zilver
second read five stars i fucking love this book, man. love how you can really empathise with a lobotomised harrow because it feels like you, too, have been lobotomised by muir right when you started this. the ballsy choice to use a SECOND PERSON NARRATOR is [chefs kiss]. it makes this book once again different than anything else i???ve ever read. muir is so dedicated to her story that she doesn???t let up until she has to which is always the right moment (you realise in retrospect and upon reread). i love that she never goes easy on you. also. pain. pain!!!! oh harrow. my necromancing genius insane child. everything she does and does to herself is just so [unable to specify without spoiling so you???ll just have to believe me]. she???s simply a soup-plot inventing legend. girlie go some sleep. gotta go scour the reddit now before STARTING NONA!!!first read five stars what the FUCK did i just read
second read, 4.5 i finished this on valentine???s day and that???s about the most romantic thing that???s ever happened to me -first read, 4.5 I'm not even going to care that the bow all the loose ends got tied up in was maybe a little too big and beautiful.
second read 5 stars this book makes me feel INSANE in the best possible way. it???s a fantastic and rewarding reread, especially after harrow the ninth. everything is that much more interesting and painful when you feel like you actually sort of might have an idea of what???s going on. gideon simply SHINES. her voice is crystal clear, sharp, hilarious as we follow her on the wildest fantasy sci-fi post-apocalyptic (???) ride. tamsyn muir manages to go from deliciously modern and snappy dialogue to harrowing (ha ha) necromantic sequences so elegantly. as someone who gets hives from books that include pop culture references this somehow manages to never feel contrived. it walks the line by using contemporary language to describe things that aren???t, and cannot be, and won???t be part of our universe. and i genuinely delight in a story of which you can FEEL the scope because no one explains anything that they wouldn???t. this book is an onion, a very big lettuce, me when winter starts - so so layered. and every part that muir unwraps adds density and intrigue. she???s so clever!!! i want to open her up and study her!!! anyway. if you haven???t read this: let it wash over you during the first read. get you a friend who will take notes during her reread so you can use them to aid your sieve-like memory. read it again and delight and cry, both dreading and looking forward to starting harrow. -first read 4.5 love a book that doesn???t explain shit to me!
think i read the entire second part with tears in my eyes.
a kid i knew died earlier this year and it struck me how much of those final chapters i recognised almost verbatim from conversations with the kid???s parents, and my own parents at the time. now, i know maggie o???farrell wrote this book just a couple of years ago, but nevertheless, while reading this i had this feeling growing in my chest at the thought that centuries upon centuries people feel things the same way. that some things are universal and stretch out across time.
highly recommended - and for people who think they need to have any affinity with mr. shakspr for this: you don???t. the man???s name isn???t mentioned once!
in my dreams sissy and louisa are in love and run away together to join the circus far far away from bloody coketown
a marvel. one of those cases where the book and film feel the same and are also complementary to each other. everything is so economic, so simply written but there???s so much to read between the lines. great start of the year
very personal and at times painfully honest. the imagery really makes tangible the scope of loneliness and solitude and distance, especially if you (like me) have no real point of reference for the oil fields where beaton spends two long years of her life.
not my fav emily henry, but still good! i liked the last 25% the most. the evil awful exes were honestly a bit comical but not in a good way. and up until that last 25% and i found daphne just not very compelling as a protagonist. or maybe im just still heart achey about happy place which is my fav emily henry so far, and nothing has quite compared.
4.5 i love being surprised by books. given the reviews i was pretty sure i'd enjoy this, but i didn't know i'd adore it the way i did. this book defied expectations in so many ways. it skirts around cliches and tropes but manages to bypass them graciously almost every time. we have what could have been a ‘not like other girls' unpopular protagonist, claudia, who actually isn't either of those things. the way that she's not the most popular person in school isn't dramatised - she's still invited to events, she still has friends and people to hang out with, she doesn't eat lunch alone in the bathroom. she just wishes for a little more, a closer friendship, like the one she has with her best friend zoe. zoe, like claudia, and like claudia's brother, older sister and older sister's husband, is super into a world of warcraft-esque game. this is never made fun of, or belittled. it's actually set up to be a really valuable part of the way she keeps in touch with said older sister once she's moved out. after claudia accidentally witnesses the breakup of her school's it-couple, paige and iris (a wlw relationship that mills never feels the need to ‘explain' or justify, but that's just allowed to be), she finds herself having to work with the cold, standoff-ish iris on their school's production of a midsummer night's dream (and we all know i'm always here for shakespeare). claudia has to audition and is sure she won't do well - and she doesn't, but it's never a huge deal. she instead works in the wardrobe department with people who never doubt that that is just as valuable a part of the work as acting. claudia never looks down on them, or looks up at the players. in claudia and iris we get an enemies to friends story that i didn't know i needed, but i needed. it was so well done, the way we find out more about iris and she becomes a fully realised person who's still flawed and who still needs to work on shit, but who's also an avid TION (foolish hearts' staple boy band) fan - another thing that, while the subject of confusion on claudia's part, is never really ridiculed and even becomes an integral part of their friendship. it shows the value and importance of being able to share the things you're passionate about with the people you care about. and it also shows that friendships can manifest in different ways, and you can share one thing with one friend, and another with a second, and that's totally okay. lastly, just because i need to say it and because it was yet another thing that defied expectations: all the guys in this book (to be fair there are like 3) are genuinely so good. claudia's love interest is absolutely lovely - he's funny and always looks out for her without being overbearing, he backs off immediately and without guilt-tripping when she tells him she's not interested, he cares about his friends so incredibly much. having guys in a ya book explicitly say that they love their friends? radical. love it. give me more. anyway this book is heart-warming and sweet and genuinely funny. super recommend.
pretty enjoyable! but the problem with characterising your main characters as writing prodigies is that it immediately requires a lot of suspension of disbelief when their writing then proceeds to sound like that of angsty 14 yr olds.
also why did they have to * *****!
btw i???m wholly prepared to chalk my issues with this up to actually this sort of book just not being for me anymore. but i am sad about it!
3.5 - 4 ???she was a story, not an epilogue??? what a good quick read! definitely 4 stars for the interesting world building - i loved that the way the worlds worked wasn???t bashed out at the beginning and you had to kind of figure out what they meant and were like through the characters that had ended up there and the way they acted. also, the kind of worlds were like nothing i???ve read before so i thought that was so creative and original and exciting. ???we notice the silence of men. we depend upon the silence of women.??? the characterisation felt a little iffy at times but then again, that does seem kind of in line with how chaotic all of the kids feel after returning from their worlds, so that didn???t bother me too much. if the book had been a little longer maybe these things would???ve had a little more time to be unpacked. apart from that, i really liked the characters in this - they???re so vibrant and distinct and interesting. plus: ace, trans and poc rep! in such a short book! it can be done people! overall, a really nice in-between read and i???m definitely curious to see what the sequels hold
3.5 sweet and witty and so strange and senseless. it really is a children???s book but one i???d love to read to kids because i think they???d get a thrill out of it and all its dickensian wiles.
???What I say is, a town isn???t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it???s got a bookstore, it knows it???s not foolin??? a soul.???
key words: funeral homes, twin peaks-esque small towns & the humour of ancient gods
I really enjoy mythology in general (that's what six years of classics study will do to you, I guess) and this book was such a cool way of... handling that? I suppose?
The book is called American Gods but none of the Gods are really American (or they are, or become that at the very least at some point). They're brought to life by the people that believe in them, and in the 21st century many of the “smaller” ones seem to be dying, slowly. Which means war (obviously. Gods always mean war). Anway, enter Shadow, who just got released from prison to find out his wife died (until she didn't) and he doesn't have a job anymore (until he does). Shadow gets to join us in our exploration of a wide range of gods from all over, now settled in America, as he finds himself in the midst of their war for no reason known to him.
I like Neil Gaiman. I like his sense of humour, and though this wasn't my favourite book of his, I really enjoyed it. It was sort of educational in a not too obtrusive way and carefully crafted which is exactly the way I appreciate my stories. Couldn't always relate too much to the characters but that was alright. They were a relatively easy 750 pages to go through anyway.
this book was gorgeous and horrific and astonishing and heart wrenching all at the same time. i think i might be a little bit in love with half of the characters in here.
my heart has caught on fire and the ashes are blowing everywhere. i feel like i have both found and lost part of my soul.
(on to some lighter reading – though tbh it's not going to be difficult finding something less heavy than this)
4.5
a good ending for a popular, bestselling trilogy? IN THIS ECONOMY? v.e. schwab did That.
ngl i think i spent the last 166 pages in tears. my heart aches for all my faves and i lowkey blame judith for half of the stress i've had to endure while reading this book (STOP TELLING ME “LOL” WHEN I COME TO YOU WORRIED MY KIDS ARE GOING TO DIE)
“A king,” said his father, “belongs with his people.”“And the prince,” Rhy said proudly, “belongs with his king.”
i'm so happy but i'm also so sad because of lenos and hastra and emira and maxim (watch me weep thinking of rhy having to be held back while his father walks into death's arms, just after he lost his mother) and i'm not sure what to do with all my emotions right now but i'm glad my son rhy is safe (and being courted by a handsome brave ex-privateer) and kell is going to explore the world and lila gets to be the captain of her own ship.