Ren
What can I really say about this book that hasn't been said? Loved the details of this one. Stoker has a way of writing that makes you feel like you are really there, hunting down Dracula or being imprisoned by him.
The book can be slow at times which is really it's only drawback. The exposition is great, but it depends on the scene. I wish the final stand off was a bit longer, considering how long it took us to finally track Dracula down. It felt short.
3.5 stars for me
There's a few things I wish I had known before going into this book.
1. It's more of a character study than anything else. There's not really a plot or character development, you're just observing Mark and his experience in the apocalypse. It's a slow burn, and not meant to have action in the traditional zombie-apocalypse sense. It's refreshing, but tedious at times.
2. If you can make it to around 150 pages in this book, the payoff is worth it. It can be hard to push on, as the writing is great but throws in too many words you need a thesaurus for and is really, really, REALLY slow. Let me emphasize: the writing really is great. Whitehead can really paint a picture. This book is humorous, ridiculous, serious, nihilistic, cold, and endearing all at once.
3. Aside from it being a character study, the book uses the zombie apocalypse as a metaphor for New York. I'm not connected to New York in any meaningful way, so this wasn't incredibly impactful for me.
For what it is, I thought it was okay. It's refreshing and different for this genre, reminded me very much of Cormac McCarthy's writing style but with one major difference - McCarthy always has a great story to tell. Unfortunately this book does not.
Full of cliches, predictable, and completely unoriginal. The writing and pacing is so awful. Every 2 pages or so it's just Summer talking about her boyfriend Lewis.
The author tries to make Summer out to be this strong, resilient girl, but she spends the majority of the book crying and doing nothing?? Obviously the circumstances are awful, but was it so important for the author to write about every single time she cried? We already know it's a difficult situation, readers can put it together that she may cry a few times without needing to include it every other page. The other girls were much more interesting and I wish we learned more about them.
Giving this two stars only because it was pretty funny - probably not the author's intention, but when you have your serial killer say lines like “it's time to say goodnight” before he kills someone...it becomes a comedy pretty quickly.
This was great. Favorite stories in order:
1. The Yattering and Jack
2. In the Hills, The Cities
3. The Book of Blood
4. Pig Blood Blues
5. The Midnight Meat Train
6. Sex, Death and Starshine
Make no mistake though, they're all really solid stories. I haven't been able to get these out of my head for days!
I really enjoyed the pacing and writing with this one. The characters were all so rich, and their character development felt so real and personal (or their lack of development made sense and served a purpose for their character).
I appreciate how Camus tackles the absurdism of Death with camaraderie, love, and hope. While I enjoyed The Stranger, this one felt so believable and impacted me much differently. It's so well written and I honestly just wish I had read this before The Stranger.
I've never seen characters with less personality than in this book.
Piper - No personality rich dumb blonde who...likes shopping? Shocker.
Brendan - Masculine dangerous job having macho male with too much of a domineering controlling personality and he smells bad. They spend a multiple pages picking out and buying him cologne because he smells so bad. They try to play it off as him smelling “masculine” and “male” but I know this man smells like ball sweat.
Any character growth Piper was supposed to have is immediately erased when she finds out Brendan is a millionaire anyways?!?
Her entire character growth was moving from LA to a small town.
And Brendan constantly talks down on his dead wife because “Piper ur just so hot”
My final note is I just know Piper has a serious bacteria infection after the hotel room chapter. Never go back to front, just took me out completely and I couldn't finish this book fast enough
I'm giving it 1.5 stars because it was cringey and funny (probably not in the way the author intended), like a bad hallmark movie. Overall though the chemistry was forced and unrealistic. Slow burn romances are much better
This was my first Emily St. John Mandel novel and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I loved the themes and the characters were all interesting enough, especially our main character.
No spoilers - will keep the next question vague
The one and only question that I can't quite figure out is what was his motivation for doing what he did with Olive?
There was no clear motivation and our main character even admits he had no strong feelings about it. I suppose he was lying, and with the narrative consistently shifting perspectives it's a safe assumption. Still not something I can fully grasp, or think was plausible for that character to do. It's probably my biggest gripe with the book, and I keep feeling like I missed something somewhere, somehow...anyway...
The writing itself was easy to digest and I enjoyed reading it - I was even more surprised at the end of the book to discover some of the characters we meet here are tied into some of the author's other books. I always enjoy when authors do that.
I do wish the author had adjusted the speech for the time period though - really strange that folks from 1912 speak the same way in 2401. Took me out of it and without the pages that clearly define the time period, you'd never be able to guess when in time they are exactly. Not great for immersion into the novel.
Overall: Enjoyed the story, the “nothing matters and who cares” theme, the ease of the writing, the shifting perspectives, and the main character, but some of the motives were questionable and for a time period/time travel piece, it all felt like the same year.
I feel like something is missing from this book, I just can't place what it is. It doesn't feel complete. 3.5.
I loved the writing, it reminded me of songs lyrics. Everything felt ethereal and light, even when the subject matter was heavy.
The best way to describe this book is a mash up of Lana del rey + Fleetwood Mac in book form. It is much too short to build any connections with characters or feel strongly about any of them, so I never really cared where their stories went. Except maybe Echo's mother.
it was okay.
The world building at the beginning and explanation of the territory wars (which is essentially just a game the entire town plays) could have been better. I was extremely lost until 150+ pages in and almost set the book down. The book ended up being great once the focus shifted away from the world building and toward the characters more.
My only other issue with this book is I wish there were more descriptions of what the characters looked like (aside from the original 5). This one is a personal nit-pick of mine, but I don't even remember them mentioning what Raffy, Griggs, or Jessa look like.
Worth sticking it out but it does take a while to get into and can definitely lose folks in those first 150 or so pages.
The ending to this book has me so shook. I didn't expect it. The main lesson I got from this? In this “society” the ends justify the means in regards to cannibalism, but there's so much real world parallel with this - when it comes to factory farming animals or buying from sweatshops to get the products we want. In this society, even if the means are arbitrary, such as to keep hunting going or keeping dinner parties interesting - especially in the MC's case. Everyone is selfish in their own ways, there really is no kindness left in this world, unless it's fake kindness to protect an image, such as in the case of the MC's sister.
The book is gory, cruel, not for those who are very sensitive or empathetic to humanity and the horrible things that people can endure. But it was interesting to get in the mindset of how people in a world like this would justify their actions. The father of the MC is the most pure character in the whole book, but only because he completely loses his mind. The ending was twisted and unexpected. 4/5 stars, I'm definitely a bad person for enjoying this novel but thanks for the rec tiktok.
Probably the best out of the “anonymous” series. A lot of people seem to think this book is out dated...it's not. Really depends on where you're from. Where I'm from, this book is pretty relevant and the author provides some great resources at the back of the book. I really liked how the main character was a stereotypical “masculine” guy and he has to realize that he can be both masculine and gay, and it's okay to be that way - the idea of the “stereotypical” gay man is exactly that: a stereotype.
spoilers for this book and the other anonymous books I am SO glad this book didn't end with one of the character's dying. I was expecting it to happen thanks to the other books I've read in this series, and I thought it would be Jon. SO GLAD I was wrong there. There is a domestic abuse though, sadly. Thankfully the author did provide ideas on how to get out of that situation if the reader were to be in it.
Not the best book in the world, absolutely not. But this one was my favorite and probably most realistic (still, sadly) of the series.
Letting Ana Go...Ana..Anorexia...spoilers unfortunately the main character does not let her ED go.
This book just reminded me of the dark days of Tumblr in the 2010's and how destructive and pervasive “thinspo” content was in those days to teen girls.
This book would definitely be triggering to anyone who is recovering or going through an ED - even the main character's boyfriend for most of the novel passes a blind eye to her ED. Then toward the end he starts noticing, as if she hasn't been starving herself in front of him for the majority of the novel.
Also this girl is so unnecessarily cruel to her mother, who was left by the main character's father for a stereotypically more beautiful woman. The main character blames her mom instead of who she really should have been blaming - her father.
This book seems like it was written in the late 60's to deter kids from drugs. It's pretty unreasonable to think if a kid tries weed once, they're going to end up addicted to heroin and selling their bodies in downtown LA. It can happen, sure. Not very often though.
The book was short & entertaining. It was blatantly obvious that it was written by an adult thinking they know what a teenager sounds like. Of course I wasn't a teenager during the late 60's/early 70's, but most teens sound the same no matter what time period. It was pretty obvious the author wanted to make this as believable as possible that it was a teenager's diary.
I won't give too many spoilers - but the ending was so abrupt and disjointed. That last page just felt so out of place. I just looked at the book like “what? seriously?“
Overall it was a quick read, but wouldn't consider it to be true to how teens typically are with drugs/alcohol. Very exaggerated account and this account would be really unlikely to happen to the majority of teens who pick up a joint or drink a beer.
I liked everything about this book and I think Dr. Harper is an excellent writer. I loved hearing the stories of her patients and how she chose to heal herself through various struggles. I wish there was more stories of her interactions with patients! Definitely my favorite part.
My only criticisms of the book was she seems to dismiss how much privilege she does have - being the daughter of a physician herself and being able to go to private schools and Ivy League colleges is a great privilege in itself. She doesn't even mention that her father was a physician until halfway through the book. I wish she would have been more straight up about this, as it shows through in some of her interactions with poorer patients that she can't understand why they do some of the things they do.
My only other criticism is how she approached the mentally ill man she was treating - she made fun of him and called him things like “bananas” but when she met another female patient struggling with mental health issues, she talks about how strong and brave she was. She wasn't showing the same amount of understanding for the male patient just because his illness presented itself in a way that was different from the female patient she treated. It's not really something you want to think about your doctors saying about people who are struggling mentally.
Overall though, the stories were great and I think Dr. Harper has some great lessons in here.
