vyhurz
This book was very intriguing and engrossing, but after finishing it, I've realized I didn't like it or enjoy it. I found myself disgusted by and scared of Joe. I wanted something bad to happen to him. That's what I kept reading for. Since it kept me so interested, I have to give this book a high rating. I can't give it five stars because it just didn't have that spark for me, but this story is definitely different and kept me turning pages.
Joe Goldberg is a stalker through and through. That's not a spoiler. The book begins because a girl walks into his bookshop, named Beck, and he becomes so instantly obsessed that the entire book is written in second person directed at her. The whole story is written from his perspective. Everything he does is for Beck in some way that he justifies. Very creepy, and very well done.
The best thing about this book is how Joe's emotions change his perspectives. One minute he's in love with Beck, then he realizes something, and she's a slut. He wouldn't say this out loud. He's very careful with what he says out loud. But the running inner monologue demonstrates how unhinged he is.
The book kept me turning pages to find out what would happen to Joe, or what he would do next. It was enthralling in that way. It's not slow, though there are some lags where time has to pass in the book. However, the last 20-30 pages is where a lot happens, and I'm not about to discuss it here since I don't want to spoil anyone. I thought the ending was done well and it made me have strong emotions. At first I thought I didn't like the whole book because of it. But then I realized... Well, I really don't want to spoil anything.
I know about the tv show and the sequels. I haven't watched the show and I don't know if I want to read the sequels. When this first came out, I swear I remember it being marketed as a stand alone book. Then it was popular, so then there was a sequel. That's one of my biggest pet peeves. It's either a stand alone or it isn't. So I kind of just want to enjoy it as a stand alone. If you've read the series, though, and think the sequels are just as good, please let me know.
tinyleafbooks.com
This story follows naive May Kimble who leaves New York when her mother dies to be with rich relatives in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century. The first part of the story has May being overwhelmed, and then bored, by all the glamour of society. There are a couple of big twists, so I'm not going to give much more away about the plot. May goes through a lot throughout the story, and the narrative tells me she's a changed person by the end, but I frankly didn't believe it. This book is a good example of plot driving the story, of plot happening to a character, instead of the character taking action. I found myself rather annoyed at several instances, and I can think of only a couple times where May makes a decision for herself. Still, the story intrigued me enough to want to know how everything would end. I admit I was rather let down. The end seemed to fizzle out in the third act. There was really nothing remarkable here, but it wasn't a bad read.
tinyleafbooks.com
Sometimes it's a little hard to review middle grade books because they're not meant for an adult audience. Some parts of the story may feel flat or predictable, but those parts wouldn't necessarily feel that way to the intended audience. I always have to remind myself of that when I read these books. The reason I go back to them is for the simplicity and pure fun that they give. Usually, the middle grade books I pick up are fantastical, and I just love the pure imagination I find.
Long Lost is about Fiona Crane who has to move away from her old life to Lost Lake with her family. She's very unhappy about it and jealous of the attention her older sister, Arden, receives for being a figure skater. The story takes place during the summertime, so Fiona has to find something to do with her time. She turns to the local library and discovers a mysterious book. This leads her on a hunt for truth.
I highly enjoyed reading this book. It's about Fiona and her family, but it's also about the mysterious book she discovers, which is also about two sisters, Hazel and Pearl, who lived about a hundred years ago. The story of Fiona involves her reading this story, and it's hard to say which story is more interesting. At first, I thought it was going to be a frame story, but Fiona gets interrupted in reading the Hazel and Pearl book. This brought some intrigue since you, as the reader, wanted to finish it with Fiona.
I personally don't like too much detail about the books I'm going to read, so I'm not going to give away much more details. But the adventure Fiona goes on is so much fun. I quickly read through the second half of the book, when things really started taking off. As I stated at the top, some things do feel flat and predictable, but that's more on me. I'm not the audience for this. Even so, those few small things don't kill the book. The overall story is a joy.
There's many characters throughout the book, and most of them are pretty distinct. I can't say the writing was anything special. It was all pretty straightforward, just telling us what we need to know, but there were a few pretty phrases. However, I think middle grades are more about the story instead of pretty writing. I've never read a book my Jacqueline West before, but the imagination in this book really impressed me.
tinyleafbooks.com
This book was really too short for the subject matter. I wish there was more time and space to really go deep into all the new, fascinating things the reader is introduced to. I'll pick up the next one as I'm sure it will expand the universe, but I feel this little story really could have been more. It felt like base ideas that weren't fully explored or fleshed out yet.
I read this book fast. It pulled me in and I loved the writing. But after the halfway mark, I realized it just wasn't going anywhere specific. I get what the book is trying to do, but it's basically, and I hate to use this word, propaganda. The author had a political message and wanted to convey that through this story. That's the point of this book. I think that takes away from any powerful statement it could have. The writing is great, though, and I'd love for her to dedicate her writing to a real story, plot, and characters. Everything in this book was just too vague.
I knew the plot of Red Dragon from seeing the 2002 film several times, but this is my first time reading the novel. I highly enjoyed Harris' writing style and attention to detail. I can see how the forensic descriptions could be tiresome to some, but I found it added to the lives of these federal officers. They need to know the ins and outs of forensics in these crimes and all crimes they investigate. It pulled me in. While it took me a while to finish the book, that's on me. I just didn't pick it up often until this past month when I was excited to read it and find out what happened. I do feel the ending was a bit rushed, but other than that, I loved the whole thing.
Many of these stories are brutal, and I believe all of them are shockingly explicit. It's amazing how Gay can write so plainly, to just lay the truth bare. It's hard to look at. I love everything she's written. The only thing that saddens me is that every story was about pain, and perhaps finding some small pleasure in that pain. I would have loved one story that focused on joy or pride in Haiti rather than just enending pain.
I loved this book from beginning to end, and it's taken me two days to sit down to write this little review because I'm not sure what to say here besides, “I loved this book!” It took me a whole month to read it since this was a big book, almost 600 pages, and lately I've been reading shorter books, and I'm also a slower reader, so please don't think that this is a slow read or a boring read. This book is intense in a lot of ways. Even though it's long, there are many scenes where a lot is going down and you won't want to stop reading. So what's it all about? Well, I guess I could loosely call this a period mystery, but it's more of just a character study. I don't want to say too much since this story has many many twists and turns, and all of it is highly enjoyable. It takes place in and around London in the late 19th century, which is basically my favorite time period. The writing is descriptive and layered. I loved every page of this story.
[TW: Brief mention of rape.] Wow, this book was painful to read. I mean that in a good way. This memoir is amazing. I've never read anything like it. I connected to it so strongly, and yet I didn't because I don't have the same experiences as Gay, but still I did connect to it because of her raw honesty. That's what this book is: raw honesty. And because of that, it's incredibly powerful. Many chapters made me have to stop and take a breather. Gay has such a strong voice. I love this book, but it was painful. I think there's the misconception out there that this book really focuses on being a fat woman in the world. Yes, that is a factor. But if there were a title and a subtitle, being a fat woman in the world would be the subtitle. The title would be her rape when she was twelve. That event changed the course of her life. In the book, she says she ate food, making herself fat, to try to protect her body. I have not had this experience. I am a fat woman, but I have been fat as long as I can remember. I am just built this way. It wasn't a conscious choice. In a way, it may not have been a conscious choice for Gay either. No matter what, we are similar in that we are fat women trying to move through the world. In the chapters that focus on her experiences as a fat woman trying to move through the world, I could really agree with what she was saying and feel a connection to her. That means something to me. It also means something to me that she is willing to be so open and honest and raw with her truth and her pain. We don't have to have shared experiences for me to sympathize and empathize and see some of myself in what she has gone through. I loved this book, but it's not enjoyable. I also fear what some critics might say. I fear they won't understand, or they will purposefully not want to understand. But I'm happy this book exists.
I can't really say I enjoyed this story, and that's for a number of reasons. The plot of this book focuses on Starr, who was with a black boy named Khalil when he is murdered by a white police officer. Throughout the book, she has to deal with the trauma of that and with, basically, living in a racist society and bringing together two different worlds - she goes to a wealthy, all-white school yet lives in an all-black “hood.” Starr goes through a lot, and it's tough and dark and unpleasant. She has good times with friends and family, of course, but there's a lot of darkness here. I guess I had two main issues with this book. One would be that the darkness, the trauma, is handled almost casually, and when Starr does have outbursts, it feels over-the-top. This book is taking on a very complex issue that is intertwined in our culture in more ways than can be described, and yet there's little nuance or subtlety reflected in this story. I think the reason for that is due to my second issue with the book: I really disliked the writing. It felt stilted, unedited, shallow, amateur. In creative writing classes I've taken, professors would always say, “Show, don't tell.” All this book does is tell. The language is clunky and unpolished. It was seriously a chore to read this book, and every time I went to pick it up, I was not excited due solely to the poor writing. I feel bad saying this because I think this story is important and should be told and should be published and should be read, but this may be some of the worst writing I've encountered.
This book is a great work of historical fiction. The characters are what move the story along, and I enjoyed the somewhat mundane details of the sisters' lives on a farm in New Jersey in 1914. I think when this book first came out, we didn't know it'd be part of a series. But I'm glad that there is a second book! I can't wait to pick it up. While the book is classified a mystery, that is a rather small element of this story. This is the story of Constance and her sisters, Norma and Fleurette, and how they're getting on when they're unlucky enough to run in to a rather pathetic gangster. I did thoroughly enjoy this book, and I read it quickly, but sometimes it felt a bit too slow. Some bits could have been left out to make the plot move along a bit faster. The one other con I have against this book is that Constance, our protagonist, is almost the weakest character. I have a good sense of who Norma and Fleurette are - what interests them and what their personalities are like - but with Constance, she sometimes seems like a doormat and at other times she jumps up and manhandles people. Maybe Constance is uncertain of herself, her life, and her own wants, but I still think that, by the time she's in her mid-thirties, she'd have more personality traits.
Wow, this book blew me away, and I did not expect that at all. Our main character, 16-year-old Aza, lives with OCD and anxiety. I personally don't have OCD, but I do have depression and anxiety. Much of what Aza describes in this book - wanting to get outside of herself, away from her body, away from her thoughts - was extremely relatable for me, and I was on the verge of tears at many different points. It's been a long time since a book made me cry. I can't tell you how much I loved this book. I recommend this to everyone, but especially those who live with mental illness and those who want to understand what it's like to live with mental illness.
(I'm currently doing this from my phone as I just moved and don't have internet. I apologize for brevity and errors!)
I hated this book from the beginning. I only finished it to see how it differed from the movie. It is full to the brim with misogyny and hatred for the mentally ill. I even took screenshots (I read the ebook) while reading to share on Twitter and in my video review, whenever I can make that.
I won't spoil anything, but Paul, our main character, uses the rape word twice to describe something unpleasant. He refers to most women in the book as bitches. He goes on tangents describing how simple minded his female fan base must be. It was highly insulting and aggravating to read. Hating Annie, calling her a bitch, makes sense. But Paul feels the same towards all women.
Then there's the talk about the mentally ill. In this book, they don't need help. They're just scary. King boils it down to this handy statement: “Depressives kill themselves. Psychotics, rocked in the poison cradles of their own egos, want to do everyone handy a favor and take them along.” That's useful.
I hate this book. Do not recommend. Even if I could get past these things, the actual story is boring, gruesome, and gratuitous. This should have been a short story or novella.
I read this book rather quickly, which was easy since it's so short. The ebook (from Google Play) was about 20 pages. Because it was short, there wasn't a lot of room to flesh out the details. I kept wanting to know more - about the main character, Siew Tsin, and about how this fantastical world worked. It's the Chinese version of hell, and I honestly know nothing about this. I probably missed a lot of symbolic messages here. How is terracotta significant? How long do people spend in hell? How do they get to heaven instead of hell? I had a lot of questions, which is both on me and on the story. I think if there was more space, this story could have detailed how everything worked. (Since it was not only a foreign subject to me, but also a fantastical story, I wasn't sure what was traditional Chinese myth and what was invented by the author.) With all that said, I did enjoy the story. I was pulled in and interested. I just wanted more. The writing at times was lyrical and moving, and yet at other times it was a bit basic - just telling the reader what we need to know. I would have loved this story if it had been expanded and developed more.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. A more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
I decided to buy this book on Audible when it was offered during a sale (I think 2 for 1 or something similar). I had heard good things about it and was expecting to be blown away by insightful thoughts about our culture. However, I felt slightly disappointed because many of the things Dyson describes are things I am very aware of since I'm active on Twitter and Tumblr. On those sites, I have a constant feed of political and social issues, and people's perspectives on them. The people I follow are almost all (very) socially liberal. So nothing in this book shook me or moved me. I feel like I've seen it all before. However, I'm giving it four stars because the thoughts are written clearly, thoroughly, and topically. I want to shove this book into the hands of so many white people I know. This is an important read for people who do not keep up with what is happening, and what has been happening, in America. And even though the book is centered on the race problem in America, we all know there is a race problem in most countries. I feel anybody from anywhere could read this and learn something about themselves. While I didn't really learn anything new, Dyson calls out the white people reading the book - addressing them directly throughout the entire thing - by saying they need to step up and educate themselves. I believe in that, but when I heard him saying those words (as the author narrates the audiobook), I realized that I really don't do enough to learn about the things he suggests - black culture, for example. Music, art, etc. I love books, but I'm not going out of my way to learn about anything else. I need to. Everyone needs to. I'll also just quickly add that I thought the part about police close to the end was my favorite part. I thought that was particularly powerful.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. A more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
I'm left feeling let down and frustrated. This was a reread for me, and going into it I remembered being in awe of the entire series. However, upon rereading Dragon Tattoo, Played with Fire, and Hornet's Nest, I've realized I'm really only in love with Dragon Tattoo. Played with Fire and Hornet's Nest are basically one giant story split into two books, and that story is all about the abuse Salander has faced and how she's going to continue to face it while all these evil authority figures keep trying to lock her up in an institution. Played with Fire was interesting, but it ended on a cliffhanger. Hornet's Nest felt really drawn out and full of filler. In the first two books, Larsson weaves boring exposition/scene/dialogue that gives the reader necessary information with other exposition/scene/dialogue that is really fascinating to read. It's an interesting balance. Hornet's Nest, however, has SO MANY instances of just boring boring boring exposition/scene/dialogue. Maybe this is on me because I love Salander and for the majority of this book she's unable to be at the center of the action. I'm not going to spoil anything, of course, but I just didn't care about all these other characters. This story was about Salander, and yet she wasn't really aroung. Like I said, I'm feeling let down and frustrated. I'm sad that Larsson wasn't able to write anymore in the Millennium series, and originally I thought I wouldn't be picking up the books written by Lagercrantz. However, I've changed my mind. I don't know when I'll pick up the next book, Spider's Web, but I'm now willing to read it if only to see Salander in action.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. A more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions are my own.
I can't say much about this book because it's so short, and therefore I'm not sure what's a spoiler. But it's a story about a woman and her baby and how they're surviving in a dystopian type of future. The writing is good and very descriptive at times, but it surprisingly lacks emotional depth. There's also no big, overarching plot points or character descriptors. For example, none of the characters have complete names. They're just referred to as letters - R, Z, O, etc. For the first third of the book, I thought this may be because the author wants the reader to latch onto the emotions of the story, which center around a woman trying to survive with her baby. But without anything of substance to hold onto, the story came off as shallow and underdeveloped. I have a lot of questions that I can't pose here because they may be spoilerly, and the story just fails to answer any of them. After the first third, I thought the book was hitting its stride, and I was really enjoying it. I read the entire thing in two sittings, which is rare for me. But as I was reaching the end, I realized I wasn't going to get any answers, and became annoyed and frustrated. I think this is one you can skip.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. A more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
I won an ARC of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Opinions are my own.
I never rate things half stars or quarter stars, but I'm going to make an exception for this book: It's a 3.5 stars from me. The first third or half of the book I really struggled with and almost DNF'd it because I felt like I was just watching women get beat up. Then, in some stories, it seemed as though the reader was meant to sympathize with the abusers. I was getting rather frustrated. But I kept going, and eventually the stories came around to the emotion and meaning of relationships. These relationships were mostly romantic ones between men and women. I don't think there were any homosexual relationships in the book, and that does annoy me because there was story after story after story that focused on a male/female romantic relationship. Enough seemed like enough. As you can tell, I have some issues with the book. However, the writing is wonderful and moving and powerful. It pulls you in and makes you really understand what these characters are feeling. My favorite in the collection is “North Country.” I also wanted to mention the fact that there are a few fantastical stories in this collection, but I think they fit because, on the whole, this collection seems to be about relationships, either good or bad ones. That's why I'm also annoyed with the title of the book. Yes, we have some “strong” women in here that may make life “difficult” for men, but that doesn't seem to be the focus here. I'm left wondering why this title was chosen, and part of me believes it's because Gay is known to be a feminist and a feminist-y title would sell well.
These are just my quick thoughts after just completing the book. I more comprehensive review will be coming on my YouTube channel (youtube.com/allisontheresa) and on my blog (allisontheresa7.wordpress.com).
I struggled a bit with this book because I found it predictable and still surprisingly disturbing. I think the characters are intriguing with so many issues unique to them. The characters make this story special. The mystery itself was rather full of tropes and, like I said, I predicted most of the surprises. Review on my channel to come.
I read this collection of short stories and vignettes for my American Literature course this semester. We first read the 1924 version, which only had the vignettes, and then read the 1925 version, which is this version on Goodreads that I'm reviewing. The 1925 version rearranged the vignettes and included longer short stories. I think I enjoyed the 1924 version better because some of the stories in the 1925 version were rather boring and didn't seem as powerful as other stories. However, there were still a bunch of stories and vignettes that I really enjoyed. Review to come in my wrap up for February, March, and April on my channel.