Deanna

Written in 3 parts, if you can make it through the litany of facts in Part 1, the books picks up steam as it tell stories of royalty who were thought to die by poison and investigates their death through a modern lens. Part 3 looks at modern uses of poison and is the shortest section. While certainly well researched, it could have been edited down.

It was easy to flow along with reading the book, but that also left me feeling an absence of impact in the story. I didn’t always feel interested enough to choose to read the book but also didn’t dislike it enough to give up. Some of Pedersen’s word choices felt so opposed to the flow of her writing that it would take me out of the story. She seems to rely on one word or phrase to carry the weight of the mood she is trying to set. That said, I did enjoy the supernatural element and the culmination of that at the end of the novel.

I enjoyed the writing for 2/3 of the book. While there were some occasional interesting musings, the book lacked depth and I am unsure what the point of the book was

I really enjoyed the majority of this book: the writing, humor, and characters were generally great and entertaining. The book did become a slog for me towards the end. It felt like it lost the thread of the relationships and the effects of the interpersonal dramas became long and arduous to read.

It’s basically all set up, but I enjoyed reading it and some of the extra world building was fun and interesting (that said, one of the island visits could have been cut). The first 100 pages were a bit painful to get through and this book overall doesn’t have the driving pace of the first two until the last handful of chapters

I enjoyed this book overall, but since it is really a series of vignettes I didn’t feel like there was anything really compelling to drive me through reading. I overall really enjoyed most of the stories and the callbacks to earlier characters in later chapters. The final two chapters were the least compelling for me

DNF after 2.5 stories. The stories are short, simple, and cute and there is some nice (very obvious) messaging happening, but it quickly got repetitive and predictable. The writing felt very stilted and I’m not sure if that is how the original is written or a commentary on the translation work, which in general was filled with typos.

Gave up after 3.5 stories. Really enjoyed “Story of your Life” and I can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the stories I did finish, but it was more hard sci-fi and lacked enough emotion to make me want to finish the collection.

It had its moments, but the gimmick of the changing husbands got old fast and I found the entire premise (and ending) frustrating.

Gave up around 160 pages in. Despite the occasional beautiful sentence or philosophy, it too me around 50 pages to even orient myself to the world-building and narrative and overall lacked a cohesive story

It was fine. The first section of the book had good pacing and some increasingly tense and terrifying scenes that lived up to the marketing. The pacing in part two felt too slow and then the author decided to use sexual assault as a plot point, which was unnecessary. It turned me off the book for about a month before I decided to just finish it. The end was solid and duly gruesome with only a slight nod to some of the racial dynamics that may have been true in the 90s but probably could have been reevaluated for this story.

Profoundly weird and quietly engaging. Elements strongly reminded me of Annihilation but mixed with much more humanity, love, and care as we hear Miri reflect on her love for Leah, chronicling their relationship throughout her chapters. Armfield’s story wormed its way through my imagination as she explores love, grief, and horror.

I loved this book so much more than I expected. The writing and storytelling swept me away and made it hard to put the book down. There’s a change of pace and tone in part 3 than felt a bit jarring at first, but gave way to a touching (if perhaps slightly too convenient) end

The book does what it sets out to do: examine women and power generally through the lens of how Greek and Roman influence got is here. A product of its time, it is a broad look on the topic and although there are nods to intersectionality, it is mostly looking at power for white, cis women. It’s a quick read that gives a general foundation and some historical information.

Points for getting me out of a reading funk and having some spark that made me want to continue reading it. The writing felt stilted and clich??d with occasional phrases that would take me out of the reading experience with their glibness. The characters lacked any real depth, for me, and the book scene flashbacks lost their novelty after a few chapters.

Quietly beautiful and touching

A lot of fun. There is a large cast of characters with unwieldy names that was at times hard to keep track of and understand their relationship to one another, even with a list of characters at the beginning of the book. However, Gideon is a hilarious narrator that had me laughing out loud multiple times and the action scenes had my heart pounding.

This was well done, but at times was very hard to read because of the subject matter and I questioned why I was continuing to read it since it was so heavy. In the end, the author resolves the story into something hopeful and kind of beautiful.

A bit long in parts, but otherwise a fun and engaging read

Phillips's writing is evocative and emotional and gives the reader glimpses into the lives of women who are all connected to one another through the disappearance of two sisters. The book's chapters function as vignettes which could stand on their own, but, although there is a character list, I sometimes lost the thread of how all the women were connected. As I was reading, I thought the book was solid with beautiful writing, but the ending and the way Phillips' writing built suspense and anticipation and raw emotion really left an impact and bumped the book up a rating in my mind. Overall, I think the book explores the ways in which men harm women and looks at women's value in Russian society, especially through the comparison of treatment between Indigenous and Russian girls/women.

Such an odd little book. I ended up liking Nell and her whackadoodle thinking style, but I alternated between exasperation with her and really rooting for her as she navigates this world of toxicity she is trapped in.

I felt generally positive about this book until around halfway through when I got a bit tired of some of the over-dramatic writing and found I didn???t care at all how the love-triangle shook out.

Norris's writing is charming, witty, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny, but even she couldn't make the deeper dives into grammar interesting for me. I hate grammar, but someone who is interested in or loves grammar would certainly enjoy this book.

All of the women are intentionally insufferable, and sometimes this was highly amusing, but other times it made me want to throw the book. It was overall enjoyable, but probably best read in short bursts.

Clever and charming