Hailey
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm very torn about this book. One part of me really enjoyed it, and the other was tempted to throw it at a wall with some force. The cover is very appealing, and immediately alerts the reader as to what they will be reading about (ahem- zombies). As a zombie apocalypse book, it was decent. It did its job as portraying zombies as zombies and the characters reacted accordingly. With that said, there were some sub-plots that made the book kind of confusing.
Now, let me tell you the most anger-invoking part of the book. When Tom Imura falls off of the car into a horde of zombies, we all thought he was a goner, right? I mean, really. There's no way, no way, that he could have survived falling into a mass, a riot, of hungry zombies who just surged toward him and obscured Benny's view of him. He's dead, right?
WRONG.
Instead, Tom smelled like zombies because of Benny's slip-up, hid under a car for an extended amount of time without food or water, and then crawled out, alive, and tracked Benny down. With nothing to go off of. Because, you know, logic doesn't matter when you're writing a fiction novel.
Anyways, it was a pretty good book and I'll get around the reading the second one sometime.
Overall, I thought it was a great book. I would have given it five stars, except, I don't know. Something was lacking. I'm not sure what exactly, but the entire time I was reading it, something felt off. I don't think it was the characters or the plot, but I know that something was missing.
The Iron King was a really, really good book. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact that Ash was nearly unbearable. He just seemed very bipolar and I wanted to punch Meghan in the face for not recognizing that he was bad news. One minute he was all sweet and open, and the next he was all, “ERMAGERD, GET AWAY FROM ME, PRINCESS.”
For starters, Meghan is a great MC. She's not super athletic or super smart, but she gets things done. She is very normal and recognizes it, but doesn't let it stop her from chasing after her dreams. Not to mention, she cares a lot about her younger brother and reacts appropriately to the weird things happening in her life.
The humor in the book was spot-on. The character Puck was a fantastic comic relief, and was a very sassy character. He was probably my favorite character in the book and seemed to have a smart remark for everything. Perhaps this was my favorite line of Puck's, “‘Oh, we're playing nice now?' Puck remained seated, looking anything but complaint. “Shall we have tea first? Brew up a nice pot of kiss-my-ass?'”!
The plot itself is very well crafted and had twists and turns all the time. It wasn't boring at all, and I enjoyed learning about the different creatures in the Nevernever. I'm very excited for the next one and hope that it's even better than this first one was.
I like this more than I thought I was going to. The first 100-150 pages were iffy, but the rest of the book made up for it.
And that's all I really have to say, wow. XD
I know a lot of people really hate this right now, but I really didn't hate the book. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it.
For me, it feels like less of a work of fiction than a cultural study. Of all topics of historical fiction, this is likely the most fascinating one to me, so that certainly helped in my enjoyment of the novel. In addition, I didn't find the novel difficult to understand in the slightest. I thought Achebe's writing style was quite similar to the writing style of more recent novels.
While the book did not have one set plot, which would certainly bother some people, it definitely had sub-plots. There was clearly a sub-plot for each part of the novel, and there was a loose, overarching plot that was simply Okonkwo's life. This really didn't bother me, but perhaps that was partially due to the way I looked at the novel. I didn't read it like a story. I read it like it was a work of a fictional, cultural study through the eyes of Okonkwo.
I liked Okonkwo, actually. I found him to be a very flawed and realistic character. No, I did not agree with everything he did. But that's part of what makes him great. He's realistic and has depth,
which is absolutely important for having a connection with a character (looking at you Hassan).
One gripe I had was the oversimplification of some major plot points. There were three major parts of the novel that changed the course of the novel. And yet... they practically had a paragraph's worth of explanation. And talk about that plot twist at the ending (don't you DARE read the spoiler unless you've finished the book). I mean, I was so confused! There was no explanation for the suicide whatsoever. He killed the messenger and BANG suicide. I wanted to know why he did it. I reread the part several times, hoping to find some sort of an explanation, but I could find nothing. It was terribly disappointing. This was irritating namely because there were lengthy sections of the book dedicated to things I really didn't need to know. I would have rather had more explanations for these events than to have learned about the correct time to plant your gosh darn yams.
Overall, I thought the novel was average as a whole. I liked it, but I didn't think it really lived up to the hype. I'd been expecting something more from an author that my teacher had described as the first great African writer.
It really was a lovely book.
The plot was good, the amount of metaphors was wonderful (far better than TFIOS), and the romance was appropriate. However, the characters were still as unbelievable (not in a good way) as they were in TFIOS. I enjoyed this, though, far more than TFIOS.
My rating would've been higher, but the first 100 pages were terrible. On the contrary, The ending was fantastic. I will definitely be reading the second one soon.
This is probably my favorite Ali Hazelwood yet. She's really finding her niche in this genre now.
I thought I would like this more than I did. There were two stories that I did really enjoy, though.
Obsessed with it. The ending was not my favorite, but, frankly, I can look past it.
WITH THAT SAID - I agree with the trigger warnings and other reviews recommending avoiding this if you're currently pregnant or looking to become pregnant.
2nd time reading this.
Just as good as the first time.
This book is brilliant and if you love the movie and haven't read the book, I beg you to read the book. Also fantasy lovers? You need to read this classic.
This was a little bit of a disappointment, to be honest. But some stories were pretty decent!
The pacing of this was just way too slow to me and I couldn't connect with any of the characters.
This was not a win for me. I couldn't stand Sally and didn't really grasp much chemistry/connection from the romance itself, which is a bit concerning given the book's title and genre.
The pacing of this book was fine and it wasn't totally grating, but for how often I've seen this book cover over the past year, I was definitely expecting more.
I didn't realize how little I know about bears until I found this. Incredibly engaging, informative, and thought-provoking.
Really fun and interesting introduction to a number of fascinating topics, many of which I'd never heard of.
Really fascinating concept, I just wish the execution was better. I wish the ending had been much more fleshed out and that it felt more active, rather than something the main character stumbled into.
Between this and my opinion on [b:The Poppy War 35068705 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1) R.F. Kuang https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1515691735l/35068705.SY75.jpg 56364137] not aging well, I do fear that me and R.F. Kuang may not mesh well and that's a bummer.
This book was not marketed correctly, unfortunately. It reads much more like a literary fiction novel than I was expecting.
I had rather high expectations of this book going into it due to hearing wonderful things about it from other people.
When it comes down to it, this book is just okay. The plot is decent but takes so long to actually get into it. The first 50-100 pages are simply boring and, to be frank, a tad bit confusing. Once the plot picks up, the book does become more entertaining– but to a point. Unfortunately, the characters in this book are so unlikable that it made me dread picking it up a bit. They were all bratty and mean and even the “best” character would have made me hurl had they been a person I met in my life.
I do believe my expectations really hurt me for this one- it just didn't live it up what I had hoped it would be.
This slapped, I can't even lie. I have to thank Alex for insisting I read this, she knows me too well.