Earwen
You really should pay attention to the subtitle because I feel almost tricked into reading environmentalism. Which is all fine and good but not what I signed up for. The bits about actual deep sea were far more interesting when talking about environmentalism it became increasingly more general. It also wasn't structured very well, history personal anecdotes, actual deep sea info, and bits about environmentalism were just strung together with no rhyme or reason. I wouldn't say do not read this as it has a lot of interesting (and some very depressing) info if you're interested in the topic, and if there are better books covering these things I do not know of them yet.
With a title like that I expected the main character to be more of a cynic but I've been reading it in the wrong tone. She isn't nihilistic about it she is deeply concerned, and thinks about it every waking hour. Reading from a pov that's so anxious, about quite literally everything is sometimes exhausting. In addition to that sometimes I just had to stop reading because Gilda would do something that made me physically cringe. Like when instead of telling the friend of an old woman that she has passed she starts pretending to be her dead friend via email, because she figures that's what will make her happier. Because we are stuck in her head it almost makes sense why she does it. And of course she is constantly anxious about doing that too.
A lot of people seem to have found this to be depressing. Although the subject matter should be and for the characters IS depressing I found it mostly funny because of the absurdity of the situations. It ended on a more positive note than perhaps realistic, it's definitely hopeful too.
The chapters focusing on the now are decent but anything future centric is based on the faulty premise that AGI isn't only possible, or even plausible , but inevitable. There is no real justification given for this fantasy but reiterated again and again (“I am sure that..” why?). So more than half of this is the equivalent of being based on the premise of the moon being made of cheese.
In the end a lot of the essays were a real stretch to connect to AI anyway. There also were no less than 3 essays focused on misogyny, besides the one focusing on sex bots I found them out of place.
The last thing is, at some point she calls COVID-19 nature's way of culling humans, that “perhaps should be accepted”. I am taking this out of context but there is no context that will make it more acceptable to say perhaps these deaths should be accepted. What a callous thing to say especially considering how overwhelmingly it kills people in risk groups already.
A Sheep Among Wolves - 1/5
Fine Print - 5/5
Land of Milk and Honey - 5/5
You see the trouble I have rating this book. It averages out to 3.6 and somehow it feels wrong to give a 4 to a book that contains one of the worst pieces of fiction I read. But also it also contains some of the best? I hope the print version of these are separate so I can rate them accordingly.
I highly recommend the 2nd and 3rd story they were both excellent and everything I wanted this to be.
my original review for first novella below.
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First novella was a complete disaster on every level I'm shocked this got approved for the collection. I don't think I read something quite so bad in a while.
-every two sentences there is a thinly veiled psa about mental health, chronic pain, weight, sexuality etc etc inserted very unnaturally. I agree with everything in it technically and generally am weary of people complaining about such topics being shown down their throat but in this case it really was. If this was a YA Issue book that'd be fine but it isn't? I'm not here to be educated about this shit. It wasn't even particularly insightful or new it felt like seeing cold twitter takes inbetween the story. Yes I get it mental health is important. Can we move on.
- and while doing all the above it still managed to fall into classic sexist tropes more at home in a early 2000s teen drama. The most unlikeable characters in this story are beautiful women. In one case the only reason the mc feels disdain for her its that she's hot. In the other case while the chracter is a bully but not in any believable way and the way the story justifies treating her is laughable
-it..completely ignores vtm setting rules. vampires just prancing around during daytime as long as they dont go into the sun? okay. I get the impression this story was written for another setting but the author changed it for this collection. There is nothing tonally or even story wise that ties this to the vtm setting beyond some name drops like saying camarilla once.
-this story had the most obnoxious characters i ever encountered. This is partly because the author uses them to give (unnecessary, unnatural) lessons about mental health but also they're just annoying fucking people who talk in weird unnatural ways. The whole time I was thinking, you guys don't have any friends because you are impossible to converse with.
-the stupid nonsensical twist that makes the whole story laughable if you think about it for two seconds. honestly looking back at some scenes is a comedy and I'm sure this wasn't intended from the start. It was just a twist for twists sake. Nothing in the plot made sense in general and the ending instead of contextualizing it just adds another layer of stupid to it.
-mental health is important <3 unless you're blonde and got big tiddies then well obviously that means you're evil and deserve to die
I think that this is an official part of vtm now is frankly, embarrassing. I hope the other two are better.
2.5 or so? compelling and addicting read but i was mildly to moderately irritated the whole way through. Competently written but afterwards it felt me felt kind of empty and like I did something wrong, like watch a particularly trashy reality tv show. I don't think this book has necessarily no substance but whatever it was trying to do is lost on me. I was too busy being annoyed at every single character in this. And yes sure the main character is “flawed” but it's more than that I think every single character that called her out on it (heavyhandedly) was just as bad. I simply wasn't convinced of anyones friendship with each other, which the book hinges on. Gonna keep this at 2 or change it to 3 when I see how much it stays with me.
I liked the more science-y parts of it, whenever there was a flashback to the MCs past, whenever they talked about the technical stuff. I liked the world introduced, I liked the main characters situation... I didn't care for any of the mystery or “action” in the book, though I couldn't tell you why.
This is the 2nd middle grade novel I read by Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon. Her adult books I read were fine but her middle grade is excellent, I hope she writes more for this demographic.
Just when I thought I should give up on thrillers completely this comes around. I had some problems around the climax reveals but ultimately it was one of my favorite thrillers I've ever read so I don't think I can give it a lower score than this.
This could use another round of editing or three but still very enjoyable despite really not liking the pairings interactions so far, somehow. Honestly I have more negative things to say about it than positive but it was just such an easy and fun read at the end of the day and I will continue with the series.
This book was really fun but I was taken aback by how one little child recommended another a fetish anime that exists in real life. Children do watch this stuff, I don't think its unrealistic for one to go “just ignore the huge boobs it's cool” but that doesn't mean it's okay to just put that in a book aimed at kids. Similiarly, in another case one tells the other they “need to get disney+”....just a strange choice in an otherwise really good book.
Not sure how a complete layman would fare with this book but it does a valiant attempt at explaining everything as simple as possible and has a glossary at the end to boot. I was also unfamiliar with a lot of things touched there but I at least have degree in computer sciences, when I imagine a random family member reading it I think they'd be still a little lost.
Still, It is the best resource I've seen yet about this subject at least. Could it be simplified further? Probably, but I don't know how. Maybe cut out the history and just focus on the immediate stuff that impacts the end user..? That would be quite a different book however..
A pretty good and well written horror short. The short chapters make you want to keep reading despite there being no real mystery. The story is very straight forward 3 chapters in you think “ah, this is what happened” and well, you're probably right about it. It's really creepy and manages to build up tension despite the long timeframe its set in and you knowing the ending. While it wasn't long enough for me to say it's a character study the main characters rationales for her decisions were the most interesting part for me.
there was a very short moment – the split second between when Laure finds bobbys skulls which has horns and realizing it's a deer skull after all – where I thought the book was going to go a whole different direction and I'm a bit disappointed it didn't. This isn't really the books fault I simply prefer supernatural horror to the mundane.
individual stories were all in the “okay” to “good” spectrum but the collection as whole lacked identity. There was no common theme or content I can see in this collection, the stories are not even the same types of horror. I think this did a disservice to all the individual stories. Particularly Urban Moon which is a story of a graphic and realistic sexual assault. There is nothing inherently wrong with it and certainly I can see why it'd be classified horror (personally I wouldn't read this story at all if I knew going into it but that's another matter) but it's particularly strange to see it sandwiched between stories of body horror or “Parent Trap but if the kids were, like, evil dude!”. It gives the impression the subject matter isn't taken seriously through no fault of the author herself.
My favorites were This is How it Goes by Gemma Files and Three Lanes Deep by Gemma Amor though there were no real duds (besides the story that I mentioned above which I don't think should be in this collection) but I also doub't even my favorites among them will stay in my memory for long.
Fun thriller with an interesting young main character. Of little substance ultimately but what can I say I enjoy reading about unhinged girls. I think the point it ended at was a bit of a cop out. The whole book was building towards this moment indirectly and we didn't see it when it happens. Normally I'm pretty happy with open endings but In this case It didn't feel like an intentional decision as much as indecisiveness on how it would go to me - which contributes to why I think it's of little substance. I had the same problem with another book I read recently [b:Night Film 18770398 Night Film Marisha Pessl https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397425352l/18770398.SY75.jpg 15182838]
None of the books in this series are bad but it definitely has never caught the high of the first book again. I do like Roxanne a lot, so I will continue reading as long as there are more books. I hope this isn't the last one.
(Also I still really dislike her with Tom, so I'm hoping a 5th book so they can break up for good I'll admit, though I doubt that would happen)
Tonally and structurally very similar to [b:The Twisted Ones 42527596 The Twisted Ones T. Kingfisher https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567950921l/42527596.SY75.jpg 58145790]. The main character voice is also almost identical. One difference is the main character here will not shut up about fanfiction. I think its a great hobby to give your main character honestly but anytime she mentioned it I felt more like the author was talking to me, especially when she goes on a half page tirade about people calling her out over “technically incest” (whatever that means) smut. I do not care but I'm not convinced anyone would think of this during a life or death situation. I'm sure whatever fanfic drama the author has or had was very annoying but please keep it away from me. (also a more minor annoyance but, how many times did the male lead mention he isn't into women out of nowhere, and how many times has the main character mentioned if he was straight they would totally have fucked in that scenario or whatever? too many.) Other than that well the best bits of the story were at the start I really enjoy the sort of “impossible space” stories. I didn't like where it went eventually, very similar to the Twisted Ones but that one saved the stuff I disliked more towards the end. It really felt like reading the lesser version of that book sadly.
This is like a more shocking and less subtle version of [b:Convenience Store Woman 38357895 Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1523623053l/38357895.SY75.jpg 51852264] . Same themes, I might have gotten more out of this if I hadn't read that one first. I think the latter is better in every way, much more subtle and thought provoking. Though I enjoyed the writing and main character in Earthlings also. Here is an example of what I mean by the lack of subtlety, thorough the book the main character believes herself to be a magical girl. This is an obvious coping mechanism against the abuse and neglect she faces. At some point in the book her internal monologue notes “sometimes I think this is something I just believe as a coping mechanism” (don't have the exact quote as I listened to it on audiobook). This isn't something that needed to be spelt out at all and felt out of nowhere as before and after the scene she never doubts it again. This is one of many instances I felt like the author had no trust in me to read between the lines. CW: there is a csa scene that made me almost drop the book, I skimmed over that. While I get why it was there I'm not sure it needed to be that graphic. cw for end of the book cannibalism
I think I really like novels where the setting is it's own character. Reminded me of [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] in that aspect, though otherwise they're nothing alike. I think it went on a bit too long after the apparent ending, somehow made things feel very mundane...I'd have been content filling up that space myself.
This is one longass book.... I don't even know where to start.
First of all , this is published online and fan translated. The writing (or translation) on a technical level, is not very good. It's extremely stilted a lot of phrasings are odd. And as someone not familiar with this genre a lot of terms were puzzling and remained unexplained within the story. Before starting the book you really should be awareof this, it didn't really impact my enjoyment and I got over it quickly.
The format also affects the pacing, it has short chapters and was published daily. On one hand I think this sort of platform and format offered the author the freedom to go where she wanted with the story. It's very slow paced and I think an editor would cut down a lot of it and it would lose a lot of it's charm (this could ultimately be for the better but I think letting the author have full control has it's own benefits) not to mention this sort of story isn't likely to be published in the first place. The short chapters make the long overall story easier to digest. It also has very short paragraphs, perhaps this is normal in chinese but it stood out to me as a bit odd. But again this just made the read feel quicker.
For the first half of the story I thought id be giving it 5 stars despite the technical issues which I was willing to look over because it's not traditionally published or translated and it didn't make me enjoy it any less. A bit after the halfway point when all the set up was supposed to start to pay off....it just didn't. Things were glossed over and resolved in ways in convenient ways. Ultimately I felt very unsatisfied with almost all conflicts resolution. For example my biggest problem was
Wanyue is mad at Li Xian for years for being a murderous manipulative weirdo but when they "talk it out" Li Xian just goes, well, i don't regret what I did, and I'd do it again, but also I am out of the situation that I need to do that sort of thing now. and Wanyue is satisfied with that..? Like I'm sorry this is the lamest resolution possible. Maybe something was lost in translation there but even so this conversation made no sense to me and was extremely unsatisfying
Some people think the ending was rushed, honestly by that point I had lost most of my investment, and didn't care because the stuff I did care about got resolved in such unsatisfying ways. I read most of the extras and I actually really enjoyed a side character who gets more development there, author explained why she put that in extras but I think that could have been fit into the main story and made it stronger for it. As is most side characters are extremely flat and you're only there for the main couple. Who I do like, a lot. I wouldn't have read this long a book if I didn't. But that's also why I was annoyed with the non-resolutions of their clashing world views.
I've been very negative but I did enjoy most of the book a lot, the ending did “ruin” it a bit but it's still the first novel of an indie author and I will definitely check out other things by her but this one I can't in good conscience give more than 3 stars, still would recommend it , just know what you're getting into.
A lot of reviews will mention a shift in this book in the middle but refuse to say what it is, so if you're curious like me and don't want to go on reading here it is there is a species of ancient Neanderthal like beings living in the mountains, the main character is distantly related to them, she meets and briefly lives with them and the book chronicles this for a while. I didn't feel like this was such a huge diversion, I thought it was pretty well built up and barely a surprise. However I don't think once we got there it was done very well, things felt rushed and some things made little sense. I would have liked that section to be longer as I thought it was the most interesting part in the story. A big theme in this book is motherhood but I don't think it said anything meaningful about it, and in the end she kidnaps one of the not-Neanderthals children for seemingly no reason, knowing she will have to bring her back when she is older and she can't hide her anymore essentially just keeping her from having a real life and community until that age. This wasn't something that was explored further it was at the very end of the book.
This was oddly reminiscent of Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman despite the very different premise.
Parts of this book should be essential reading - the parts focusing on the actual titular frailty myth. The research and studies were interesting too and I wish there was a modern versio nof this book with updated research.
But other parts just didn't feel directly relevant. Like a whole section that lists case after case of violence against women. I get how and why it connects to the subject but not what I signed up for. I think because of the time the book was originally published it's more understandable as perhaps there weren't as many people speaking out about it. I ended up skimming that section as it was very upsetting and didn't really teach me anything I didn't know.
Also, I think any modern reader is going to wonder how and if it includes trans athletes. It...sort of does? It's not a focus but one case of a trans woman athlete in womens sports is mentioned - however it is only there to support that there is no inherent biological inferiority in the part of cis women. The argument of this book tends to veer toward that sports shouldn't be gender segregated at all.
Ultimately focuses too much on contemporary authors. I don't think many people picking up a book on a relatively niche topics wouldn't know Anne Rice, or even Kathe Koja, or Shirley Jackson. I'd rather it focused on older and lesser known classic authors and gave each more space instead of talking about authors horror fans will already be familiar with.
