Meagon
I absolutely cannot fathom how this won any awards. It is a plodding, torturous retelling of a wonderful Folktale, and it made my husband question my sanity for continuing. We are told Rose is a born explorer, but we spend more than half of the story with her sitting and weaving on a loom and washing a man's shirt. Unless told, I would never have guessed she was supposed to be an adventurous spirit at all.
The POV switches between characters in an incoherent way that leads oneself to believe the author originally planned the story to be told in third person but someone told her YA readers prefer first person, or she needed a way to talk about how wonderful and amazing and perfect Rose is without our beloved heroine sounding full of herself. At no time can Rose seem like a real human being with character flaws. She's great at everything she puts her mind to, and everyone that meets her instantly likes her and wants to help her. Minus the Troll Queen, she comes up against exactly one other person unwilling to bow to her Mary-Sueness, and nothing comes of that short-lived rebellion other than she loses out on some money.
White Bear, the “love interest” for lack of a better term, is bland, uninteresting, and has no character traits other than apparently being a 150-year-old child stalker and an attractive blonde when not in bear form. Rose spends almost eleven months with him and by page 367; after he's already been returned to human form, swept away by the Troll Queen, and Rose has started traveling to who knows where to find him; she finally realizes she knows nothing about him.
She still continues on and manages to easily infiltrate the Troll Queen's Ice Palace as the perfect servant, because interesting conflict would be far too much trouble to put into this story, and even trolls think she's the best of the humans. With very little effort and once again by using her domestic skills rather than anything approaching “adventurous”, she breaks the spell on White Bear. The Troll Queen herself accidentally destroys her entire palace and the trolls when smiting Rose's little troll friend/accomplice.
At this point, still knowing nothing about White Bear, Rose has decided she is in love with him, but doesn't say anything until he leaves again to find himself. She tracks him down, again, and within the last 10 pages, she professes her love, he remembers his real name, they live happily ever after with four children, the end.
There is absolutely no reason for them to be in love. She knows literally nothing about him. She spent all her time talking AT him and he gave nothing of himself. He does turn into a human every night and sneak into her bed while it's too dark for her to see who's there. She does nothing about this, continuing to allow it, no questions asked, even makes a shirt for her creepy nightly visitor, until (conveniently) she's allowed a visit home. Her mom gives her a candle that won't go out from enchantments and she finally looks to see who the hell is there. Of course that's exactly the wrong thing to do and she and White Bear are swiftly punished. Her fault of course.
Moral of the story:
Never look to see who the unknown creeper sliding under your covers in the middle of the night really is.
Or
Knowing someone's hair color and that they can play the flute is grounds for unconditional love.
Read the folktale, watch Beauty and the Beast, ANYTHING is better than this.
Pretty bad, honestly. There's no real story... Cassia doesn't actually DO anything in the entire story, instead relying on the boys around her to handle things. There's a moment where all three of them are with her best girlfriend while the girl is having a panic attack. Cassia actually gets upset with them for not acting quickly enough when all she has to do is pull out her own Magical-Plot-Device-Pills and hand over a green one to one of her BEST FRIENDS to instantly calm her down. It's a trilogy, but I'm hitting the brakes hard here. Even teenager me wouldn't have been impressed with flat, robotic Cassia and her tepid love interests.
The foreword by Chopra should have really been more of a red flag to me. If an author feels the need to explain to you how you should read and experience their artwork, it's a bad sign.
There were some really good scenes and tense moments in this book that makes it that much more upsetting that Chopra couldn't just write the narrative and allow us to come to our own conclusions. The good bits are swallowed up by giant chunks of exposition or by Chopra interjecting explanations so that we “get it”.
The story is also hard to follow. I've read nonlinear storylines before and Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite films, so the out of sync timeline was certainly not a problem for me. What was a problem was the jumping around and use of plot devices to force the story along.
There's a moment where they find a character dead, someone resurrects them, they go ape shit and try to attack the group, the group runs away, pauses so Arthur can have a flashback to Merlin telling him about dragons being the evil inside people or some shit, and the group inexplicably goes back to find the ape shit character calmly doing chores again and ready to deliver another exposition dump. I've never had to reread so many sentences or even whole paragraphs SO MUCH in one book.
If you're looking for a unique take on the Arthurian legends, look anywhere but here!
I LOVED this book! Each short is a window into the hearts and minds of the colorful characters that only O. Henry could bring to life so well with so few words. I'm not normally a short story reader, but that's definitely changing.
It's hard to choose, but my absolute favs in no particular order: The Pimienta Pancakes, The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson, Cupid A La Carte, The Caballero's Way, The Missing Chord, and A Chaparral Prince.
I am seriously shocked at how much I didn't like this book... because believe me, I wanted to.
Q ranks among my top five all-time favorite Star Trek characters. I squeal with glee when I recognize the start of an episode as a “Q episode”. I figured with the amazing talent of John de Lancie involved in the writing of this book, what could go wrong?
Apparently everything.
I don't even know who to blame, Lancie, or Peter David, the actual “novelist” involved with it.
The whole novel reads like a fan fiction written by a teenage boy that just recently read Douglas Adams' masterful work and is delusional enough to think he can be just as clever.
Picard and Data are walking plot devices that speak like cardboard cutouts of their true selves. Whether that was intentional because it's told from Q's perspective is debatable, but I feel it's more a lack of awareness on the author's part. Exploring Data's emotional chip results in basically a cartoonish display of anger and all of Picard's dialog sounds NOTHING like him.
Q's intriguingly arrogant, loner, mischief-maker characteristics are completely washed away by the inclusion and plot line of him having a family and going to rescue them. You have a character like Q and you give him the most basic, formulaic quest in all of storytelling history?!?! Any part in the story referencing his established characteristics on the shows is in flashbacks, stories Q tells you about “this one time”. Then there's stolen lines from works of literature that are MUCH better. They legit stole the “Inconceivable” bit from Princess Bride in an insanely unfunny and uncreative way.
I despise the ending.
One of the things I always loved about Star Trek was that any supreme being they came across, claiming to be a god, etc. was shown to be either a fake, or a being with the knowledge that it most certainly was not actually the end all, be all.
This book? This book strips away all that and boom, there's a god, or goddess, and the worst part? Q “prays” to her in the end.
Q.
Prays.
...
The only reason I didn't give it one star, is because I finished it and it wasn't as bad as The Dog Master, the worst book I've ever read, ever.
Not nearly as great as his follow up, “World War Z” one of my favorite books ever, but definitely worth a read if you're a zombie nerd like me. It's like sitting around with fellow horror nerds and hashing out every little detail of how to deal with the undead. With as much work as Brooks put into researching the “what if's?” of zombie lore, there's really no excuse anymore for Hollywood to not get a bit more imaginative and also less silly, about how their human protagonists handle the undead.
I'm looking at you, Walking Dead.
I'll admit, this was quite amusing to read while in quarantine... especially the part of the book where Brooks says: “How could those in power, especially in such a modern, enlightened age as ours, ignore the spread of a deadly disease until it reached plague proportions?”
How indeed, Mr. Brooks...how indeed...
You think you know a bit of history, that it's been repeated and rehashed so many times there can't possibly be a way to do it again without being boring.
Then you read this book.
It says it's a novel, but the depth of research that clearly went into it could have supported a non-fiction work just as easily. It's not an alternate history, it stays true to the story, sometimes pointing out glaring facts I was absolutely not privy to until reading this.
Five stars! Loved it.
A beautiful collection of Irish lore. If you love fairytales and myths, you will love this book! Definitely written for a mature audience, as all the best folklore is a bit racy. Michael Scott has done a magnificent job collecting some of the best and most obscure lore from the people from the land itself. He heard the stories from the storytellers themselves, and I think it shows in the way their voice shines through.
These aren't corporate America's fairies and leprechauns. These elven and fey Folk will fuck you up...and laugh whilst doing it!
A heartbreaking journey through slavery coming straight from the lips of those that lived it, or were the close generations following. Lester has put together a phenomenal account that is made accessible to a wider/younger audience. It is important that children know these stories, that we teach them the truth of what really happened. Maybe, in time, the bitterness Lester chooses to focus on at the end of this book will be eased and mended; if we all work towards that goal instead of against it.
Not really knowing what this story was going in, I really hated it for about the first quarter. The only thing that kept me going besides a morbid curiosity was Gregory's talent for storytelling. She made it fun to read about one of the most sickening political environments I have ever heard of. That takes talent.
The story follows Mary Boleyn from just after she's married at about twelve years old, all through the ups and downs of her life, which for much of it, was barely her own. Taken from her marriage bed to be flaunted before and then bedded by the king, then to be cast aside for her sister, reunite with her cuckolded husband who the gets sick and dies, and finally to find true love. She manages to barely get through the sludge of court and come out happy and with her three children.
It's a heartbreaking story of what can happen to family, love, and sanity when an entire country is dancing to the whims of a vain, power-crazed tyrant. At the same time, a beautiful story of a woman's love for her children and the man she finally comes to love protecting and loving her as a husband should.
This book kept me on my toes the entire time. Piers Anthony has an uncanny talent for writing stories that I can never guess what the next twist is. Or if I can, I certainly don't anticipate the way that the twist happens.
The story is really about subverting assumptions. Many times something or someone would seem to be what they weren't. Whether it was a threat, ally, or even inanimate objects, things would change form or moral orientation at the drop of a hat.
The characters in Piers Anthony stories are always so memorable. They're colorful, fun to read, complex, and funny/hilarious. I'm looking forward to visiting Xanth many more times throughout the series.
I have never experienced anything like this book. I've absorbed many a story/account of the atrocities during the war, but this book went further.
In a rather naive sort of blind ignorance, until I read this book, I assumed that life for the survivors of the Holocaust was 100% better than what they'd been through. Unfortunately, Traub's semi-autobiographical story has made it horrendously, achingly clear, that the end of the war wasn't the miraculous end of pain and suffering, rather a twisted, new beginning of new pains, new suffering. My heart breaks. There aren't words that this goyim can put together to articulate the sorrow any better than Traub has herself.
Do yourself a favor, and read this book. If more people were aware of it, and read it, it could help there be just a smidge less pain and hate in the world.
The survivors are few now, we must listen while we can, or their stories and warnings, will be lost to us forever.
This book is a wonderful adventure story for every child, of any age. It will inspire the young, and give the old something to smile and shake their heads over with nostalgia.
Loved this classic! I never read the unedited version when I was younger. It was a Great Illustrated Classics version that watered down the whole story and, obviously, removed whole chunks deemed “inappropriate”. Honestly, my memory of this story is stronger because of Disney's Tom and Huck film more than anything. I've always loved the story about the two boys constantly trying to seek out fun and freedom. Huck is my spirit animal, for sure. Only I'd have to have a room to store books in...so I suppose I am much more materialistic than he is.
The pure innocence, in the face of some of the most dangerous moments, made for a wonderful tale. I'm reminded of the quirky adventures and misunderstandings that my friends and I got up to in my youth. Luckily none ever as dangerous as getting lost in one of the largest cave systems in existence with a dangerous robber.
I can't understand the banning of books. The xenophobic language and tendencies of some of the characters is definitely something that in today's society we don't smile upon, but that's the whole point. Censoring thought is one of the most dangerous and evil things we can decide to do. History will repeat itself if we are ever allowed to forget.
Probably one of the most misrepresented books I have ever read. Touted as a book about the first dog and her owner; this rambling, nonsensical, soap opera, dumpster fire of a book is the first book I've finished that I will actually give one star to. Usually I reserve this low of a rating for books that drive me totally mad and that I can't bring myself to finish. This one had me pressing through, not because it's good in ANY way, but because I desperately wanted an answer to why the hell it's marketed the way it is. I have no answer, even after reading all of it, plus Cameron's Afterword, and his very own shining five star review that he left ON HIS OWN BOOK.
Even if I had known what this book was really going to be, I would hate it. Maybe slightly less, but I would still consider it lazy, middle-grade school level, repetitive writing that had me wondering how this book had possibly managed to receive such a high review score on Goodreads. Characters speak to each other in ridiculous ways that Cameron says was an artistic choice, there are repeated scenes written in slightly different ways sprinkled throughout, and there's only about 10-15% of the book that's actually about the first dog and her owner. Don't even get me started on how the characters names would be spelled differently several times on the same page. Which I suppose is more the editor's fault than Cameron's, but still infuriated me to no end.
If you want to read a story about the mom of the guy that first domesticated a wolf, another unconnected tribe (up until about 1/4 of the way through the book), and a TON about the Paleolithic version of Day's of Our Lives, this is the book for you. If you want to read a story about the first dog? Steer clear of this one.
Eerie how this felt like Prometheus was writing this in a future that completely correlates with current events...and it was written by Ayn Rand all the way back in the THIRTIES. It's been a slow, deliberate dive towards this type of censorship, hasn't it?
Individualism is something Western culture takes a fierce pride in. This book illustrates that philosophy quite well, but in very black and white terms. Although I did enjoy that Prometheus is completely fine with leaving the brothers that wish to remain ignorant, right where they are. Rand, despite her seemingly stark view on the matter of Individualism, at least allows that there is no pleasing everyone, and that you shouldn't be forced into a philosophy or culture.
Chapter 11 was quite a moment. It reminded me just slightly of how I felt realizing I was the “god” of my reality and then, an atheist. Individualism certainly took on a new meaning then, and I feel as though this book added another layer to that personal philosophy.
I never knew what this book was, but I am so glad I read it. It's a sixteen-year-old boy's existential crisis over the course of a weekend from the time he gets kicked out of another school, roams around New York, and then finally is drawn back home by the love of a sibling.
There were many things in this story that spoke to teenage me. Holden is like a male version of myself in more ways than one. Right down to trusting and getting the most sage advice from one of the worst people you ever met on the planet. Universal contradictions like that can really destroy a soul. Holden was in danger of having his crushed, but I'm an optimist when it comes to the ending. My sweet Holden, the only boy that truly GETS IT, will be just fine. What a great man you will become, you prince. ;-P
Like Holden, I can't really explain what I love so much about the story. It was more than the similarities. The prose of Salinger was quite beautiful to read. Holden's voice came through in a way that I haven't read in quite a while. This gray-haired child sat next to me and TOLD me this story, I didn't read it, there's just no way.
If you want to be told when to be scared rather than to actually be scared, this is the King book for you! A sparkly/glowing Buick-that-isn't-a-Buick eating some people (and a few local fauna) “off-screen” doesn't make for a scary read. When you combine that with the reactions of the cops, which were almost comical in their absurdity, it makes the Buick seem less of a threat and more just a gimmick. King is ASTOUNDING at terrifying me, conjuring imagery in my imagination that haunts me for YEARS. None of that was in this. A lot of the time, he falls back on “oh, it's just too terrible for the human brain to conceive of such horrors” in an almost lazy ode to Lovecraft.
Oh, and the filing cabinet...don't even get me started. How long was that thing just rotting in that bag before they pulled it out to do an investigative autopsy?!?
has fit for ten minutes
ahem
Despite the negatives, King's uncanny ability to make ANYTHING “fun” to read pulled me through. I did feel unnecessarily called out by Sandy in his view of Ned “feeling entitled to a story” because that's how I felt through much of this. I think, that really might have been the moral for me. “Let it go. You can't and certainly WON'T always get the answers to everything.” The characters weren't nearly as fleshed out for me as other King characters, but it's also one of the shortest King books I've read, soooo...
In an ironic twist, considering what most people tell Mr. King, I truly liked the ending. I'm happy to know that Ned is safe, that the Buick-not-a-Buick is dying, and that Brian Lippy got his swastika-wearing ass eaten up by “something”.
This gets to stay home on my shelves by JUST a margin, and I truly blame my King bias for that.
Uh...wow... I truly thought a lot about this had promise, but it never really went anywhere. The ending felt like the author was trying to fit the story into an exact word count without going over. Seriously disappointed in this. Only two stars because I save one star ratings for trash I can't even finish.
Heartbreaking. An emotional story of what it truly means to be a parent, sacrifice. The writing style was not my favorite, which is the only reason it doesn't get five stars. I'm seriously shocked I breezed through it so quickly. Certainly a book I couldn't manage to put down very often. The thought that stayed with me through most of it was, would they have been any better off if the mother was still alive? Their scramble for resources seems like it would only be worse if she were there, but at the same time, the emotional support she could have offered both of them, having a second responsible adult around to keep lookout, etc... those seem like perks. I don't understand the willingness of people to give up. I wonder if she was suffering from postpartum and if she were only able to get the help that she needed, if she would have stayed. It's hard to say. I'm against suicide, but in the end, I believe we are the masters of our own destiny, and only we can decide what is right for us as individuals. You have to decide if your actions make you the good guy or not.
Not bad...not great... There were plenty of funny moments, and I enjoyed the adventure, but I didn't feel like I really cared about most of the characters. Although that most likely was the point. It was kind of like reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy if Sam Raimi wrote it... With Bruce Campbell in the starring role and all. I enjoyed it enough to read the second one, for sure.
I have never read a series that impacted me more-so than The Wheel of Time. I encourage ANYONE that has a love for epic fantasy to read it. The characters have become old friends that it breaks my heart to leave behind. It certainly was quite a ride, with a “majestically exquisite” ending. A piece of me has been traded out for a piece of this series. I leave a part of myself behind in it, and I carry it on with me.
A very interesting story. I have a feeling the flow works better in its native language. One of those startlingly accurate “truth is stranger than fiction” sort of tales. I can't imagine living the lives certain people have lived, especially throughout times of war. Poignant, a tiny treasure to keep on my shelves.