February Book Reviews
The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin)
8.5/10 I'll be honest, this book took some time to get into for me. The first quarter or so had me struggling just to understand what was going on. Granted, a part of it is attributed to the incredible world building in its setting. It's full of different terms, societies, geography, and of course, powers. The author doesn't take her time trying to explain anything, instead throwing you right in the middle. To make things more complicated, the book tells three different stories in different timelines, and tells it to you in two points of view: third and second person. Interestingly, the lack of a narrative explanation helps make the setting feel more organic and natural. The downside is that it does take most of the story to get used to. I also didn't mind the second person style of narration, I appreciated that it was doing something different. The story itself I also really enjoyed, with its themes on racism and slavery, as well as a diversity in sexuality and race. It had a hint of sci-fi as well which built on a mystery surrounding the history of the land. The main plot focused on telling the story of the female leads, and while I thought it was interesting, I didn't really feel super attached to any of the characters. Still, I did enjoy reading it and discovering the world and seeing what happens next. I liked the characters, even if I wasn't super emotionally invested in them I did want to root for them. Overall a solid, well written fantasy book!I'll Be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara)
8.5/10 "He loses his power when we know his face." I haven't really read a lot of true crime, so I'm not sure how it stacks up as a representative in that genre. For me, there were some parts of the point that lost me in its detail and disjointed narrative. There were multiple names for the GSK, and the author also sometimes referred to other cases that he wasn't responsible for and I couldn't keep up. It also tended to jump around in time, sometimes going to the author's past, then to the present investigation, then to casework done 30, 40 years ago. Still, the amount of detail in this book really showed just how invested and thorough the author was. The parts where she describes the GSK's crimes were unnervingly gripping in its telling, made especially so because it's a piece of nonfiction. I think a big part of what makes this book is the context of it all. Knowing not only those things could happen, but that they did happen. That they affected real people; the victims, the community, the detectives both professional and amateur. Most of all, what had the biggest impression on me was the letter she wrote to the killer at the very end of the book and knowing that he was finally caught: "Open the door. Show us your face. Walk into the light."Crazy Rich Asians (Kevin Kwan)
4.5/10 You know how for most movie adaptations people always claim the book is better? Not in this case. The movie did a really great job of having a well rounded story line with a proper (if predictable) arc, whereas the book ends and I'm kind of like 'so basically nothing was solved'. Honestly? It makes sense. Rachel breaks up with Nick because she wants to have a family that loves each other and it's a reasonable expectation! The book wrote about the rich families in so much detail and was so much more exaggerated than the movie that I genuinely don't see how they'll resolve the issue because it just kept reinforcing what a whole different society it was. If it ends up being something like 'oh she was just so nice she changed his entire family's minds rooted in centuries of tradition and social norms' I'm gonna flip. Also another thing the movie did well was make the characters actually likable. There are really problems with all of the characters in this (except maybe Peik Lin), and even Astrid didn't have the same satisfying conclusion. Rachel and Nick's chemistry was basically told instead of shown to us and I really wish male characters like Nick and Charlie would stop thinking about how pretty their love interests are. Like when Astrid and Rachel are crying their POV is always about how they hate to see tears on their faces. I could honestly go on but I really didn't enjoy this book very much. I did enjoy the name dropping of various brands and imagining the lavish lifestyles, but wish I had the visuals to match them up. Overall, a shallow quick read that's okay for passing the time but ultimately left me feeling satisfied.
Men Explain Things to Me (Rebbecca Solnit)
8/10 "What doesn't go back in [Pandora's] jar, or the box, are ideas. And revolutions are, most of all, made up of ideas." Finally, a feminist essay collection that I really enjoyed. It had just the right mix of anecdotal but broad, topical but with examples from history. It also included themes of gender equality and toxic masculinity, as well as LGBTQ+. The only part I didn't like was the chapter on Virginia Woolf. It was a bit too literary and long-winded for me and I struggled keeping my attention while reading through it. I'm always cautious about over-idolizing historical figures and I wasn't very familiar with Woolf either so that part was a bit boring. I also didn't feel like there was a lot of focus on POCs, but I also didn't get a vibe (as I did from "Text Me When You Get Home") that it was overly focused solely on the white female experience. I mostly really enjoyed that it had a right mix of optimism and realism, it felt like the author had a good grasp on today's reality. It's a good, short read that's a helpful overview of feminism today. "Here is that road, maybe a thousand miles long, and the woman walking down it isn't at mile one. I don't know how far she has to go, but I know she's not going backward, despite it all - and she's not walking alone."Muse of Nightmares (Laini Taylor)
7.5/10 Finally....a sequel to a YA novel that I didn't completely hate. Sure I also didn't like it as much as the first one, but just the fact that I enjoyed it at all is amazing. There's some more worldbuilding in this one and I have mixed feelings on what they introduced.The parts I liked least was again, probably Lazlo and Sarai's romance, which is so over the top soulmate-y that I want to roll my eyes. Still, I really enjoyed seeing the development of the rest of the characters and the focus on Sarai. Her role in resolving some of the big conflicts really helped push her character in the forefront. I was disappointed the reaction from Lazlo's friends was so brief, but the interactions between the different groups when they finally meet were great. It just took way too long to get there. Some things I felt like could be taken as a hand-wave or too easy to resolve, but honestly for me I didn't mind at all. I really liked the ending, both the final confrontation and the feel good epilogue. There are definitely shortcomings, but overall I had a surprisingly pleasant reading experience.
0 comments:
Post a Comment