Dacia
I really enjoyed this book–the characters, the frankness of it. The ending, however, left me wanting ... a little something more, I suppose. I'm heartbroken that the author did not survive to write about motherhood, marriage, middle age. It seems like she was a woman whose adult perspective I would've much enjoyed.
A well-done piece of long journalism. Tragic subject–it really left me feeling angry thinking about the way murdered women seem to go ignored and without justice so often.
I do wish there had been a bit more info on the police's actions, evidence, etc., but I'm glad the author chose to share the victims' stories in such intimate detail. These are real people, and the way some chose to brush them off because of their dire situations is infuriating and depressing all at once.
Perhaps the slowest-paced murder mystery I've ever read. Pages and pages of tedious dialog as everyone is investigated, far too much backstory, and multiple female characters who get bossed and put down by the men in their lives. OK at its best.
Sweet love story told in letters. Kind of reminded me of a Jojo Moyes or Susanna Kearsley, but not as well-written. The ending of this book kind of lost me – it was just too silly, too implausible. Still a nice read if you feel like a quick love story, though.
Found the author obtuse and selfish. Only stuck with it because I was trapped on a plane with no other books.
When my mom read the first book in this series, she said she thought it was trying to be like Twilight, and I was so defensive, telling her that not all vampire books were Twilight and blah blah blah, because I liked the first book.
But now the series has ended with a blood-sucking vampire baby who angered the vampire government that our heroine had to go appeal to (in Italy, no less), and I was like dammit, why is my mother always right.
Besides that comparison, this series has multiple other issues and goes from good to so-so to downright BAD as the books progress. Harkness introduces characters, forgets them for the entire second book, then brings them back in the third book with no reminder like we're supposed to know who the heck Jack is and why he's hugging the main character. Meanwhile other characters disappear without ever serving a purpose.
The plot does nothing to hold things together – the book just meanders and then ends and we don't really know what The Book of Life even is or why it exists or what the damn point of the whole three novel series was. So frustrating.
The serial format of this book did not work for me. I read fast and I read a lot, so by the time a new installment came out, I had pretty much forgotten what had happened so far. Although I have enjoyed other serialized novels, I think the plot and characters in Downward Facing Death just weren't compelling enough to keep me thinking about them beyond when I shut the book (er, kindle case, I suppose).
Way too short, especially considering part of it was a refresher on what happened in the first story, but still great, of course. I guess it's better to be left wanted more than to get bored halfway in.
Another book that goes back and forth between two story lines. But I really was only interested in one of the stories, and it seemed to be the one that earned fewer pages. Between disliking one of the stories (Don't try to make me root for two people engaged in an adulterous relationship by repeating that the cheating man's wife smokes, drinks and eats meat. You're just going to make me like her more.) and the use of flashbacks and repeating events from different points of view, this book really dragged for me. 2.5 stars because about 50 percent of the book is interesting and engaging.
This one moved very slowly for me. It's interesting enough that I wanted to finish it, but the mystery is pretty obvious from the beginning, which is why it bugged me that the only people in the book who figure out whodunnit are a pair of pre-teen boys who act way too old for their ages throughout the novel.
I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, tying story lines together and building a Cloud Atlas-like tale, but it took way too long to get started. The first 200 pages of the book were painfully slow for me, and I almost gave up. I also was bothered by some plot inconsistencies and loose ends that were left hanging. Can't really recommend this one unless you are super into reincarnation stories.
An interesting concept. The more I think I this about one, and the more distance I get from it, the more I like it. Loved the family dynamics, love Atkinson's writing style, and appreciate the way the story and its consolation weren't so blatant–there are a lot of possible interpretations for what exactly was going on in this book and what the overall purpose was.
I am a sucker for a Susanna Kearsley story. This may not have been my favorite of hers, but it was still a very enjoyable read for me. Well-researched historical fiction with a splash of romance.
Kingsolver is such a beautiful writer. Just check out the first line in this book: “A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture.”
She wrote one of my favorite books ever (Poisonwood Bible.)
But. This one was just OK for me. I think it had potential, but the message was far too heavy handed, especially considering I was already familiar with a lot of the science she put in at length in this book, scattered around in bits and pieces of slow moving dialogue.
Besides the slowness, what really irked me about this book was how simple Kingsolver made the country folk. I don't think she intended to be condescending toward them–but it came off that way to me. A lot of the characters felt like backwoods stereotypes, which I don't think is necessarily accurate for many rural, farming families.
Perhaps this is the year of reading sad books for me. Although this one, in a weird way, wasn't entirely sad. Part romance (but not at all “romancey”) and part political piece (but not at all overly political), this was one I couldn't put down, especially in the second half. I loved the flawed characters–really, all of the characters were so well developed. It's rare a book has so many characters and I actually enjoy and care about all of them. To me, this was a very human story, and the pacing was great.
What a slog. I almost tapped out at 80% but skimmed through the rest just to punish myself for blindly trusting a Goodreads rating.
While I understand the author wanted to document every detail of her illness and recovery, I think the story and her writing style would have made for a better longform magazine piece. Found myself bogged down by minutia.
This was a super fun, fast read for me. Unfortunately, I think the series tanked after this one, which is a bummer because I think it had potential to be great.
My fling with Hiaasen was brief. Ultra brief. One and done brief. I read Skin Tight earlier this year and liked it, but this one just did not do it for me. Why? Well...
1. For full disclosure, I am sure I was in a better mood when I read the first book. I'm in a funk lately and it's taking a lot to hold my interest right now.
2. This book felt twice as long as Skin Tight. Looking back, I'm shocked to see it's shorter. It just dragged and dragged and took me forever to get through. I almost didn't finish. Kinda wish I hadn't.
3. Since Skin Tight was my first Hiaasen, when the mid-30s main character hooked up with a college-aged woman, I was like like, OK, fine. But then it happened again in this book, and I was so not down for it. In part because it seems like some sad fantasy of the author's, and also because in this particular story, the supposed adult main character shacks up with a 19 year old girl in her bedroom at her parents' house. I don't know. It just icked me out this time around. The story wasn't near good enough for me to let that slide.
Have been putting off reading Hiaasen for so long, and I don't know why. I enjoyed this one. It's fun, it's funny, the Florida flavor made me nostalgic and I enjoyed reading a mystery set in a time before email and cell phones and such. Kind of wish it'd been more of a mystery rather than discovering whodunit right at the onset, but whatever, I still had fun.