April Mendis
I found The Exhibitionist to be an enjoyable and compelling read. The story's immediately perceptible rising dread builds throughout the course of this family drama as characters are unleashed. Those who arrive fully formed (primarily Ray, the petulant and abusive patriarch-baby around whom this family orbits) devolve and wither in our hands as an important weekend unfolds. The weakest upon introduction eventually make the most sense; we come to understand them - root for them - as they shed their timidity and live for themselves.
This is not a book I could have left unfinished and the ending did not disappoint. I look forward to reading more work by Charlotte Mendelson. Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.
Publication date planned for July 4, 2023.
Question #321: Absinthe is to Radiance as _______ is to Space Opera.
a) seratonin
b) melatonin
c) aerosolized cocaine
d) all of the above, combined with a knocked-over bottle of champagne, late night ice cream, and the survival of a species. So you might as well enjoy it.
The correct answer, of course, is D. Excellent.
Thrilled to have been a gamma reader and am so excited for the Sullivan fans who will read this when it comes out. You will love it!
So. Much. Fun.
Excellent pacing - maybe I'm the exact perfect age for this book, because it was like a big ball of fun/scary nostalgia. And yeah, I cried at the end.
Charming & fun. When this turns into a series, I will read them all. When the series gets picked up for TV, I will happily watch the show. I imagine that the people that gave it too few stars are the same people that didn't see the potential in the Sookie Stackhouse books. In your face, non-potential see-ers. I think it's critical to pair this book with the cocktails within, and there's nothing like an Old Fashioned and a paperback for the tub.
I am too excited about this book to properly review it, so I'd just like to say this: please don't let your existing genre preferences dictate whether or not you will read Wake of Vultures. Read it now, before the next one comes out. Read it now, before Netflix makes a perfect season out of it (if they aren't already talking about this, they need to get up on it immediately before Starz or HBO does.)
A perfect book.
Hell, yes. I want the world to be filled with stories like “Uprooted” so that my girls get a taste of their own strength before they are required to use it. I cheered audibly while reading.
Pure suburban nightmare. I ripped through this one after reading Edward Lorne's review; the story lives up to the incredibly high expectations set therein. Now I'm going to walk my dogs and have a good, long think about my neighbors...
This is a damn good book.
If you've ever thought, “I'm not really into ___ books”, pick this up anyway and let it change your mind about what kind of books you love. You will be introduced to people you want to know well - many of them - and you will come to deeply care for each one.
Oh! And the action! During moments of exceptional tension, I heard music of the “perfect fifth” variety. Run, run and get this book now!
She had me at “margarine light” (and a million more satisfying, chewy turns of phrase.) Beautiful story; the warmest post-apocalyptic book I've read.
“Everything I Never Told You” unfolds beautifully. There are a lot of elements to this book that affect me in a personal way as a half-Asian person who grew up in the United States. The family dynamic is fascinating and somehow familiar. If I could give this more than five stars, I would. The word that comes to mind that sums up the whole book for me is “devastating”. While reading scenes within which my own feelings as teenager were clearly remembered and depicted, I felt actual pain. In my chest, in my eyes. There are casual lines throughout that hit me with the full weight of memory. Identity is the critical component of what propels this drama and, by the end of the book, I could only identify myself as a sobbing mess.
My rating is only based on the audiobook, which is probably inferior to the print version in a number of ways. Have you ever listened to an audiobook and realized that the narration, while well done, detracts from a personal interpretation that would have been more enjoyable? I think there's a solid chance that I wouldn't have grown so tired of the slowly building story if every character didn't sound like Mary from Downton Abbey.
The world building is exquisite; the narrative style inventive and interesting. I adore pulp and there is a fantastic, interplanetary femme fatale story line, into which I grew impatient to go deeper throughout the many, many hours of languid (and beautiful) exposition that ultimately wore me out. After 6 hours of listening, my interest in this gorgeous solar system has waned to the point where I've lemmed it.
That said, one day I will pick the book back up and finish it. I know, from other reviews, that the story picks up in the last third and is wonderful.
I would watch the hell out of the movie. David Lynch would be a perfect choice to direct the film (and the films within the film) of this novel. Because it's written so visually, with such painstaking emphasis on every element of the setting, a movie version would be able to introduce plot elements before the viewer lost interest.
Radiance is a work of art, and someday I will be up to the challenge of enjoying it on its own terms.
I loved this book. I fell into this world immediately and didn't want to leave; how could I, anyway, abandon Maia to this unfamiliar nest of treachery? I've seen comments on the difficulty of keeping track of the similar names / use of honorifics, but completely disagree that there is any flaw in these things. I was no more confused than any reluctant heir who had been hidden away in a gloomy and isolated keep for eighteen years, so I found it to be a skillful technique in producing an empathetic reader with a strong affinity for the protagonist. Excellent!
We Need New Names is remarkable, beautiful. If ever there was a time where art could shape policy, this is the time, and this could be the book.
In April, I will turn 50. In just under a half-century of reading, I have had many favorite books. Light from Uncommon Stars is the best book I have ever read. Like Shizuka and Katrina’s music, the words evoked/unlocked memory after memory for me; I wept. To read this book is to be broken open, chapter after chapter. To be stabbed, to be held, to be dangled, to be soothed.
This review is my applause, and it thunders. My only question is: what kind of deal did Ryka Aoki have to make to create art that does this? And how can I save her from the payment that must be due?
worth it for the beet brownie recipe alone!
I can't believe that this book is such a steal... Or that I didn't have any plantains on the day I got it! Even without the ubiquitous plantain, the beet brownies (I subbed in a sweet potato for plantain) were a revelation! There are a ton of beet brownie recipes online, but this was worth the price of the book: made with ingredients I had on hand, this recipe is simple and the results are delicious.
The most likeable of protagonists; the most dastardly of villains. Dryden had me at Miss Hardison's heritage - I think I've found this year's Halloween costume! Super-fun read.
Loved it!! Format: Audiobook (from the collection Dangerous Women) and the narrator did not disappoint. I love Abercrombie and was thrilled to see this story included in the collection. Fast, fun, down, and dirty.
Not at all my usual genre. That said, I must be going through something because I just listened to books 1-5 on Hoopla over the last week. It was mindless enough to have on while I did all the Christmas prep stuff and for a while, I was mildly interested in what happened to the characters. Nantucket is a really cool setting that never gets fully explored in this series. I kept hoping that there would a surprise murder but instead got descriptions of very generic dishes like Eggplant Parmesan.
I adored this cozy mystery. As far as I'm concerned, this can't be made into a charming TV series fast enough. Even though I'm still a couple of decades younger than our amateur detective group, they were easy to identify with and I loved their love of British crime procedurals. The stakes are a bit higher than most of the other cozy-genre novels I've read, but there is plenty of cake and tea to warm the soul. The characters - main and peripheral - unfold beautifully and I was totally satisfied at the end of the story. I'm keeping this author on my radar because I want to keep reading the adventures of Fiona, Daisy, and Partial Sue.
Thank you so much to Joffe Books and NetGalley for the copy! This book is due out in mid-December 2022.