Tadhg
I would have given this 3.5 stars if I could have. I think my enjoyment of Lagoon was spoilt by the rave reviews I've heard of it - which caused me to feel I was missing some deeper meaning throughout. I've also been in a reading slump.
This was beautifully written as expected and I liked the use of pidgin English even though sometimes I had to stop reading to figure out what it meant. I suspect that my enjoyment of Lagoon will increase over time as it marinades in my brain
I did not find the dialogue realistic; this was also a problem with Blood Slave though not as much and it had a more compelling plot. People do not usually stand up for themselves in the way Roseau writes them and do not articulate their needs so well. This makes it difficult to stay in the plot when I'm thrown out of it by thinking “no one would ever say that”
I made the mistake of starting to read this at 11pm and read it in one sitting, so I am knackered today.
This is an abusive relationship, but it doesn't pretend not to be (although given how the book ends, that is perhaps not accurate - at least it doesn't pretend to be healthy). It would be difficult to pretend otherwise given the premise is that Melissa is made into a ‘blood slave' for a vampire as punishment for breaking the law. Therefore this book is extremely dark and not easy to read in places, though the fantastical setting mitigates that somewhat. I like that the abusive elements were not treated as non-abusive and had addiction involved. I also liked that Lady Dunn (the vampire) is not overly humanised for most of the book; she has almost no empathy, enjoys many aspects of owning a blood slave and she is a predator which is reinforced throughout the book.
I did see Melissa's ‘turning point' coming a mile away and Lady Dunn's part in it (cryptic, but trying not to have spoilers) and the ending was too neat with Lady Dunn changing too much for my liking, becoming more human in her interactions. Also, while Stockholm Syndrome is mentioned earlier in the book it is not mentioned towards the end when it is perhaps more applicable.
There were several errors in the text which were annoying, discrepancies with dates in Lady Dunn's life for example. These pulled me out of the narrative and were easily avoidable.
Overall a very enjoyable read.
meh. This didn't really feel like Jane Sagan. I wouldn't expect her ‘internal monologue' to sound exactly like her ‘soldier voice', but I'd expect to see similarities in the same person. While I did laugh during the sex chapter where she has no idea (or interest in) what John is talking about, that was about the only part of the novella that was engaging.
Maybe this is more of a 3.5 stars but I'm feeling generous :)I really liked the characters, particularly Jared and the whole concept of consciousness and individuality in this world.The “he said/Jane said/etc” is not as pronounced in this book as it is in [b:Redshirts 13055592 Redshirts John Scalzi https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348617890s/13055592.jpg 18130445], probably because the dialogue is broken up more. Perhaps Redshirts is not a good book to judge [a:John Scalzi 4763 John Scalzi https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1407277112p2/4763.jpg] by (I was very disappointed by it).Onwards to [b:The Sagan Diary 61664 The Sagan Diary (Old Man's War, #2.5) John Scalzi https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388321306s/61664.jpg 15558795]
I'm really looking forward to the film, even though I usually dread book adaptations; this book is a film on paper (or e-ink screen).
At the beginning I found Mark irritating but it picked up when the Earth POV was introduced. The idea of rescuing someone from Mars is obviously ridiculous, financially alone, but the action was paced well enough to keep the voice in my head from saying “that would never happen”.
I think this book captured the atmosphere of climbing disaster memoirs really well, such as “Into thin air” and “touching the void”, and I love those kind of books so it worked really well for me.
I really liked this book; would have given it 4.5 stars. I suppose the format of a survivor relating the major event they have survived gives a novel automatic suspense but at no point did I find this predictable. The characters were all likeable, especially Emilio, Anne and Sofia which is probably not a good thing given what happened to each of them :(One thing that annoyed me is the author explicitly telling us the Jana'ata have prehensile feet (to explain part of their prowess) and also placing emphasis on Supaari's boots (in order to show similarities to ourselves). This pulled me out of the narrative because I find it ridiculous that a species with prehensile feet would develop footwear, thereby limiting their function; this annoyed me because I feel it was done simply for a plot point rather than as part of the world she'd created. A small thing, barely even a sentence in a 500+ page book, but it did throw me out of the rhythm.Emilio's final confession was dragged out somewhat, though given the obsession religions have with sex and all it's permutations I suppose it fits into the world. Normally I struggle with religion in books, particularly Christianity, but I didn't feel it a hindrance in this book; though perhaps my fondness for Anne and Sofia was their atheism and lapsed Judaism respectively.I only discovered there is a sequel ([b:Children of God 16948 Children of God (The Sparrow, #2) Mary Doria Russell https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1373509005s/16948.jpg 882029]) when I finished this and I'm almost disappointed - thought I'd managed to reduce my TBR!
I really liked this; it dove straight into the plot and jumping back and forth in time worked well as the different POV. I appreciated the language/pronouns used for Avery throughout and the shocked reaction of Imogen. The introduction of Elizabeth's POV was a bit jarring but once her role became clear and the fact that although the chapters were nominally POVs, they weren't first-person, her chapters advanced the plot well.
Still have questions, but we shouldn't expect stories of people's lives to wrap up neatly
This definitely suffered from being read as an audiobook for me. I was very distracted by life-things whilst listening and didn't realise how distracted I'd been until I switched to reading the last 30% and noticed events being referred to that I have no memory of.
Even considering how much I missed, I really enjoyed this; so much that it's already been put on my ‘to read again' shelf. Mostly, I really want to go to the circus!
Would have been 3.5 stars if it were an option (4 seems too much but I expect it'll go up when I get round to reading it again)
“oh god, never listen to an audiobook which has sex scenes in it. horribly awkward”
My first statement still stands, it was even worse when they were...uh...complete sex scenes.
Not sure that I'll bother with the rest of the series as I suspect it'll be mainly Justine trying to choose between two of the characters. The world is interesting, sort has a comic book feel which is not my thing but the disillusioning was intriguing though morally suspect.
sacrilegious I know, but I felt the second half of the book was weak. The beginning started off so strong setting up an epic struggle which then dissolved into a walk in the park resolution. Even the ‘significant' loss suffered didn't feel significant as no time was spent on it. It felt like it was thrown in to show Paul suffering in his victory but he didn't.
not too sure what I think about this book to be honest; really enjoyed the first half but the second half not so much, the pace was a bit too slow. My least favourite Sarah Waters book since Affinity (but I think my taste has changed significantly since The Little Stranger came out).
Would have been 3.5 stars
I liked this better than Snuff, though that may be largely because I listened to the audiobook which allows me to get through books I would otherwise lem.
This was an ode to trains and I don't have much interest in trains. There was a sense throughout the book of times changing/ a new era beginning which makes me wonder about the discworld itself.
Had I been reading this, rather than listening to an audiobook, I'm sure I would have lemmed it - though that has been the case for the whole series. It's particularly the case for this one. Whereas very little has happened in the series, as in there has been no clearly defined beginning-middle-end plot, nothing happened in this one. Obviously things happened, but they didn't really have much impact on me.
Whilst I'll probably listen to the audiobook of the next one (I don't know if another has been announced, but I'd be surprised if there isn't another one), I'll not be impatiently waiting for it.
I really like the use of comics for biographical works, something about the visual element allows for a expression of mental states which resonates better with me.
It was a jolt to see a medication I took briefly mentioned in this book, but it hit home that there are commonalities between bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. I think the author got across the mania of a manic episode really well as well as the frustration of not being able to ‘fix' the ‘problem'.