Kalliope
Oh man. How can I NOT be disappointed that my rating is so low? This book is touted (by people other than the author) as a grown-up Harry Potter. Any millenial's fever dream, right? Certainly was mine.
Let it be known that this is in no way, shape, or form similar to Harry Potter. They are nothing alike. This is because The Magicians is severely lacking in the warmth and heart that JK Rowling wove into her tales, hence making them tender and unforgettable. The only reason anyone could say this is like Harry Potter is because it takes place at a magical school.
None of the characters are fleshed-out enough to be interesting or even memorable. I wasn't invested in anything they were doing. The magic goings-on aren't interesting either, oddly enough. The whole setting is pretty bleak and uncomfortable, rather than awe-inspiring and intricate.
I had to stop reading at the part with the geese. WTF was that about?! Silly.
It hurts my heart that I didn't like this book, because it was one that I was saving for a special occasion. Just wasn't my thing. It could be so easily saved, too–add some characters that are vivid and inspired! Ah well.
I'll start off by saying I was surprised and a little disappointed with how short the book was. Despite its bleak setting and its turn-away descriptions, I could have kept reading this book long after it ended. That's how gripping it was.
The entire time you're reading you know that Precious is going to be all right in the end. I don't attribute this to having already seen the movie. You just know. Rather than take away from the story, I think this adds to it. You want to see her get out all right and you want to know how.
I also liked how the book ended. It wasn't a Disney ending at all. It wasn't something where all the ends are neatly tied up and it sends you on your way. It ends at a nice, yet appropriately unresolved, place. I like endings like that. However, like I said, I could have kept reading.
Some people won't like this book because of the style. For me, it made the story that much more effective. The flow was natural and stream-of-consciousness, and I was able to fall right into the story and just keep turning pages.
I also feel this story works better as a book than a movie. The movie was well-acted for sure, but it felt very cheesy at times. The book never feels like that. However, I do think the movie is worth a watch, just for Monique's acting chops. Incredible.
I must admit I skipped a large portion of the poetry in this book. It didn't interest me, to be honest. I read all of Precious' poems, but I had no reason to read the ones written by her classmates. Why should I? They're not the focus of the story. You don't really care as much about their stories or their characters as you do Precious'.
I took this book with me on a trip to the gorgeous Tennessee mountains. Looking at the cover, doesn't it look like it would be a perfect pick for such an environment? First of all, I LOVE the idea of summer camp. I feel that not enough books about summer camp exist for adults. From the cover and the description, I was expecting an exciting and lively adventure at camp with vibrant characters and a lush, green setting. I was so ready to dive right into this world, where young girls are walking arm-in-arm and growing up together for a summer, having new experiences and becoming friends for life. You don't get any of that with this book, by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, you get a lackluster setting that has no excuse to be lackluster (THE SETTING SHOULD BE GORGEOUS. THERE IS NO EXCUSE. IT SHOULD BE DESCRIBED OUT THE ASS BUT IT'S NOT. IT'S BORING AND WASHED-OUT, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS BOOK), supporting characters you can't bring yourself to care about one way or the other, a plot that just meanders and doesn't even try to get exciting beyond icky sexual encounters, and the basest, most selfish, most unfeeling and out-for-herself main character I've read about in a long time. Thea freaking Atwell, I am talking about you. Run and hide, girlfriend, because more than once I envisioned smacking you on the head with the very book you're in.
So, it doesn't take a genius to figure out right off the bat that there's tenseness in the Atwell family, probably having to do with Thea, primarily. I'm not going to tell you what happens, but I am going to say that THEA RUINS HER ENTIRE FAMILY 4 LYFE. Her parents and her twin brother, Sam, are never the same after what goes down; thus the whole sending her to camp deal. Because Goodreads lumps this book in the “coming-of-age” category, I was hoping some kind of coming-of-age would happen. Maybe Thea would grow as a person and return to her parents a shining model citizen? Yeah, no. She's the same nasty, horny brat that she was in the beginning. She doesn't come to terms with what she did wrong. She doesn't say she's sorry. She doesn't reflect on her part in what happened, or what she could have done differently. SHE DOESN'T EVEN SEEM TO THINK SHE DID ANYTHING WRONG. Being sent to camp should have been the first clue that she did something bad (actually, she should have known that what she did was wrong as she was doing it, yet here we are). That's why I can't stand her character. From start to finish, she is completely out for herself, pouty, and unwilling to even act human! Yet for some reason, she makes all these friends at camp? Are you kidding? SISSY, RUN AWAY. THEA IS A TERRIBLE PERSON. (I wish one of her horses had sat on her head and put us all out of our misery).
Thea is the biggest problem I have with this book. But there are other pieces of poop smeared all over this book that need mentioning. The only characters that even semi-intrigued me were Leona and Sissy (really, that's only because I imagined Leona as Daenerys Targaryen). Everyone else was bland, bland, bland. None of the characters acted like someone would in real life. NONE. I also found that the author would spring new characters on me without introducing them? I had to backpedal a couple times to see if they were introduced earlier, but nope. We're just supposed to know who they are, I guess.
Honestly, the more I think about this book, the more I hate it. I gave it 2 stars at first, because I did like the writing style for the most part. That's too generous. 1 star, bitch. Nobody should read this book. It was terrible. Icky sex, god-awful characters, and a bland setting. Really, the only good thing I can say about this book is that it had an ominous tone to start, before we discover the reason Thea is at camp. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here to find a tiny sliver of goodness. So glad this was from the library.
Although I don't really know what I was expecting, I was really, really disappointed in this book. I was so bored reading it, I decided to take notes on all the things I didn't like about it while I finished up the last 50 pages or so. That was much more interesting than the climax of the book.
The characters were, for the most part, terribly flat and uninteresting. They added nothing to the story. Bill was my favorite character, which isn't saying much because I didn't have much to choose from. Charlsie Tooten, for instance. She had nothing to say the entire time. I literally do not remember her character doing or saying anything. Pure filler. Lafayette, too. Sure, he was an interesting addition because he was a crossdresser, but the only thing I remember him doing was reacting to Sookie's new-found strength in the kitchen. I have no reason to dislike him or Charlsie, but they just didn't do much of anything.
Bill had the most interesting things to say, and he had a better personality than any of the other characters. Ironic, because he's THE ONE THAT'S DEAD.
I wanted to like Sookie, but some of her choices were questionable (her fashion choices aside–BANANA CLIPS, HELLO?!). I was bothered by her reaction to Gran's death. She reacted correctly upon finding her, but I would have liked to see how it really affected her afterward. There was no indication that the death of her beloved grandmother struck any kind of chord within her. Gran was one of the best characters! Poor thing.
Something else I found strange was Sookie's reaction to the cat Tina's death. She says herself that she had owned Tina for four years, but it's obvious that this incident was more profound to Sookie. Again, that's fine, but I didn't see much character development in Sookie that would indicate her sorrow for her murdered grandmother and cat. I noticed throughout the book there were sprinklings along the lines of “I'm sad, my grandma's dead and so's my cat,” but she doesn't REALLY seem to be affected by either event. It's like she's lying to the reader to make it sound like she really does feel that way, but there's no evidence for it in her behavior. I thought that was weird, and it greatly slanted my opinion of Sookie altogether.
I could write an entire review about Sam and the shapeshifting thing. I had to stop reading a couple times and just sit with my head back, attempting to perceive the circumstances that would make someone craft such a thing on paper. Short story version: Sam, you're a pervert. Sookie, you're an idiot. WHAT AN IDIOTIC DEVELOPMENT.
Finally, the line that cracked me up (unintentionally): “I thought I might watch Braveheart again: Mel Gibson in a kilt is always a mood raiser.” In what world is that not a weird thing to say?!
A quick, campy, fun read starring one of my favorite characters, period: Harley Quinn. This is not something to take seriously, which suits me fine for a book like this. The dialogue is quick and lighthearted, not to mention hilarious! My only complaint about Harley & Ivy is that Joe Chiodo's art in “Love on the Lam” didn't do it for me, unfortunately–it was too soft and mature for the campy nature of the story. I'd recommend this for someone who hasn't read many comics but is interested in delving into the genre.
I admit I did not read the book in its entirety, but I read enough to form an opinion. Honestly, the story dragged, big time. Learning about Karen's personalities was interesting, but it seems to me that the lengthy conversations Dr. Baer had with each of them slowed the plot down a great deal. Also, I felt that the magnitude of Karen's trauma was so great that it felt unbelievable. In a bad way. I found myself shaking my head as each piece of her past was revealed, not in sadness but in skepticism. That's not to say the things that happened to Karen couldn't happen in real life. I simply mean that the author seemed to be needlessly piling bad things onto a character, and it didn't help me connect with her at all. If anything, it distanced me from her. The book is very graphic in nature, which I didn't really mind. However, I couldn't finish it due to its slow plot and questionable characterization. Perhaps I wasn't aware of what exactly I was getting into when I started this book, but I am not at all interested in picking it up again.
(Reread, obviously)
This was always my least favorite of the series, not to say it is a bad book by ANY means. It's just the one that gets forgotten about. As a child, if I was going to rank the book series in terms of favorites, this one would have been at the bottom. Now, as an adult revisiting it for the first time in years, I was loving it. There is so much richness of character and story here. My favorite scenes include, of course, the flying car, every scene with Lockhart bungling his way through teaching, and the exchange between Tom Riddle and Harry. I was laughing hysterically during the Valentine's Day scene. This book gets forgotten a lot, but it is absolutely the funniest in the series and rightfully earns its place among the other installments.
(Reread, obviously)
This is my very favorite book in the series. There is just something so comforting and cozy about it. Rowling does an incredible job putting together her world piece by piece, so we are experiencing it right alongside Harry. There is this indelible sense of wonder that, even though it's my umpteenth read, follows and covers the reader like a familiar blanket.
There is also the perfect amount of humor in this book. I've read this particular one more times than I can count, yet it still makes me laugh out loud. Whether I read the book or listen to the audiobook, I can see the funny parts coming and still relish in them when they arrive, as if it was my first read.
Also, anyone who knows me knows my very favorite character in the series is the one and only Rubeus Hagrid. This book has LOTS of Hagrid bits. I just adore him, and therefore I love this book.
I just...there aren't enough words to say about this book. So much love. <3
(Reread, obviously.)
Where many people love this the most of all the Harry Potter books, PoA is probably my second favorite installment in the series (Sorcerer's Stone is number one). Then again, that might change as I work through the rest of the books. It HAS been quite a while since I've read the series!
This one has such great intrigue and mystery, taking it into a slightly more mature territory than the first two. This is such an amazing quality of the books that I can't quite put my finger on how it's done: they mature along with both their main characters, and their audiences.
The introduction of new characters (Trelawney, Lupin, and of course Sirius Black himself) is so welcomed. Each one has their own, completely unique voice and energy.
This book also has an incredibly satisfying ending scene.
I'm now going to listen to the Real Weird Sisters talk about this book on their amazing podcast, and then move on to the fourth!