Rai
I started this expecting more of the things that really grated me about the first two books (esp. the second) and when another terrible plot to destroy Tristia is discovered I was expecting it to be one of the previous two (painfully obvious) baddies, Trin or the Tailor. If you're worried about the same thing, then don't! The Big Bad in this book in entirely new.As always this was a really easy book to read (once I got past my initial concerns) and I enjoyed this a lot more than [b:Knight's Shadow 23547364 Knight's Shadow (Greatcoats, #2) Sebastien de Castell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421878279l/23547364.SY75.jpg 41935536], which has encouraged me to see it through to the end of the series. Falcio seems to have grown out of his ‘stupidest smart person' phase finally and all our central characters continue to develop alongside the introduction of some new ones. A great continuation of the story.
Ah, Falcio, Falcio, Falcio; sometimes you are a bit of a great big dumb-dumb.
As this book was significantly longer than the first I was expecting it to take longer to read but somehow it was just as easy to make progress with and went by quite quickly for 600 pages. Compared to the first book there was also a lot that was very similar and Falcio seems to be somehow both clever and utterly oblivious all at once, which did start to grate on me a little in this installment.
How is he so intuitive in battle and negotiations and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to see the picture no one else can and yet still never figure out who is behind the grand machinations that are sweeping Tristia? I guessed both “big reveals” of who was behind the two different forms of atrocities fairly early on and found myself getting more and more frustrated by Falcio's dumbest genius routine. This happened in the first book too but as that was a lot shorter it didn't impact my overall enjoyment quite so much; in this book I found myself getting a bit bored of Falcio's selective stupidity.
Oh, and can we stop calling every woman in the book a ‘whore'? I mean, c'mon! Use your imaginations, boys & girls.
DESPITE the drawbacks above, I still enjoyed the story overall though it feels very compact. I will continue with the series to Saint's Blood and I'm curious to see if any of my other predictions will come true.
This is rounding up from 2.5.
If you've watched the Mike Flanagan TV series of the same name, be aware this is a totally different story in comparison. The book is - while a novella - very slow going to start with and even after arriving at Hill House not much happens. Doors close themselves, people see or hear things that “aren't there” and there's some angry banging on the bedroom doors at night. Mostly it focusses on Eleanor's devolving mental state to the point she believes the house wants her to stay.
It's not particularly creepy, scary or disturbing and the prose is certainly dated. If you like ‘classic' era writing then you may enjoy this more than I did.
A brilliantly told, dark, feminist, folkish, fantasy tale. In times of strife the forest spirits can be called upon to protect those living around it; and this is the hope Saorlaith clings to as she summons the forest maiden Bailuchien to save herself and her younger sister from the famine that has ravaged their village. In exchange, the sisters commit themselves to a path of protecting the weak and visiting revenge on the abusers. Deliciously bloody and evocative for such a compact story.
I came to this via the “Audible Original Drama” version of the book and as a long-time fan of the film series I felt like this could add something a little more to the universe for me. The dramatisation makes it a lot quicker to get through the story and is well worth a listen. The voice acting is excellent and production is too; fans of the films will enjoy the extra sound effects.
The story itself expands on what happens prior to the Aliens film and to anchor it within the canon there are snippets of Ripley's story in this one. While I found these a little repetative I expect someone who isn't as familiar with the films would see benefit in the contextualising of the River of Pain story. The voice actor they have to play Ripley did an excellent job, she sounds almost exactly like Sigourney Weaver.
I was curious to see how the story would play out given my foreknowledge of survivors based on the films. I wasn't disappointed on that front and was pleased that my assumptions weren't all correct about how the story ends.
A detective on long-term sick leave is stranded in a fancy hotel in the Alps when weather takes a turn for the worse; she's visiting her estranged brother and his new finacée, along with her boyfriend. Elin isn't sure if she wants to return to the force or whether she can even be a detective anymore but when a body of a missing woman is found and the hotel is cut off, she's the best option anyone's got of staying safe and solving the crime.
The Sanatorium is a good little detective thriller with a flawed and fallible main character trying her best to right herself after a traumatic experience on the job. While I managed to guess one twist relating to Elin's past, the twists in the present-day remained elusive until the end of the book.
A good debut, well written and engaging.
A lovely, cosy, found family sci-fi focussing on the two characters we saw departing the Wayfarer at the end of [b:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 25786523 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435140741l/25786523.SY75.jpg 42270825]: Pepper and Sidra (Lovelace).There are two narratives to follow in this book, the first immediately follows that departure from the Wayfarer and the other begins around 20 years (or, standards) earlier and shows us the story behind Pepper's comment that she was raised by an AI. As with the first book, this is a great story of misfits finding their place that is an inspiring, sometimes sad, tale set in a multispecies future space society. Just as beautiful as the first book but not a carbon-copy.
~I listened to the Hachette Audio UK produced audiobook version read by Robin Miles~
To say that I have only ever finished two audiobooks and one is The Fifth Season is testament to how much I genuinely enjoyed it. I came across it as a title I was interesting in by pure chance browsing through “similar titles” on Goodreads and resolved to read it. With a free month of Audible I thought I'd give it a go as I'm a terribly slow reader and wanted to see if I liked N.K. Jemisin.
I have never been able to stick with audiobooks before as I often get agitated by the readers voice. Robin Miles has done a great reading in this version and now I have her voice ringing through my head and can't imagine continuing the series without hearing her read it.
The story itself I enjoyed greatly; some of the revelations in the latter part of the book I did predict but in a way where I hoped I was right and was glad when it was revealed I was right. There were a couple of twists I didn't see.
Jemisin has made me care about these characters expertly in her portrayals and the concepts behind the world we read about were fresh and the prose doesn't fall into the traps of many fantasy offerings.
I enjoyed it immensely.
Just read it. It's free. It's very quick and short. It packs more of a punch than you'd imagine something so quick, short and free would. It's not too ‘heavy', don't worry. A clever idea.
I started the book because it was short and seemed like one of those titles everyone was reading and talking about (more likely because of the film release).
The idea behind it - to view the Holocaust from the eyes of an unknowing child - is sound enough but executed extremely poorly.
Why would a boy who doesn't seem to understand what is going on around him interpret his native language German into English words? Fury, Out and With are English words, not German ones. It is ridiculous to enforce an English perspective of language onto the character of a German boy.
The rest of the plot plods along until the inevitable conclusion that anyone could predict with plenty of time to spare. Overall it seems quite like a get-rich-quick attempt off the back of a heinous period of our history.
I gave this a go as it was free on Audible and I would say if it ever moves out of that and requires a charge/credit; don't bother. From the very outset there was wave after wave of awful similes like an ocean of garbage breaking on the shore of your mind. If ever you took an English class on creative writing you will note a couple of things the author has done that your secondary school teachers instructed you to avoid:
- untamed similes running rampant that add nothing to the story (more likely to jolt you out of the story by how bizarre some of them are: “storm clouds as depressing as suicide”)
- repeated the same phrase at least three (3) times within a short space of time/text
- unnecessary swearing
I'm all for swearing, I do it a lot, and there are times when it really adds just the right kick to the story or the dialogue. In this, however, there's random swearing where it's not really needed and largely makes no sense, which means when it comes to crunch time at the climax of the story the swearing doesn't have as much impact.
The audiobook only lasts one (1) hour, mercifully, and the narrator is almost as painful as the prose. The main ‘shock value' zombie event is something that, if you've ever played Dead Space 2, has been done much better elsewhere.
1 star because it's free and short; otherwise, give it a miss.
This and my other reviews are on my site: Aspects of Me.
I read this as part of the #SchwabReadalong organised over Twitter/Booktube (twitter.com/schwabreadalong) and this was the first book of the schedule. I haven't read Schwab before but have seen her pop up with both her YA and adult fantasy books as a recommended author for me quite a few times so I decided now's as good a time as any!
The Archived was a good story exploring ideas of death, grieving, family, friendships and desire from the perspective of a 16 year old. The overall concept of a supernatural style library that catalogues the dead who in turn have a tendency to get up and wander off is one I've seen done elsewhere, nevertheless this book does a good job at exploring the idea.
It is well written for the target audience (YA) however I found some of it frustratingly simple at times; I also found myself getting annoyed at some of the decisions the characters were making and some of the martial expertise of the 16 year old protagonist seemed a little far-fetched. It was a good story but I am happy with leaving it at just The Archived personally, as opposed to reading the 2nd book.
This and my other reviews are on my website: Aspects of Me.
There are a lot of things that can be said about this book and given it's almost 70 years old at this point I'm sure most of what I have to say has been said before. Nevertheless, in trying to keep up the habit of reviewing what I read, here we are.
The first thing that struck me about Fahrenheit 451 was how lyrical it is; I was not expecting a dystopia about burning books and controlling knowledge to be so beautifully written. Bradbury did an excellent job in composing some brilliant prose that still managed to feel light and easy despite the dark topics it explored.
In addition to this, Bradbury has woven in quite a few literary references in the telling of this tale that it feels exciting to pick up on when you spot something not in quotation marks. It doesn't feel like he was trying to be too ‘high brow' about it either, moreover it seems like an extra dimension to a story about how and if literature is worth saving from destruction. It was also interesting to wonder why exactly Bradbury picked the references he did, how they are related to the story of Montag and what extra depth can be eluded to.
The second thing that I'm sure everyone notices is how prescient the content of the book is: personality politics, war, inundation of information, control of information, valuing the sciences over the arts, TV, social media, even down to the little ‘green bullet' that sounds awfully similar to Bluetooth earpieces! There is a lot to unpack in such a short book and you will end up thinking about it long after you finish. While we now have greater access to books than ever before that isn't to say that Bradbury was wrong about other aspects of Fahrenheit 451.
Lastly, though I could talk for quite some time on this book, if you haven't read it let me highlight that this is not just a story about burning books vs saving books. It explores censorship, yes, but not simply in the forbidding of the printed word. Who controls the information you are fed? Who controls the ideas that are allowed out into the open? How do we censor ourselves within a society even without a government to do it for us?
Fahrenheit 451 will certainly make you think, if nothing else.
While it kept me interested there was little explanation or interrogation of what was happening or why. It's left a number of unanswered questions.
It was OK, I kept reading in the hope there'd be more exploration of what dark dealings where going on but alas was met with an abrupt, sadly predictable, ending.
But it was free on the Kindle Lending Library so that's a plus. That and it's short.
One thing that you might not glean from the blurb is that some of the content might cause discomfort for some readers. Here's a big ole CW for you: sex, rape, self-harm, drug and alcohol misuse, child abuse/murder, and teeth.Beyond that, this is a fairly standard thriller. Admittedly not told from the perspective of the police, instead from Camille the journalist, but it's still predictable in terms of ‘Whodunnit' part of the plot. The clues Flynn leaves are big and obvious and I found myself wanting to reach in and shake Camille for being so blind to it all on several occasions. Perhaps that is the point? To show how we do not wish to believe the worst in the people we know, no matter how much evidence there is.Camille is a walking litany of self-harm (sex, drugs, alcohol, sharp objects...), which I found a little difficult to read at times as she tries to defend her decisions as rational. This is a commonality I found with [b:The Grownup 26025580 The Grownup (Rogues, #2) Gillian Flynn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441679582l/26025580.SY75.jpg 45948939], both protagonists are very sexual and use sex as a way to get what they want (as is one of the key supporting characters in Sharp Objects) however there is no criticism of this and how a society puts women in a position like that has something deeply wrong with it. Because of this, I can't quite tell if Flynn is trying to be a pro-sex feminist, reclaiming it for women to wield or whether she's playing into patriarchal rhetoric.Given some of the issues I had with the book and the predictable perpetrator I don't feel I can give this more than 3 stars. Entertaining enough but has it's problems.
Having read it as one of those titles you “ought” to read in the horror genre, it was at most disappointing. The syntax and grammar are over complicated, even for the era it was written in, and after the halfway point of very little happening I found myself skimming the long descriptive passages to jump forward for some dialogue that might progress the story.
The story doesn't really ‘go' anywhere and doesn't much explore any of the ‘horror' elements. It feels unfinished and, while short, still not worth the time to have read it.
A small collection of essays that are as relevant now as the 1940s. With a very clever style of writing and some gems of insults. Thought-provoking and yet somehow saddening that we still find ourselves in the same battles as Orwell did.
This is one of my favourite and most memorable books from childhood. As I can remember it after all these years, it has stood the test of time, age and memory, and I can only recommend it for anyone looking for something for a child (or cat lover, alike).
I was unsure as to whether the title was supposed to be ironic, given that one simply runs out of book to read; there is no conclusion, no finish and certainly no send of an ending. That is the one thing that struck me most about the book.
I see and understand the techniques the author is employing and while it seems to appeal to a great many people (this book won awards, after all), it didn't appeal to me. I found it a bit too clumsy and, in honesty, months later I have almost entirely forgotten the plot. That's all I can say with surety: that it was a forgettable book save for it's infuriating lack of a finish.