Meagon
I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this. My heart hurt for the two characters but also I was happy for them and what little time they did have. It took some adjustment for me due to it being an affair, and I was a bit surprised how accepting I was of it. The quietness of the love is what I think did it for me. In a world where 99% of the romance books are just thinly veiled smut, it was refreshing.
My first Simak. I enjoyed the writing and sped through the book. The ending was quite a letdown. I was especially annoyed with the blatant misunderstanding of evolution and how the entire narrative hinged on that misunderstanding. There were several loose ends that remained undone by the end as well. Still enjoyable enough for me to look forward to reading another by the author.
I honestly can't help but love this series. 😅 This one really started to branch out the multiple POVs a lot more than the previous ones. I always enjoy that. I'm so glad I saw through the bs at the beginning or I would have been awfully upset. I still adore Richard and Kahlan. Even though he is still a big doofus a lot of the time. Zedd was fun as always. The supporting cast continues to be fleshed out more and I love many of them as well.
An excellent read! Probably one of if not THE best book on dinosaurs I have ever read. It's written in such a way that anyone could pick it up and read it. You don't need to be obsessed with dinosaurs like I am to understand it. It flows beautifully from the time before the dinosaurs, through their rise to the top, their reign as the dominant creatures on the planet, to their rather violent demise. Absolutely love this! It was a library borrow, but I'll definitely be adding it to my own personal library in the future!
The beginning is a bit slow but boy that second half of the book flies by! I'm much more used to action-packed sci-fi, so I wasn't expecting something so philosophical. But I loved it. The themes this book touches on are extremely relevant today. There were times I disliked Shevek, but overall I think he's a character that will rattle around comfortably in my brain for a long time. I'm definitely hooked on this author now! ❤️
The perfect Springtime book, with lovely prose that truly encapsulates the feeling of seeing a garden burst out of the seemingly dead earth.
This wonderfully lovely book falls alongside other children's classics like “Anne of Green Gables” and “Chronicles of Narnia”. The magic in it is on the “Anne” scale, not so much the “Narnia” scale, but all three give me a similar warm, nostalgic feeling.
Loved the progression of the characters and the way the author understood the mindset and perspective of children in such a situation. Truly worthy of being called a classic!
One of the best books I have ever read, hands down! I've never re-read another book more. Max Brooks has an uncanny ability to make the zombie apocalypse seem like it's real history and truly scary. He understands that, much of the time, the true horror is the humans around us rather than the monsters themselves. The book takes you all across the globe, with stories told from different perspectives of characters from all walks of life. A blind monk, a young girl who barely could understand what was happening, military men/women, a bodyguard to the rich and famous, a shut-in, K-9 units, the list goes on. The cultural differences that are touched upon are SO sensitive and in-depth, you truly feel like you're reading an actual historical account of something the human race has been through. It's nothing like the over-the-top Brad Pitt focused movie of the same name. I will DEFINITELY be reading it again sometime soon!
I have to say I really loved this book. It feels a lot like a Coen brothers movie or a Twilight Zone episode. The characters are really well written so that even for a short read, I feel like I can picture them all perfectly. Colleen is my favorite. I laughed out loud several times. The dialogue feels real and I love the author's descriptive style.
One of my favorite lines: “Empty plastic lawn chairs were scattered about the property, some of them clustered together and surrounded by discarded cigarette butts and half-empty beer cans, as if the occupants had been raptured mid-party.”
I like how there's not a pretty little bow tied up by the end. Life isn't like that, and I think this story does a fantastic job of showing how everyone is always on their own journey, doing their best from womb to grave.
Chuck has done it again. When I'm reading his work, I wonder where the hell is this all going? And find myself in great need of a shower to wash the unseen filth from myself. Then I get to the end and think “Holy shit. I'm rather glad I read that.” He has a way of making one face the darkest, most grotesque parts of one's own psyche, without judgment. For many, I think they take his writing too seriously in that they get put off and don't understand that that's the whole point. You shouldn't be comfortable when you read his work. This isn't casual beach read fluff. It's meant to change you.
Maybe not forever, but for now.
This one resonated with me on so many levels. I've struggled with my mixed emotions of the man that was my step-grandfather, the man who abused me the way so many in this book were abused. Alex felt like she was speaking both to me and for me, my own thoughts often articulated on the pages. I will cherish this book for the rest of my life. It has made me feel seen and like I'm not alone. One of the most powerful stories I have ever read. ❤️
I rarely say this but... I'd rather just watch the movie.
This story was a bit of a mess that I found hard to follow. Everything seemed to just be happening “because”. The story didn't flow well and I found myself hating every single character. The film has me empathizing with both androids and humans but this book had me hoping the whole planet would just implode. Only ranks two stars instead of one because of its cultural significance.
A very dark fantasy. It doesn't feel like a book on its own really. I can't help but quote Ron White: “I told you that story, so I could tell you this story.” It seems this entire novel is only a backstory for the MC so that we understand her motivations in later installments. I went in expecting something entirely different due to the cover art and blurb, but I still don't think it deserves the hate I've seen in many other reviews. The MC is not likeable, no one is, it reminded me of GoT in that way, but I'm still willing to invest time in the second book. If you could call Zarq a protagonist, I think she will make an interesting anti-hero. The world-building is interesting, but has holes in it and isn't always done smoothly. Too often the MC, who is narrating to the reader, will start an exposition sentence with “Understand,” and it can be jarring. I certainly didn't expect to come away with such an extensive knowledge of female circumcision after reading this, but I had questions that needed answers only some internet research could provide... Also, are the dragons sentient and able to give consent, or not? I'm still not 100% on that part... It's sort of a big deal...
I was glad it was over. It read like a mediocre crossover fanfiction. I think I was supposed to sympathize with the characters: vampire, dhampir, half-elf, human, Fay dog, etc. and I couldn't bring myself to really care about a single one. I was hoping this would be an amazing series to get lost in, but I will certainly not be continuing.
I enjoyed the humor throughout. Weisberger is certainly talented at telling a story. I care nothing for fashion or social drama and still found it to be a page-turner that I couldn't put down. For me it worked better as a film only because I lack the fashion knowledge to visualize most of the clothing talked about in the book. It's not my typical read, or I believe it would probably rate higher. Simply not the subject matter for me.
I absolutely love this book! Sloan channels a Douglas Adams vibe that had me feeling nostalgic and comfortable from the offset, not to mention laughing my head off at times. Jannon is incredibly relatable and nearly all the characters are extremely lovable. I adored the equal love given to the old and the new, like books and e-readers. Mr. Penumbra's has become a fictional place that I would give a great deal to visit in real life.
Three stars for now, but it really only gains that high of a rating because of its significance to literature and horror. Over time I'm sure my opinion of it will sink lower. Some other people have reviewed this book much more eloquently. I feel too brain numb from it to write a detailed review.
I never say this, but: Just watch the movie, friends.
I could not put this book down! I read it over the course of two days. Not sure what I can say about it that hasn't already been articulated in a much better way by much smarter people than I. Suffice it to say I thought it was an excellent study of human nature and what “evil” we all allow in ourselves and therefore, in our world. Burgess wrote using the Nadsat language in such a way that the story flows almost like a work by Shakespeare. Alex is a cruel, dangerous wretch, yet seeing him stripped of his choice, his humanity, turns him into a sympathetic character. Our failings as individuals add up to our failures as a society, which perpetuates the broken system and continuously churns out wicked monsters. Is removing the choice and turning us into mindless drones the path to good, or the path to an even greater evil?
This disjointed mess of a story was not funny OR sexy as the advanced praise on the back cover would have you believe. The portrayal of men and relationships in general is dark and made bile rise in my throat most of the time. Jane is a stupid little girl trapped in a twenty-thirty something body with the lifestyle of a granny. How she lets literally everyone walk all over her for her entire life with absolutely no character arc is mind-boggling. The chapters don't connect, the timeline is out of wack and it goes from using “I” to “You” in between one of the chapters, then right back to “I” again for the rest of the book. I say chapters when really each one is more of a vignette. I've read vignette style fiction before and loved it, so it's not the style that threw me, but Bank's approach to it. The title/cover art catfished me; the only hunting and fishing addressed in the book is in the very last vignette and it's talking about fishing and hunting for someone in the dating world. A depressing read that I will happily take to the used bookstore to make room for a worthwhile book.
I can only assume that Allen's point of telling this shit storm of a story was to show how we humans are still just big, lumbering apes, ready to go mad and fuck or kill anything in our way. I can step out my door or turn on YouTube and see that, I didn't need a hunt for a gorilla to disguise the metaphor. Trash characters, trash story. I was hoping the gorilla was going to rip through more of them but she doesn't even escape til halfway through the book and proceeds to do nothing for most of the rest of it. More awkward sex and incest themed content than a Game of Thrones episode.
