zilver
loved kell and his coat, lila bard can punch me in the face any time and i'd thank her & and i need more Brotherly Banter
first page of this is a masterclass in storytelling, so compelling. i'll have to chew more on the final takeaway but i really liked the way the book feels like an extended thought experiment. to me it doesn't feel like a matter of “agreeing” with the premise or not. i don't know if ballard does and it doesn't matter to me. i really liked the exploration aspect of it.
ballard's language is very dense - there's a lot packed in every sentence. for a barely 200-page book it's not a particularly fast read, but that's okay because you want to spend time with the words. i see people's complaints about there not being enough motivation for the characters but in such a “concept-book” i actually don't mind it and might prefer just fully going along with the restrained narration. in a way it feels fitting, that there is very little motivation except a drive that the characters themselves don't really understand (or just think they do). same goes for the “lack of realism”. feel like if you're going into this expecting it to be fully realistic you won't have a good time indeed. but if you're willing to enter the world of the high-rise and understand that it is the only world there is for the time being this is very captivating read.
3 - 3.5 didn???t work as much for me as sadie did. this plays with different povs during different times as well, but it lacks the definitive shape sadie had. i also found some parts to be rushed, especially during the second half of the book. i would???ve liked a longer resolution that would have put a little bit more meat on these bones.
i wanted to read this book after coming across a quote from it that really struck me, and i'm so very glad that i did. it's really quite something - quite something quiet at that. a very unconventional book, in some senses. the arc is sort of wobbly, but that feels specifically appropriate for a book that is about grief. it's about a woman who just lost her mother. it's about a writer who's desperate and full of dread and drive at the same time. the quote i read was:
“I'm both the sad person and the person wanting to comfort the sad person. And then I feel sad for that person who has so much compassion because she's clearly been through the same thing, too. And the cycle keeps repeating. It's like when you go into a dressing room with a three-paneled mirror and line them up just right to see the long narrowing hallway of yourselves diminishing into infinity. It feels like that, like I'm sad for an infinite number of my selves.”
i think something else that really touched me throughout the book is how kind casey (the main character) remains. it's like she loses sight of herself but not of the world around her. she remains kind to the people that deserve it, and holds her own around the people who don't. i appreciate a lack of drama. things that in other books would have been dragged out or overdone remain tangible and manageable.
and the sadness does get overwhelming at times. but writers & lovers captures so well that even that is a wave. at times it overwhelms entirely, and the next morning the sun rises, and the breeze is cold, and it's a memory as well as a reminder.
arton daghev im sorry for thinking you were named anton for most of the book.
both more philosophical and more tangible (to me) than the spider book (n??e children of time). the narration felt so vibrant and urgent and alive. though honestly, the whole thing felt urgent and a lot more present than we maybe would like to believe. i think part of the cleverness actually lies in the way tchaikovsky never goes into detail about the mandate, and instead elects to tell us about the effects it has on the people opposing it. and how opposing it affects them. clever and apt and really empathetic.
???Then due to feeling ???luv,??? wud bend down, putting snout and lips to the heds of her pups, which was called: ???gudnite kiss.??? Which I got a kik out of that! Because that is also how we show our luv for our pups, as Foxes! It made me feel gud, like Yumans cud feel luv and show luv. In other werds, hope full for the future of Erth!???
what an adorable, stirring little book. told by fox 8, it narrates a small, dreemer of a fox??? perspective on his life and on the yumans that live around him. it goes from extremely funny to painful and from deep to dry in mere sentences. a highly recommended tiny read.
3.5 stars
I ended up not writing this review last night when I actually finished the book because I felt I had to give my brain a second to decide what it thought of this. I guess the first thing I need to say is that this book took me an uncalled for 3.5 months (even though I probably only read it for a week or two effectively) and that may be part of the reason I couldn't really get into the flow of this book.
Let's just start with this: this book has a great prologue. Very very intriguing, very makes-me-want-to-read-right-on, which, kinda what a prologue is supposed to do but okay, kudos for that one. I really liked the focus on the cult-aspect of Cordova's films, because, I won't lie, if he existed in real life I'd be fascinated with the guy and his stories as well. So then the mystery starts, young woman dies, reporter goes on a hunt with his two side-kicks, yada yada yada.
Thing is, right: I picked this book up again a couple of days ago after literally 3 months of not reading it, I didn't remember very clearly what specific ~mystery things~ had been happening because let's face it, I don't have the memory for that, and I didn't feel like I missed anything. Spent the next week wrestling through the middle section of the book until things picked up again nearing the 70% mark and I finished the last 30% in a day. So I guess I feel mostly like the whole middle section of the book could've been condensed drastically because you have build up and you have tedious telling the reader about what's happening and the latter just doesn't interest me.
Also, the characters? One dimensional. Mr Scott Protagonist is a dick for most of this book, very judgemental, supposedly a good reporter but that's debatable, bad father to his five year old child (literally takes her on trips that he knows are gonna be dangerous multiple times, uses her to get close to sources). And because most of the book is written from Scott's perspective, characters like Nora and Hopper, which seem to have potential, stay flat, one-dimensional people, their choices rushed (I don't even want to talk about the love story plotline that popped its head in for two pages 60% in, never to be seen again).
But alright, to be entirely fair: this is a mystery/thriller and while that obviously doesn't mean you shouldn't put an effort into character building it also means there's usually just more of a focus on plot, which, fine. And I will say that when I did get to that 70% mark, I actually got excited and curious again. For about a 100 pages, after which we suddenly take a dive into an ocean of exposition - and that wasn't even that bad. I think I would've given this four stars if it had ended after SpoilerInez Gallo tells Scott about Ashley's illness, if then he'd gone home, sought contact with Hopper and Nora again and maybe showed some fucking humility for ONCE about the way he felt he had the right to deconstruct someone's life the way he had. And then the final ending... I really wasn't a fan of the open endedness of it. I just wasn't interested for a second in the sudden personal development that's trying to be forced onto Scott in those last couple of pages and then we also don't actually get to hear from Cordova (a conversation I was lowkey expecting because I thought there were more pages left in the book)? I would've liked for Scott to see Cordova, realise he's a mere mortal after all, maybe see some humanity from him and hopefully be put in his place a bit by him. But nope, none of that. I think this book left me wanting for answers, but not in the good way, just in the confusing, annoying, trying-too-hard-to-be-mysterious kind of way.
Like some other reviewers said: the book mostly left me with an urge to watch one (or all) of Cordova's films. So I guess in the end, I ended up feeling kind of unsatisfied with a number of things.
2.5 - 3
I really wanted to love this one. From what I read about it beforehand it sounded like I Hope You???re Listening would be a novel in the same vein - a thriller/mystery story interspersed with podcast transcriptions weaving together into a cohesive, multi-layered story.
When she was seven, Dee Skinner and her best friend, Sibby, got captured while they were playing out in the woods. Sibby was taken. Dee was left behind. At 17, she carries the survivor???s guilt with her constantly. As a way of manifesting that energy into something useful, she???s started a podcast through which she anonymously highlights missing person cases and, sometimes, with the help of her listeners, helps solve them. She looks into all sorts of cases, but not Sibby???s. Until another young girl gets taken from the house Dee used to live in, and suddenly Dee can???t ignore her past anymore.
There was a lot of potential in this story and this novel, especially in terms of the thriller/mystery aspects. As the story picked up pace in the last third of the book, I did feel myself inching closer to the edge of my seat, curious and anxious for Dee. She???s a good protagonist, coping with complicated feelings about her trauma, with a conviction and perseverance I???m in awe of. And yet, I also felt this novel falls into a lot of ???YA traps???, not only in terms of the writing, which is especially juvenile at the start, but in the characterisation especially, and the narrative doesn???t really do the work of earning that. There???s the ex-friend turned mean girl (who actually turns out to not be mean at all in the end, but the shift from the start of the book to a sudden understanding between the girls is startling), the supportive best friend (who turns out to Actually Also Be Going Through His Own Things), the protective parents (who we basically don???t hear from), etc. A lot of it remains very flat, only alluding to a depth we???re never actually shown.
And this is a problem I had with more parts of the novel, also in terms of storytelling. There are a number of allusions to police screwing up Sibby???s case when she went missing, but never any more info than that. The side plot that Dee explores through her podcast felt like a very separate thing from the rest of the novel, and didn???t really integrate well. When you do choose to use this dual narrative, I think both narratives need to enhance each other, and I don???t think this did. It felt more like I was being told the same thing twice but in a slightly different form. I don???t want to compare this book to Sadie too much, because obviously they???re separate, but I think that???s a book that did this very well. Also - Dee???s podcast. It was really unclear to me why it got so popular so suddenly, and it didn???t become clear to me from what we were reading. As an avid podcast listener myself, it lacked a degree of realism and research that really took me out of the story.
Same goes with Dee???s relationship with Sarah. I loved that there was at no point an ???explanation??? for Dee being queer. It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud, but in so many books you???ll find a ???I???d never really been interested in boys???-esque explanation that is completely unnecessary and often very cringy. Dee simply likes Sarah, and her friend can tease her, and her parents can be happy for her, without it ever being a big deal or a point of discussion. Breath of fresh air! And still??? I really wish we could???ve seen a bit more of their relationship develop.
I think that???s maybe my main problem with this book in the end - it???s trying to be too many things, all of which would???ve been so interesting and cool on their own, or a couple combined, but all of them together it???s too much, and nothing really gets enough space to breathe. Resolutions are too easy, supposedly logical even though they???re just really not. Character arcs are non-existent. Themes are rushed. Really bummed that this one wasn???t what I was hoping it could be :/
I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
3.5 once again - wish this had been longer!! wanted more of the corruption arc, more of the world. i do really like seanan mcguire???s choice to show the origin stories of the kids we met in every heart a doorway because that book definitely asked for branching out. a cool dark fairytale, though!
second read (november 2021): such a fun time! cannot wait to finally read the sequel
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first read (july 2017):
CONSIDER ME FREAKIN WOWED
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???There are no good men in this game.???
key words: x-men but BETTER, relatable uni struggles, always go back for the dog
Okay so I absolutely LOVED this book. I loved all the characters - and Sydney the most from the moment we heard she has rainbow leggings (so like... the third sentence). I loved how basically none of them were good. How many times do you really read a story that revolves around antagonists? And interesting, developed ones at that?
V.E. Schwab makes us care about awful people. And by awful people I mean Victor because Eli is a piece of garbage. A piece of garbage that functions as a fantastic villain though, you gotta give him that. The style is great, the way Schwab switches between casually funny to dead (hah) serious is masterfully done. The way she carves out her characters with ease, making them feel like they're actually breathing, is just wonderful. It's such an absolute joy to read something that fits together so well as this book does.
the only thing i???m looking to get from the lectures about this thing is understanding
when the king of france thinks ur a dumb bitch for wanting to invade his country so he sends u tennis balls and you end up winning a sick battle even though u were outnumbered 5 to 1 but u still feel bad abt urself as a human being so u go fishing for compliments from ur soldiers and they end up hating u so u prank ur right hand man into fighting them because ur actually a dumb bitch but at least u got the girl (and the two countries) in the end
3.5 enjoyed this! easy read to start off the holidays with. didn???t feel wholly connected to any of the characters which made it a bit more of a ??_(???)_/?? situation than i???d liked in the end.