Ren
This book is put down way more than it should be. The writing is very fast paced, and keeps you engaged. It's easy to imagine what's happening as the story unfolds. Of course it is slightly problematic. While I don't HATE eve, she certainly lives up to the naive character Anna Carey is writing her to be (maybe that's why she's named “Eve,” for her nativity). The scene where that thing that I will not talk about happens and she questions whether she really wanted it or not was incredibly distasteful. But I did like this book, although it was more of a guilty pleasure read I want to finish the rest of the series.
This book was exactly what I needed to read. It had so much philosophy - each chapter ended with a journal entry by a scythe questioning things about the scythedom that made me think beyond what was just in the pages of the novel and I loved that. There was a bit of a mystery element when it came to Scythe Faraday, which I also really liked. I also really enjoyed reading about Scythe Curie, and learning about Volta and Rowan's growing friendship (sadface).
I definitely think Shusterman was successful in creating a “utopian” world, but of course, it still isn't a utopia - the scythes have just taken all the suffering so the rest of the world doesn't have to deal with it. A real utopia would never exist.
One thing I did NOT like about this book was the relationship between Citra and Rowan, which felt completely forced. The two had no chemistry at all, and the only reason I felt like the author wrote them to be love interests was because it moved the plot forward, but I felt zero chemistry between them at all. I wish they had just remained friends, because it felt so much more natural for them to be friends instead of star crossed lovers.
Another thing I didn't like was I noticed multiple grammatical errors. Who edited this book? It's one of my pet peeves when I see so many grammatical errors in one novel.
I also have some questions I would like to see answered in the sequel such as:
Do animals have natural deaths? It was never defined and it bothered me throughout the novel.
Exactly what year is it? It was hinted at, but never made 100% clear.
Such a good book. I hope kids read this book and understand animals do have feelings and emotions. It's a quick read, but surprisingly thought provoking and emotional. I loved it. Ivan really is a great protector.
The only thing that confused me was I feel as if the author couldn't decide if Mack was a protagonist or an antagonist. Sometimes she made Mack seem evil, and at other times good; this confused me. I obviously had issues with a lot of the things Mack did, but at other times he seemed like he really did care about the animals.
I hope Charlie was able to retain some of his abilities to read and write in the Warren school.
I love how the book starts with Charlie just wanting to be smart and it ending with him just wanting to be able to read and write, and him being satisfied with how things turned out, despite losing his intelligence. He solved his life's mysteries. He learned all the things he needed to learn as a genius and didn't forget the most important things (his relationships) as he quickly deteriorated.
My heart is broken.
Amazing. I never knew about the Rape of Nanking until one of my history professors began talking about it and I was intrigued. After class I asked him where I could read more about it and he recommended this. Wow. I can't believe the first time I heard of this was as a sophomore in college. So informative, so well written. I will definitely check out Chang's other two books. I especially loved the newest edition that I bought with an epilogue by her husband, so please, if you read this, definitely go with the newer edition to get more of a backstory on the author.
I wish I had read this book when I was younger. However, I never watched the movie either, so it was a great little unspoiled read for me. I wish we saw Janice Avery or Ms. Edmunds reaction to what happened in the end, which is why I could only give it 4 stars. Otherwise, it was a fantastic children's story.
Was this book even edited? There were so many grammatical errors it made it difficult to read. Literally every other page, if not every page, had an error on it. The story was boring - usually even books that tell you the ending on the first few pages can at least be redeemed by the story in between but the story was just dull. He reiterated so many of his points so many times that it just became so repetitive and annoying. Just save yourself the time and skip this book.
This book really made me feel something. Not too many books I've read lately have done that for me. Although I wish there was a little more that happened in the ending, (I liked the ending, but I felt that it was really quick after finding out what happened to Charlie) it was something i could relate to. I could even pick out characters that reminded me of my friends (in a good way). My favorite relationship was between Charlie and Bill. Sam and Charlie were a great friendship, but something about Bill and Charlie just made this book feel so complete.
Was going to give it a 3, because I felt like a lot of the stories had no real “meaning” or really even a viable plot, message or morals, but the art in this version by Yann Legendre was beautiful, and helped me to envision the stories so much more that I bumped it up. There were stories I liked more than others, and overall I would definitely buy more like this! Wish it included more than 20 stories!
One thing I have always noticed about McCarthy's novels is that most people believe there is no hope in them. They believe the stories that McCarthy writes are all bleak and depressing. But I always see the hope in them. With Bell's dream, there is hope.
I will say, I didn't like Bell. His constant ramblings about how the younger generation was corrupt drove me crazy. I was glad when Ellis finally put him in his place and made him realize corruption and greed had always been present, even if Bell didn't understand this at first. Corruption and evil sometimes do win. Chigurh wins because he plays by his own rules and he is a “bringer of fate” so speak, and he knows fate is unstoppable. Bell loses because he follows a code that limits him from doing things that Chigurh, on the other hand, wouldn't think twice about doing. That's what it all boils down to. Everyone else involved in the story is just stepping stones for these characters.
I was happy to see Bell develop, even if I didn't like his character. I was glad to see him stop complaining and finally view things with a glimmer of hope. Thank you for that, McCarthy.
“I had all the characteristics of a human being-flesh, blood, skin, hair-but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure.”
This sentence basically sums up our main character, Pat Bateman. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say that I watched the movie before reading the book, which although the movie is good, it lacks detail and is a bit confusing, so the book clears up all of that confusion. This Pat Bateman is also more sadistic and methodical. The one in the movie just seems crazy. The book has so much detail, however, that it felt cumbersome. I literally could skip sections of the book because they didn't seem to have a point, or it was a point the author had made previously in the book that I felt didn't really need to be repeated again.
I also want to point out that this book had that dark humor that you feel guilty for laughing at because it's SO inappropriate.
SPOILERS: Amid the racism, misogyny, homophobia, rape, torture, murders, pointless conversations and excruciatingly annoying details, this book was decent. I think certain scenes will stay with me (I will never see grey poupon the same) but I don't think I will ever want to read this again. But I'll probably watch the movie again - Christian Bale is the perfect Patrick.
Every time I read something by H.G. Wells I can be sure he will bring us into some weird society similar to ours but with weird twists to it. And this book easily just became my favorite of his. The imagery is fantastic. The writing and vocabulary were so developed, I found myself looking up tons of words from the book. And mostly I liked Wells' own idea of the very distant future, it was imaginative but described in a way that I could picture it myself. I wish we truly found out the fate of Weena, or that she had more of a personality, but that was the purpose of the book, I suppose. I wish that this book was longer - I find myself with more questions than answers. But lastly, I want to say that I love the ending. Wells always knows how to surprise the reader, incorporate cliff hangers and suspense and he did it wonderfully in this short novel. This just became one of my new favorites. :)
I liked this book. I feel like if I were a bit younger, I would love it more. I didn't like how the book constantly repeated that Ezra was alive. Yes. We know he is alive. We knew it the first 50 times it was said. I think the ending was very sweet, with Nyle finally getting to touch Ezra's face. I wish they had shared a kiss, but still, it was a really cute story. Needed less repetition, included a lot of useless information that didn't add to the story, and sometimes didn't include enough information (I thought this book took place in a completely different time period until the middle of the story), etc. but for a younger person, I think it's a great story.
I originally was going to give this book 3 stars - it was good but kept getting kind of repetitive and boring, until after the chapter where the group went fishing, when Chief noticed how tired McMurphy was. Harding was right - McMurphy was made into a crazy man by the very people he was trying to help. And he did help them by turning himself into a martyr of sorts. The ending, although I didn't particularly liked what McMurphy had to do, it was part of the evolution of his character. Like Chief said, it was something he HAD to do. I was sad to see the book go down the way it did, I understand it in a literary sense, it makes the book make sense. I just wish it didn't have to end the way it did. Definitely a great classic to read, Chief and McMurphy are characters I believe will stick with me for a while.
“In the meantime, Bioshock succeeds in showing that the possibilities for artful storytelling are infinite.”
Bioshock is definitely on my top 5 favorite video games and Bioshock Infinite is among my top 10. For this book, I found the chapters on Marx and Equal Rights, Phenomenology, Beauty and Morality and a few more were my favorites. Some of the chapters were either reaching too far to make a connection to the game that just wasn't really there - or had such an obvious connection - like the chapter on feminism regarding Elizabeth (which I liked, but it was so blatantly obvious she was struggling for freedom!) that they didn't feel like they needed to be in the book. Some of the chapters even directly refuted other chapters, but for the most part I let that slide because the book has different theories and ideas from several different philosophers - the chances of one's theories completely destroying another's theories was probably inevitable. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and thinking back to the major ideas and questions I had when playing any of the Bioshock games, and even having some of the questions I wondered about finally getting answers or at the very least, making more sense. The different writers in this book also put things into layman's terms which makes reading & understanding the book much easier for those who aren't familiar with different philosophical concepts. If you want to dive deeper into Bioshock, have some of your questions answered, or at least theorize more on different subjects in the game, definitely pick this up.
I've never watched the movie that came from this book because I always wanted to read the book first. So I sat down the other day and started reading it. So quickly into the book you notice Norman isn't exactly Normal. And throughout the novel you can tell when his mental state is faltering and when he's stable. He even claims at one point that Uncle Joe drank himself to death (no spoiler, but if you read you know what really happened.) Norman is in denial about everything in his life. It's almost sad. The only character I didn't like was Lila- “I'm just going to forget about everything like it never happened!” SERIOUSLY?!? I think she might have some issues herself after reading those lines. I saw the ending coming, but only because I have seen so many similar books/movies that use the ending. I bet when this book came out in 1959 the ending was mind blowing. Definitely worth a read because it's quick and the last few chapters-no matter how many scary movies and books I've seen-sent chills down my spine. Probably won't read the sequels (this book seems to me like it doesn't necessarily demand any) but definitely loved this one! Can't wait to finally check out the movie.
The best part about this one was the ending.
“We are the walking dead.” God, I love that.
The rest was kind of annoying. Has anyone noticed throughout the entire series it's almost always the WOMEN who initiate anything sexual? Also, it was annoying that NONE of the women want to be on the committee because they all want to be “protected.”
eyeroll
Wow. Vol. 3 is by far the best so far. It's so dark and disturbing I had to pause and re-read some parts to make sure it actually happened. The TV series is not nearly as dark as these comics & Rick is more of a emotionally distraught man, trying his best for the group but never succeeding.
I feel the worst for Hershel. He never deserved anything that happened to him in this series. I hope at some point, things get better for him.
I love this comic so much. Robert Kirkman is an absolute genius and I know it will only get better(by better, I mean more unsettling and horrific) from here.
Edna died being who she wanted to be and not what society wanted her to be. Although she was forced to commit suicide because she feels there is no other way out which is a form of social pressure, I think it shows Edna's strength to preserve herself and the lives of her children and Leonce. I think it's beautiful.
