sissi
I got more disappointed with the book the more we went in, and from the last trip to Nigeria onward I simply did not enjoy it. Prior to that, I had a hard time connecting to the family – everyone seemed just extremely toxic; the main character's struggles were hard to connect with, as some of the conflict; and personally, the beneficent billionaire was the last drop.
The twist was quite cute, though! But that wasn't really enough for me to get past the parts that bothered me.
I did love how it was written, the descriptions of food made me read so much about Nigerian food (and I talked about it a lot with Nigerian friends, who were very happy to share), the cultural setting and the conflicts related to the diaspora and how disability plays into this greater context were wonderful. So I am happy I read it, but couldn't help but being more and more disappointed as I got through.
This low score is partially because I had a hard time following the audiobook during some stressful times. I found the writing to be very good and engaging, and the setup very mysterious and with potential. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to it; I'm not sure what the book is trying to tell me about authoritarianism, education or even language.
While not groundbreaking, this was such an effective text in feminist theory. This perspective of a woman as a tool and as accessory to a man, defined by his whims, got very raw at times and definitely made me think of myself and my relations in a new, sometimes uncomfortable way. Annie's discomfort managing what she was made for and what she was becoming, or learning she could be, was pushed in very interesting ways. It was a great read!
It's difficult to judge this book, reading it after actual years of being exposed to cyberpunk. I kept being reminded of its derivatives before reminding myself that it's the other way around!
I read this often at night before bed, and the fast pace and high amount of technobabble sometimes made it hard to follow. But despite that it was a very exciting and evocative read!
The brunt of the book falls on the most boring of devices to add tension to the main romance plot – this is why sequels suck! Xaden is absolutely the most boring a male lead could be, which means he's a great pair for Violet who decides to embark into a journey of self-doubt despite really having no reason for it, after a whole book about how she overcame all odds and nailed the hottest boy that ever existed (plus the two dragons). The teenagers leadings nations trope is very silly, the militarism is gross. The fantasy side of the story is also fizzled out for me (I can't even remember what the ending was – I assume it was a cliffhanger but truly not memorable). The sex scenes are still pretty hot but getting repetitive, and the character's voices are all still interchangeable which makes it fall short even there. A big “meh” for me, will likely not pick up the sequel.
Full disclosure, I did power through the second half of the book. I wasn't enjoying it at all but wanted to see it through. The writing wasn't great - quite flat characters doing a lot of tell, not show, which made for an uninteresting read. This coupled with poor pacing made me lose interest. The book dips its toes into a lot of different genres but didn't really interest me as any of them. I don't think it made good use of mesoamerican cultures either, it almost felt like watching an MCU movie by the end (derogatory)
Definitely a must for ffans of the game; it gave me so much closure and it was so nice to revisit the Nebula. It is hard to separate the two and I think if I wasn't such aa huge fan of the game, I wouldn't have liked this as much as I did. But it is a really strong story regardless, and it transmits the feeling of translating Ancient and exploring the Nebula in such an engaging way that I definitely recommend it!
My expectations for this book were set by the foreword, which praises it for being a sort of return to form for Japanese mystery novels where the crime is a puzzle that the reader is given every possible piece to solve. So I got more and more disappointed as I read and realised this was not the case: from hidden relationships and the motivation for the violent acts of seemingly regular characters being that they are “psychopaths”, to handwavy explanations and inane planning ahead, a solvable mystery it was not. If I had picked it up expecting a thriller I would have enjoyed it much more, but as a mystery novel it left me rolling my eyes, shrugging and thinking of animes like Subete ga F ni Naru. If that's your thing, this is absolutely for you!
So I think I learned that I don't like continental philosophy.
Overall the book gave me plenty to think about and I definitely learned some things, but I truly dislike this kind of writing. Feels very self-aggrandizing. I loathe the usage of mental health terms to diagnose systems such as capitalism. And I mean my man spoiled tens of films throughout the book lol.
Also it's meaningless to have a back cover blurb saying the book is genius by an author the book quotes every other page. In a way this captures the notion I had while reading: this exists to justify itself.
It is very obvious by certain forms of dialogue that the book was not written in the 1900s, and frequently it tries to jab at that epoch's status quo; simultaneously, it keeps enforcing and painting parts of this status quo under a positive light. It is very dissonant that the titular character is designed as a sort of 1900s version of a strong independent woman but who can't decide between breaking gender stereotypes or perpetuating them. The narrator, similarly, is a strong and intelligent woman who simultaneously makes fun of the absurdity of social class separating her from her good friend and employer, Lady Hardcastle, and aspires to nothing but a relationship of servitude to the same. To have the social status quo questioned in one page and at on the next to have the lower classes painted as idiots who can't speak properly or even know basic words. Lady Hardcastle and Flo's progressiveness and modernity extends only to themselves.
Lady Hardcastle is also never confronted with any serious obstacle to her role as self appointed detective. Everyone is impressed by her genial humour and can't wait to help her in her investigation; even the actual police, who could represent some sort of tension in that regard, is more than happy to let her participate in the enquiries.
Flo is very capable, and we see all the developments from her perspective. It becomes clear why Hastings and Watson were the usual narrators instead of Poirot and Holmes. Their inability to follow the detectives' allow the authors to hide certain processes for the reader, which makes for a typically much more climactic final reveal of how the crime took place.
Finally, the mysteries themselves are just not very interesting or fun to follow along.
tldr
All in all, it is a very basic period mystery that is all too happy to not challenge the period's sexism, classism, racism and colonialism except to occasionally make the main characters appear to be “quirky” or “modern, for their time”.
The first section was fine; very one-dimensional characters, excessively witty dialogue, but... fine.
In the second section we have, on the same page, a 7 yr old flirting with an adult and incredibly poorly written sentences like “she blew a cloud of white smoke as if she was ready to announce the next pope” – total tonal whiplash! I am also increasingly annoyed at the main character. Why is this child a genius?! No, his parents emotionally neglecting him is no reason for him to be the smartest, most reasonable 7 year old in existence.
Anyway I then looked the author up and am not confident in his ability to handle a story categorized as lgbtqia+.
Not enjoying the writing. Extremely not subtle at a level that annoys me, which made the reading quite frustrating as it stands out so much.
Although amazingly eye-opening in the first couple of chapters, it turns into an in-depth analysis of cases when the media manufactured consent and I lost interest in continuiung to read through those. It would be amazing to have some updated examples and the data visualized rather than described!
Incredible book, I loved iit. But very heavy; I couldn't quite read more than a chapter at a time. I loaned it to a friend. Will pick it back up when I get it back (I'm only missing the chapter on police and climate activists, which is the last chapter I believe), but it may take a while so leaving it as DNF for now
I got around 65% in. iI was enjoying the setting and general concept but it turned into a book about cops, way more than exploring how memory and the physics of time are connected.