Christine

Why did this fall flat for me, when it has so many elements I love? I guess maybe that's the reason it fell flat - it felt like someone dumped “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717.SY75.jpg 3627], and [b:Meddling Kids 32905343 Meddling Kids Edgar Cantero https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1491342454l/32905343.SY75.jpg 53521810] into a bowl and unsuccessfully tried to mix them into a confection. It all struck me as shallow and derivative.I feel strange complaining that there wasn't enough of something I didn't like, but this might have been more successful as a full novel - the characters were really flat and would have benefited from being fleshed out and relatable. Also, the mystery was never very mysterious, so I got bored. Teasing out crumbs of information along the way might have worked better for me.

I loved the concept and how dang weird this was. I also loved the point of view from African American women dealing with the mundane horrors of racism, as well as supernatural forces linked to the Klan. The monsters were admirably disturbing and Lovecraftian as well. Shudder

My complaints can be mostly boiled down to: I wanted more. This is a short read, and while it can be good not to overstay one's welcome, I felt like I wasn't super engaged with the characters because I saw so little of them outside the strictly quest/battle-related activities. Most of the characters get only a blurb of development - this one is sassy and loves to shoot; that one learned explosives in the war and is gay. The individuals aren't fleshed out, and there's almost no development of relationships between them.

The other thing is the story has an improbably cheerful conclusion that doesn't fit the tone of the setup and main conflict. I'm not against happy endings, but this felt a little forced and pat.

Still, this was well worth the read, and I would happily read a sequel!

I couldn't get in the spirit of the “literary slapstick” style as one incisive friend put it. Oh well, you might like this if you're a Bronte and/or Dickens fan and do OK with “look how clever I'm being!” humor.

This wasn't really my cup of tea. The genre isn't “haunted house” so much as “torture porn” - so if you delight in spooky more than bloody, I don't recommend this.

I also feel like it was pretty amateurish in its style - very much airport-shop level writing. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, if you're in the mood. Hell, I have a couple of favorite Dean Koontz novels. But in this case the silliness became distracting for me.

I think the height of absurdity came when (spoilers follow): during the climactic battle, there's a pivotal fight between super-intelligent battle monkeys. Yes, really. And it's not approached tongue-in-cheek at all. Dead serious super-intelligent battle monkey fight. The other thing that leaped out at me was that one character's traumatic backstory involved her being stranded on an island with a bunch of cannibals AND a serial killer. I don't know - maybe this IS all meant satirically after all? But still, the bad guys are ciphers or downright absurd (so boring), and all the good guys survive and pretty much live happily ever after (also boring).

It had a few scary or funny moments, and if you want something lightweight and dig violent horror, you might want to check it out. Just not a great read for me.

This was decent enough to read to the end, but doesn't hold a candle to its predecessor. It utterly fails to fulfill the promise of [b:Vicious 40874032 Vicious (Villains, #1) V.E. Schwab https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532011194s/40874032.jpg 19250870].Really, this series would be great if it stuck to the basic framework of (don't laugh) Megamind - guy who sees himself as a villain winds up protecting people from his creation, who sees himself as a hero. The protagonist isn't perfect, but learns and grows into a true hero, even if he has flaws.Instead of pursuing the continuing story of Eli's evil pushing Victor to be better, this book creates a new supervillain and focuses a large percentage of the book on her, leaving Sydney, Victor, and Eli to function almost in the margins of Marcella's story. Unfortunately, Marcella is pretty much the most boring character ever conceived. There are Bond villains with more depth and charm.And Victor doesn't offer a foil to the power-hungry, amoral Marcella. Much more than in the first book, Victor is simply a clever psychopath rather than a flawed character we can identify with. I mean, he spends the entire book hunting down innocent people and murdering them in cold blood when they can't help him - even when they try to help and are no immediate threat! And no one (least of all the author) seems terribly fussed about this. Sydney raises one concern and is scared into shutting up, but Schwab can't seem to commit - she could have leveraged that moment to draw Victor as a really bad guy (arguably worse than Eli, since his motivations are less selfless!), and told a story about the people around him having to deal with that. But instead she has one character ineptly try to question his actions, and then treats Victor like a hero for the rest of the story.I was also disappointed that we didn't get much about the idea that EOs are missing some integral human element. I think there's one offhand mention that maybe people just become more themselves when they transform. But this was a major issue in the first book, and basically gets dropped in favor of lingering descriptions of Marcella's hair, eyes, legs, and outfits.If Victor couldn't embrace the Megamind role, at least we could have had Sydney as the protagonist, as she deals with having a guilt-ridden, messed up relationship with a father figure who is becoming more and more evil. Instead, we got a story mostly about:Marcella (violent sociopath)Victor (violent sociopath)Eli (violent sociopath, but at least gets an interesting origin story and thinks he's doing the right thing)June (marginally sympathetic at times, but ultimately a violent sociopath)(Also, a random complaint - EON was pathetic. This supposedly formidable quasi-military group could have solved 90% of their problems with lots of snipers and decent IT security.)

This is very different, and I loved it! It's Weird, but mostly in a very beautiful, poetic way. Everything about it is compelling, and there's definitely dramatic tension, but it also feels dreamy. The narrator is intelligent, resourceful, courageous, loving, and kind, but almost immediately the reader sees that there's a naivete that may be problematic. So much of his joy in life comes from unhesitating, total acceptance - is that a good thing, or a danger? So, no surprise that there are strong echoes of the Garden of Eden here. I've long thought about that story as expressing human frustration that we are driven to find out, learn, and understand, but there can be no learning without pain. A lot of the enjoyment involves watching the mystery open up and accompanying the narrator in his experiences. So I don't want to give much away. I'll just say that the writing and characterization are beautiful, while the plot steadily gains momentum as you go, and the ending is handled in a way I found satisfying. Along the way, I was reminded of a strange array of other great stories, including:[b:American Elsewhere 14781178 American Elsewhere Robert Jackson Bennett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1340758848l/14781178.SX50.jpg 20434248][b:The Library at Mount Char 26892110 The Library at Mount Char Scott Hawkins https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453225113l/26892110.SY75.jpg 42797715]Lovecraft's Dream Cycle: https://www.goodreads.com/series/212217-dream-cycle[b:Circe 35959740 Circe Madeline Miller https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565909496l/35959740.SY75.jpg 53043399]and even [b:Guards! Guards! 64216 Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch #1) Terry Pratchett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431127356l/64216.SY75.jpg 1128601], in that Corporal Carrot is also smart, capable, and above all Good, while being utterly clueless about a lot of things his more cynical compatriots understand.

This was cute and had a sweet, homey feel. It doesn't really delve at length into the Big Questions, but it certainly gives them an emotional, thoughtful consideration. The central relationships are warm and touching, and this was a lovely, restorative little story to read as we head into the Bleak Midwinter of a horribly difficult year.

I would call this 3.5 stars. Cute and droll, but lacking any emotional heft or complexity that might have made it truly memorable. I chuckled sometimes, I appreciated the homages to Buffy, but I found myself wishing for more coherent connections between the characters, and a deeper investment in someone's point of view.

The audiobook reading was on par with the story. Mostly capable, and some decent voices, with a pleasant default voice and appealing-if-misplaced English accent. But the narrator stumbles all too often, punching emphasis in the wrong place or misconstruing American slang.

I can recognize the skill and care that went into crafting six different styles of narrative, but I wasn't drawn in by the stories very much. The Sonmi tale was the most engaging, but it was a bit silly and concluded with something akin to “it was all a dream,” which I always find annoying. Don't get me invested in a character and a story, then invalidate the whole story at the end!

The rest of the stories I just couldn't generate much interest in, and the central tale's use of phonetic dialect was so obnoxious I skipped most of it.

I'm also not sure this is a novel, so much as six slightly related short stories. The overarching theme that allegedly connects them seems fairly shallow to me, and the mechanisms by which they refer to each other also pull the old, “Ha, it's not real” trick that is so irritating to me.

In short, I can see why people like this, but it didn't work for me at all.

A good story, but clearly the first novel of a short-story author. The plot and the scary interludes are surrounded by far too much padding. Especially considering that I knew exactly what was going on within the first few chapters, I got a little bored and impatient. There are far too many repetitions of the same scenario: Don has an odd experience. He does a little research or stumbles on a clue about his wife's activities. Then he blacks out or wakes up from a nightmare, and subsides into a booze-hazed senility, followed by rather tedious accounts of his navigating his everyday life in an addled and unhappy way.

It's kind of like if Call of Cthulhu had Thurston discovering his uncle's papers, but instead of energetically pursuing the research, he was so disturbed he got really drunk, then spent long passages arguing with his girlfriend, resenting his rich neighbors, and wondering if that other uncle of his was a spy, before proceeding to the tale of Inspector Legrasse and so on.

Worth a read if you're a Lovecraft fan - it definitely owes a lot to H.P., and recreates his approach to cosmic horror in a fairly accurate way. But don't feel bad if you find yourself skimming some sections.

Lewis is so clever, intelligent, and insightful - it makes me sad that he was beholden to irrational beliefs that inspired him to ignore the logical conclusions of his inquiries, and sometimes even to advocate for truly monstrous ideas.

The good:

Screwtape's observations are keenest when they touch on human nature and the pleasure or misery it can bring to oneself and others. The passive-aggressiveness that can reside in “selflessness,” the danger of assuming that romantic infatuation alone can sustain a long-term relationship, and the paradoxical human need for both novelty and familiarity - these are examples of the most thought-provoking and useful passages.

The bad:

By writing from the satirical point of view of a demon, Lewis certainly brings some humor to the tale. But this also allows him to dodge the Problem of Evil and other logical gaps. From the demons' vantage, Yahweh is understandably inscrutable. But if one steps back, it's pretty disturbing how much the “loving” deity likes to mess with the heads of its followers.

In fact, I found it really shocking that Lewis, who seems genuinely interested in morality and benevolence, explicitly venerates infant death as one of the greatest goods on Earth.

And of course, he's completely a product of his time. His language is unrelentingly sexist, and his ideas don't contradict that theme.

He sometimes seems less philosophically reflective than butthurt that trendy people consider him passe. In the later “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” he goes full Grumpy Old Man, decrying kids these days. His rant dovetails perfectly with today's “everyone getting a trophy is ruining civilization” complaints. Except that his objections go far beyond soccer trophies. He literally argues against free universal education, worrying that the “dunces” are dragging down the properly intelligent (i.e. rich enough for private school) students.

The upshot:

All in all this was worth reading because Lewis is so influential, and he does offer some very clever insights into human foibles. But it was neither as entertaining nor as intelligent as I would have expected.

Perfect bedtime story to read with middle-graders. Hilarious and fun, with great drawings!

“I don't know how much perfume that [Enjoli] commercial sold, but I guarantee you it moved a lot of antidepressants and antianxiety meds.”

This book is chock full of quotable bits like this. I can still sing that damn commercial, and yes, it's a good emblem of the problem Calhoun seems to be centering: we're the first generation that was told we could truly “have it all,” with unlimited choices and all the potential one could imagine, and it turns out that's not actually a recipe for happiness. Maybe having all the choices improves happiness, but being told constantly that you can have it all makes you feel unsure, inadequate, and unfulfilled.While that aspect is significant for GenX women entering middle age, I think this would have been more interesting book if it focused on the unacknowledged struggle for women overall during middle age, given that we go through a lot, yet don't have a handy, societally-recognized syndrome like men do. The “GenX has these unique challenges” could have been a chapter in that book.Instead, this spends a lot of time on a litany of headlines and statistics meant to demonstrate the GenX has had it especially hard. I'm not at all sure I buy that, and these chapters started to feel like wallowing if not whining. Also, if I didn't personally relate to a factor (e.g., my parents didn't get divorced), I didn't feel much interest in that section. It's like this relies too much on “poor me” nostalgia rather than research and exploring interesting questions and their possible solutions.There's still a lot of good stuff in here, though. And a proposed solution of sorts: acceptance brings peace, so try not to look at “You can have it all” as a list of failed aspirations to flagellate yourself with (career, money, romance, family, fitness, philanthropy, parenting, and - heaven help us - “wellness”).Though it's a mixed bag at best; the Paradox of Choice is real.

The hook for this book is its spot-on mimicry of IKEA catalogs and its setting in an satirically IKEA-like store. But the story is actually well-written and engaging. I think it would be particularly affecting for readers who have had to rely on retail work for survival.

This was a lot of fun, though it does get pretty dark and verges on a kind of “Saw” vibe at times later in the story. I don't usually go in for that type of torture/sadism horror, but it wasn't overwhelming and was set into a larger scary story in a way that worked fine for me.

It's worth noting that there is an audiobook of this, and while it can't quite achieve the charm of the physical book, with its blueprint-style product illustrations and occasional store document images, it does employ Bronson Pinchot as a special narrator who comes in, accompanied by sparkling harp riffs, to read the silly product names and gushing catalog descriptions that open each chapter.

This is the most irritating kind of book: something that seems exactly suited to your tastes, has a strong start, and then becomes a hot mess. And you resent every successive flaw all the more because of all the squandered potential.

This, my friends, became a full-on Bitch Eating Crackers of a novel for me.

This starts out as a fun spin on the Gothic novel: our plucky-but-poorly-connected heroine is a socially awkward math nerd who arranges her own marriage by logically analyzing the local bachelor pool and selecting someone who might like a business arrangement of a marriage, rather than a love match. He jumps at the chance because he could use someone with a head for numbers and organization, and . . . any wife of his must never spend the night at Lindridge Hall!!!

Oh, I was so on board! And the (inevitable) first night that circumstances strand her there is suitably creepy and disturbing. Plus there were intimations that we were dealing with a Cosmic Horror angle that really intrigued me.

Alas, the contrivances begin to pile up quickly. The “reasons” why Jane “has to” spend more and more nights at the Hall are so silly they would make a good SNL skit sending up Gothic horror.

Even worse, the arc of the romance is all screwed up. IMHO, a Gothic tale involves a keen attraction, slowly undermined by steadily escalating reasons for doubt. In this book, there's early and ample evidence that he's a lying liar who lies, to the point that Jane's devotion makes no sense (other than It's in the Plot that she has to be driven to do certain things).

Without spoilers, here's an idea of what it's like:

Jane: Augustine, where did that priceless Ming vase in the parlor go?
Augustine: What? We never had a Ming vase. You must have dreamed it.

Jane: Oh, here is the receipt for the Ming vase from the auction house, and a photo of it in the parlor.
Augustine: Oh, right, I guess maybe we had one, but I never paid much attention to it.

Jane: The housekeeper said she helped you move the vase to a different corner three weeks ago.
Augustine: Now that you mention it, yes, I guess I did. I just . . . wanted to keep this as a surprise - I had it refurbished for your upcoming birthday!

Jane: Augustine, I just found the shattered remains of the Ming vase stuffed behind the couch cushions.
Augustine: Well, yes, I must make a clean breast of things and confess that I accidentally knocked it over last week. There, now you know my dark secret - I feel so relieved!

Old school friend of Augustine's, dropping by for no reason: He always hated that Ming vase.

This book clearly wants to be The Turn of the Screw, but makes the mistake of imitating all the trappings without harnessing the ambiguity that is the essence of James's spooky atmosphere.

We have a naive governess in a creepy country manor, two children who evoke both protectiveness and uncertainty in her, and ghostly presences. Disturbing history is slowly revealed.

I'd say this book is at its best when it undermines convention - for instance, the exploration of a female figure that vanishes when pursued was a nice element. The motivation for the haunting is an interestingly novel, yet Gothic factor. The author clearly loves classic English weird fiction, giving a prominent shout-out to Dickens' “The Signalman” and obviously paying homage to Henry James, as noted. I felt kinship and affection for the author on this score.

What drags this story down is its impulse to explain, categorize, and tie up all plot points. After a fairly effective (if derivative) depiction of tight-lipped locals grudgingly revealing bits of background, the story eventually devolves into a tell-don't-show wrap up that dissolves any sense of mystery or dread, and results in a lackluster action-scene climax.

This was for my PopSugar reading challenge, and fulfills the “A book at least 100 years older than you” requirement - in fact this is almost exactly 100 years older than me, and I finished it on my birthday. Appropriate!

This was a lot of fun. Anyone with a passing knowledge of vampire fiction will see exactly what's going on in short order, and it might be tempting to complain that this uses a lot of tired tropes. But of course, this was preceded by only a few examples of vampire literature, and was a key point in the development from vampire folklore to modern vampire fiction. So it's not derivative, it's seminal! OK, the anagrammed names were silly - I'm glad that “rule” of vampires didn't catch on.

Surprisingly readable for something written in 1872, it was quick to get through, and didn't overstay its welcome. I definitely recommend this for anyone with an interest in the genre.

This is a review of the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

I loved this story. This approach to metafiction has been done before, but Scalzi brings so much wit and heart to it, this story stands above the rest. Of course it helps if you are a fan of Star Trek - any series in the franchise will do.

I found the first coda to be tiresome, but even that sour note is not enough for me to deduct a star. This is fresh and fun, and has the best quality of a parody - an obviously affectionate and thorough knowledge of the source material. It's also surprisingly emotionally engaging. I knew I'd laugh when I bought the book, but little did I suspect it would also cause some sobbing along the way.

Wil Wheaton isn't as dynamic as some audiobook readers (he doesn't create distinctive voices for the characters, and his reading does highlight how clunky and repetitive “he said” can become as a frame for dialog), but he clearly had a lot of fun with this, and I found his enjoyment infectious. Also, it's hard not to love him when his voice breaks a bit at a particularly emotional moment.

This was very sweet and weirdly cozy in its own way. I'll probably pick up the next one when I'm in the mood for something soothing. The characters are pretty good, and it's pleasant. It's a nice story but there's no real plot. There is absolutely no throughline involving a conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution.

Instead, there's an overarching mission that gives them a reason to sort of wagon train through the galaxy, and each chapter is a little vignette involving a stop along the way. And while the vignettes technically have conflict and stakes, they're barely established before they're resolved pretty neatly.

This is not a bad thing, but I was expecting much more “what happens next” energy when I picked this up. Instead, this is a series of fairly low-key character interactions, with occasional-but-brief moments of tension or serious emotional impacts. Instead of “what happens next” it's “hmm, let's check in with Rosemary and crew.”

That said, I liked a lot of the characters enough that I DO want to check in with them again!

I still love you, Mike Carey, but I just can't with this. I felt like I'd been reading forever, only to discover there were still 337 pages to go!

I kept waiting for the setup to end and the real plot to get going, only to realize that this was mostly going to be a drama about corruption and brutality in a prison, not a ghost story. The actual ghost story has an intriguing hook at the start, and then goes pretty much nowhere. Flipping to the end of the book shows me that the big reveal for that storyline is exactly what I figured out in the first two chapters.

If you're interested in a grim realistic story of prison life, layered with a kind of spiritual journey, this may delight you. I came for a ghost story, and I'm leaving early and unhappily.

Just not my cup of tea - when I pick up a spooky house book, I'm looking for [b:The Haunting of Hill House 89717 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717.SY75.jpg 3627] or [b:The Silent Companions 35458733 The Silent Companions Laura Purcell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500725504l/35458733.SY75.jpg 55746774], and this turns out much more like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even before the strict horror starts, the plot turns on casual sexual degradation in a way I didn't care for. Then the gore starts. This book sets out to be creepy, nasty, sexually violent, and full of detailed butchery, and it succeeds. I only came for the “creepy” part, so this just didn't work well for me.

I liked this, but I felt like the main character's angst (sometimes justified, sometimes just silly whining) was the main driver of the story, and it got a bit tiring.

This remains a wonderful story. The opening is the strongest - super creepy journey through the Carpathian mountains and subsequent guest visit (which morphs into imprisonment in a very unsettling way) at Castle Dracula.

After that the story can drag at times, due to far too much phonetic dialect, too many iterations of Lucy coming back from the brink of death, and rising action toward the climax that sometimes feels like reading the time tables for trains & ships. Still, even in audio form when one can't skim these passages, the investment is well worth it.

The full cast Audible recording is delightful, and it's nice to get an extra helping of Tim Curry towards the end, as Van Helsing writes a lengthy account of his journey with Mina. Alan Cumming is great as well, and the actor reading Harker is also really strong.

This was . . . fine, I guess? Making it clear that self-care doesn't necessarily mean BUYING THINGS is valuable. Some of the items on the list are quite useful actions to support one's happiness or mental health.

But there are several drawbacks.

Most importantly, the organization is so poorly thought out. It's literally an alphabetical list of wildly unrelated activities, which are themselves labeled in a haphazard way. The first item is a quotation. OK, finding quotations that speak to you can be supportive in times of trouble. But shouldn't this item be called “Quotations” and filed under Q? Nope. It's filed under the label “A.A. Milne.” But it's . . . not written by A.A. Milne. What? Borges specifically calls this out, and it's weird. How did this get past an editor?

Another example is several concepts from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy are listed, but not under “DBT.” Rather, they're called by their mnemonic acronyms.

Overall, it's hard to believe no one in the publication process suggested the ideas be grouped conceptually, so someone in search of a suitable activity could figure out where to look. Off the top of my head, sections called “Inspiration,” “Psychological Therapy,” and “Physical Pampering” would make far more sense than an abecedarian list!

This leads me to another drawback - in my humble opinion, too many of these suggestions could be grouped conceptually under “Psuedoscience.” Astrology? Tarot? No thanks, and mention of them robs credibility from the evidence-based suggestions. At least if there were a category like “Paranormal Pursuits” or “Religious Practice” I could have just skipped it. As it was, it was jarring and irritating to have thoroughly debunked silliness side by side with practical interventions.

Finally, the little blurbs by individuals meant to underline some concepts didn't really contribute anything. And in audio book format, they were downright confusing, since it wasn't super clear we weren't reading the author's first-person accounts.

All in all, I'd suggest a therapist or at least a solid book on CBT/DBT if anyone is interested in the suggestions that have the most heft here. Combing through a lot of poorly organized randomness in search of occasional wisdom isn't worth the investment when that wisdom is available in other places.

Spoiler-free review, copied from my Audible account.

Where does The Girl with All the Gifts rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
Near the top. The narration isn't perfect, but the story is so fabulous, this is in my top five.

What other book might you compare The Girl with All the Gifts to and why?
I don't want to give too much away. I would say if you like science fiction or horror with really excellent characterization, relationships, and well-earned emotion, you will love this. People who like John Scalzi, or Let Me [the Right One] In will probably love this.

Also, this story is chock full of female characters who are fully realized and not valued primarily for their sex appeal. I don't feel like Carey set out to write a feminist novel by any means, but he seems to respect and like women and realize that we are people too, and can carry a story that will appeal to both sexes. It was a delight to read a gripping story that passed the Bechdel test effortlessly, without feeling strained or political about it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
YES! I looked forward to waiting in line or doing menial chores, so I would have more opportunities to listen.

Any additional comments?
Finty Williams does a very good job overall. She gives the correct emotional tone to each passage, and the characters are easy to differentiate. The one thing that bugged me to no end was her pronunciation of Justineau (which is one of the most common words in the novel, unfortunately). I don't know if it was a bad attempt at a really authentic French accent, or ignorance of how “eau” is pronounced, but it comes out “Justinoo” and it annoyed me throughout.