Candice

Edited: I'm going to update this to 3 stars, because I was mostly entertained and if I step back from it, I have to believe that the entire story was a mockery of itself.... which ultimately is pretty funny.

Somewhat funny, somewhat nerdy, somewhat hot.... but then awkward?

I didn't like the main characters at all. There are odd time gaps and almost no dialog, so I don't feel like there was really a relationship built amidst all the bobbing cocks which are so rampant after about 53% (good god that first novella took for fucking ever for them to write!). Meh

There were a lot of funny lines and interesting references. The roommate character was interesting and felt more fleshed out (pun intended?) than the main characters themselves. The MCs making fun of the stereotypes of the genre was hilarious... but then the book also adhered to many of them itself, which may have been subtly intended? I just can't tell.

It really bothers me to find typos & discontinuities in a book supposedly about writers and it bothers me even more to have nerd/geek references which are just... flat fucking wrong. If you're going to make a literary or geek reference, for god's sake, do your research.

Poignant, yes, but there also quite a few scenes and panels where I'm not sure what happened or why the scene jumped. I think that's more a critique on trying to put the novel into graphic format than on the story itself. Will revisit when I've read the novel.

As someone who actually bought and read this book, I can honestly say that much of it was a chore to read once you get over how pretty the cover art is.

Note: I'm not a Ph.D candidate or a true Londoner and I've never read the original edition of this book, so maybe I just picked up the wrong book for me personally.

While the book is divided into sections, which sounds lovely and organized, the content is a mishmash of essays (of varying approachability and largely unknown age of original publication) tucked under one section or another with no real cohesion or meaningful progression of topics.

It felt a bit like an non-specific call for papers that just got pasted together despite their sometimes redundant coverage of certain topics. The book was edited to add reference notes in parentheses to refer back to chapters within itself, but these notes fail give it any real cohesion either.

As someone who has never been to London, I found it confusing that the section devoted to a basic walkthrough of the general sites with simple references to the associated lore of each site appears in the middle of the book, rather than the beginning. In the beginning, where you might have expected to see a general introduction to the city in plain english, you get instead a laborious old English style geographical poem excerpt which drags on for 4 pages but then offers nothing in the way of explication or summary. (While the Poly-Olbion is famous and excerpt was topical, it's bloody difficult and a bit painful to read with no context.)

Many of the essays are so high brow only a devoted scholar of that topic could appreciate the “you had to have been there” thesis feel. A few of the essays were genuinely enjoyable and approachable, but many of them dryly repeat the same 4 or 5 bits of lore with varying levels of detail. One essay had a fantastic story in it... but then, disappointingly, had no provided references and I couldn't find anything else to support it anywhere.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and certain essays within were an absolute delight (Chapters 6, 10, and 11 offhand and a few others I can't recall at the moment), but it's largely unapproachable for the layman and feels a bit messy because of the pasted essay format. But again, my criticism may just be a result of having different expectations of the book and having no foreknowledge of the locale or lore.

I don't want to spoil it, so I'll add tags and just say I really like the writing style & character building in general and the book has a really important message that it conveys well... but there were story choices that just felt outlandish that detracted from the otherwise fairly realistic portrayal of the protagonist's dilemma (e.g. the meet cute with the rich girl whose never had a job in her life and suddenly wants to work while in high heels and oh, btw, she's the sister of the random guy you met 6 months ago on some random building. ).

I have mixed feelings about the ending and feel it would have been much stronger overall had the Epilogue been omitted entirely (e.g. Yay! Empowerment! I courageously divorced my abuser and broke the cycle... but... he's such a great dad, so I'm going to leave my still non-verbal child with an physically abusive person with no impulse control. *Projectile Vomit* )

Don't skip the author's note at the end. The author's note made me almost excuse the existence of Epilogue, because I understand that in her own personal situation the wife-beater didn't hurt the children, but if the message of the book is "end the cycle" then the whole "leave your non-verbal 11 month old alone with an abusive person" just seems reckless and not at all breaking the cycle. In her own situation, the children in the household were all old enough to speak up if something happened.

I don't read a lot of YA and this reeks of generic high school romance with some shallow characters, but that's okay and pretty much expected of YA in general. The plot issues I had were all swiftly dealt with in the author's note at the end and ultimately made sense for the purpose of the book.

The book is idealistic and hopeful and mostly uncomplicated, but honestly, I think that's fine for this book too. No book can cover all possible scenarios or personal struggles and it's not terrible for a book to offer education and hope. There were some genuinely funny and sweet scenes and overall it was well written.

3.5 - 4. Parts are really funny, hearing Carrie read it is great, but some parts of the book don't really translate well to audio-only format.

3.5 - 4 ⭐️ I'm changing my rating to 4 because I did enjoy the book and my kid gave it a 5, but it felt like it was longer than it needed to be.

There is some fantastic prose, at times.
There are some beautifully heartbreaking short story asides.
Parts of the ending are pretty moving as standalone circumstances.

But there really isn't any romance between the main characters, in their past or present...

And I don't even mean physical interactions here, as the main character loves reminding you every other page that he has no penis, because that's all that matters right?



I kept waiting for it. Surely by the time the main character moves in with his mysterious benefactor in the present timeline, she'd have told him this moving, heart-wrenching story of their love right? Nope.

There's literally zero emotional connection. No romantic dialog. No physical interactions from the time they were both fairly whole. No witty, playful banter. Nothing beyond the circumstances of her being a nun and him being a deserter and now we're facing the world as outcasts... yadda yadda yadda.

I'm glad I read this as there were beautiful stories and descriptions in it, but as a “transcends time” sort of love story, it fell flat for me.

This is a bit dry and in the Swedish style, so if you don't like that, then pass on this.

Otherwise, if you can relate to the completely love sick and neurotic main character, it has a lot of poignant bits which make you go “Doh! Is this really how I was acting? I'm an idiot!”

I liked it but it's definitely not for everyone.

Meh.

There are a lot of lists to read which felt more like word count filler.

The themes are weak (RANT: Louis chooses his freedom over safety in the zoo, but is also totally fine “donating” his cygnets every year to ensure his freedom.... so apparently the cygnets's freedom means nothing. E.B. White rationalizes this by saying he should donate his “defective” cygnets so the zoo can take extra good care of them.......but Louis was also “defective” at birth and his dad went above and beyond to care for him instead of dumping him at a zoo...)

He has his foot surgically mutilated to play more notes and that's totally fine in a kid's book I guess?

He's in love with a vain swan he can't even communicate with just because she's pretty.

Sam Beaver is constantly compared to looking like “an Indian” for no apparent reason??

I could go on, but it's not worth my time.

I enjoyed the book more the second time around, especially when narrated by Michael C Hall. The narration definitely put a new, darker, spin on the book for me. I loved all Hall's character voices except that of Holly, but I'd still give this 5 star for the narration and 4 or less for Capote because I still just don't really like the book.

3.5? I don't normally read thrillers. I did enjoy the writing and the pacing of the book, but the ending sort of falls flat and you don't ultimately end up liking any of the characters... so when it ends, you just find yourself glad you no longer have to read about how drunk the “protagonist” is today.

A lot of the same content that he uses in his standup, but still hilarious.

My 6 yr old loved it, but solid meh from me.

Interesting read. A little gimmicky at times, but enough thoughtful parables and interesting tidbits that I'm glad I read it even if the book just wasn't ultimately what I was looking for.

If you want exact instructions every step of the way and want to be told exactly which curricula to buy for every grade for a classical, Christian, education at home, then this is for you.

It's not for me.

I did save a lot of resource ideas, but definitely skimmed a large part of the book once I established this wasn't what I was looking for.

I love the idea of this book, but the accordion format is awkward to hold and the writing is only ok. Maybe it would be more fulfilling if I knew more about Gawan, et al.

A must read.
And probably re-read a few times after that

There's not much of a “story” or character development in the manga bits, but the explanations are pretty good and backed up with more technical sections after every manga-story bit.