Earwen

Well this was alright. I really expected more of it from all the buzz around it but ultimately it was pretty generic and didn't do anything new. I'm pretty open minded about art but this is one of the cases where I found it actively distracting.

I read this ages ago but goodreads decided to delete the read dates and score of it? thanks goodreads thats great

This has been a solid 3 stars series for me until this book, I think it fully realized its potential now. I like how it focused on Hazel and Daisy's relationship and aspects of it that bothered me often were acknowledged. The cast of supporting students that always felt weak to me get focused on too and I grew to really like them. The mystery was fun and the suspects characters were interesting, I hope some of them make a return in some capacity.

decent audiobook to build ikea furniture to

Interesting concept but it tried to Incorporate too many plotlines that didn't really fit together.

sorry this was...kinda boring. I had high expectations for it but it was just a very average thriller. Maybe it's good for lesbian fiction standards, or else I don't know why it would get such glowing reviews.

the way autism is talked about made me uncomfortable, though it seems interesting otherwise I don't really want to read something that will subtly piss me off the whole way through right now.

I wouldn't have picked this up if I realized how short it was. These “lectures” barely cover anything. Even considering how short it is it's just bafflingly empty. I'm not even quite sure who this is aimed at. Everything inside this is common knowledge. Like, at one point the author explains who Stephen Hawkins is. Like, who exactly is picking up popular science books up and doesn't know who he is?

I enjoy this series a lot, I wish it was more...what's the word? Structured? Sometimes it seems to be random events in Charley's life, like a diary written in third person, rather than a complete story. Still, I'm looking forward to the next book, especially because it's about Esther.

I had sky high expectations of this book, how can you not when it advertises itself as a mix of Hitchiker's Guide and Eurovision. But more than either of these it reminded me of a rather obscure old anime called Legend of Black Heaven, wherein a retired rock musician is approached by an alien to save the world with music....and by it reminds me I mean it's literally the same premise.

The Hitchikers Guide comparison is fair, though I found it nowhere as funny (the book couldn't even get a chuckle out of me sadly). The actual space eurovision part could have worked if the book was actually about that, it's actually more about some ex-musicians moping about about how great they used to be and how they're all going to die mixed in with some Hitchikers-guide style outtakes about other alien species and history. The different parts never connected in a meaningful way. I kept reading along for surely once the competition started for real it would be amazing....It was, well, not BAD, it was just kind of there, and didn't even last that long.

Which is also how I feel about the whole book. Not BAD just..doesn't do justice to it's premise.

This was a difficult book to read in more ways than one. First of course there is the subject matter, but also I found the writing very hard to get into. I was halfway through the book until I had to throw my hands up in defeat and reread it from the start. I can boil down the reason for this in two things, first of all during the middle part where I gave up there was a lot of talk about finance which made me zone out while listening to the audiobook, second and more importantly the book moves too fast. There are so many characters in such a short amount of time it is hard to keep track of them. Also the huge timeskips felt like a missed opportunity. At times it felt like a summary of a book than the book itself. This is a complaint I'm making a lot these days about fantasy books but I really think there was two books worth of material in this. I found it hard to connect to Baru and I think spending some more time in her childhood to see how she was shaped to be what she is would help (though she is keeping everyone including the reader at arms length, this might have been an intentional feeling).

The side characters suffer the most from that, I couldn't talk two sentences about any of the characters except Baru herself. Although Baru is such a great character that I didn't particularly mind this. The ending was brilliant and I'm glad Seth Dickinson didn't shy away from it - though my reaction might have been different if this didn't have a sequel. This a 3 bumped up to a 4 for the ending, I'm optimistic the sequel will manage to be a solid 4 throughout and not feel so rushed, because this reads almost like a origin story looking back to it.

Great audiobook, I probably wouldn't enjoy this half as much if it wasn't for the excellent narration.
I had many problems with the book regarding the portrayal of mental illness, the book itself seemed inconsistent on it admitting that Marjoire is the victim and still portraying her as dangerous. I have to say I love the main characters portrayal as a little girl, the author doesn't pretend kids are too stupid to understand whats going on but she's still completely realistic.

im dropping this because its too ya for me but I just want to make it clear that all the negative reviews pissing their pants because they think killing rapists is bad are wrong, killing rapists is actually very good.
Other than that I thought it was well written from what I read, and might return to it but really I have a lot of books I want to read in genres I care more for.

Wow I haven't been sad a book ended in a while. I wish there was a sequel! The book wrapped up nicely and it doesn't need one or anything, I just can't get enough of Molly and Castle Hangnail, and I think there is plenty that could be written.

Really fun interpretation of lovecraft myth. It is left a bit open at the end, like there is a sequel planned, but I couldn't find anything concrete on it for now. I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I knew this as I don't like starting unfinished series.

This book felt like a rush job. It would have been much better as a full length novel. Or if not, it should have focused on the two leads instead of trying to give all the girls their own subplot in such a short amount of time. At times I felt like I was reading a summary of a longer book. Also the characters are supposed to be 14-15 but they acted much younger, which was weird. I still enjoyed it as it was cute but it could have been much better.

Obvious comparison to Octavia Butler's Kindred, though not as good as the classic obviously there are quite a number of parallels. I imagine Kindred inspired this story at least indirectly. Though unlike kindred this book is first and foremost a romance, just in an unique setting (for lesfic). I don't read romance usually so I don't know how to judge this book by its genres standards. It was hard to care about to romance as it was hard to care about the characters individually or together. They had some semblance of personality at first, but later they just blended together.
The fantasy elements weren't well thought out at all, I had a lot of questions about how some elements worked. For example, what happens to the original people when they are "possessed" by their future selves? Do they black out? Do they still have memories of the times they were possessed? Maybe I'm alone in this but if my girlfriend got possessed by her reincarnated version from 2100 i would like to know about it. It even comes up in the plot when Reagan is angry Lea kisses her past self, Lea agrees she has a point but 5 minutes later shes about to fuck Elizabeth anyway!! Of course Elizabeth at that time is Reagan but she has no way to know of it, and Reagan suddenly doesn't mind it either. GOD IT'S STUPID.Also how does the adoption thing work anyway? Who are their biological parents? Did they just fall from the sky? It just makes no sense.And since I'm going into spoiler territory anyway, I'm not happy that the only butch woman in this book isn't only evil but also a man that was reincarnated as a woman to teach him a lesson.

Exceptionally good writing - for a lesbian genre book. I liked that it's not romance. I also liked that it drops you right into the story not really setting up anything though it also had its drawbacks. The driver Cantor is driving to save - obviously she cares about her a great deal but I as the reader couldn't care enough to remember her name. The characterizations of Cantor and Opal - who are the primary focus of the book were really good however. The book is set in such a short timeframe and you see basically their thoughts on eachother shift and change in real time. The only thing that really bothered me was that I really didn't need to hear about how hot Opal is every page. I don't even think that's an exaggeration, it certainly doesn't feel like one. I know it's the whole noir thing but come on.

(tw for rape at the very start of the book you will see it coming - it is cantor remembering something she witnessed - and it doesn't last long but I still would have rather known it going into it)

Some funny moments and good passages but overall didn't have anything unique to say. Probably would have enjoyed this more if I had read it in English. Then again, probably wouldn't have bothered to finish it if I wasn't making myself read german books specifically.

I read a good chunk of this originally years ago, I was planning on picking this back learning the author supports uyghur “re-education” camps changed my mind. Plenty of authors who aren't bigots out there.

Stand in for the whole series.

Fun series that doesn't quite live up to it's full potential. The ending in particular was underwhelming and unsatisfying. It also ends on a sequel hook, which will likely never come.

I would still highly recommend it, for people who don't feel endings ruin an experience. Read it if you think Light Yagami is fun to watch but would rather he was anti-facist and anti-capitalist.

(If you're wondering about the lgbt tag, there is a prominent character who is a trans woman and also the best character in the series by far)

Better than the first book, much tighter narrative, much better characters (Zomi, Jia and Gin especially stand out - and yes they're all female characters Ken Liu really made up for the disaster of a first book in this aspect though I still have some issues I suppose at this point it comes down to personal preference) and just generally a more interesting plot. Although I preferred the first half focusing more on characters than the second half focusing on plot, where we sort of lost sight of some characters for a long while (Zomi is the best thing about the book and her name isn't mentioned for...far too long. She does play a huge role in the background but overall she has much less “screentime” in the latter half of the book....I'm possibly spoiled by the fact that she was basically the main character for the first quarter or so)

There is a bulk in the middle telling the story of a character, and in the middle of THAT is another bulk telling the story of another character which really could have been shorter, I did enjoy it but I would have enjoyed it even more if it wasn't such an interruption of the story. In the end it felt like a condensed version, like the events described might have been an entire 800 page novel in itself but we just rushed through it (which most of the first book felt like too thinking back).

I love the worldbuilding especially with regards the gods, in the first book they felt just tacked on and I didn't even bother to remember their names. The gods and their nature is much more deeply explored.

My biggest gripe is the ending, I don't think some decisions the characters have made made sense for them Thera accepts a political marriage after denying it for so long?? AFTER SHE GOT TO BE EMPRESS? Of course there was reasons given which makes some amount of sense but on a meta level god it feels like a cop out I was looking forward to the next book having an empress with a female lover? maybe even two empresses?? But no she runs off to some island with her new husband who literally appeared out of nowhere... How dare you Ken Liu..... Also I don't like how it went on for so long after the climax, most of it could have been part of the next book and explored in more detail. If it stopped after the jewelry bit it would have been perfect honestly

I'm giving this 4 stars but its more of a 4.5 whereas the prequel is more of a 3.5

List of rachels offenses (assuming she didnt poison anyone)
-spend a lot of money
-want to go back to italy
-not marry phililp
-be friends with an italian dude who is in love with her

List of rachels offenses (assuming she DID poison both)
-spend a lot of money
-want to go back to italy
-not marry phililp
-be friends with an italian dude who is in love with her
-make some dude who tried to murder her and is a general creep sick for a few weeks
-kill her husband who refused to give her money for basic living expenses and questioned her every move


What's most interesting about this book is that the discussion around it centers around whether Rachel was “evil” or not when even assuming the worst of her it's clear she would be the victim in this scenario. It comes easier to people I suppose to forgive a lovesick man than to excuse a woman for not appreciating his advances. Phillip is obsessed with her, constantly is manipulating her to stay and is just a general creep. Not to mention he attempts to murder her and then acts offended she doesn't want to be alone with him after that. Anything Rachel might have done at that point is self defense. So if she did poison him...good for her! Next time up the dosage.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly the point. Whether rachel did poison him or not is irrelevant entirely. At the end of the book phililp is alive and rachel is dead- because of him. And yet he is still self obsessed about whether the woman he killed was deserving of it - and so is the majority of the readers it seems.

We truly do live in a society.

Hmmm I expected this to have more of a mystery aspect for some reason. The “mystery” aspect is cleared up pretty quickly and after it it's a pretty straight forward romance with the dead girlfriend only occasionally brought up, mostly to mention just how terrible she was. The romance felt very awkward mostly because both girls were cardboard cut outs.
More than anything it felt like a psa about abusive relationships and first love, which didn't make for a great story.

Frankenstein was right and the monster is an incel you can't change my mind.