Hailey
So fun and so campy. I was just slightly confused by some elements of the plot, but I'm willing to let them slide because I had so much fun with this one.
It was good, but nothing spectacular in my opinion. It felt like there were some missing parts and some things were left unexplained. Even so, it was a tragic tale and one that illustrated the differences between social classes during this time in America.
This may be the best one yet.
It was complex and fascinating- everything came to a head and was handled beautifully. Each character was explored so well and I am rather pleased with how everything ended.
The storytelling was lovely and the narrator was skilled- I still prefer the original narrator in the first book, but she was still talented in this.
I'm definitely going to miss listening to this trilogy in the future!
Honestly, this book isn't terrible and the narrator for the audiobook is pretty good.
My problem is that it just gets worse as you go on.
The beginning is so strong and it just fizzles away as the book continues. I think the big reason for this is the weird plot of the book. There were almost 3 different plot lines going on at the same time and they were not woven together very well. It didn't flow well and would be boring and confusing at some parts. Also, at least 1 of those 3 plot lines was rather irrelevant to the story.
The characters were okay. Grace was a bit of a selfish brat which got annoying at times, but I really liked Thornhollow as a character.
Not sure if I'll pick up another of Mindy's books because this one was a bit of a hot mess to me but who knows.
Listen, I'm totally biased with this one so I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I did learn a lot about a subject I didn't know too much about before!
I'm sorry, but I just really couldn't get into this. The narrators were great, honestly, and made this story bearable. They brought life to each of the characters and, of course, multiple narrators is always a bonus with audiobooks. And, to be quite honest with you, the narrators are the only reason this didn't get one star.My problem is, this story is just so weird. So much of it doesn't make any sense at all and I imagine I'll be trying to wrap my head around it for days to come. Also, the plot is so terribly confusing. I honestly don't know what the point of this book was. The characters leave much to be desired. Wink is extremely annoying, Poppy is extremely unrealistic, and Midnight is like every other “chosen one” to have ever existed. I understand what Tucholke was trying to do with Wink, to make her this dreamy, vivacious character, but it was so overdone. Half the things Wink said or did made me groan. Poppy is supposed to be a popular mean girl. But she is as heartless as they come. And, honestly, I find it hard to believe that people like Poppy truly exist. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like Tucholke took the popular girl stereotype and cranked it up from “bratty and cliquey” to “loathsome bitch”. And Midnight... Midnight was just okay. He wasn't special. Hell, he even had a sad little backstory like 99% of all “chosen ones”.The writing style was whimsical but terribly repetitive. I feel like half the things that happened in this book happened every 3 chapters or so. Such as, of course, Wink reading to the orphans. My god, it was practically every other Wink chapter. I also found it annoying when some of the POVs repeated events that had literally just happened. With the characters involved. It was as if Tucholke was trying to bump up the word count but didn't have anywhere else to go.Honestly, this wasn't the book for me. It was described as [b:The Raven Boys 17675462 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) Maggie Stiefvater https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477103737s/17675462.jpg 18970934]-esque, and I would have to whole-heartedly disagree.
This was honestly so amazing and I can't believe I would have never read it without Reading Olympics. The epilogue made me sob like a baby and I felt so much while reading this book. It's based on a topic I know little to nothing about, so it was a heartbreaking and harrowing read. To imagine the atrocities that these people went through is eye-opening for me and I recommend this book to all people.McCormick is a phenomenal story-teller. This reminds me of a more interesting and fast-paced version of [b:A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier 43015 A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436596718s/43015.jpg 825414]. It reads like an autobiography, and yet it is not. The characters are memorable in their own ways and touch the reader's heart in a multitude of fashions. The pacing is fantastic, so I was never bored by the plot or felt as though I couldn't keep up. Read this book. You will not regret it and you will learn something from it no matter who you are.
I really, really enjoyed this novel. It is heart-wrenching and poignant. It is a work of art, just like the very subject of the novel. It reminds me very much of J.D. Salinger's [b:The Catcher in the Rye 5107 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398034300s/5107.jpg 3036731], so if that's not your thing (Alex), then please don't read this book. It is not plot-driven. Rather, this book is driven by the main character's existential crisis. It is about her coming to terms with the horrors of her past.At times, this book got to be a little boring. She would wander the streets and think and nothing really happened. At other times, it was confusing. There were Sarah's of different ages wandering around, but Sarah is not hallucinating. Other people could see them too. I never quite understood exactly what the point of these characters was, but I'd like to think it was meant to be a metaphorical representation of how time changes people.I listened to this novel on an audiobook and the narrator did an excellent job with it. She kept me engaged despite the boring wandering part of the novel. I certainly recommend this novel to people who are fans of J.D. Salinger and to those looking for a beautiful representation of art and life.
I would write a longer review for this but unfortunately my laptop is not cooperating right now so I'm doing this on my phone!
This book was very interesting and informative. I LOVED the pictures and found them to be even more intriguing than some of the text. This book opened me up to some things regarding this topic of Japanese Exclusion that I hadn't known before.
Wonderful read!
I didn't like this and I am so sad.I read [b:Still Life with Tornado 28588459 Still Life with Tornado A.S. King https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467452390s/28588459.jpg 48755652] last year for reading olympics and loved it. I was so excited to see another A.S. King book on the list that I immediately picked it up. To me, this book wasn't compelling. It had the exact same formula as Still Life with Tornado so I didn't feel like anything was all that surprising. I didn't care much for the mystery so I didn't care much about the outcome. Even the characters fell flat to me. I also thought the setting was very vague- I loved all of the detail and thought that had been putting into the setting of Philadelphia in Still Life with Tornado that was just lacking in this book.I was really bored throughout this book. I listened to it as an audiobook and it took me ages to do so as a result. I didn't care about the characters or the story. I am thoroughly disappointed. I wasn't even a huge fan of the narration either. It was just so flat.Perhaps this book wouldn't be so disappointing and boring if it isn't your first A.S. King book. But, for me at least, this was one of the biggest let-downs of this year so far.
Yeah, this was a huge disappointment.
I honestly really liked the first one but this was so freaking boring.
I've been reading this for months and I honestly don't even remember when I started.
The first book was filled with action, intrigue, and romance. This one? Court drama. Mariko was so boring and all Okami cared about was Mariko. Honestly, this book's only saving grace was Raiden. God bless the character development in that man because it was the sole saving grace of this book.
I'm also so confused by his mother. Like... was she a good guy or a bad guy? I don't know. I'm not really sure what she was at all as a character.
Jesus.
I was convinced I had already marked this as complete.
Apparently not.
This was cute and made me chuckle a bit. It'll be great as a coffee table book after I graduate from college so I'm keeping it.
Obviously I wasn't looking for something intense with this, but finishing it does mean that I am finally at a manageable amount of books that I am currently reading. Never let me read more than 3 at one time again.
It's hard to say if I recommend it just because of the nature of it. Just know that I found it entertaining for the purpose I had purchased it.
This one just really fell flat for me.
Before I continue, I'd like to point out that every other review for this book is very positive, so if you're intrigued and interested in the plot, still check it out! I wish I could have enjoyed it like these other individuals, but I simply couldn't.
Essentially, this book is about a girl, Mary Botter (it's a nickname), who is basically destined to save the world. She has a ton of friends who will also save the world. And... that's it. The vast majority of this book, up until the last two chapters I'd say, is about Botter's ‘team'. Each chapter is an introduction of a new character- or just continuing the last character's introduction- and I was just bored. I understand the need for background information in novels, especially in novels set in the far future such as this one. However, ~250 pages of a 290 page e-book dedicated to background information is simply too much. It's overkill. By the time the book started getting interesting, it was already practically over. I really hope that the next book has little to no background information and jumps immediately into the plot in order to be more compelling for readers.
For me, the writing style killed me. The words and descriptions that King uses are so nice and so flowery- something that I ordinarily adore in a book. Unfortunately, a lot of the grammar and dialogue really bothered me. In this novel, the author uses huge paragraphs. Oftentimes, several characters will speak in the same paragraph which was both confusing and made it feel like a fanfiction. I also cringed a little everytime the dialogue was introduced with the phrase “__ was like,”. I'd imagine the intent was to be conversational, however, I really did not like it. This book is written in second person POV which was irritating at first, however, I got over that irritation quickly. It's evident to me that the author tried to make this as conversational as possible. I just didn't like it personally. One last complaint I have is that it seems like there are some phrases that are included repeatedly. I believe that the following must have been used at least ten times:
“Aw,” you say? Indeed.
I just couldn't.
As far as the characters are concerned, they were okay. I didn't love any of them, but I didn't hate any of them either. I feel like I know everything about them- perhaps a little too much, in fact- but I didn't truly relate to a single one. Some of the “girl” things that Ella/Mary Botter discuss make it clear that our female protagonist was written by a male author. I'd imagine that this is something that will only improve with more writing practice.
Overall, I just didn't like this one. I had trouble getting over the grammar in many places and felt that another run-through of edits, or even by another person editing, would have improved this book greatly. I really, really hope that the next book gets the plot rolling from the start because I was just bored in this book. Best of luck to you if you choose to read this! There are plenty of other brilliant reviews singing of praise so you never know. You might love it. :)
Honestly? I loved this.
Never would have expected that, but it's the truth! I was so happy to be able to comprehend this that I finally got to enjoy Shakespeare's writing. It made sense to me and I loved how elegant the language was. Not only that, but it was an awfully entertaining story even if it was a tad predictable. I'm excited to see what comes next in this class!
Utterly excellent. As someone who would like to have children in the next few years, I've been thinking a lot about motherhood, and this book made me feel so seen with some of the fears and concerns I've encountered.
Highly recommend.
So good. I wish it had stuck to the horror that is the natural world (listen, I love the outdoors but it is a scary place) a little bit more.
Not it taking me 9 months to read this book.
Oh boy.
I don't want to be too aggressive in this review because this is truly just a case of this book being not for me. I read it for the high accolades and the fact that everyone seemed to love it. The premise seemed okay. That was my mistake. This book was simply not for me.
I found it dreadfully boring and the plot moved terribly slow. For the audiobook, it took me until the last 2 hours to actually become engaged and take any interest in the characters. And for that matter, I only really liked 1, maybe 2 of the main characters.
Also what was that ending???
I learned a lot about a subject I'm not terribly familiar about, but I found it boring. I just don't think the author's writing clicked for me, unfortunately.
There was a bit too much of unnecessary fluff in this for my personal preferences with non-fiction, but this book was so incredibly useful I'm willing to overlook it. In terms of utility, one of the best books I've read in recent years.