Daniel
I wanted to like this and I thought I would. However, there are multiple reasons I just didn't. The writing style is pretty unrefined. I feel like giving this book 5 stars, and giving something like Harry Potter 5 stars would be an insult to Rowling.
The plot is super weak. Not much clear goals. I didn't think there was any character development to speak of. I couldn't get close to any of the characters, and I didn't care about them at all.
With her writing style, early in the book, there seems to be a lot of entitled modern day thinking in her prose. There are also times in the book where I think there's a jump that didn't fit together.
For example, at one point Alton accuses Rin of talking too much to Nezha but as far as from my readers viewpoint, they had just met again after really hating each other. They were suddenly friends because they knew each other before, but they certainly didn't feel like friends that were talking too much.
There are no plot twists, and nothing surprising here. Rather cliché work. It's the authors early work, and written in a very short span.
“I wrote it over three months during the winter of 2015” – R.F. Kuang
But what baffles me is the amount of accolades earned for this. I simply don't see it being worthy, and I can only recommend you spend your time reading something else.
I really like what the author has to say about virtue and excellence and how paramount it is to having a good society. I'm reminded by the often misinterpreted Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged who was simply saying to be proud of ones work. When it comes to areté, I think being proud is a gumption motivator. His questioning how schools are teaching using a grading system that is actually often removing the spirit of learning is also a big deal. He didn't seem to have a solution for it, but maybe I missed that.
her writing is interesting and intriguing but I thought this book was mostly irritating internal politics of the school and the ministry. For anyone who watched Stargate SG-1, it's like it was in the later seasons where there was not much outer-worldly threats, but most threats came within their own community.
I hated this book. I read this to learn something about women psychology that I thought could be useful in appreciating women, instead my takeaway is that the author is a femme-nazi with modern day twisted thinking (despite the book being two decades old). It feels like it's a whole book of “man's fault” for women having issues.
What's so easy about being a man? It's not really a glorious existence either if you start to look close. Stop blaming, and start changing yourself from inside. Sounds like this woman has serious issues... she should go see someone.
The main premise of the book has some serious flaws around it which is why I'm giving it two stars. Miguel keeps restating that people should see themselves as perfect and complete. He gives an example where he himself is perfect, but needs to be healthier. The idea of seeing yourself as perfect is to allow yourself to unconditionally love yourself, because you're already perfect.
The issue I have here is that this is delusional. No one is perfect, and the book should be teaching to love yourself DESPITE imperfections. How can someone be perfect if they need to be more healthy as his own case?
A perfect person, thing, or being is one that does not need improvement. If people listen to his guidance literally, then people would stop thinking about how to better themselves, as perfection has been reached already.
While you may think this is a technicality, it isn't. The wrong message will still get imprinted on people. An honest message is to teach people to love themselves despite being imperfect, but maybe that's more difficult to write about.
If anything should be made mandatory reading in schools in hope to saving us, then this is it. His insights and being able to tackle trickle issues with eloquent language and clearly well studied and thought out concerns is thought provoking to say the least. If you read this book, and find nothing challenging about the points he makes, and the contradictions in todays identity politics, then I have to wonder how you ended up in that place. It's got to be pretty dark.
I learned some things about myself while reading this book, and every time I can learn something about myself when I read a book, that's a huge win. While it is repetitive at times, this book is no more so than any other typical self-help book. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to understand themselves more, and the opposite sex.
This is a story narrated by death featuring a girl, a jew, an accordion player, and a boy with yellow hair. It's a well written story, a very well written story. What I wish was that the ending didn't feel so rushed. What I wish was that the story told me where it would take me, with a purpose and a goal. If you like Neil Gaiman, then the author's writing is similar, but better.
