Dina
I'm not really sure how to rate this, so I'm gonna go with three stars for now and edit it later if I feel like I want to rate it differently.
The thing with this book is that it's not really what you expect at all. I remember picking it up at a bookstore when I went on a road trip with family members I hadn't seen in years (and some I'd just met) and thinking “hmm. This one sounds really intriguing”. And it is — intriguing, that is — but it is also really strange and confusing.
There are so many things going on and so many time jumps (back and forth, with no warning whatsoever), and even the ending is kind of weird. Maybe it was just me who didn't really get the whole gist of it. I got the general idea and I understood what happened to the kid in the end, but the whole thing with Lily went way over my head.
The writing is really compelling, and there is that constant sense of mystery, like you're picking up crumbs but still so far away from the big picture. And it does wrap a lot of things up in the end, but there are also some things that are just left there, floating in an ocean of nothing. Or, again, maybe I just couldn't see them for what they were or what they represented.
Anyway, this book was overall both a peculiar and frustrating experience. Sometimes I got really engaged in it, others I would be so confused that I just couldn't stop frowning at the book.
This book has been out for quite a while now, and I'd added it to the list of books I wanted to read at some point in my life, but it had been so long (years!) since I did that, by the time I finally grabbed a copy of it, I didn't even know what it was about anymore.
The summary intrigued me, though, so I gave it a chance and walked into it blind. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But in a good way.
This is the story of quite some people going through quite a lot of things at the same time, stumbling their way through loss and finding meaning in things. It's the realizing that you grow older and things will never be the same, but they could change into something better if you care enough to mold them. And it's about love. Many different kinds of love.
I thought of all the different kinds of love in the world. I could think of ten without even trying. The way parents love their kids, the way you love a puppy or chocolate ice cream or home or your favorite book or your sister.
There were moments when I felt like slapping some characters, I'm not gonna lie about that. However, I lost count of the times I wanted to just hug them. Everything was so intense and messy and sad and so overwhelmingly human...
You may not agree with some of the decisions being made by these characters, but you can understand why they do what they do. You can tell that it comes from all their different kinds of mourning. You have people mourning people's deaths but also people mourning lost connections and they're both extremely sad and relatable.
In the end, this book threw me (and my emotions) for a loop and squeezed my heart in a way that I couldn't help but to leek my feelings all over the place. This book has definitely made it onto the list of my favorite books.
This book makes you think about things. Really think about them. And it also grips your heart at the end.
I often think about the different opinions Carl Sagan would have of the current society and in what ways he'd help shape our minds to make the world a better place. In the end, I always reach the same conclusion: we've lost so much when he passed away...
I'm not going to lie here. This book will take you a while to get through. Not because it's boring or it drags on indefinitely, but because it's so dense in its subject.
As the title says, it's only part of all that there is, but even so, there's a lot to go through just to get the basis.
The writing isn't overly scientific nor is it so dumbed down that you feel offended. I think it was the perfect balance. You get the gist of things without feeling like you're studying for a major science exam.
This book will certainly take you on a wild ride of emotions. You will laugh at some of the most incredulous stories of some particularly gifted scientists, but you will also find yourself angry at some of the really dumb things humanity has had a hand in since its beginning.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. Would definitely recommend, if you're the tiniest bit inclined to learning more about the development in all kinds of sciences.
What a ride!
It was really weird, and I'm still not quite sure this sort of book is my style at all, but sometimes it's nice to take some less traveled roads.
I have to say suicide is a topic that's mentioned a lot here (as is death by hanging), so keep that in mind if you want to read this and feel particularly triggered by that.
Also, if you've never read Ring (...like me, for example...), bear in mind that this book apparently spoils the whole thing. I say apparently because, as stated, I've never read it, but it is mentioned and they tell you the whole story from beginning to end, so...
3,5 stars for me.
3.5 stars
Overall, I thought it was good and flowed easily, but the whole thing with the antagonist at the end felt a bit disappointing (but that might just be me Spoiler since I hate that thing where the heroes refuse to kill the villains because of some moral reason or whatever). The epilogue made it a tiny bit better.
3.5 stars.
I think there were too many different things happening at the same time in certain parts of the book.
The way they wrap up the case after so much running around and so many people involved, felt a bit rushed and cheap.
All in all, it was an interesting read and the writing seemed to flow well, but maybe could have done with less clutter in certain parts, and maybe the ending done differently.
Man, did this book blow me away!
It's dark and compelling, and it focuses on the two kinds of love stories I love the most: friendships and the love between a parent and their child.
There is so much more I could say, but I fear it would ruin the magic of it all. I loved it so much and I'm so glad my friend got it for me, thinking this would be just the perfect book for me. Well, I guess you were right!
I can't even...
This book is so strange and there's a lot of mystery around it, you're not really sure you can trust the narrator... but all in all, it was quite an interesting story, even if a bit spooky at times. Just don't expect to know everything that happened. As they say in the books, there are different versions of the truth, so you can choose whatever you think is the real truth here.
3.5 stars
I felt the idea was good and interesting - and there are good moments in the plot there -, but some parts of the book dragged a bit, the main character would get on my nerves a bit, and the “love” triangle (still not sure the main character can even understand the difference between a romantic interest or just wanting to be friends with someone and craving some sort of human connection) is something that doesn't really have any appeal to me.
I might still read the next one, though.
I give it 3,5 stars.
Listen, it was enjoyable, and there were some good points in this for me, but there were also a lot of decisions made that I wasn't completely on board with, and also too many characters to keep track of everything going on sometimes.
I also feel like this could have been a few pages shorter. SpoilerDid we really need so many different POVs of the scene where Jace loses it and there's a bright explosion of Heavenly Fire in the middle of an otherwise dark and empty demon dimension? I don't know...
Anyway, not too happy with what happens to two of my favorite characters, not really that satisfied with how some ships ended in this, and definitely not happy some people got to have a happy ending when some other characters deserved it more - in my opinion, that is - but I'll get over it and just accept it for what it is.
All in all, it was a journey, for sure.
