Rhonda
I don't like to be a jerk. I enjoyed it, mostly, but the last 30% was a real slog. I kept waiting for Stanley to wrap it the heck up....
I had to go back and edit this because, honestly, it's inspired me to cook. So, thanks Stan. Sorry I called 30% of your life a slog. It was actually good again at the end. Parmesan stock in the bolognese? Perfect. The martini? Thanks. My husband is a bartender and confirmed all the 30 seconds this and that would matter. So of course I made him do it. Honestly, someone else's effort is the best seasoning.
I thought this was an enjoyable children's novel, that, as an adult, didn't put me off. The main character is likeable, there's some nice fantasy involved. I passed it along to my 12 year old.
This was really not very good at all. Some such people go do rich people things, fuck around, find out. Predictable. The good news is, it's a novella.
This was an exceptional book, which I wasn't really expecting. TBH, I didn't know anything about ol' Matthew McConaughey except that he is in one of my top favorite movies of all time INTERSTELLAR.
If I had to take a half a point off it would be that Interstellar was only a blurb in the book, but, whatever. He had me from page one.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the audio version.
Well, this is a thing I read. I would not have eat l read it without it being part of a book club I'm in. I read it for the prizes that came in the box.
The main character is unlikable. So is the whole weird family.
The writing is simple and easy to get through. It's not as bad as 2 indicates, but there's no .5 here. 2.5, cos I didn't have to just stop reading. I just didn't really like it.
The book involves a Photographer who makes things up in the pictures she takes to make her life more in line with what she wants, while she ingratiates herself to a family she becomes obsessed with. Honestly, I had a hard time with how the family were like “sure random photographer, please just stay and babysit!” but I suppose maybe that does happen with self-important people...
The story was meh. Lady has weird dream, is dissatisfied with life, has best friend, best friend gets sick...
...I can no longer tolerate books that take place in NYC. They are always so snooty. All the name dropping and they always come with fashion. I was wearing J Crew this, he was wearing a sweater from such and such while we frolicked over to this place so superior blah blah. Kills the story.
Like all collections, some were better than others but I didn't really find any of them particularly great. I wanted to like it, but I did not. The writing was okay, but I just didn't care about any of the stories. It's hard to care in a page and a half.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Could have just been some rich woman talking but life has certainly attempted to humble Anne out. An abusive husband, the death of her sons, her third son's accident... The “just get on with it” attitude. So sad in a way but also inspiring.
I wanted to love this book. I did like it. It was a quick and easy read, and I believe the author will improve since this is a debut novel. Spoilers included.
I thought the relationship between 4 women who had been friends in college was interesting enough, and we can all related to growing up and growing in distance from our “childhood” or young adult friends, and many females will relate to the competitive nature of close female friendships. That being said, the climax of the book kind of reminded me of that weird feeling you get at the end of the Wonder Woman movie, where everything is going great, and then it's kind of a strange show down that feels a little out of place. The connection between the Julie and Elise never felt so strong that what would happen happened, it kind of felt thrown together. I know I read over and over again that their bond was closer... I also got pretty tired of the shortened cutesy names “Maebs” and so on.
You never quite know what Elise is except some kind of “other” being, all the while getting alien abduction vibes, and I never really understood why the hotel itself seemed to be doing creepy stuff, unless just the nature of Julie's being caused it to feel creepy?
That being said, it was overall enjoyable, I wouldn't work actively to dissuade someone from reading it, it comes in right that 300 page mark that doesn't require a lot of effort, and it was a pleasant Easter weekend read from my hammock.
I just really, really did not enjoy this book. It was repetitive, telling me again and again things like how someone can't be seen on their cam if they're driving or whatever. The ending was no shocker. The violence wasn't edgy. And the plot holes are about a mile wide.
I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written. I don't typically love magic, but really enjoyed the bloody ritual and the sort of ...I guess magic time travel paradox.
Solid historical fiction novel. I put it off, fearing too much religion and was pleasantly surprised.
Solid collection. A couple of stories really hit home, a couple weren't my favorite. That's the way of short story collections.
Specifically, the few pages of The Torch stirred some intense feelings. I enjoyed Occupied, and The Language of Cats and Dogs will probably resonate with most females on the earth.
My opinion of this book can best be summed up with one of my in-progress comments, “I wish I hadn't.” I felt no connection to any character. I feel the author was trying too hard to do the whole intellectual thing. The writing sucked, the 9 year old boy was not a believable character, and I just did not care one iota what happened to any one. So, once again: I wish I hadn't.
Super meh.
I kept zoning out while reading this. It started off well enough, but by a fifth of the way through I just did not give a shit. But, I'd made it to the point where I figured I should keep on.
Read it through my flight to Florida. Thought things were looking up when they were meeting the revenants, then on to Paris, then back to zoning the heck out.
Couldn't bring myself to care about Claudia. Honestly thought the book was just trashy enough I wasn't sure how the Claudia thing was going to pan out.
There's a lot to go over with this one, but I did enjoy it. Cancer, eating disorders..
At first I didn't love it because, frankly, I don't generally enjoy the “New York” thing and the characters weren't relatable to me at all, but then I found out I was hooked watching this young girl be so damn unhappy.
Would recommend.
This isn't a book I would ordinarily pick up, so I was surprised when I kind of loved it. It's not a hard read, nor is the writing so dumbed down that it bored me. It took me about a day to read it, but I found I didn't really want to put it down.
Will I read other Tarryn Fisher books? I don't know. Probably. This was entirely on a whim, it was on the new shelf at the library I work at and it just seemed to say “read me.” I'm glad I did. A lot of twists and turns, but not the sort that made me feel she had written them just for the sake of trying to make me feel like she was trying to trick me.
Solid book.
I love JVN.
That being said... he's better in word than text. It was basically like reading one big long podcast. I will listen to JVN. I will watch JVN. But I did not enjoy trying to read JVN.
One of my favorite historical fictions. Took me about 300 pages to actually care when I was tackling this behemoth, but when I got there I loved every single word of it and could barely stop reading.