Richie

The writing style reads more like a teenager's tumblr fanfiction. Not my cup of tea.

This is an extremely powerful book about faith taking place in 17th century Japan where Christianity is outlawed and Christians are brutally tortured and forced to renounce their beliefs. Two Jesuit priests go there to help the Christian peasants and also hope to find their former mentor who is rumoured to have renounced his faith under torture.
This book is not an easy read as it's very realistic and depressing and to my knowledge, mostly historically accurate to the time period. It's hard to read about innocent peasants having to die in horrible ways just because of what they believed in. Also the loneliness that Father Rodrigues experiences, physically and spiritually, in Japanese prisons as he doesn't understand why God is remaining silent in his time of misery is really depressing.
The first part of the book was written in letters from Father Rodrigues and the second part was a third person narrator. Usually, I'm not one to enjoy epistolary novels but this was an exception as I thoroughly enjoyed it; the writing did not become lazy as it sometimes can when writing in letters. As usual, I enjoyed third person narration more but the epistolary didn't take anything away from my enjoyment of the novel.
I think anyone could read this and appreciate the beautiful writing of Shusaku Endo but it will particularly strike a chord in Christian readers. The ending to this book is amazing and I think it could be interpreted differently depending on the reader, which is very interesting. There's a lot to take away from this book and it could warrant a few rereads.

5 stars

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a historic novel based around the life of Thomas Cromwell. It shows Cromwell's rise in power in the royal court, the formation of the Anglican Church, and Anne Boleyn's rise to the Queen of England.
I'll start with the negative aspects of the book, which there are few of. These things did not bother me, but I'm just putting them out there so people who are considering reading the book will be aware of them. First of all, this book is quite dense and slow paced so if you're looking for a quick read this will definitely not be for you. Also, this book is better suited for people who have some background knowledge of 16th century Europe because it doesn't really give you explanations of every little conflict going on outside of England. For example, there are a lot of references to the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther and if you don't know what those things are it won't be explained to you and you will probably be very confused. Again, these aren't really ‘cons' but things I think future readers should be aware of. Lastly, it can be confusing as Mantel never uses Thomas Cromwell's name in the narrative, only the pronoun ‘he'. So if there's a scene involving Cromwell and another man you might be confused. It didn't bother me after the first couple of pages but I've read others saying it hindered their reading experience so I thought I'd mention it.
Okay, now I'll mention what I LOVED about this book. :-)
First of all, this book is written so beautifully!!!!!!!!!! The writing style was magnificent I can't wait to read more from this author! Secondly, she writes characters so well. They were all so well rounded and, unlike other historical novels I've read, the characters had their strong points AND their flaws not just one or the other. I really appreciated the way she made them seem like real people (I know they are real people but you know what I mean) and I cared about almost every one of them and what happened to them. As I said before, this book is slow paced but it worked so well for me, I was never bored and I was okay with taking longer than usual to finish it because the writing was so enjoyable and I didn't want to put it down.
I gave this book 5/5 stars because it's the best historical novel I've ever read and you can tell Hilary Mantel has a great understanding of these historic figures and it shows in the novel. This book reminded me of why I love history so much and made me want to learn even more about Tudor England and I'm so excited to read the sequel. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves English history and doesn't mind long, slow paced novels.

4.5/5 stars

Really loved this, I think it's one of my top 3 favourite books this year. Loved the use of the Nadsat language and thought it really made the society of the book seem more real than other books you might read . I also found it more entertaining to read. Anyways, really liked, maybe a better term is appreciated the character of Alex. I thought he was probably the best written anti-hero I've ever read. This book was really interesting and fast paced so I was never bored while reading it. The reason I docked a half star off of a 5 star rating was because I didn't really think that last chapter had to be added. It would have been fine without it, more ambiguous. Adding the 21st chapter gave it kind of a cheap ending in my opinion, one doesn't really ‘grow out' of sadistic sociopathic tendencies like Alex did. But that's just my opinion.

3/5 stars.

Really, really good and worthwhile read overall.

This book was written so well! Faulkner's writing style is so beautiful and descriptive, it makes me want to become a better writer. The stream of consciousness style lends really well to this character driven narrative. I liked how each chapter was narrated by a different character, it kept things fresh and interesting as a reader. I loved the whole tone of this novel, I can't really explain but I liked the dark humor and irony in it. I'm not going to lie, this was a very difficult novel to read. A lot of times I had to turn to the litcharts chapter summaries to understand what was going on completely. The first time I read Dewey Dell's first chapter I didn't even realize it was about her being pregnant. A lot of things flew over my head, but that is more of a personal problem than anything. That being said, I still think William Faulkner is a literary genius and want to read more of his novels.

Not much to say about this one, just the greatest of Lovecraft's classic horror. You really can't go wrong with it:)

5 out of 5 stars
I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while and when I saw it was available to borrow as an ebook from the library, I got it right away! A lot of the people I follow on here only thought the book was mediocre, so while I thought the premise sounded great I kept my expectations low. I was blown away. From the first chapter this book had me hooked! It took me about a week to finish, but it was interesting the entire way through.
Let me give a brief summary for those who have never heard of this book: It is about a family who breed their own freakshow. Crystal Lil, the mother, takes various drugs and other substances in order to give birth to deformed children who will be raised to become acts in the show. The narrator, Olympia, is an albino hunchbacked dwarf and we follow her story through two narratives: one in the present and one during the past where we learn about her and her siblings life in the circus. Both narratives were very well done and I do not think I would have changed the book in any other way.
The writing style was great, the characters were incredibly written and developed, and the plot was fascinating. Although the characters and story were so bizarre, the author had a way of writing that made you feel incredible emotion for the characters and the problems they faced. This is definitely a book that you either love or hate, and I loved it to pieces. I wouldnèt recommend it to anyone because it is very gross and disturbing at times but I think that many people will enjoy it. I think it's safe to say that this is my favourite book of 2016, maybe of all time. I can't remember a book that I've enjoyed this much in a very long time.

I went into this novel after already having watched the movie about 2 years ago. I thought that because of this I wouldn't enjoy it as much, considering I knew the entire plot and ending but I was pleasantly surprised .
This book follows a first person narrative, the narrator being a woman named Kathy H. Without spoiling too much, I'll say that the book is about Kathy and her memories of her life through childhood in a suspicious boarding school called Hailsham to her adult years and we learn about her relationship with her two friends Ruth and Tommy. I know that says hardly anything about the plot of the book but it's almost impossible to say anything about the book without spoiling it. Some people categorize it under the genre science fiction but if you're going into it solely for the scifi aspect you will be majorly disappointed. This is more literary fiction and it's definitely more character driven than plot driven.
I loved this book so so much! The characters were so real to me and so fleshed out; all of them had their flaws and I could see them as real people that I could meet in real life. Kazuo Ishiguro has such a beautiful writing style. Throughout the whole book, you can feel an air of sadness and nostalgia just through reading his words. Ishiguro is not scared to delve into some dark topics in this text like the imminence of death and how little time we have on this earth. But he does it so well, this is definitely a book that will make you think for days after reading it. I would recommend it to anyone who is into literary fiction and enjoys strong character driven novels.
5/5

Written as a prequel to Welsh's debut novel, Trainspotting, Skagboys is about Mark Renton and his friends as they descend into heroin addiction in 1980s Scotland. It's told in a series of vignettes from the point of view of many different characters. Like Welsh's other works, it is written completely in Scots dialect and does take some getting used to.
I've read many reviews saying that it's better to read Trainspotting before this one but reading this first really did not hinder my enjoyment of the novel at all. I loved this book a lot more than I thought I would. I didn't think Welsh could top the first novel of his I'd read, Filth, but I was proven wrong. This book is so enjoyable to read. The character's interactions are hilarious but the book is also depressing at the same time as we see a promising young man turn to addiction. The characters are brilliantly written and you can't help but empathize with them even in their situation. All of the characters are written with their own distinct voices so well that even when the view point switches, you don't need to be told who is narrating. This book was definitely a page turner and didn't leave me bored for a second. I am definitely planning on picking up the next books in the series.

Ever since reading As I Lay Dying last year, I've been excited to read another of Faulkner's books. I love his style of writing so much. The characters were written so well, I loved the characters of Lena and Joe Christmas. The stream of consciousness style of writing helps you really get into the mindset of the characters and really connect with them and their problems. This book was so far ahead of its time, addressing themes such as race, class and gender; topics which were taboo in the 1930s. Faulkner has such a great talent for setting an atmosphere and mood for his stories, something I noticed reading both this and As I Lay Dying. My only problem was the slow pacing (I think that might be my fault for reading this immediately after reading a few fast paced horror novels) which made it sometimes boring to read. Other than that, I think it's worth a read for anyone who is a fan of Southern Gothic or character- driven stories and I will definitely be checking out more from William Faulkner in the future.

I'm not going to lie this was a hard read for me. This was my first book by Haruki Marukami and I thought I could just jump right in any book but apparently I was wrong about that, and that's partly my fault. This book was just so confusing to me until the end but even at the end I never fully understood. I don't even think it's possible to give a summary on this book but to give you an idea it follows two plotlines: one based in reality-ish?? And one based in a more fantasy type world and they really don't come together until around a quarter through the book.
The plot was interesting; I never got bored reading it but most of my time spent reading I was just confused and that's probably more telling of me as a person than the book but it's my personal opinion haha. I did enjoy the ending when it mostly tied everything together and for that I'll give it 2.5/5 !:)
if you already like Murakami and are familiar with him you would probably enjoy this more than I have so don't let my review turn you away from it!

A Canticle For Leibowitz is a novel that spans roughly 1,800 years and is split into 3 parts. It takes place after a nuclear war has left the world devastated and humanity is left in a new ‘Dark Ages'. We follow the Order of Leibowitz monks as they take on the mission of preserving human knowledge from prior to the ‘Flame Deluge' (their name for the nuclear war that left humanity scattered and devastated.)

Let me start off this review by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH.
I've been very interested in dystopian science fiction recently and this is the most unique novel I've come across yet. This book was so hard to put down once I started reading it and I finished the final section in roughly an hour because it was so engrossing ..
The aspects of this book I particularly enjoyed was how it was separated into the three parts and how we could see humanity's progress in slowly rebuilding themselves. I loved the philosophical ideas regarding science and Christianity. This novel requires us to ask ourselves important questions like: Is it possible for human free will to change the course of the future or is history destined to repeat itself? A truly interesting perspective on human nature and one of the best novels I've read in a very long time.

*i apologize if this review is poorly written and all over the place it's the first one I've ever written