Kirsten
I listened to the audiobook. It was well narrated so it gets a star for that.
Once Grady gets to the island it seems a little silly and cliche, but I figured let's see where this goes.
The answer?
1) Nowhere for most of the book. Some of this is so drawn out and repetitive. How many times do I need to hear about the doctor saying insomnia can cause hallucinations etc. We get it already.
2) By the end it finally does go somewhere. Somewhere so ridiculous its just not even remotely believable and just so ridiculous I'm like wait, I waited all this time for that?
This book was really enjoyable to read for the most part. I enjoyed the story even though it was very formulaic. There is nothing new to see here, but sometimes you're just looking for entertainment and this fit the bill. It was good enough that I immediately went to read the sequel. My main complaint was the sex scenes. I was really enjoying the story then had to keep being pulled away by these smut breaks that I did not care about. By the 5th orgasm I'm like God, get on with it already! It's not that I'm inherently against smut, but I guess if I want to read smut I'd rather that be the whole point of the book instead of distracting from a more interesting plot.
This book was a quick easy read - epistolary novel, romance, historical fiction set around WWI and WWII. It was entertaining enough but I was mildly bothered throughout that I felt like the same person had written all of the letters though there were really at least 5 different letter writers in the story.
I avoided this one for a long time after reading a bunch of bad reviews. I found myself agreeing with most of the bad reviews, but also not really caring that much. I read this as a light fluff read on a cruise ship. It worked well for that. Was the whole plot ridiculous? Yes. Was the protagonist poorly written? Yes. Did it bother me? Not that much. It entertained me so for that I give it 3 stars.
This book was a quick, easy read. The concept was interesting, but I felt like more could've been done with it. For most of the book, I understood vaguely what was happening based on the blurb on the book jacket - I almost knew too much and too little at the same time. And then everything is sort of wrapped up by a big bad guy exposition at the end. Overall it was fine, but it didn't wow me.
I really enjoyed this one. I am a fan of dystopian novels and this sounded right up my alley. I read the Eyre Affair a while back and wasn't a big fan, but loved Fforde's work on this one. I feel like a lot of these dystopian novels seem to have some sort of “color” aspect but it was interesting how he tied it in with color perception and as the whole premise of the book is set around this, it seemed a lot more well integrated into the book vs a lot of stories which seem to have a “he's a red, he's a gray” which means something, but is sort of arbitrary. I really just enjoyed the whole thing. I've had this book on my radar for a long time now but only just got around to reading it. Maybe it's a good thing because the sequel still hasn't been published, but maybe will be this year. Hopefully it won't be too long of a wait!
2024 Update: It was a long wait. Re-read to refresh my memory before reading the sequel 8 years later.
This book was something that was useful to me at the right time, and it gave me a lot of things to think about. Other reviews criticizing this book about its privileged viewpoint are definitely correct. Not everyone has the disposable income to just hire someone to clean their house, etc. There was also something about this book being written by someone who describes themselves as basically happy by default, that was, at times, a little off-putting. But I was able to get past that and found some useful nuggets in there. And for this kind of book I feel like that's all I'm looking for so I call it a success.
This book was entertaining enough, but I couldn't help but feeling throughout that it was something I've seen before. Maybe I've just read/watched too many sci-fi dystopian type things before. The book had a lot of kind of surprise moments, but with each different reveal I just felt like “oh yeah, now this is like this other book/show/movie”. So overall, the book was fine, but it just didn't wow me.
I laughed, I cried.... even though I found this latest book in the series a bit predictable as to the mystery, I just really loved the journey with all of the characters. Joyce's journal entries continue to be a delight. I wasn't a big fan of the previous book in the series. I felt like things seemed a bit disjointed and forced, but I'm back in now. I'm looking forward to the next Thursday Murder Club book.
This book started out strong for me but then faded as it went on ... I feel like things from the first post of the book were discarded too quickly, introduced new characters too quickly so I couldn't get to know or care about them, and I just wasn't a fan of the ending.
I am not planning to read the following books.
It's been a long time since I read any books in this series. I remember really enjoying the first 2 or 3 books. Coming back with this book... I don't know. If it weren't for the fact that I was reading this for a summer reading challenge, I likely wouldn't have finished it. I told my preteen about how I wasn't enjoying it, and she asked why. I gave her a synopsis of what had happened so far, and she told me, “That's so extra.” I guess that's it. She hit the nail on the head. I just googled extra as slang: “trying too hard, over the top, excessive, maybe a little dramatic.” I think that really sums it up.
I really enjoyed this book that I picked up at random from the new books section of the library. I was surprised to see a lot of negative reviews like people really hated this book, but I thought it was engaging and thoughtful. It was long, but I enjoyed it and didn't have a feeling like I wished it would end already. I can see people disliking the narrator but that didn't bother me either. One of the better books I've read this year.
This book was clearly well researched and highlighted important information about healthcare disparities and how racism impacts the health of Black Americans in a variety of different ways. A lot of this I had already read about before, so while there were some new points I learned from the book, much of this was not new to me, so this may be why I wasn't as engaged by this book.
I'd give this 2.5 stars. I finished the book, but I felt like it was a slog. The premise was interesting, but at the same time I didn't really care much about the protagonist Esme. I thought the idea of The Dictionary of Lost Words (the actual book within the book) was an interesting one, and I appreciate the sentiment behind it. But as for Esme herself, I guess I didn't feel very invested in the part of the story that was chronicling her life. I liked some of the side characters. I just don't feel like it made a great overall story, at least for me.
This book had an interesting concept and it was a quick, easy read. I give it 3 stars for having some interesting ideas and not being a slog. But some of it just seemed.... silly. Unrealistic? I guess I liked that it was a quick, easy read. But I didn't think the book was that great because everything was too quick, too easy. Want to discover all the mysteries of an 18th century apothecary poisoner? No worries, just give it 2 days of googling. That was easy. But I finished this book in a day it's not like I'm sad about the time I invested in it.
I thought this book was very well written and managed to hold my interest because of that (knowing that my ability to maintain attention to reading has been pretty poor lately). It was easy to get immersed in this story, yet I ultimately didn't care. I didn't care about the characters, I didn't care about the story, but something about how it was written kept me going with this book regardless. It wasn't boring. That the author made something I didn't care about still interesting to read is probably to her credit.
This was a fun, easy read. The main character really made the story for me, not the type you usually see as the protagonist but still very likeable and relatable, especially as we get to know her more throughout the book. It turned the usual way you would see this story on its head (from POV of Orion or another from the NY enclave?) and to good effect. The end definitely left me wanting to pick up the next in the series when it comes out.
Also: I was a little hesitant to read this bc I read so many reviews about the controversy regarding racism in the book. By the time I picked this up the passage that was most problematic was removed (with apology and acknowledgment from the author which I appreciate) and honestly I didn't see any issues with anything I read. So ultimately I was glad I didn't let that sway me from reading this.
So it seems like I am one of the few people who didn't love this book. I probably should have guessed as I loved Red Rising, thought Golden Son was okay but kind of disappointing, and now I think this book continued the downward trajectory. I wanted to read it to finish off the series and I am glad that I did, but I can't say I enjoyed the book very much. I am not into the war-heavy, battle driven plot. And yes, the whole story is about the Rising, a war, but somewhere as the books progressed I cared slightly less about the characters each time. I felt like there was so much about the politics and the battles and I missed what I thought was a really character driven story from the first book. It wasn't a terrible book or anything, but I'm giving it 2 stars as Goodreads defines, “it was ok”