Karolina

I have no idea where to begin with writing a review but it needs to be done, I have way too many thoughts about this book.

I love how the background characters shone so much, Karkasy, Petronella were among my favorites. I truly enjoy the depth of Loken's doubts and thoughts presented, he's such a consistent but complex character that I cannot get enough of.

Spoiler time: Horus' spiral into heresy is wonderfully written. I love how all the ambition and underappreciation is fueled into pure madness, I'm terrified of what's gonna happen next but oh god I love how it plays out so far.

Terrific read, sets a high standard for all the upcoming books.

I think my mixed feelings after reading this can be directly contributed to AI as a phenomenon, not the book itself.

Quo VAIdis is a great introduction to AI for people who know something but would love to actually GET what it is, why it does what it does and how do we work with it, as humanity.

I'm honestly speechless and glad that I gave this book a chance.

The beginning was a little convoluted. I couldn't orient myself, too many people, too many things at once, but as I started to get to know the characters, I got invested.

One of the things I really enjoyed is the portrayal of the fight for women's rights in Poland from the historical side. I was never taught any of that at school, so I really appreciate the want to make people aware that feminists weren't just abroad. People fought here too.

What saddens me is how much I can relate to the problems presented in the book. It's hard to believe that over a 100 years have passed and Poland still doesn't offer women the support they deserve, be it when it comes to abortion, for example.

A heavy read, but a necessary one, in my opinion.

I'm truly confused on how to rate this book. Sarah Waters used to be my go-to without even considering much what I was picking up, I trusted the book to sweep me off my feet. This time I can say that the first 1/3 of the book was spectacular, up until the point where it turned into an overblown crime story that didn't have any business dragging on for as long as it did.

I'm sorry, but if you want to get introduced to the genius of Sarah Waters, please choose something else. I appreciate that the author wanted to try something different, maybe, but it read like two different books smashed into one without good rhyme or reason.

I think the star rating gives some kind of an idea, as to my opinion, but oh lord, this is the worst book I've read in a long time.
Spoilers ahead so proceed at your own risk.
The initial idea and form of the book were interesting. Mixing the metawriting, debating the nature of story and writing could have made it a masterpiece.
I was drawn to it at first because of the retelling concept, but the number of times I've read the word rape, deflowered or impotent in this book made me finish it only out of spite so I would feel that I could write a review. I don't see how putting your main male characters in the position of abuse countless times makes it a good read.
Save yourself some time and don't even pick up this book.

Extremely chaotic. It was just a compilation of some drag queens and a few interesting facts buried under incredulous amounts of improper language referring to nonbinary people and words such as “slay”, “reading” etc. thrown around without any visible purpose. If you are thinking of reading it, please save yourself the disappointment.
The only redeeming quality are beautiful photos.

Honestly, up until the half of the book, I really wasn't convinced. I mean, the main character seemed too annoying, everything was just illogical.

But I'm glad I kept reading, because there was a point in all that insanity and mess. A great story, complex and well-fleshed out characters. A lot of complicated twists and unexpected situations.

The beginning of the book (the first 100 pages) dragged on quite a bit. I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue, but thankfully I kept reading.

The story is quite disturbing and extremely compelling. Maybe a bit extreme, but I don't mind it too much.

The only big problem that I have with this book is that there was A LOT of infodumping. Sometimes it felt like a transcript of some meetings/interviews/etc. and not like a fictional book. Apart from that, though, a really interesting one, especially when you really think about how much our world relies on electricity to function.

I would give The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of five stars and here is why:
* it's a great source of historical knowedge regarding the situation of women (sadly, only cis white women)
* some of the chapters (the one about abortion, for example) still ring true, even today
* a chapter about the sexes in other species was extremely interesting as a contrast to the divide of sexes if it comes to people.
Sadly, there are some issues with this book, mainly:
* it's not inclusive - there is no mention of women of color, even sections about peasant women seem a little bit like collections of stereotypes
* homosexualism is treated like a choice: it's not condemned, but there are a great many conclusions included that are simply untrue.
I highly reccommend reading this book, but it can't be treated like a be all and end all of feminism. It is useful, but needs to be supplied with other inclusive books.