Tess

I didn't really enjoy this, unfortunately. A lot of the authors involved seem unaware of how people actually talk or tell stories, and the twist is ridiculous.

This book really interested me as a historical fiction based on women in a setting that hasn't been done to death but I just don't think the end product was very good. All of the characters were surface level and only had a couple of traits each, and the narrative didn't seem to respect most of the lower class characters very much. I would have liked to see more depth in the relationship between the sisters and their other family members, and a bit more pov for some of the other characters. The stuff with the general near the end was well executed though.

This book was fine, but it didn't feel like it had a lot of depth. The essays felt a bit like blog posts and were a bit too “of course not all men” to me.

There were interesting aspects to this book but (and it feels strange to say this about a book that features genocide so prominently) the presentation felt extremely twee to me with the “water memory” framing. I also found the book focused too much on the Arthur character when the women's stories were more interesting and interconnected. I will probably check out more of this author's work (the afterword was very thoughtful) but this one didn't work for me unfortunately.

There's some really brutal writing here about war and colonialism and the lives that get swallowed up in them, but I found the first few chapters difficult to wade through (the first was interesting but the next few repeated the story with only minor additions - I believe this is intended to match oral tradition style but it was a challenge for me) and I didn't like the writing about any of the women.

A strange little story; sad but darkly funny. It went a little off the rails for me at the end but overall great.

Parts of this book were interesting but the plot just got way too wild for me. There was way too much going on (the part with the babies was particularly risible) and I feel like things were wrapped up way too neatly at the end.

I really enjoyed this odd little coming of age (transition into your 30s) book once I let go of my expectations of it and met it on its own terms. I do think some of the surreal plot lines were a little much for what the actual plot was but I really enjoyed the book within a book and Meadow's relationships with his friends.

This story was fine but there wasn't anything really special about it. I enjoyed my time reading it but probably won't remember it in a week.

I did not like this at all. The prose was miserable to read (it's a bunch of sentence fragments telling you what everyone is thinking all the time), the “revolutionary” character is like a cartoon villain and the twist is both deeply stupid and reinforces the class divisions the book is supposedly against.

An incisive look at gender roles and gendered expectations in Japan, seen through the lens of an ambitious female reporter and how she is affected by interviews with a famous serial killer. There are a lot of interesting characters, and Rika's relationships form the backbone of the book. Her decisions about how she wanted to live her life were more interesting to me than the serial killer drama, which dragged in places.

I liked a lot of things about this follow up to Fever House, especially the conclusion of Katherine's story and the new character Naomi, but it is a bit more of a straightforward zombie story formula-wise and while I appreciated Dean's character I didn't feel like he had enough to do that wasn't accessory to Katherine.

This one was fine. I liked the premise and the main character, but I wish there had been more focus on the car itself as antagonist instead of the guy since he wasn't really all that interesting.

Did not like this one at all. Dora is a cop, but goes to work maybe twice in the whole book and does not talk, think, or act like a cop. Nothing about the marriage or breakup feels realistic (which lines up with the plot twist but also girl what are you doing) and the constant misogyny and kind of eco fascist rhetoric from her put me off. The fantasy parts are mostly boring because nothing is described at all to avoid giving away the goofy plot twist.

I was really excited for this one but I didn't like it at all. The basic premise was intriguing, but the alternate history felt so improbable (and also annoying, the repurposing of the Rachel Cusk quote to be about men made me put the book down) and not that well integrated into the supposed biography format that it was just distracting. Also with all of the stunts X had been pulling for the whole book her final betrayal didn't feel big enough.

I didn't like this one at all. The Greek chorus conceit with the moms really felt fake deep and everything seemed to build up to nothing. By the time something really dark and cult like was happening the book ended.

I liked this book a lot, but I do wish that I had read it before The Spear Cuts Through Water since that book refined a lot of the interesting touches in this one and took them farther, with more confidence. I liked the characters and the overall plot, but the big time skips made a lot of it feel sort of distant and I found the third section a bit silly.

I really enjoyed this one. Jess's post-university aimlessness and simultaneous love and frustration with her family were relatable, the horror to humour balance was great and I loved the ending. Unfortunately I found the middle of the book a little unfocused and I wish the girlfriend had been a stronger character (she felt a bit like a prop meant to complicate things for Jess and I kept forgetting about her).

Very weird book overall. It is a prequel but references a lot of current events that happened after publication of the previous book. Boring, flat characters bordering on stereotypes. Very preachy unpleasant tone. I don't think I'll bother with the third book.

This is a popcorn book for sure. Fast pace, characters flat as cardboard cutouts, wild but nonsensical plot twists. The second star is for the murder weapon, which was at least original.

This got a little didactic in places (felt like each character was created to address a specific issue), I didn't really care for the murder mystery side plot, and everything got a little too fantastical for me at the end, but overall I enjoyed this book about Filipino domestic workers in Singapore a lot. How do you live as a human in these circumstances is a question that each character is trying to answer in her own way.

This horror novel had an interesting concept but I don't think it was very well executed. There were a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes (multiple instances of mixing up Josh and Dale's names, missing words, homophones etc), characters' personalities sometimes felt inconsistent, way too many shopping lists, and I think the epilogue in this version made the story worse by wrapping things up a little too pat. The horror takes a little too long to get started considering that we know what's going on way before any of the victim characters do. I did really like some of the things it was aiming for though, especially around the solidarity between the female characters and some attempted realistic tension and support in Sarah and Josh's marriage.

Darkly absurd story about life under a totalitarian regime after a failed political revolution. The translation is breezy and readable despite the dark subject matter. Really liked this.

Decent enough family drama slash murder mystery marred by a terrible eleventh hour plot twist. Feels like it wasted my time.

Time travel stories can be a bit hit or miss for me - I find that a lot of the time they get too caught up in either the mechanics or the power fantasy, so they don't feel like they have anything to say. Kindred knows what it wants to say and says it effectively. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.