nachosorcheetos
This probably sounds condescending, but the best way I can describe this book is “it's cute.”
a mostly beautiful book meant to leave you with big smiles. it all ties together well enough at the end. the main character felt a little bit narcissistic, but what's a character without a character flaw
I've never read a book where I've disliked every single character before. it was an interesting read, especially with the format. the ending felt weirdly satisfying. the section with the travellers felt frustrating, but it makes sense as a plot device. pretty unrealistic.
Such a wonderful book. The movie didn't do it justice.
It's one of my favourite books that crafts a survival tale in an unrealistic scenario into something insanely realistic. It's no doubt that it's hard to convince a reader to fear a being we cannot see, and this book easily accomplishes it. It adds something special by filling the book with human perspective, and showing us how different characters might interact with an unknown entity. The author lets every character shine regardless of their personality.
At the end of the day, do you fear a creature that drives you insane or do you fear the insane for what they might do to you?
what can I say?
one of the very few times a movie was better than a book.
How did this make it into the book?
“...We have enough food left to feed six people for a month. If I was the only one, it would last six months. With a reduced diet I could stretch it to nine. But it'll be seventeen months before I get back.”
“So how would you survive?”
“The supplies wouldn't be the only source of food,” she said.
the book was painful. fiction is something that makes me relax, this book is a full-fledged science fiasco. even scientists have feelings. You're telling me a man on mars doesn't share his feelings? ... beyond him wanting to bond with a Martian goddess?
Venkat is a Hindu, as we're so often reminded when he refers to his gods. is that all that is there to him?
what's Annie's characteristics? she's dumb and she swears.
it's a pretty one-dimensional book, with the only dimension being all science, no substance.
It is a surreal tale, like an adult version of Aesop's fables. The writing is simple yet it finds a way to be heartwrenching. All I felt while reading the book was a feeling of despair.
such a fantastic book.
it's a thought experiment taken a million steps further. The complexities it covers are far beyond what you might expect from the scope of the book - morality, humanity, mortality and so much more.
if you come into it looking for yet another zombie novel, you might go out of it surprised, with a lot of questions you never thought you'd be asking.
I've been reading this series over the course of the past year and then some. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but the more I read, the more it dissolved into a fever dream. I treaded on because of the comedic absurdity, but I could not have explained the plot to you (if there even was a plot). I also found it kind of sad that for a book dealing with literal aliens, somehow earthly stereotypes and sexist jokes continued to make an appearance. oh well.
3.5 stars
It's the kind of humour I enjoy. However, I was hoping for a bit more depth coming from the TV show, but it seems to be just that surface level.
By the end of the book, you'll have learnt to take everything with a grain of salt, so hopefully that means taking the contents of the book with a grain of salt as well. After all, you're still being told what to believe, it's just that it goes against the conventional knowledge he harps on about.
While this book teaches critical thinking I'm afraid it goes the other direction as well. Skepticism is good but branding experts as selfish bastards and later clarifying that all humans are selfish bastards (wait, just most) an interesting strategy in a world that is rife with antivaxxers and flat-earthers and god knows what else.
I remember buying into the hype and never understanding the need for the Amsterdam plotline and being madly in love with one particular sentence. good times.
This was an absolutely stunning read. I came across a review on Goodreads that said it was misogynistic & homophobic, and the more I read the book, the more this angered me. This was incredible work of fleshed out characters and stories and emotions. You see the world from the eyes of someone who you think is forgettable, and you slowly watch them reach the height of their potential, someone who is driven by the best traits of humanity - courage and love and empathy. Somehow, despite the poetic descriptions of Achilles, he eclipsed him. This is probably the first book I've read that made me cry. Yes, we can all shudder at the descriptions of barbaric acts of violence against women, but that does not make a book misogynistic. Use it as a reminder of how things used to be. My only gripe is sometimes the metaphors flew over my head - is that bad writing or is it my obtuse brain?
I've been reading this series over the course of the past year and then some. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but the more I read, the more it dissolved into a fever dream. I treaded on because of the comedic absurdity, but I could not have explained the plot to you (if there even was a plot). I also found it kind of sad that for a book dealing with literal aliens, somehow earthly stereotypes and sexist jokes continued to make an appearance. oh well.
it's a difficult book to read. to be honest, who in their right minds would choose to read something like this. I was interested in it because of its claim of being told from the perspective of female victims. I'm not sure sure how I feel about the whole inspired by a real story premise. it's difficult to know what is real and what isn't, so I'm just going to assume that everything is fictionalised. it's well written. the author does a great job of describing the gory details without detailing the gory acts.
the author has a tendency to introduce an event early on while describing it in a way that feels monumental. but when she finally gets to describing the event, it doesn't feel as large in scope. the alternating perspectives kept things interesting and served as a good way to break up more difficult to swallow events.