Bland. The artwork is uninspired and Box's ability to render a recognizable caricature is lacking; I would have no idea who was being depicted without the text. Weiss displays a decent understanding of Putin but fails to offer any earth-shattering insights.
A very satisfying conclusion. Battle scenes were well done; usually I find myself skimming such portions as being pointlessly long.
How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain
Basically delivers what the title promises but I was hoping for more useful plot fodder than is actually offered, but that's more a reflection of reality than a failing of the author so I'm not letting it affect my rating.
An easy read but I found the use of Malay phrases without clear translations irksome (a glossary is not at all difficult to append and useful for educating readers who would like to learn. Its absence smacks of elitism).
The text is abnormally large and the digressions lengthy. Interesting at times but this would have made a better article as there's not enough information to sustain book-length attention here.
DNF because I find historical fiction that insists on foisting characters with modern mores into the tale like its clever tiresome. Also too much telling, not enough showing.
Plot-wise and pacing this was wonderful but the artwork was inconsistent at times (our protagonist had two completely different noses on the same page, for example).
Thackeray really does go on at times. And while it serves to set the tone of what was, in its time a groundbreaking novel, the needless verbosity becomes very, very tiresome.
Interesting but not riveting due to tangents on unrelated matters and explanations of concepts already established. DNF the last chapter cause it was due back at the library.
All the useful or informative bits of this book could be easily covered in a 10 page essay; Norman rabbits on needlessly about things like his teaching experiences or the history of medical immunology to bring his subject to book-length. The overall tone reads as though the anticipated audience is slack-jawed undergrads who smoke a lot of weed, with unnecessary repetitions and a charmingly condescending warning about the “difficulty” of the concept he is about to introduce. He also seems to be laboring under the delusion that he has developed a revolutionary concept; if he has, nobody would know since his thesis is so mired in unnecessary verbiage.
Artwork is amazing. Story barely gets going before the book is over and I'm weirdly upset by it cause now John Lewis is dead and I wanted to hear about his career in federal US politics. I'm sure they'll do a volume 2 but its not the same.
Quite readable but I honestly found Elliott to be a bland, uninteresting character. We are told repeatedly that he has ADHD but he doesn't narrate like he does. (Maybe this would have been better if it were written in 3rd person?) I did enjoy his burgeoning friendship with Maribel (frankly she's a more interesting character than him) and with his stepmom but overall everything was pretty predictable and boilerplate-y.
Thank you to Bloomsbury who were kind enough to send me an advance copy of this book.
I suspect this concept would have appealed to me as a child but the illustrations leave me unimpressed.
The colour palette is garish and the story really doesn't flow (honestly, I know the myth but I'm confused about what's going on). Don't understand why this is popular.
Very readable. Proper journalism with actual primary research (an increasingly rare phenomenon these days). Highly recommended. However, Sommer really ought to buy himself a thesaurus cause using “allegedly” repeatedly in the same paragraph is obnoxious.
This book's biggest problem is the complete lack of primary source material; if you're going to write an entire book about women's involvement in QAnon, talking to some of them, or at least thier families, is not just expected but essential, imo. But this is just a regurgitation of information that can be found elsewhere and its not terribly well-organized or -written.
3.5 stars I really enjoyed this but the structure didn't add to the story and struck me as unnecessarily complicating. I'm looking forward to Fahmy's next offering.
A brisk, pleasant read. Despite the Korean setting, it feels very much like a standard Anglo-American mystery, particularly the male main character's attitude. My only complaint is the book lacked a glossary/pronunciation guide.
I got this from the library and my elderly father tore through this before I had the time to read it; he does not usually read fiction so I knew this would be good and I was not disappointed.
Weirdly judge-y. Author seems to think that social media companies ought to be prioritizing disadvantaged people as though she's never heard of capitalism and it is quite clear she has no experience or training in objective journalism. This probably would have worked better as a memoir so that the writer could insert herself even more than she does.