breeze. The story doesn't explain everything but let's you wonder about the details, although at some parts I felt like more of this could be used on the mystery and less on mundane details such as how can this widowed mother afford to send her three daughters to a private school while living in an upper class neighborhood and working as a nurse. (This also made me wonder why the author chose to use this setting at all, as it really didn't play a part in the plot.)

The mystery itself felt refreshing, as I have never read anything like it and did not see the twist coming!

I can't remember the last time I cried this much while reading a book. Khorram captured the struggles of depression, while mixing it with the beauty of finding someone who understands you and giving me a lesson in Persian culture.

This would have been a five star read if the relationship between Darius and Sohrab had been built up a bit more, and the references to Star Trek had been a tiny bit less. I'm familiar with the show myself but I kept wondering how much people who haven't seen it and aren't familiar with Persian culture would have to google to understand all the references. I only had to do it to the Persian things and it already felt a bit confusing!

Definitely a recommended read if you've experience with depression and don't mind looking things up while reading.

Bonus points for having a non-straight (assumed gay) MC where the story doesn't revolve around him being gay. Bonus bonus for fat rep.

Huh, I remembered not liking this one as much as the others. Turns out either past me was wrong or my memory was.

Edit. Turns out this was marketed in a very misleading way and is in fact not based on truth, which is kind of a bummer to find out and VERY confusing. Dropped a star thanks to that. The review below was written before I looked into it a bit further.

//

I was not expecting this to be a true story when I picked the book up, and finding out it was peaked my interest. The story of Dr. Spencer Black IS interesting, but more than that it's sad. There's clear trauma in his life that he passes on to his family, and that makes him more and more delusional through his life, despite his intellect and skill as a surgeon. There is not a lot of details about his life, although his journal entries and letters adds a lot to the overall image, and I think mixing the facts with fiction would've made this a more interesting read (and let me pretend the more upsetting parts were part of the fiction), but I understand why the author wanted to stick to the true story.

The second part of the book, that showed the details of Dr. Black's work, was all the more intriguing after reading about his life. It made me wonder about how he had convinced himself that creatures such as Ganesh, a goat/lion/snake hybrid or a minotaur had once been real, even though he wondered himself how such creatures would've survived.

One thing is for sure, though: dragons ARE real. A doctor said so.

This was an interesting read, the flow and style were something that I've come to equate with Japanese literature, it was dreamlike and bordering on magical realism. The stories were touching, although the fact that two were focused on the same main character and the third on someone else was confusing and made it a bit hard to get into the third story, although I turned out to like that one the best. The ending left me feeling hopeful.

I've been surprised about the lack of misogyny in these books, but in this one there was more than enough of it. Suddenly everyone was very bitter and hateful, and the same qualities that were praised in Anne in her youth were portrayed as something wicked in her children's friends. This was not enjoyable.

When I first read this trilogy in 2016 I LOVED IT. Seven years later I've read a lot more and grown to expect a bit more from a book than toxic masculinity and fridging women, so my re-read was a hell of a letdown.

It's a shame since the premise is interesting, although The Lottery-esque setting of Wayward Pines was not believable in the least, let alone how the main character was seemingly invincible.

I might finish the trilogy again if I'm feeling masochistic enough.

I wanted to give this book the “just okay” three stars it deserves for the way it handled mental health, but I was constantly thrown off by having to wonder about how the anatomy works, unbelievable scenes (not in a good way) and the cringe of already old popular media references that I had to remove half a star. (Seriously, I'm pretty sure a lot of those references were old even before the book came out)

I'm feeling generous cause I didn't drop a whole one.

Also, what's up with the constant vomit?!

Second time reding this, loved it just as much and teared up at the end again. 

This was a bit painful. The premise is interesting but the writing and characters are so flat it took all the joy out of the experience. I felt zero for any of the characters, least of all for the main character. Eyes were rolled. many times.

Tarpeellinen kuvaus siitä, mitä on elää ja kasvaa aikuiseksi somalina suomessa. Ujuni käy rehellisesti läpi oman elämänsä käänteitä. Harmillisesti kirjan teemallinen toteutus jäi hieman kömpelöksi, kun asioita toistettiin ja tapahtumien järjestys jäi hämäräksi.