Giu
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐
First I was, like, “Huh?”
Then I was, like, “What the fuck?”
Then I was, like, “Oh no, so tragic!”
Then I was like “... Too much.”
My journey through the book. ⬆️
I didn't like the last third. It was more fucked up than it needed to be to convey the point. But overall it was alright.
I liked how it began, after a while it felt like Nugent didn't get to the point, but, luckily, the last third saved the book's ass and redeemed the two other thirds that, at times, had felt a bit pointless.
I really disliked the last chapter from Daisy's perspective. It felt to me as if Nugent had suddenly forgotten what the book was about and blamed all of the happenings on the psychological condition Luke and Daisy were suffering from. It took away the focus from all the other shit that happened and that had nothing to do with Luke or Daisy. Imo, Daisy had enough issues without whatever Luke had to be damaged for a lifetime. I wish there would've been some sort of one-page monologue from Brian's or Will's perspective how they had ruined their lives by killing their brother, but owed it to Daisy to do everything in their power to make her life worth living yada yada.
I think this book might be a perfect candidate for a reread in a couple years – I think the beginning and middle part will really profit from the reader knowing the ending.
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐
A Scandal in Bohemia
3.5 ⭐
The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
3.5 ⭐
A Case of Identity
3.5 ⭐
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
4 ⭐
The Five Orange Pips
4.5 ⭐
The Man with the Twisted Lips
4 ⭐
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
4 ⭐
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
4 ⭐
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb
2.5 ⭐
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
3.5 ⭐
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
3 ⭐
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
4 ⭐
That was a very confusing and scary ride! I was really intrigued with all the discussions and thoughts of the characters. And I think I generally got what the book is about. But after watching some YouTube videos (and the Netflix movie) some details became more clearer, too.
I'm not sure what exactly I was feeling while reading/listening, but the book definitely made me feel a lot!
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐
I liked the story. I'm ambivalent about the ending, but I don't hate it. I really didn't like the characters, though. The problems the people in this book have are too extreme for me to relate to any of them. Also, the vulgarity in this book felt very forced to me. Maybe Flynn wanted to get some point across, but to me it just seemed unnatural.
Still, I didn't feel like my time was wasted with this book, I just hoped for something else.
Another great short story collection! With The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling and The Great Silence, it had a slightly lower low than Chiang's other collection, but The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom made sure that the high stayed on the same level! Chiang is simply brilliant!
Precise rating: 4.5 ⭐️
I am so happy!
Reading the first book was fun! But after the second book I was a bit disappointed, since I wasn't really invested in the story at any point and it felt kinda all over the place. Suddenly, the knowledge that there are so many more books in this series felt like too big of a commitment. So I decided I'd give the series one more chance and read the third book—also since basically everyone on the internet says that book 3 is where the series really takes off.
Then, during the first 40% of the book, I was permanently on the brink of giving up on Dresden. Not because it was bad—I actually liked it a lot more than book 2—but it was not good enough to see the amount of books ahead of me as something to look forward to. Well, until I reached 40% and basically rushed through the rest of the book in the course of a bit more than a day! Hell's bells, as Harry would say!
It was absolutely brilliant! There wasn't a single moment where the book lost steam. I suddenly really cared for the characters. The supernatural creatures are so exciting, I am aching for more lore. But what I love the most about not just this book, but the whole series so far is Jim Butcher's seemingly most important writing rule: Murphy's Law!
Precise rating: 3.5 ⭐️
The whole book feels like setup for the very last scene, which makes it all seem pointless. I'm also sure that was intentional by Yanagihara. Perina wrote his memoires to defend himself, so one could think he wrote all that setup to deflect from what ultimately happened. Or to get the reader on his side—which would've been a pretty lousy attempt anyway since Perina seemed unlikeable from the start. Yanagihara did manage to shock me with the ending, though. And, knowing her other two books, I feel like she knew exactly what she was doing at every point in the story, and from that perspective I really appreciate it.In the end, this book didn't even come close to A Little Life and To Paradise (apart from the writing, which was very beautiful as usual), but that has mostly to do with my personal preferences and not the obejctive quality of the book (as far as I can judge the latter anyway
Not what I'd expected, but great nonetheless!
Butcher knows how to handle Chekhov's gun. He keeps his promises, which made reading this book feel very rewarding. Also: If something can go wrong, it will in this book. There's no time for the story to lose its tension, since shit's hitting the fan 24/7. And I love it!
Precise rating 2.5 ⭐
I did like the story, but I had problems with the writing, which made me switch to a detailed summary at some point. On one hand, I liked how the author managed to depict the protagonist's nightmarish thoughts. Unfortunately, the downside of that was that I had a hard time figuring out if some passages where meant to be cryptic or if I actually didn't understand what was going on.
Precise rating: 4.5 ⭐
I love when I buy books on impulse and they turn out to be fantastic. This one is one of those books.
In the beginning of part 4 I was a little bit unsure whether I liked the direction it seemed to be going, but pretty quickly it turned out that I didn't have to worry about it at all. Malfi's skill to write unique characters is at least on level 9000 and the ending is phenomenal!
I love how Malfi included paranormal elements in such a subtle way that it was unclear until the end whether any of that spooky stuff was happening at all.