How to describe The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge? According to writer MT Anderson it’s “…a tragic meditation on how societies that have been trained to hate each other for generations can actually come to see eye to eye.” But is it? According to illustrator Eugene Yelchin, “A crazy story about two fools blinded by propaganda is not a tragedy. It’s a comedy.” Who’s correct? Well, both are. This National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature is a story of political intrigue and espionage, and […]
This post is sticky. So unmemorable I forgot I read it
This book is honestly so blah I kind of forgot I read it (not 100% the book’s fault, we pulled off a frankly spectacular wedding last weekend so I’ve been a little distracted) (did y’all catch that? WE GOT MARRIED AND IT WAS PERFECT OMG) I felt like I should have been fascinated by this book, but it just didn’t grab me. The whole book just kind of floated by. Our narrator is Sepha Stephanos, living in Washington, D.C., after fleeing the Ethopian Revolution as a […]
Jane Eyre – She Goth Loads of Love (CBR Bingo 11 – Classics square)
As part of CBR Bingo (plus I always wanted to read it a second time), my choice for the square “Classics” was Jane Eyre. A lot of my friends love this book, which made me want to read it critically to understand what it was about this that makes it so popular. I tried hard to like it, but could only like parts of it. Right from the lead character (a 10 year old girl), to her family (created by the author to be as […]
If you don’t understand women, don’t make one your main character.
is the fourth and final novel in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It’s a fitting end to an enjoyable series, and does an admirable job of gathering up all the loose threads of the three previous books. Like The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven, Labyrinth of the Spirits tells a magical mystery story of the dark days of Franco’s Fascist Spain. It does not disappoint in the telling of the story, and I was (mostly) engrossed from beginning to […]