I wanted to like this book. I haven’t seen the movie, but reviews of the film made it sound campy and fun. I’m usually too wimpy to watch thrillers but I do enjoy reading them, so I thought I’d try the book instead. I have never encountered a protagonist I found more off-putting than Stephanie. I know that the author was intending this to some extent, but the other narrative voices are not much better. I certainly don’t think that an unlikable narrator is such […]
Ugh
Who Published This Book Half-Finished?
Coming off the heels of the stupendous Dread Nation, I was pumped for this YA novel. The setup: children travel through magical portals to alternate worlds, only to become distraught upon their return to their tedious old lives. (Postmodern Wonderland or Narnia!) Though this book won all the awards—Hugo, Alex, Locus Nebula—it utterly failed to enchant me. I suppose my heart is a closed door. Or maybe an inky void. Nancy (the sixth most interesting character, maybe) lands at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children […]
Goes Down Easy
3.5 stars. This was a solid, super fun read. Light and fluffy, easy to get through so it was a great palate cleanser after having a book hangover from The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Millie and her friend group were the perfect cure. Millie and her group of guy friends all work at UC Santa Barbara as professors/researchers and they’re all single. When a fancy university event looms on the horizon, they make a pact to all get dates for it by joining an online dating […]
“Life had manifested the heart’s invisible furies on his face.”
This book chewed me up and spit me back out. In a good way, of course. But seriously, I had a major book hangover after finishing this one. The writing, the story, the characters were all so, so beautiful. I started sobbing after it was over because I was so overwhelmed with how lovely what I just read was. The story follows Cyril Avery’s life, born in the 1940s, all the way up until present day. His mother was cruelly kicked out of her rural […]