ren
it fell flat for me, there were definitely things of merit but i felt like the trans/nb inclusion was a tickbox at best and could have been expanded on. it would've been interesting to see the parallels between how cis women's health has been pushed to the side for centuries, and how this is also happening to gender non conforming people.
i think this book would mean a lot more to you if you have endo, as thats a big focus of the book.
i think this would be better read by picking out the bits you're interested in, rather than cover to cover. i couldn't skim as it was on audio. it was quite repetitive.
The subject matter was interesting but just not for me, this one i think!
i finished it! all 26 hours.
this book, or rather, diving back into the twilight franchise after a little over a decade was a whole bunch of fun. I definitely got the most enjoyment out of the first movie, and this book was a nice accompaniment to that.
I think this would be a great buddy read for those who enjoyed the original books. Whether you still think they have literary merit now, or you don't really care and just want a good time.
There are many many effed up things about the twilight series and i'm not going to go into them now, i'm definitely not the right person to discuss them – but they're valid and should be given the appropriate thoughts. Many other reviewers here and elsewhere will have put it much better than I. I will say that many authors write many effed up things in books and don't get nearly as much hate for it. While Bella deserved SO much better, and Edward is an absolute freak, I support Bella's rights to be a dumb ass monster fucker. I too remember the intensity of my relationships and stupid choices made at her age, I'd probably think its cute if a sexy vampire man watched me sleep too.
This book really showed Edward's frightening side well. It was brilliantly read by the narrator - Jake Abel. I'll have to look out for other books read by him. He delivered the lines with such emotion, and I was genuinely taken back when he would gutturally growl Edward's scary lines. He didn't butcher the women's voices either, which was a welcome change. It was a very immersive listen. It was interesting to see Edward's side of things, and get more time spent with the Cullen family. This book was definitely, far, far too long. So many things were happening (which were all quite slice of lifey) but about 30% in I couldn't believe how much story was left to go. As mentioned, I haven't read the first book in at least 13 years, maybe longer. So I didn't really get the little nods to the crazy shit Edward was doing while Bella was watching him and just thinking ‘WTF'. I do remember Edward randomly laughing out loud frequently, so it was cute to see it from his perspective.
I loved the characterisation we got in this book, I definitely had a sunnier view of Bella. I don't remember too much of my feelings about her back in the day but I would say it's only improved from then. Mostly, I really fell in love with Emmett's character in this story, what a sweetheart.
While I don't think this book is necessarily ‘good' I enjoyed reading it, it was a fun ride. If Meyer releases the rest of the series from Edward's perspective, i'd almost definitely put myself through this again. Especially if it's narrated by Jake Abel. It'd be cool if she did it from another Cullen's perspective, or to go with the obvious choice for New Moon - Jacob.
4.5 stars, still holds up in 2021.
This reading, I listened to the re-recording of the audiobook by Tatiana Maslany which was read beautifully. She did sigh a little too much on the beginning which was a little jarring and distracting, but overall the performance was fantastic.
I wanted to reread the series in preparation to read the prequel (which i just found out about!) and figured it's a good time to get my partner to read the books which meant a lot to me. Thankfully he agreed to listen along.
Suzanne is such a talented author and i think i only appreciate this book more after reading the overlander series for the first time last year and can recognise the similar themes and the ways she's grown her voice.
I'm so drawn in to the characters and world in this story and genuinely care so much about what happens to them, even feeling attached to the minor characters. generally, I'm not one for romance or mushy feelings but I'm so invested in the tangled up relationship between Katniss and Peeta and the complexity of her feelings and the heart break when he realises she doesn't necessarily feel the same way. It can so easily be played off as ‘poor boy getting cucked by bitchy girl' but i think Suzanne handles this very delicately and with subtlety that feels very genuine. Even though it's a dystopian YA, everything just feels so real.
a fine book! 3.5* i think i would've enjoyed this more as a teen. its very coming of age.
i found it a bit pretentious at times and found the main characters both unlikeable at the start but they grow throughout the story which is nice.
by the end, i was getting teary eyed at many random parts so it definitely touched me.
it is kind of similar in vibe to ‘we are okay' which is on my favourite list of all time, so i wonder how much listening to this on audio affected my opinion of it. The narrators did well but rufus' sections voice for matteo was so whiny - it definitely stopped me from connecting so much.
like, you know it's coming but it just hit me hard when it happened. it happened and then it was over.
kind of felt meaningless towards the end but i suppose that's the ‘point' - it's over when it's over.
i liked this less than i should have on paper, a spooky folklore skeleton story set in wales sounds right up my alley. The narrator was lovely but the story was very slow at times and parts of it were really hard to get through. i had to force myself to listen but i loved the atmosphere. i found the action scenes a bit boring and i wasn't a fan of the romance at all and actually ended up rolling my eyes at a lot of it. The big reveal was one that i picked up immediately so it wasn't exciting for me sadly and i just kept wondering when they would bring it up. i was ready to rate this 2 stars but then it picked up in the last 10% again. i really enjoyed the strong sibling relationships
the art, and use of colour was breathtaking. but the lack of story wasn't my cup of tea. usually I'm a fan of slice of life type stuff but the story/engagement fell a little flat for me.
the little englishisms really made me smile.
give it a go, a very quick read.
Happy 2021!
My goals this year are to read more consistently, so i don't have to read so frantically and worry so much about ‘catching up'
enjoy the journey, think deeply and seek out meaning to what i'm reading
log in a journal again but in ways that are more useful
read the books i own: i am a cat, the hobbit, lotr 1-3, magician, a nest for celeste
... more to come!
i did start using notion to log my reading, which meant i didn't use this 2021 page so much. i wish it had more options for graphs and stats but i love it for what it can do.i didn't read ANY books i owned, and i purchased another 32 (all second-hand!) another one to push to next year haha. i did enjoy my reading more this year, i tried to force it less. i am struggling with reading only things i know i will like and trying to branch out a bit, meaning i'm getting a lot of 2.5 star books as they're just okay. i do enjoy venturing outside of my comfort zone with reading and have really enjoyed reading more memoirs.when i was overwhelmed and drained with the state of the world i really wanted to escape with books but struggled with concentration and enjoyment. re-reading twilight really helped me when i was in those dips. i think i'll need to find more low-key books that i can just listen to casually. while plotting all the events, characters and theories i had for the locked tomb was a wonderful experience and really enhanced my reading, i definitely couldn't do that for every book and it was quite mentally challenging.
Series completed: 4 {The Raven Cycle, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Brooklyn Brujas}
Series to finish: 1 {The Gilded Wolves}
Series ongoing: 3 {The Dreamer Trilogy, Thursday Murder Club, The Locked Tomb}
January
1.
a nice collection of short stories. it does have a flow from beginning to end so it doesn't feel too disjointed.
i enjoyed it, i liked Gaiman's style (as usual) and characters but i just think this short-story style of book isn't my favourite. a solid book if that's what you're into.
I started this book about 4 or 5 times this year, usually while commuting and got a chapter in each time before drifting off, through no fault of the authors. Finally, I put on my headphones and started doing some chores at home on a cold winters day and was able to listen to it all in one sitting. (it's not a long book)
I'm sad I wasn't able to take notes or write down some of the great quotes or the parts that really spoke to me.
i really enjoyed the start of this book but I didn't personally get so much out of the later parts. it was still enjoyable and interesting, but i'm not american or religious/christian - so a lot of those parts went a bit over my head.
it was really nice to have this read by Dr Angelou's herself. She has a great voice. I liked how she was really honest about her stuff ups, I learnt a lot and it really felt like I was being told this story by my own mother figure. I'd like to read some more of her poetry :)
i first read this as a set book for English class. it brought up some really good discussion and made a lot of my 99.9% white class ‘get' some concepts of racism that they hadn't before.
visiting home this year, some 13 years later i found the copy of the book i had ‘borrowed' from school all those years ago in my dusty bookshelf - whoops :-)
i think this book was better on my first read. i enjoyed it less than i was expecting and was less invested in the characters than i thought i would be. the age difference between sephy and callum now bothers me during the first section and the fact that a hostage is sleeping with a captor (despite their history) gave me shivers on my spine (not the good kind). when i was a little younger than sephy i could really understand the drama of being a teenager and the entire love story was epic and incredible instead of a bit weird. i can remember our entire class screaming in frustration of sephy's choice which i can now understand.
i did stay up till 5am reading this for the second time and finish it in one sitting so it was obviously gripping and despite my lack of connection with the characters the second time around i still cried at the end.
moving this to my on hold, as it got auto returned today and I'm just not feeling it. i'll likely move this to dnf eventually. I've been trying to slog through it but it's just not really piquing(?) my interest. i was really drawn in by the cover so i was hoping this would turn out to be a nice little gem i just magically found from my trawling of libby. but sometimes things just don't work out yanno
disappointing read after a strong start :(
i wasn't interested in the present day story at all, ok maybe for the tiny hopes of a sapphic romance (I'm seeing a pattern here with all of my reads) which never fruited. present day mc made sooo many silly decisions and i just didn't like her character and couldn't stand by any of the weird choices she made, her internal thoughts were quite frustrating. and oddly, the narrator had an English accent for this American character during all thoughts and first person description. but whenever she spoke aloud she put on an American accent. why not just have an American accent for the entire present part? they also had an Extremely English man say sneakers aloud. #petpeeve
i was enjoying the historical parts, nella and eliza were great characters but the whole thing was a little slow. and far far far too many women spoke about the longings of their wombs. maybe the author is going through something wrt to that but it felt unesessary.
i think this shows promise and i look forward to see what the author will write next. the premise was so intriguing, just a shame about the execution.
The last section lets this book down for me, the whole book was a little slow- but i didn't dislike that. The last 50 pages or so are just a turnabout speedrun with - for me, an unsatisfying ending. i know things can't be wrapped up in a bow but i do feel a certain character was let down and lacked a lot of agency. i wish we could have seen more of her own perspective, mixed/changing feelings and agenda.
I was very enthralled by parts of it and thought Snow was written very well, always teetering between charming and terrifying. I found my self simultaneously cheering for she being unnerved by the romance, i think this is exactly what Collins was going for. I would have liked Tigris to have a larger role, she was a very interesting character especially knowing where she ends up!
The Mockingjay symbolism was interesting but was a bit in your face by the end of it
i really wanted to love this but it fell flat for me. it's not a bad book, i just didn't gel with it.
i don't like leaving negative reviews so i'll leave it there, this book had its merits.
I'm still processing this book but i think i really liked it
– feb 2021
– edit march 2022. –
after a long think, i've updated this to a generous 3 stars. there were a lot of things that resonated with me in this book (as i'm sure it would for any one with mh issues) and a magical library with a sweet older librarian looking after you sounds like a dream - but ultimately it hasn't really stuck with me. the premise is very interesting but it didn't seem to go anywhere with it and was quite formulaic/repetitive. the message, while important, was a bit heavy handed to say the least. i'm usually one who needs things spelled out a bit for me and even i found it overplayed. i did like seeing the different AUs and imagining mine is always a fun pass-time of mine so it was cool to see it done in a book in this way. discussion re and act of suicide is a large part of this book, and it may be triggering if that's something you've grappled with.
in the end, it was ‘just fine'
The characters were sweet and i enjoyed the englishisms of the book. a nice story ☺️
There were sufficient red herrings and i was kept guessing til the end. even when i guessed correctly, i then second-guessed and convinced myself into something else and i was never quite right.
i wish i read this book when i was a kid. growing up with the English curriculum, the only thing i remember learning about Australia was that the British sent their prisoners there to live because there was no room. nothing about the atrocities committed by the English against the aboriginal people whatsoever.
i never thought I'd be living in Australia 20 years later but here i am.
The illustrations are so evocative and detailed.
i think a really important book. neither author nor illustrator is aboriginal. I'll have to seek out aboriginal stories
what a lovely story ;_____;
i said to myself the real treasure was the arthur we found along the way for the same joke to be made by the author and i screamed
what a stunning little book. lovely themes and delightful world building.
simple to read, so great for younger readers or those who prefer something more straightforward.
a little slow to start but a very intriguing urban fantasy with really cool lore. very enjoyable :) excited for the sequel!
