Nik
Sometimes you appreciate a creative work so much that simply buying the book is not enough. You look for a Kickstarter or an IndieGogo or a Patreon or a Kofi, hoping for more ways to support the author. This is one such work, a great debut novel. I only have one criticism, and that's that the main cast was too perfect. I don't mean that they led charmed lives, because they didn't; what I mean is that in almost every situation, when facing almost every challenge, they acted how one might hope they would act. Like, you know how sometimes you say or do something, and two days later you're like awww, maaaan, I should've said/done this other thing, that would've been so much better. Most of these characters, most of the time, act and react in an almost ideal way; and, in so doing, their credibility is somewhat diminished. That niggle out of the way, there is so much here to love. The Carter parents interactions are wonderful, as is Starr's ability to appreciate them and see her parents as individuals separate from just “Mom” and “Dad”; this ability speaks to a maturity far beyond her 16 years. The whole family dynamic, in fact, is so great: there is so much love, compassion, and empathy. I look forward to reading whatever Angie Thomas has next in store for us. (I was on an airplane without in-flight Wi-Fi while I was writing this, so I wasn't able to look up that what she has in store for us is [b:On the Come Up 36578443 On the Come Up Angie Thomas https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1549338526s/36578443.jpg 56364068] and it just came out a little bit ago and I must buy it immediately.)
I feel like I've been reading either 1s or 5s, lately, and I'm kind of exhausted. This is yet another in a long line of debut novels I've unintentionally read this year, and it's unexpectedly, astonishingly brilliant.
The pace was perfect, in that my mind never wandered whilst I read it. The storytelling was perfect, in that I had trouble putting down the book and kept thinking about it when I wasn't reading it. It was almost entirely predictable, but not offensively so, which I found impressive. Great ending, too, which is often where a story fails me.
The content (warning: child abuse) makes it difficult to read, but in the end Eleanor's story didn't leave me shattered. While her experience was certainly devastating, she survived and eventually learned how to live. Her life is full of hope and compassion in entirely delightful ways. Within context, Eleanor's interactions and leaps of logic felt natural; the story didn't feel contrived and I didn't feel manipulated.
Fantastic.
It's a story about an astronaut on a planet, how good can it be?
Turns out, pretty darn good. I'm not a space or sci-fi buff, and I haven't yet seen the film, and I'm pretty good about shielding myself from spoilers, so I didn't really know what to expect. I found the story surprisingly thrilling and quite often chuckleworthy. The prose is simple—which I appreciated, having just read Dickens a few days ago.
The Martian is just...well, it's just a fast, fun read, well worth your time.
Cute series, but I'm too old for it. YA is my favourite, but this is super, super Y. Still, I'm glad I saw it through to the end; the last book was a pleasant surprise.
Generally I feel that authors are perpetuating stereotypes when they write kids' dialogue; too often, it sounds like an imitation of the real thing. Here, Oseman has done a great job making the language sound natural. I'm probably a little too old for this one—it was just a touch too angsty, y'know?—but the story kept me interested throughout: I was invested in the characters and really wanted to know what was going to happen next. The diverse cast is also a refreshing and welcome change from my usual fare.
This young author is off to a fantastic start.
(4.5 stars.) I read American Gods for the first time years ago and didn't think much of it. I decided to give it another try because everyone I know loves it, and I thought I must be missing something. I don't remember my initial reading, so I don't know what I missed, but it was definitely something; this time around, I found it to be an absorbing tale.
This has been on my TBR list for years, but I had no idea what it was about or what to expect. It turns out this series is very different from what I thought it might be. It's utterly charming and enjoyable. What drew me in immediately was the colouring, which is really beautiful. Then I got to know the characters, who are entirely too cute. One of them is just a little chaos monster and I love them. Actually, so far, I pretty much love them all, which is rare for me—I'm usually irritated by everyone. Finally, the dialogue and interactions are just great: there were many little things which made me chuckle aloud, which—again—is rare for me.
I'm so happy I started this series. Really looking forward to the next volume.
MY EYES TRIP OVER A MAN AND GET STUCK.
This was the first sentence in my copy of the book. Just like that, in all caps. Never before have I wanted to DNF a book after the very first sentence. It turns out, it wasn't the first sentence; it and a few of the paragraphs that followed it were lifted from the chapter and used as a foreword of sorts. I thought it was a bit odd, but whatever. The point is, omg that sentence. I rolled my eyes so hard I gave myself a headache.
But it was a buddy read and a book club selection and I'd just joined the book club and I wanted to participate and Felicia Day and ... well, you know how it is. So I took some Excedrin and kept reading. I figured there'd be more eye rolling soon enough, and I may as well get it all out of the way before the meds kicked in.
There was a lot of eye rolling.
Eventually, as usually happens with a good story, I got interested enough to put aside the snark. Mostly. There was a lot of oooh, he touched me, so hot, I burn, scorching, etc. which was irritating. There was a lot of mild rape fantasy stuff, wherein woman—despite her strength and self-reliance—falls for big, bad, burly, manly man who, let's not forget, kidnaps her, and that was frankly hugely problematic for me.
But it is in fact a good story; or, at least, it is a story with many goodish and enjoyable elements. There's the fun take on Greek mythology and godsly shenanigans, there's all sorts of fun magic that I've not seen before, there's a fantastic chapter in which our protagonist is completely high and it's spectacularly hilarious, and there's a really stellar supporting cast. And a circus! I wish we'd gotten to see more of that.
A lot of the writing feels really young, and that's probably what irked me in the beginning, because I'm a grumpy old. But in time, I came around to thinking that it works here, for these characters and this story, and I guess maybe they don't have to get off my lawn. For now.
The first time I read this book, I was so enraged by the whole idea of it and turned off by the violence. I like going in to new stories without knowing anything about them, but in this case it might have been a little better if I'd read the backmatter for some context. Now that I know a little more about the book and its creators, the grr has turned into a rowr, the rage into power.
What a beautifully told, riveting tale. I felt less like I was reading a book than sat by the hearth for story time. The Golem and the Jinni is simply yet powerfully written, steeped in mathematical mysticism, Arabian mythology, and Jewish folklore.
Our story is a fascinating mish-mash of fantasy and historical fiction that takes place, for the most part, in 19th-century New York City. If you're familiar with the Lower East Side, there's a bit of extra special magic in visualising the beloved, present-day streets overlaid with exquisite historical detail conjured from imagination and gleaned from old photos of the area.
It's amazing that this is the author's first novel. It's a sublime reading experience that I hope will be matched by future works.
I really enjoyed the story, but—as usual—I had to work to look past the writing to enjoy it. If Brown could write well, I'd easily consider this a 4-star book.
I was going to omit a rating, because I'm definitely not the target audience and I didn't want to unfairly affect its overall score. I thought maybe it just didn't age well, or something; but then I read a few reviews written by teenagers and now I feel better about my gut reaction: it's just bad. The main characters are slappable, the guy is gross, the parents are super-slappable, the dialogue is unbelievable. The supporting cast isn't terrible (I like Jamie), but honestly, the possibly-probably queer guy being suicidal and ending up in the psych ward isn't a narrative that needs to be encouraged or supported in this day and age. For that matter, the fat girl being promiscuous was also really gross and awful. It's way past time that these decades-old stereotypes were squashed.
Bits of this book made me sob because, very unfortunately, they struck a chord. Usually that's a good thing and books that make me feel the feels generally get high ratings. But when it comes to abuse (child, spousal), I think I'd rather the chord remain unstruck. But the “it was okay” rating isn't because it was too real, too intense, because those are good things even if they're difficult. It wasn't because I felt manipulated, as Chelsea pointed out, although maybe I should have. It was because all the stuff surrounding the abuse, leading up to it and peripheral to it, caused a lot of eye rolling. Kelly said it pretty perfectly, I think: first Atlas and then Ryle were “the most perfect perfection that ever perfected.” It's really hard to relate to these picture-perfect characters, even if they didn't have ridiculous names (although I did find the whole “Issa” thing adorable). Maybe The Message™ was too heavy-handed, I don't know, but something (or perhaps many somethings) fell flat.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I don't like when characters are made to think, say, or do something very much against their grain just because the author wants the story to progress in a certain way, or wants to pull the reader in a particular direction; that happens here and I find it exceedingly irksome. Neither the story nor the writing is extraordinary, but it did accomplish a rare feat: it surprised me; and, for that alone, I'm glad I read it.
I liked it by the end of the volume, but had a little trouble making sense of the writing and understanding what was going on. It didn't pull me in immediately, but it's pretty rare that that happens, so I stuck with it. By the end of the volume I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.