Trejon

An incredibly beautiful book about one of the messiest bitches who ever lived 

When not comparing to the original book, this is quite a wonderful book. Unfortunately it is hard to think of it outside of its legendary predecessor. Seeing the inner workings of Gilead from other perspectives was very interesting though. 

Coming off the heels of Lovers and Gamblers, which was a plodding mess filled with miserable characters, this was a joy. Nearly novella length, the plot moved at a breakneck pace, the debauchery didn't take away from the story, and the characters were fun to be around. 

As someone who loves Christmas and enjoys some good Christmas movies, I've never been into Christmas books. This one did not change my mind. This reads like the kind of fanfiction I'm not personally into and I got a bit bored. LOVE these characters, but I gotta admit, Rhys and Feyre are super boring when they're just in love and not fighting together. Which would be great if they were my real life friends, but ugh, wasn't interested. Some interesting world building bits, but I kept finding myself flipping to the teaser for ACOSF which was WAY more intriguing than The Christmas Special. 

A beautiful gripping tale of how hypocrisy and dishonesty affects everyone tangentially touched by it, and also one weirdo's philosophical ramblings. 

The first section of the book is truly fantastic. Fred is such a creepy wonderfully crafted character, I loved being in his head even as he terrified and disgusted me. 

Miranda? What a horrid character. A 19 year old art student, one of his worst creations in any time period. I hated being in her head. I hated her faux intellectual ideals. I hated her borderline grooming relationship with GP. I wanted her free but far FAR away from me. I can't bring myself to care about this woman at all, and the more I hear her be so damned snobbish about everyone and everything the less I like her. 

The stilted prose was getting in the way of enjoying the story. But it was compelling enough that I decided to come back and finish it. The pacing is weird and all over the place, and the ending was rushed. But I did like the darker, grimier portrayal of Mary's affairs with kings, and loved her time with French Queen Mary. It's also kind of interesting reading a Mary Boleyn book that isn't a covert Anne book. Anne's barely in this one. 

This book was so dumb. It tried so hard to be shocking and controversial but it was just dumb and sleazy.

EDIT: 8/27/18 I liked it better this go around but it never rises above the level of shock porn.

Seminal in my childhood but not sure how well it holds up. Alas. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGHHGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGHG

The sex is quite good. 

The narrator for Harlan was so bad I couldn't get through his first chapter. 

A new work on cleopatra is always interesting. Was sloppily edited and a bit rambling unfortunately. It's a short enough read. 

Interesting enough in the first half but I found myself losing interest. 

Holds up!
A little more ya than I remembered but the last time I read it I was a ya so.
Really great tho.

I feel like the ending invalidates any point the author was trying to make and relegates it all to grimdark “we live in a society” bullshit. 

The first half was a convincing enough metaphor for capitalism. The midpoint twist was confusing and meandering. And the ending was a flaccid mess. 

I feel like at some point this book just was gross for the sake of being gross. 

What a cute story! I can't believe I missed this one as a kid. I think it's great for a middle schooler getting into history. It doesn't shy away from deeper more difficult subjects like arranged marriage, antisemitism, difficult childbirths and miscarriage.

The story was good but it got so meandering at points. A lot of the philosophizing could have been cut. But very interesting read. 

I started getting quite bored. Maybe if I was younger this would have hit me more. But I really just wanted to move on. 

Debilitatingly dense

That audiobook makes the difference

I don't remember much of this book from the first time I read it or why I gave it two stars but I loved it this time around!

Do people legitimately like heathcliff??? From minute one to minute done, he was a scornful sullen little piece of human garbage, and a fantastic villain, but im baffled the words “romantic” or “hero” ever got attached to him. 

Frankly I'm glad her mom died too. Jeanette is a legend. 

Got bored. 

Great reference book and love Harold schechter but shouldn't have tried to read it straight through like a normal book.