Calum

I can understand why this is well liked but it's a little too twee for my tastes.

I liked the use of Gaelic and insights into Western Isles culture of the 1940s.

I'd recommend watching the Ealing comedy instead.

I probably should have re-read The Secret Commonwealth but I really couldn't be bothered. Maybe this is why I couldn't work out why anyone was doing anything, or what the whole point was? Capitalism bad?

There were flashes of excitement and colour and I enjoyed some of the intrigue and characterisation, but overall this just made me feel a little sad. It's as if Tolkien had decided to make the Scouring of the Shire into a full blown sequel trilogy.

That being said, I loved La Belle Sauvage and I can't bring myself to 2 star this.

Atmospheric and well written though slightly too subtle for me. I wouldn't have minded a bit more creepiness.

A shame that Kol is a bit of a Mary Sue but thankfully Ana is keeping things interesting. Plot points are a little predictable but the world building is excellent.

Really good, just really really good.

Tis not the season, but it's a beautiful, eerie, simple tale.

One good thing I can say is that it has very few plot holes, but only because half the book is the main character explaining in annoying detail why each thing that happens isn't a plot hole. The film version will probably be better.

It's not enough to just be weird

I think I'm finally done with these.

Would happily have read the feature length version of every story.

Solid, safe, somewhat predictable sci-fi.

This was beyond me

A gripping page turner which felt a bit unnecessary as a sequel and in which a few things didn't make much sense (why was Nicole/Daisy/Jade separated from her mother, and why was she in particular sent back to Gilead when info seemed to be smuggled out on a regular basis?). Not really sure how it won the booker, but I did enjoy it.

So glad to be able to give this book the time that it deserves

I don't think this is a bad book, there were elements that I found very captivating, such as the flowing plotless nature of the narrative and the themes of survival in the wilderness versus the patriarchal society the main character had left. I just couldn't get on board with the author's over-descriptive writing style. With every sentence crammed with metaphors and adjectives there weren't many blanks for my imagination to fill.

I went from despising the characters, to the narrator, to myself over the course of reading this book. 10/10 would recommend.

Started strong, finished average. Ignoring the plot, and the wish-fulfillment love interest, this was fun.

A nightmare

A good holiday read

A familiar tale quite straightforwardly told. Great title.

There were some interesting ideas but it absolutely did not earn its length. So much filler, uninteresting and unrealistic characters, actually quite boring and contrived plot. Some cool design work and a fun old-school sci-fi story within a story. 3 stars as I am in denial about having just read a 992 page 2 star book.

Hard to express how exactly I feel about this book. On one hand it was incredibly engrossing, with fascinating characters and relationships. On the other hand the way characters interacted with each other while interesting to read felt very detached from reality. A few areas were so outside of my own experiences that I didn't always feel as emotionally connected as I wanted, in particular Jude's history, and the way that every character just happened to have an extremely successful career in the arts. It often felt like it was repeating itself, but there was probably a point to that.

Such an impressive first novel to write, very heartfelt and intense, though for me a bit too pretentious. One particular strand of the split narrative structure didn't really do it for me, and by the end when it took over the whole story I lost the emotional connection, which was a shame. I can however totally understand the hype and would recommend to others.

Hilarious and awful