Katherine

Well, the movie is a classic for a reason. It’s so silly and ridiculous you can’t help but enjoy it. The book is very much the same, though it makes even more snide remarks in the asides (however, some things didn’t age too well- what’s with all the fatphobia Goldman??). Goldman is a master of committing to the bit- the version I read had two introductions plus the introduction to the book, and he very much dedicated himself to The Bit of Morgenstern being a real guy. Very amusing way to start the book. Overall, it’s a fun read. It’ll make you laugh and brighten your day. Sometimes, we all need a little absurd comedy, and that’s exactly what The Princess Bride provides.

I picked this collection of short stories up on a whim when at a local bookstore in Michigan- I saw it on a shelf of local authors and thought, why not? Well, I can say I definitely enjoyed it more than I expected. The entire collection has a framing story, where the narrator of the first story catches lightning and that gives him this amazing burst of inspiration. He wrote down hundreds of stories, and these are some of them.

While some of them I didn’t really understand or get (unfortunately, some I found confusing because of the way it was told or too short to make its point), the majority were enjoyable. The prose is simple, but works well. There were a few typos here and there, but given this is a self-published book I was impressed with the overall quality.

This collection has everything from dragon-based technology that replaced regular electronics, to horror-adjacent stories about small Midwestern towns, to brief retellings of different folklore (Hawaiian and Native American), to a new person taking up the mantle of Death, to the planet Saturn consuming the solar system. The ideas were generally SO creative, and the tone of each story varied wildly. I enjoyed the drier sense of humor and the many references made in some of the stories (I caught potentially a Joe Abercrombie reference, Star Trek, Star Wars, Dragonlance, and more).

If you want a relatively short read with some interesting stories, I’d recommend picking this up somewhere. I’d love to read some of this author’s longer works! I liked the longer stories more overall, and I’d love to see some of this creativity fleshed out into a novella or novel.

I seem to have a penchant for picking up some WEIRD books lately. The Library at Mount Char. definitely fits that. It requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. The plot? Insane. The characters? Definitely more insane. But if you go along with all of the insanity it’s a book about what happens when someone gains too much power and knowledge, but not enough wisdom. A person so hell bent on their goals that they don’t consider the others they will destroy in their wake. Do the ends actually justify the means?

I can’t say this is an incredible book. I think it’s good, but there are some things that happen that I find too hard to believe even in a book this crazy. It’s certainly captivating, but I’m not sure all of it works well together. It’s also FULL of extremely graphic violence, SA, torture, cannibalism, suicide, animal death and abuse… was all of that necessary to get the book’s message across? I really don’t think so.

The plot is complex and intriguing, though hard to follow at times and you have to accept you will NOT understand until later on. And even then you might not know why. The characters other than Carolyn are mostly shallow and exist to fulfill their role, sometimes to their detriment. Would that character *really* go along with all of this?

Overall, weird but good book. Not sure why it had to be so violent and parts of it are way too unbelievable for my tastes.

It’s hard to review a book this late in a series without spoilers. However, I really, really enjoyed this one. It took a step back from the nonstop action of the rest of the series, which it really needed. Dresden books are fun because of the action, but what keeps me coming back are the characters. They’ve changed and grown so much over the course of this (frankly ridiculously long) series. This book gave them the room to show how great these characters are while dealing with heavy themes of grief, loss, depression, and even PTSD from previous books. Some may say this book is boring or too slow, but it was *needed* to transition into the next chapter (ha). I genuinely teared up several times reading this. Can’t wait for the next book- I’m sure it’ll be right back to the action, but I kinda hope some of the slower moments that this book had remain.

This is a great mystery, and I still adore Ana and Din so much. Malo is a fantastic addition to the cast. What took this down a notch from its predecessor for me was that there were a few moments where Bennett explained things to the reader that didn’t really need to be spelled out like it was, or the character should not have needed prompting to realize. There were also a few things that Ana immediately concluded and I couldn’t figure out why that HAD to be the case. It seemed logical to me there were at least two options, but the book hinged on exactly what Ana presumed being correct. But, like I said, I really enjoyed it and absolutely love the world and characters.