Gio'

The Sirens of Titan – Clever and Well-Written, but Lighter Than I Prefer

⭐ 3.5/5

Vonnegut’s writing is as sharp as ever—sophisticated yet straightforward, with some truly memorable, quotable passages. His ability to balance wit with deeper themes makes the book engaging, and the central idea—people living their lives unaware of larger forces at play, while even those who think they see the full picture might still be missing an even bigger scheme—was fascinating.

That said, the plot itself felt light, and I’ve reached a point where light sci-fi just doesn’t hold my interest as much anymore. While the book has its merits, I found myself more engaged with the writing and ideas than the actual story.

The Lathe of Heaven – Imaginative, Thought-Provoking Sci-Fi

⭐ 4.5/5

A great and imaginative novel that weaves together chaos (in a Michael Crichton-like way), free will, morality, and science fiction, all written in a clear and delicate style. The premise is fascinating, and the way the story unfolds feels both unpredictable and deeply thoughtful.

The novel maintains a strong grip for most of its length, but the final part loses a bit of its momentum—just enough to keep it from being a full 5 stars for me. Still, it’s an exceptional, intelligent sci-fi novel that balances deep themes with an engaging plot.

The Eyre Affair – 2.5 Stars:

The book starts off well—original setup, quirky characters, and everything seems to be heading in the right direction. But then it just becomes exhausting. It stretches the concept so much that you want to say, “Enough already, we got it.”

I can see how this might be fun for a certain type of patient reader who enjoys meta-literary play, but for me, this is the first and last book about Thursday Next.

The Peripheral – 4 stars

And I ask myself: was it worth it? I’m not sure I have an answer. I started this as an audiobook and, honestly, I didn’t understand a single thing for several minutes. I looked up the basic plot online to try to help with comprehension, but the neologisms, the weird, unexplained machines, verbs, and concepts were just too much. So I ordered the paperback and slowly made my way through it.

The first 100 pages were incredibly tough, even in print. It got slightly better, but the reading never became smooth. It was always a struggle to stay on top of what was happening. While I initially enjoyed the challenge, I think the author buried an interesting story beneath layers of almost unreadable prose that would test anyone’s patience.

I’m glad I finished it—there are definitely cool and imaginative moments throughout—but if I had known just how much mental effort it would take for a piece of entertaining sci-fi, I might not have started it. The only saving grace was the clean structure of the short chapters.

Bunny – Did Not Finish

Well... as is often the case, maybe I’m just not the target demographic. I tried to stick with it, hoping it would improve, but ultimately it felt too juvenile to hold my interest. What frustrated me most was that, while the overarching story is original, the characters felt like clichés pulled from countless teen movies. Maybe the author will mature with time, maybe not—but I’m not sure I’ll be giving her another chance.

White Noise – Did Not Finish

I gave White Noise a shot, but ultimately did not finish it. I found it boring and self-indulgent, filled with endless dialogue and observations that went nowhere. The book seemed more interested in its own cleverness than in telling a compelling story. With nothing happening and no real engagement, it simply wasn’t worth my time.

Yellowface – 3.5 Stars:

There’s a lot going on in this book, and it’s clear that a ton of research and attention to detail—especially in language—went into it. The smaller twists are plenty and original, but the overall arc is fairly predictable.

It’s like seeing bright patches of color up close, but when you step back, the canvas itself isn’t offering anything new. The pace is brisk, but the story loses steam in the last quarter, possibly from hesitancy in wrapping things up or the challenge of clarifying all the themes.

The writing style felt a bit juvenile for my taste, but the audiobook narration by Helen Laser was very good.

Red Rising – A Well-Written, Engaging Start to a Series

Red Rising is a fast-paced, well-written novel that blends sci-fi, political intrigue, and raw survival in an engaging way. The writing style is immersive, keeping the momentum high without feeling rushed. The world-building is intriguing, balancing dystopian elements with a sense of scale and history that makes the setting feel lived-in.

What stands out most is how gripping the story is—once it gets going, it’s hard to put down. The stakes feel real, the conflicts intense, and the characters complex enough to keep you invested. While it doesn’t quite reach that perfect level for me, it’s a strong opening to a series, and I’m genuinely excited to see where it goes next.

The Midnight Library – 4.5 stars

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, but it turned out to be a fairly original take on the Sliding Doors concept, written in a compelling style—quick to read but with real depth. It was highly entertaining and made me reflect on many of the choices I’ve made in life. I knocked off half a star for the slightly paint-by-numbers structure and the overly predictable ending, but overall, this was a strong and thought-provoking read.

While this book is considered a masterpiece by many, I found it just ok. Maybe I had to read too many of these stories growing up in the South of Italy to find any surprise in it.

The author seems to be obsessed with death and so a lot of the short stories in this book are about what supernatural things can happen before and after one dies. This makes the collection a little monotone but overall I didn't enjoy this book because none of these stories is particularly memorable.

I had this book on my list for a few years. Why would a Russian writer publish a book in Italian as original language? A lot has been said about the authenticity of the facts in this book, so I'll just focused on the literary qualities. In general, the author writes well enough, but there are a couple of aspects that show immaturity in my opinion: some of the translations of the nickname of the character take a cartoonish connotation in Italian and that breaks the imagining of the story very frequently. I wonder if the translations in other languages rectify this problem of the original edition. The other issue is that, when a new character is introduced, the author always take a tangent by extensively describing the character's background. While this is interesting the first few times, it does get old and unnecessary by the end of the book.
Even though the book has evident literary limitation, it still reaches 3 stars from me because of originality and because it introduces the reader to a world that is not that known.

Minor Grisham book. Of course the prose is always good, but the story is disjointed with several parts that are fillers and don't connect to each other in any meaningful way. Quick and harmless read but not long lasting in the memory.

As most knw by now, this book hits hard. The story is intense, and gives you the constant sense of desperation of knowing that things will not necessarily improve. The author is great in keeping the pace and tone not too heavy, so reading this book is not a chore, but it will definitely make you think. I have now read 3 books from this author and only one “Harlem Shuffle”, wasn't great.

Having moved to Spain a couple of years back, I wanted to close some of the enormous gaps in my understanding of the unique history of this country and the reasons of the huge differences with other countries in the EU. The book definitely helped and gave me a decent knowledge. There is a certain amount of repetition that does create some confusion. This could have been avoided with a tighter editing process.

The books started ok, and the world building was promising, but then it dragged too long and became too conventional. By the time I was done I had no desire to read the follow-up books.

This is a beautiful book with a several complex characters that are easy to empathize with. The author's prose is very smooth and, IMHO one of the most promising writers out there.

Expectations were very high for this book after having been mesmerized by Station 11 and The Glass Hotel. Unfortunately I found this book lazy and small in scope, an unneeded appendix to The Glass Hotel with not much to say.

This little book is incredible and it goes up there with the best and most unforgettable books on the holocaust.
I read many of them and until now I always though that 3 books are above anything else: Survival in Auschwitz (If this is a man) by Primo Levi, Night by Elie Wiesel and the Anne Frank's diary.
Liliana Segre's story is not added to my personal list of must read on the topic.
I wasn't familiar with her at all, and I was captured by the vividness of her incredible, terrible story.

TL,DR: I didn't get it. I know that as an Italian, especially as a southern Italian, I'm supposed to like Pirandello, but... I was lukewarm after reading “Il fu Mattia Pascal” and now fully disappointed by this book, so I need to probably accept that Pirandello is not my thing.
I found this book pompous and self important. The author takes a simple idea and puts on it a veneer of importance that isn't justified and some pretended philosophical depth. Then he goes on telling a story where very little happens and so the page have to be filled by pontificating, trying to convince us how original and meaningful all this construction is, but in reality, it isn't.

The author used a narrative structure that is very convoluted and I couldn't really get captured by it. So my attention, reading this book, has been in and out, wondering why reading a book must also be a chore in keeping track of names and timelines. Having said that, the story is pretty dark and very few characters have any redeeming qualities. It is so bleak that it begs the question of what is the point of it.

Looking Glass – 4 Stars:

The second installment of The Naturalist is definitely a solid and fun book. The story is interesting, the pace is good, and the techie stuff is always fun.

It’s not a 5-star read like the first book for a couple of reasons: the novelty has worn off a bit, and the ending doesn’t quite tie everything up to my taste.

That said, I still really like this author. The books are definitely commercial and come out quickly, but the content and thoughtfulness he puts into the story make for a great read for the nerdy crowd—myself included.

Good thriller, well written and with an original enough plot to keep you surprised, without excessively convoluted plot twist. It is a 4.5 stars book for me.

I'm not sure how to actually review this. So many things have been said about this book and I'm definitely not worth to add anything more. But I will say that the depictions of human imperfections and of how grit defies aging are quite something.

This is a very imaginative book and maybe it can be defined as an epic. The story is sweet, with a decent mix of sad and uplifting moments. Most of the characters are well defined and have their own reason to be and are not only living in the shadow of the heroes. Well done!