Oliver Howard
πππππ While I got frustrated with the excessive and loosely relevant historical anecdotes in this book, the underlying message and practices were well crafted. The technologies themselves are slightly dated by todayβs standards (he kept talking about Facebook), the lessons and take aways can be applied to technologies today. If this book was about 50-75 pages shorted, my rating would be higher. This book is not anti-technology, instead it proposes an ideology I identify with which is that we should be selective about the digital tools we use, and be mindful about how we use them. I think this idea is ever important and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
πππππ While I got frustrated with the excessive and loosely relevant historical anecdotes in this book, the underlying message and practices were well crafted. The technologies themselves are slightly dated by todayβs standards (he kept talking about Facebook), the lessons and take aways can be applied to technologies today. If this book was about 50-75 pages shorted, my rating would be higher. This book is not anti-technology, instead it proposes an ideology I identify with which is that we should be selective about the digital tools we use, and be mindful about how we use them. I think this idea is ever important and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
πππππ For a YA book, this was pretty good. Themes were heavy handed (per usual with this genre), but I didn't feel like it took too much away from the reading experience. The main weak-point of the book was Lenore Dove. I just didn't like her and didn't believe Haymitch did much either (he liked to tell the reader he does though). Aside from that, I thought it was fun and recontextualizes Haymitch's character during the main series.
πππππ For a YA book, this was pretty good. Themes were heavy handed (per usual with this genre), but I didn't feel like it took too much away from the reading experience. The main weak-point of the book was Lenore Dove. I just didn't like her and didn't believe Haymitch did much either (he liked to tell the reader he does though). Aside from that, I thought it was fun and recontextualizes Haymitch's character during the main series.
πππππ Dinniman continues to improve his character writing and emotional beats with each iteration. While I enjoyed the plot and setting a little bit less in this one compared to [[The Butcher's Masquerade]], everything else to continue to get better. Donut and Carlβs relationship deepens further in a satisfying way, and the βfound familyβ aspect of the series really shines through in this book. I also love how the politics have expanded throughout the series, bringing some much needed intrigue to an otherwise pretty straightforward story.
πππππ Dinniman continues to improve his character writing and emotional beats with each iteration. While I enjoyed the plot and setting a little bit less in this one compared to [[The Butcher's Masquerade]], everything else to continue to get better. Donut and Carlβs relationship deepens further in a satisfying way, and the βfound familyβ aspect of the series really shines through in this book. I also love how the politics have expanded throughout the series, bringing some much needed intrigue to an otherwise pretty straightforward story.
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πππππ I thought this was well written, well paced, and had a very interesting setting -- it just wasn't 100% for me. I didn't feel very connected to the main character, and I think that really made my reading experience lesser. It was short which was nice, but it just wasn't really my type of story.
πππππ I thought this was well written, well paced, and had a very interesting setting -- it just wasn't 100% for me. I didn't feel very connected to the main character, and I think that really made my reading experience lesser. It was short which was nice, but it just wasn't really my type of story.
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πππππ While there were certainly some elements here that I really enjoyed, I also felt like there were a lot of problems. Firstly, the writing style for the first half of the book is all over the place. Alderman is jumping between characters and time periods so much and so fast that it gives you whiplash. She's attempting to be flowery at times, but it just feels out of place in an otherwise modern, snappy style. Another thing that bothered me was the way she revealed plot twists. It just wasn't interesting. I liked the technological aspects, and I think a lot of the stuff that was said here is important and relevant to current times. However, her ending felt rushed and frankly improbable. It took me out of the story because of how belligerently optimistic it was. This book has made me lose trust in Alderman, so I likely will not read any of her other work. ^08284f
πππππ While there were certainly some elements here that I really enjoyed, I also felt like there were a lot of problems. Firstly, the writing style for the first half of the book is all over the place. Alderman is jumping between characters and time periods so much and so fast that it gives you whiplash. She's attempting to be flowery at times, but it just feels out of place in an otherwise modern, snappy style. Another thing that bothered me was the way she revealed plot twists. It just wasn't interesting. I liked the technological aspects, and I think a lot of the stuff that was said here is important and relevant to current times. However, her ending felt rushed and frankly improbable. It took me out of the story because of how belligerently optimistic it was. This book has made me lose trust in Alderman, so I likely will not read any of her other work. ^08284f
πππππ Pretty short and consumable, but I just don't think older books are for me. I understand that Agatha Christie was one of the founders of mysteries as we know them, but I just derive more enjoyment out of more modern books. This makes sense because as time goes on, we create newer, tighter, and more exciting mysteries to unravel. I just have little to no desire to go back to the beginning to see what inspired these newer stories.
πππππ Pretty short and consumable, but I just don't think older books are for me. I understand that Agatha Christie was one of the founders of mysteries as we know them, but I just derive more enjoyment out of more modern books. This makes sense because as time goes on, we create newer, tighter, and more exciting mysteries to unravel. I just have little to no desire to go back to the beginning to see what inspired these newer stories.