Megan
I was enthralled. I really was. I told everyone about the stories in this book while I was reading it. I don't even remember why I didn't give it 5 stars. Maybe because of the out-of-order timeline, which I think messed with the pacing a tiny bit. Or maybe it was the life story of the astronaut that slowed it down (and was a tad boring, but I get why they included it). I was absolutely fascinated with the history of the space program though and would highly recommend this book. I'm definitely going to reread it in the future.
The stories in this book where quite interesting, and the characters were good (though I struggled to tell them apart at times). Unfortunately I think there were a few too many characters. It spread the story too thin over many themes, all of which are deep, sensitive, important topics that need focused attention. I would have liked a deeper exploration of these things, and I think the frequent perspective change somewhat hindered that. I didn't love the change in narrative style, which causes the reader to readjust too often to a new writing style. I know there's likely a reason for this that I have completely missed, so I recommend checking out other more eloquent (and academic) reviews than mine. I also recommend looking for Own Voices reviews of this book because I have likely missed very important things in my review. What I did like was the ease of reading this book. It painted a very good picture and was very accessible.
Favorite book of the year. I loved every second.
Seriously, everyone needs to read this book. If you love sci-fi, READ IT. If you hate sci-fi, READ IT. If you love children's books, READ IT. If you never read children's books because you think you're too old, READ IT.
The kids and teens in Orion Lost talk and act like real people. They act their age. They make mistakes. They struggle and they learn. There is so much to this book that I think would surprise a lot of people. Alastair Chisholm has a excellent ability to show and not tell. He shows the emotions and struggles so perfectly.
The story is action-packed without feeling rushed or lacking in development. It will keep you guessing to the very end, and even if you figure out every twist Chisholm throws at you, you will enjoy the journey. It's that good.
I think this is a good book for children ages 8-10. It's super easy to read, but I don't think many adults will appreciate it beyond that. It has a clear moral message, and there are very fun elements that kids would love. There are some good moments about how you should treat friends, how to be a gracious winner, and how isolating yourself can be detrimental. They're quick, but they're there.
I don't think the upper half of the age range on back cover would enjoy it as much, though that will depend on how much of a reader they are naturally. This might be a good choice for an elementary schooler who hates reading, because it's fluffy and fun but has a battle scene and animal hybrids.
Contains spoilers
Apparently I'm an incredibly picky bitch about time travel. You learn something new about yourself every day... And I think I clashed with the writing style, or something, cause I struggled to want to pick this book up even before the time travel. I can't really figure out why though! I'll say I loved the characters and the pinches of magic. The curse was so very Practical Magic is a good way. I enjoyed the dual timelines, which is weird because I usually don't. I really should have loved this more because the girls were great and so unique. I want to know what the next adventure is, but whatever the ‘something' is that stopped me from breezing through the first book may get in the way. I hope not cause I do want to know what happens next!
This book accomplishes exactly what it set out to accomplish. The humor is ridiculous and the plot is just absolutely silly and wild. I connected with it more than Wizards of Once for some reason, maybe the dragons and all that. I would've found Toothless to be very funny when I was younger, so I'm bumping up the rating to 4 stars because of that.
Black Klansman is a mixed bag for me, but it's definitely worth a read.
While I enjoyed the story Stallworth told, this book was badly written. It was written EXACTLY like a CSPD police report, but with a few personal anecdotes thrown in. It's written so an eight-grader can understand it, it defines many words most adults already know, and it's repetitive to drive home key points. It needed a fair amount of editing to reign in the number of run-on sentences I noticed. And couple lines really irritated me, such as “All men have a little ‘dog' in them where women are concerned”... I tabbed that with one word: Ew.
I generally appreciated Stallworth's humor throughout the book. I definitely laughed at times and feel it prevented the book from feeling dragged down by the heavy topic. I really liked some of stuff he said in the Afterword too. For example “This hatred has never gone away, but has been reinvigorated in the dark corners of the internet, Twitter trolls, alt-right publications, and a nativist president in Trump. [...] It is my belief that the Republican Party of the twenty-first century finds a symbiotic connection to white nationalist groups like the Klan, neo-Nazis, skinheads, militias, and alt-right white supremacist thinking.” This seems so contrary to what you expect a police officer to believe, especially in the Springs. It's such an interesting account that you'll never be able to find anywhere else, and it's well worth trudging through the writing and occasional bad take.
I really like Butler's writing style and imagination. I also love that I know I won't have to overlook heaps of misogyny to be able to enjoy her stories.
This dystopian world didn't feel far-fetched at all. Everything about it seemed almost one step away from where we are now. In the Twitter Age, we communicate about these kinds of things all the time on social media, but in 1993 I imagine the it was a little more novel, being before the YA dystopian craze that followed The Hunger Games. Adding the hyperempathy element was also interesting if not all that critical to the story.
All in all, I struggled to connect with the characters and main goal of the protagonist. That's not necessarily Butler's fault as books centered around religion tend to not be my thing. I think how religion is formed is interesting though, and this was intriguing in that way. I also liked Lauren's steadfastness. She's so much older than her years. I found the dystopian and survival aspects of the book the most interesting and tended to glaze over the Earthseed stuff. I read it all, but those parts left my head immediately upon finishing the words. Given the book become more and more about Earthseed as events unfold, that hindered my overall enjoyment.
I was extremely aware of Jay Kristoff's presence throughout this entire 427 page book. It was like he was standing over my shoulder, watching me read, and stopping me every 3-4 minutes to say, “Omg this part. I wrote that. Don't you think it's clever? Do you get the joke? I made a joke.” It made me so annoyed. Every time I saw a footnote, I'd tense and roll my eyes, knowing a super lame attempt at a joke was incoming. The whole time I could just imagine Kristoff typing out the story on his computer and congratulating himself for being so clever, funny, and edgy. It was so try-hard, and so much of it felt tired and/or forced. I recommend checking out other reviews for examples of the absurd metaphors and similes because some of them were absolutely atrocious. And holy men-writing-women, or rather men-writing-16-year-old-girls.
Despite all those things, I loved the world and enjoyed the plot. I wanted to like all the characters more than I did, but I'm basically neutral on all of them. I think they were very inconsistently written. I predicted almost everything that happened really early on, but it didn't hinder my enjoyment (the writing style overshadowed that). I really want to know what happens next and will likely pick up the second book. I've heard Kristoff improves his writing and characters, and if that's true then I think I'll love it.
I don't love the hopping around that the individual issues do within the volume. It lacks cohesion and makes me wonder if my copy is messed up somehow. I definitely prefer when the issues within a volume tackle a specific storyline or general theme. The humor is exactly what you expect, and you should enjoy the stories enough if you've made it this far already.
Okay okay I totally get the hype. This book was a really good YA story: the characters were interesting if a bit predictable, the setting was intricate, the plot was fun, and it was well paced. The characters were wildly unrealistic teenagers though. I had to constantly remind myself that the kids weren't at least in their late-twenties. As long as you can set that aside, you should have a good time. The biggest downfall of the book is that every obstacle or curveball, and there are quite a few, is conveniently overcome. If you just take Six of Crows as a feel good story about a ragtag group of scoundrels who always have the right trick up their sleave to get out of trouble, you will have a blast. I think the end lacked something, but I can't put my finger on what. Having not yet read Crooked Kingdom, my guess is maybe the duology should've been combined into a longer standalone book.
Geez that was basic. Considering the extreme hype surrounding this book, I was painfully underwhelmed. I guess I was entertained enough, but it's a pretty forgettable story overall. I don't think the format added anything to the story. The dialogue was corny as hell, the jokes rarely/barely landed, and the end basically had a little bow on it. I'd say this won't be a beloved book for well-versed (ha) sci-fi fans, but it's a quick read and not a complete waste of time. Just know you've seen it all before, and it's very “I'm 14 and this is deep” a lot of the time.
I liked it enough I'll probably pick up the next book, mainly because I already own it, but I'm not exactly in a hurry.
And now I have a toothache.
No but seriously, this is every bit as disgustingly cute as everyone says it is. It'll make you smile and feel all sorts of happy for the boys and their burgeoning romance.
It doesn't have any real plot or story arc like you'd expect in a traditional graphic novel, and I'd probably knock off an extra star if I didn't know this was originally a web comic. I'm not personally a fan of the art style.
It's cute. It's sweet. The main characters are stereotypes but written to be extremely likeable. I'll definitely continue on with the series the next time I need to thaw my cold heart.
This world is absolutely amazing, and I love Lyra and Pan with all my heart. The descriptions of the land, the characters, and emotions are incredibly vivid and powerful.
Barely related personal note: I started reading this years ago and couldn't remember where I stopped. I have a bind up of all three novels and had seen the movie, so that made it even more difficult. After finishing the book, I still have no idea how far I originally read, but I can say it's a definite possibility I had actually finished it. If I did, that means I got to do one thing people always say they wish they could do: I read it for the first time again!
Short stories aren't really my thing, so I've been trying to adjust my rating criteria to be less strict than I would for a full novel. Everything you'd want is there in The Emperor's Soul, and then some. What can be accomplished in 100 pages is accomplished superbly. Would I have loved a full novel? Absolutely. But honestly I felt all the emotions despite only knowing the characters for a short time. I felt stress and urgency, and I really understood the motivations of the main character. Sanderson seriously has an interesting mind and excels at creating magic systems too.
I'm honestly surprised that everyone says this book is the weakest of Sanderson's. I read The Final Empire and got so annoyed with the words ‘flared' and ‘burned' by the end of Chapter 5 that I almost DNF'd it. Elantris, on the other hand, had me hooked from the first page and never let go. I loved the characters (especially Sarene), the magic system that needed fixing, and the politics.
I still don't know what to think. I still don't think I like the art style. I was more interested in the plot this time, but the characters mean almost nothing to me. There's something about the writing, art style, or both that's making my entire reading experience extremely distant and unemotional. At this point, I'm just using this series to fill in the gaps.
Hunger is an extremely raw memoir with many passages that have stuck with me almost a year later. I probably think of this book weekly, at the very least, if not more often than that. Gay is incredibly honest and straightforward. She doesn't shy away from any uncomfortable fact.
Speaking of comfort... it's incredibly uncomfortable to rate a book like this. I think the subject matter is very important. I think anyone who has never carried extra weight needs to read this book. There are things you would never consider that are on the minds of fat people every moment of every day. To rate the topic is wrong, in my opinion. I'm rating the organization and writing. While I think it was good, I think people will find it a little bit repetitive and maybe start to glaze over the importance of the message after a while. That being said, I have no idea how to improve it. I think it was great and powerful.