kirisuna
Parts of this book embody the autistic struggle and gives you references and cheat sheets on how to overcome those struggles from an autistic viewpoint and experience.
Some parts are great; others are concerning. You need to take what speaks to you and reject what doesn't to get a positive response from this.
For example, in the first chapter, Sarah's dissection of communication helped me understand that I struggle professionally with verbal communication and that by leaning into written communication I can prevent a ton of undue stress. It has improved my workplace experience and general stress level so much, I really can't even put it into words.
That being said, in chapter 2 she introduces this bizarre model of communication with business higher ups that acts like you need to grovel to succeed.
Additionally, I found her description of her relationship with her husband to be less than healthy. It feels like they see her as deficient and the husband as correct and I think that's.. weird and not good.
This is such a dark and gritty dystopian classic. It left an impression on me in high school, and after reading it again 15 years later I can see why. Twits and turns at every corner, with the last 15 or so pages creating a shift in perspective that almost rationalized Crake's ideology and actions — as I never worried about the survivability of the Crakers until the possibility of the existence of man revealed itself as an issue.
Garbage book. You understand the premise from the jacket — count down 5-4-3-2-1, then do. The book has numerous screenshots of social media posts about this method working for those who had gone to her motivational talks. It feels like a bad ad. There is very little actual content. Had read The Let Them Theory by her and her daughter, and had assumed the daughter was added superfluously — now after reading a book that was just her own, I realize the daughter is the literate one. At one point she alludes to her “rule” as being the same type of thing that caused Rosa Parks to act, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Dr. King, who also was supposedly driven to act by something akin to her “rule”, which she invented to “help her get out of bed in the morning”. Lots of humble bragging throughout. Cannot recommend.
This one, again, was quite slow. I enjoyed the last section where ayanokouji reveals how he meddled, but other than that not my favorite. Ready for the last special exam in the next book!
Merged review:
This one, again, was quite slow. I enjoyed the last section where ayanokouji reveals how he meddled, but other than that not my favorite. Ready for the last special exam in the next book!
I really enjoyed this one. I love how ayanokouji and kei are bonding, and their secret vs public personas. I like that he has someone he can be open with. It was a great follow up to 7.
Merged review:
I really enjoyed this one. I love how ayanokouji and kei are bonding, and their secret vs public personas. I like that he has someone he can be open with. It was a great follow up to 7.
The first half of this book was a little slow, but honestly I really enjoyed the second half. Finally getting to see things from the mind of Ryuen was awesome. I really enjoyed seeing Ayanokouji unleash hell on him as well and be so unaffected by it. This was one of my favorite episodes of the show so I really did enjoy reading it.
I actually really enjoyed this collection of short stories. It really felt like these stories helped to develop the depth of the characters and their motivations, as well as their relationships with Ayanokouji. I appreciated having a bit of fresh air and variety In between the much denser full volumes.
Such a page turner. I never regret re-reading this. This time, I found myself in awe of Harry's dedication to his routine and himself. I appreciated the attempt to bring other and autonomy to chaos and uncertainty. No matter what age I am when I read this, it always brings new insights and a fresh perspective - this time being realizing I'd like the sanity that structure brought him in my own life, as well as the appreciation that having so little brought to the real world for him. Another banger from the great William Sleator. Absolutely recommend.
Really enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel and the characterization. I particularly liked reading from each character's perspective, and how Hank often spoke to her in his mind. I felt like this was such a powerful way to portray the loneliness he feels, especially combined with Tess' presence. I felt like I was with him, feeling through him. I do wish the author had gone into what happened in that hour more specifically. I know that the specifics of the trauma weren't important, rather just that it happened. But it seemed like that hour was so significant - was the reason hank was broken and the reason Tess died. I wish we had known why, what happened that was so much MORE traumatizing than the previous 12 hours.
I felt for these characters. We all have things that we wish we could go back and change, things that change the course of our lives and that we sit thinking about, day after day, obsessively pondering the what-ifs. This was that on such a large scale. I wished I could go back and save them too. It's so interesting how a writer's words, once struck down, are as immutable as the actual past. The story has been written, the pain accrued.
So good! Listened to this on audiobook read by Will Wheaton, he did such a great job narrating it.
I loved the way the author handled the divide between the Oasis and the “real” world, and the social and psychological dynamics that surrounded that. I feel like as our world becomes increasingly technological this divide becomes more and more apparent in our day to day. The ability for introverts and damaged, lonely people to escape into a world of infinite possibility, in which you can be anyone (regardless of who you were born as) enabled the world to not only escape but hide from everything that ailed them, everything that was difficult. As an introvert myself, initially this seemed like an absolute dream - a world in which every insecurity could be digitally bypassed, where I never had to worry about others seeing myself because I could always be someone different. But as the narrative progresses, it becomes apparent that this isn't really a solution - just another version of the problem. I can think of so many problems in my life that could have been prevented if I could have just manipulated how the world saw me, and what world I interacted in. But such an existence would prevent the possibility of real growth or belonging, as our main character comes to understand. True happiness lies in the real world, with all its challenges and frustrations.
The shocker at the end of this broke my heart and left me feeling betrayed. Loved this series.
I absolutely cannot believe Theresa had been betraying Tom from the get go. From the moment he stepped into the maze. This changes everything! SHE HAD HER MEMORIES THE WHOLE TIME! She pretended to struggle, pretended to work through what she already knew. She didn't immediately save everyone, as Thomas would have done. She was bad. WICKED was bad. And this betrayal in reality began long before that, as she often knew the terrible things WICKED had done and kept them from Thomas, determining they didn't matter because what they were doing was more important. That the end justifies the means.
Poor Thomas. All he wanted was to belong, was to have a family made of his closest friends that he could depend on no matter what. Was to be good. To help others. He was wise beyond his years. His suspicions were warranted. But his trust was misplaced. Again and again he was duped and manipulated, by Ava Paige, by Theresa. Before he even began the maze.
What upsets me most about this is the fact that the whole time with his memories gone, he constantly asks himself how he could have ever believed in WICKED and their mission. He struggled with the shame of having been one of them, of having worked with them and put his friends in this situation. But all along he was against them. He knew before he lost his memories they were bad, and he cane to the same conclusion after. Regardless of what they did to him or told him, he was a hero. He always had a correct sense of right and wrong. He was always good.
And if he had just regained his memories, he would have known that! The fear of knowing himself, of thinking he used to be someone else, kept him from retrieving his past. Little did he know he had always been good. I feel like here lies some sort of eternal truth about ones character being implicit, being beyond circumstance. Being something you are born with. And the inherent need to trust in and know yourself.
Ava Paige was yet another betrayal. To go so far beyond ethical constraints, and to push back against the decision to stop the trials at the agreed upon point by literally assassinating her dissenters and using Thomas as a scape goat for her endeavors is just so... evil. Her and Theresa are simply peas in a pod. And if Thomas had just allowed his memories to be returned he would have known that. Well, if they had chosen to give him those memories in particular.
What I don't understand is Ava Paige's decision in the end to let Thomas keep his brain. It had seemed like some benevolent force finally fighting against the evil of WICKED at the time. But now, knowing what I know, I don't understand why she let him keep his brain and gave him a way out, a way to rescue all the immures. A change of heart? A final realization that there could be no cure? Maybe after everything she did and all they had collected, they still weren't able to put together a cure, and the desperation of the other high ups at WICKED was what led to the apparent need to take his brain. And Ava finally realized that if all that couldn't make a cure, nothing could. But Randall has warned him in this book that they would. So maybe it was the plan from the start. And Ava just couldn't allow it to happen, because she loved him like a son. I don't know. My mind still reels from that.
This was their mistake and they were the ones dying from it. They deserved to die. Everyone else may not have, but they did.
And what allowed people to be immune in the first place? I suppose that is something they never found out, so we don't get to either.
The final page of this final book broke my heart and changed the entire narrative. A masterful execution of a plot twist, one of the best I've read in a long time. Although I still don't entirely understand what good a maze does in finding the cure of a virus, or what exactly a “Variable” is, I loved this series, and though there are areas I don't understand, the fact that I am still thinking about them and trying to figure them out days later is a testament to the authors intriguing writing style.
I fucking loved this book. The writing was superb, the plot kept me guessing, just hands down one of the best sociopathic-main-character books I've read in ages. The ending wasn't satisfying, to be honest. After all that, I wanted nick to win. To beat her! Not to just give in. Over a fucking baby. Not for them to realize they are perfect for each other in some sick way. I wanted her to get caught and to suffer. Everything up until the last 20 pages was dynamite. Had to dock a star though for the ending. So super anticlimactic. What a bummer.
Okay, don't get me wrong. This book was well written, with good pacing and character development and so many twists. But it was freakin bonkers! The storyline is so convoluted and toxic, I feel icky having finished it. I feel like the character's collective ick has rubbed off on me by reading their story.
