zilver
this is so difficult to rate so i'm holding off for a little bit
i think, knowing what i knew from the podcasts already, say “it takes a village” and onwards the most interesting and revealing. i still have no clue what to buy when it comes to this story but the more i read the more i'm convince a lot of rocks were left unturned when they shouldn't have been.
???Sometimes you weren???t yet the person you needed to be to do the work you needed to do.???
3.5
This is a whale of a book, that's for sure. It's 900 pages of character explorations, the city of New York being a character in and of itself. Or, that's what it was supposed to be. It surely is an intriguing piece of non-linear narrative but despite having spent over 900 pages with these characters, I had a difficult time really caring about any of them. Or caring enough, at least.
The underlying story felt a little too wobbly to keep the entire thing afloat. It felt just a little too set up for me to go along with it (though maybe I should have expected that set up, given the supposed but slightly unrealistic interconnectedness of all the characters). A girl gets shot on New Year's Eve and A Lot of Things Happen.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that this was a good book. It was told in an interesting way (I really liked the way the interludes functioned as quick glimpses of sides of the story), surrounded a set of big events (the murder, the blackout of ‘77) and featured a wide range of characters (that still didn't really seem to be able to find their own voices) but it kept me too much at a distance to really get invested.
???What I say is, a town isn???t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it???s got a bookstore, it knows it???s not foolin??? a soul.???
key words: funeral homes, twin peaks-esque small towns & the humour of ancient gods
I really enjoy mythology in general (that's what six years of classics study will do to you, I guess) and this book was such a cool way of... handling that? I suppose?
The book is called American Gods but none of the Gods are really American (or they are, or become that at the very least at some point). They're brought to life by the people that believe in them, and in the 21st century many of the “smaller” ones seem to be dying, slowly. Which means war (obviously. Gods always mean war). Anway, enter Shadow, who just got released from prison to find out his wife died (until she didn't) and he doesn't have a job anymore (until he does). Shadow gets to join us in our exploration of a wide range of gods from all over, now settled in America, as he finds himself in the midst of their war for no reason known to him.
I like Neil Gaiman. I like his sense of humour, and though this wasn't my favourite book of his, I really enjoyed it. It was sort of educational in a not too obtrusive way and carefully crafted which is exactly the way I appreciate my stories. Couldn't always relate too much to the characters but that was alright. They were a relatively easy 750 pages to go through anyway.
second read (november 2021): such a fun time! cannot wait to finally read the sequel
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first read (july 2017):
CONSIDER ME FREAKIN WOWED
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???There are no good men in this game.???
key words: x-men but BETTER, relatable uni struggles, always go back for the dog
Okay so I absolutely LOVED this book. I loved all the characters - and Sydney the most from the moment we heard she has rainbow leggings (so like... the third sentence). I loved how basically none of them were good. How many times do you really read a story that revolves around antagonists? And interesting, developed ones at that?
V.E. Schwab makes us care about awful people. And by awful people I mean Victor because Eli is a piece of garbage. A piece of garbage that functions as a fantastic villain though, you gotta give him that. The style is great, the way Schwab switches between casually funny to dead (hah) serious is masterfully done. The way she carves out her characters with ease, making them feel like they're actually breathing, is just wonderful. It's such an absolute joy to read something that fits together so well as this book does.
On the Road is what happens if the world tells men that everything they have to say is interesting and worthy of a larger readership.
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“The truth of the matter is, you die, all you do is die, and yet you live, yes you live, and that's no Harvard lie.”
key words: i don't care about ur male struggles leave me alone
2.5 stars. I'm going to give what I previously wrote a little more substance even though I 203% stand by what I said.
This book was an absolute drag. I gave it three stars but writing this review a week or so later I can't remember why so we're downgrading a bit. The thing that redeemed it was the language, at times. At times it's the kind of poetics you expect from a beat generation poet. Most of the time, however, it's rambly at best and racist & sexist gibberish at worst. It probably didn't help that I read the original scroll, meaning there were no paragraphs, it was just one big blob of letters.
None of the people were really interesting (though they seemed to believe they were). The men were excuse-my-French fucking disgusting most of the time, treating everyone around them terribly without a care in the world. Honestly, I don't give much about this “fresh vision” if it means I have to read about shitty, annoying, boring people for almost 400 pages. Also, nothing happened. People drove that way and fucked up their lives and then hitchhiked the other way and fucked up their lives some more. Cool.
???No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful.???
key words: minecraft but Cooler, the internet is forever kids, charlie & the chocolate factory but with gaming and john hughes movies.
DISCLAIMER: don't read this book if you're looking for well shaped characters who go through a lot of character development throughout the story. You're not going to find it here. Do read this if you're looking for a fun ride filled with ‘80's references and gaming.
I think that's the best way to describe this book. It's fun. It's high levels of fun are why I'm giving it four stars. It was just a fun, cool, easy read. Really enjoyable. The characters weren't that special, but the story was refreshing and exciting. It really was a little like reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory but with less chocolate and more tech. It had a lowkey love story that I didn't really care about but also didn't really mind so that was fine. It wasn't completely surprising but not predictable either. It was just a lot of fun. I'm going to stop saying that now and just end with that this book is a nice in-betweener. It's nothing heavy. Just fun. (LAST TIME PROMISE)
“Why are you so nice to me?”“Because I'm an angel.”“You are.” He stretched out his arm and patted me on the head. “And I'm platonically in love with you.”“That was literally the boy-girl version of ‘no homo' but I appreciate the sentiment.”
key words: neRDS, welcome to night vale but not, Internet Behaviour, friendship!!!!
So it's page 20 of this book and our main character Frances has told us at least 8 times straight up that she's a nerd and that she knows that her life is pathetic and she's a big Loser because she's a nerd and she likes quirky podcasts and studying and she's head girl (that's a thing) and it's all so sad and pathetic and she keeps. pointing. it. out. Just so she knows YOU know she knows. And it's annoying because in the mean time we're simply being told all of this but she's not actually, really, showing us the kind of person she is. It just felt a little too in your face.
Apart from that, though, this book is really cool. We got some good good rep, a bi character, two gay characters and an ace character with a ton of anxiety. We got university fears and hopes and dreams being crushed and found again. We got FRIENDSHIP!!! REAL ACTUAL FRIENDSHIP THAT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT TO THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR WELL BEING!!! d a m n
“They are beyond me. These humans. With their brief lives and their tiny dreams and their hopes that seem fragile as glass. Until you see them by starlight, that is.”
key words: AIs with feelings, pretty decently chatting teenagers, mega-corporations battle in space, references gallore
The amount of regular prose in this novel is basically non-existent and to be completely honest, I wasn't sure how that was going to work (or how it was going to work for me). Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. The file-format really added to the feeling of figuring out what was going at the same time as the characters.
You'd think it'd be difficult to get to know characters if you're given relatively little space to really delve into their heads, but the amount of conversations between characters, the diary entries and their actions speak for themselves. I'd never expected to get so emotionally attached to an AI (though I probably should've known better after reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet). Damn you AIDAN.
I really liked the fact that we started the romantic relationship (which was definitely not as dramatic or central to the book as the cover made it seem) in the middle, instead of going through a will-they-won't-they-of-course-they-will phase. It made room for a whole different kind relationship development which was a really nice breather.
My only complaints would be that at times, the pacing felt a little off, and while the format worked really well for the most part, that combined with a slightly too fast-paced part would at times come off as a little strange. That, and the fact that the very last bit of the ending was just a tiny bit “eh”.
In the end though, this book was interesting and fast-paced and thrilling until the very end. It felt meaningful.
“The universe owes you nothing. It has already given you everything, after all. It was here long before you, and it will go on long after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I ask. “Because I want you to know,” she says, “that there is life after survival.”
Boy, was I worried for a second when this book did not immediately grab me. Let's face it, Monty at the start of this book is a snobby teen who's getting away with loads of stupid shit and while Percy and Felicity are both absolutely delightful 205% of the time, I was put off a tiny bit. Especially when it was looking like we were going to see snobby teen Monty getting drunk of his ass in multiple places in Europe.
BUT but but then everything shifted and my world changed and despite Monty still being a dumb shit at least half of the time suddenly my stupid heart was in it. Thank the stars that they got robbed in the middle of the road, amirite? Didn't help that his obvious crush was So Obvious and his lovely amazing beautiful best friend was so Obviously returning his affections but they were still! being! oblivious! It was such a fic trope and I loved every second.
Also Felicity Montague stitching herself up??? the most badass. I want her to marry me and tell me off when I do stupid things and impress me with medical facts thank you.
after sitting with it for (quite) a while and finishing the rest of the series i???m upping the rating for this one! 4 stars thank u becky chambers
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3-3.5
???I know that if I am a person, I have no purpose by base, but I'm starving for one.???
This book wasn't bad, not bad at all. I think the part where I struggled a bit was also the part of me that had gotten attached to the crew of the Wayfarer and wasn't quite ready to let them go (and the additional part where I hadn't realised this wasn't actually a direct continuation from #1 until I started the book). I would've loved to see them in a cameo in this story, to make me feel a little less homesick.
I did really enjoy the philosophy of this story. What constitutes a person? How does an intelligent AI differ from “actual” people? Aren't we all just lines of codes, programmed differently? And it was really cool to have one of the protagonists actually be that AI and show the internal struggles that come with that.
All my love to Owl and Blue and Tak.
???Sometimes you can do everything right and things wil still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.???
This book should be the top priority on the entire world's reading list.
As heavy and intense as this was it also felt like a huge relief to read a story without any unnecessary drama. With healthy and loving family dynamics and relationships. With teenage characters that (get to) have a clear voice.
???Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get used to it.???
i know this book took me a long time for how few pages it has but that was mainly because was cherishing every line and i didn't want to rush any moment of it.
i'd read short bits of richard siken before but honestly this was such an experience. this book tells a story and i'll probably read it again all in one sitting to feel what that's like. but this, this is the kind of poetry that really gets to me. siken's poetry tells me a story and it hits me with its metaphors and sensations in every line. i'm not sure how weird this is to say but his poetry is very sensory? i can feel and taste and smell it while reading it, every poem like a small (or large) multidimensional film experience. it makes me want to try to catch it in images even though i know i won't be able to.
i'm sure i did not understand parts of this and i'm sure i can go back a hundred times and find new things and change my interpretations and just knowing that that's what's ahead? amazing.
some of my favourite lines (emphasis on some because i can't possibly name all of them):
??? ???I want more seats reserved for heroes.?????? ???The light is no mystery, the mystery is that there is something to keep the light from passing through.?????? ???In these dreams it's always you: the boy in the sweatshirt, the boy on the bridge, the boy who always keeps me from jumping off the bridge. Oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued.?????? ???Here is my hand, my heart, my throat, my wrist. Here are the illuminated cities at the center of me, and here is the center of me, which is a lake, which is a well that we can drink from, but I can't go through with it. I just don't want to die anymore.???
This book was such a surprise, to be honest? I wasn't sure what I expected but it wasn't this and I loved every second of it. Quick shoutout to the cover and title for both being beautiful as well.
I think this book is a great way of showing all the things sci-fi can be. Because yes, the story plays out on a space ship in deep space and there's talk of Mars and aliens and wormholes, but at the same time the story is for a large part about the characters (and boy do I love my character-based stories) and their relationships and their lives. And the characters are just... they were so diverse and complex and rich and all of them had interesting stories and histories to tell? I loved the way the non-human species felt so distinctly not human and they were given room to be their own people with their own cultures. It was a big relief that we didn't only get a human's pov, but that the pov's switched throughout and just trying to experience your own species through someone else's eyes was so cool and eye-opening and funny.
I'm so curious to see what the next book brings (like honestly I have no idea so that'll be cool to see)
i love this book. i love smartass eliza, i love socially awkward darcy, i love mr bennet sassing everyone since 1813. i still love it the second time around, probably even more than i did when i read it back in secondary school. jane austen is a badass and deserves all the recognition for showing the world how you write women and how you do character development and giving us a great unreliable narrator.
kay gotta go rewatch the lizzie bennet diaries now. in the meantime, have some lizzie doing darcy costume theatre.
4.5
a good ending for a popular, bestselling trilogy? IN THIS ECONOMY? v.e. schwab did That.
ngl i think i spent the last 166 pages in tears. my heart aches for all my faves and i lowkey blame judith for half of the stress i've had to endure while reading this book (STOP TELLING ME “LOL” WHEN I COME TO YOU WORRIED MY KIDS ARE GOING TO DIE)
“A king,” said his father, “belongs with his people.”“And the prince,” Rhy said proudly, “belongs with his king.”
i'm so happy but i'm also so sad because of lenos and hastra and emira and maxim (watch me weep thinking of rhy having to be held back while his father walks into death's arms, just after he lost his mother) and i'm not sure what to do with all my emotions right now but i'm glad my son rhy is safe (and being courted by a handsome brave ex-privateer) and kell is going to explore the world and lila gets to be the captain of her own ship.
can we stop making these books end with rhy and kell in a lot of pain?
in short: i love everyone, kell is a Dad Friend???, i need to hug rhy, alucard needs to hug rhy, i'd now offer money to have lila punch me in the face and holland better be a fucking fighter or i'm going to riot.
i'm suddenly even more glad i'd already ordered and received acol before even starting this agos.
ngl this was really fun (& thinking about costa mcclure saying “it's VERY intense, VERY homo-erotic” in lolilo made it even more fun)
a list of fun times with faustus: (lowkey spoilers below)
??? when faustus conjures up a devil and immediately sends him away because the devil is too ugly
??? faustus contemplating how one words the handing over of one's soul to the devil
??? when he asks mephastophiles where hell is and just. does not believe anything he says.
??? mephastophiles: but faustus. i'm literally a devil from hell.
faustus: sounds fake but ok
??? faustus asking for a wife and mephastopheles being a troll giving him another devil dressed up as a woman instead
??? faustus being a suck up (“sweet mephastophiles”) and mephastophiles not giving a single shit
??? faustus: you look ugly
lucifer: this bitch ,,,
faustus: ??_(???)_/??
??? faustus literally telling gluttony to choke
??? “the first letter of my name begins with lechery”
??? lechery is that kid that's like “the word i'm thinking of starts with sl and ends with eep”
??? all the devils keep saying “tut”
??? robin: i have stolen this book and now i will read its magic words
rafe: you actually can't read idiot
??? faustus using his invisibility to snatch pieces of meat away from the pope
??? when i misread a word and thought one of the lines was “great potatoes do kneel with awful fear”
??? robin and rafe totally digging the fact that they're going to be turned into an ape and a dog respectively
??? faustus and mephastophiles pulling a prank on a random guy making it seem as if the guy literally pulls faustus leg off
??? faustus: i sold my soul to the devil
his buddies: god forbid!!
faustus: ..... yeah he did