aviously6's reviews
56 reviews

1984 by George Orwell

challenging informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I will definitely be thinking a lot about this book in the upcoming years. I'm glad I reread this - my first read of this was at age 13, so I don't think I fully got it as much as I do now. This book has the ability to keep applying itself to new concepts - when I first read it, AI generated writing didn't even exist, yet within my reading I found warnings about literature written without human involvement/generated by machines. I found warnings of fascist governments that felt parallel to what I'm seeing in the current political climate. Concepts of crimethink (thought crime) hit close to home. 

West Hollywood Monster Squad by Sina Grace

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I wanted to like this really bad while I was reading it, but any characters I liked were barely touched upon and every character I didn't like was one of the main characters. I struggle to like stories once I don't like characters, but I did still enjoy this for a quick read with a fun concept of "what if I was at a drag show when the apocalypse started".

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've never seen the movies or read any of the other books, so this was fun! I got it through a Blind Date with a Book my library was doing. It was a cute adventure, and fun to see how Tolkien's work has influenced most popular fantasy media today. Catching commonplace fantasy words used for the first time was fun. Most of the book moved along at a good pace, but some of it was a little too slow for me.

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. The ending just felt underwhelming for such a powerful series.

plus I'd really enjoyed David not being an epic, as I think a story about a person with no powers being a hero was very compelling. Having him just obtain powers at the end was kind of disappointing to me.

I also would've liked to hear more about some of the other characters at the end, especially those who went down in battle. That's normally what an epilogue is for. I hope Sanderson does revisit this world, because the conclusion is lacking. Still, the book was good, and I loved the world - that's also why I'm curious about a revisit,

because I want to know who Calamity is working for.

The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Though this book felt a bit below my age group, that's because it is. Still, returning to the PJO world that I haven't touched since I was like 13 is nice. The books are still as cheesy as ever, it seems. I'm excited to incrementally go back and see what I've missed. This book itself was cute, though sometimes written a bit fanfic-y, and definitely with humor from about 10yrs back with occasional jokes about current things. These books are going to become incredibly dated but for now they're a very fun 460ish pages that I did have a fun time reading - I was smiling by the end.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I was supposed to read this for a Deaf lit class a long time ago, but I never got around to it, and I'm glad I did now. It's such a sweet and nice story, and you can really tell Selznick put work into his research of Deaf community culture. I've watched the same documentary that inspired half of this book, and I understand how it did inspire that. I wish there'd been a little more of the in-between for Rose as a kid and as a grandmother, just because I was a little confused when we jumped up in her time so suddenly. Still, I loved this story, and I would definitely recommend it.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

That was a really good mystery! I enjoyed getting to spend the book thinking about who did it, though I ended up only being partially right with my final conclusion. I think I probably could've been more suspicious about who actually did it, though. Mostly not a 5 star book because (I know it's because of when the book was written) I couldn't get past the antisemitism

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I did enjoy this book, though I didn't find Arren as compelling as Ged or Tenar, but I enjoyed having his perspective and seeing him grow. I don't think it's the strongest of the series, as Cob was somewhat of a disappointing villain, but I enjoyed the expansion of the world. I almost wish there'd just been a little bit more elaboration, especially at the end. I also enjoy how Le Guin leaves us with a vague ending, saying what people talk about instead of what happened for sure.

Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

This is a very good book to start getting into gender theory, with a good few words still needing to be googled. A lot of Butler's past work is a bit unreadable to the average reader, so this was a nice change, and honestly an important one in this time we're in. Having an entire section dedicated to Trump was a very good move, even though they wrote this before he was elected. I think this ends with an important message, but I will say despite everything this book was incredibly hard to get through, and I wish I'd been able to pull more arguments from it that I can use (not saying I can't pull any, just I wish there were more that were more explicit). I would recommend this to anybody, honestly, because we need more people in the fight and Butler pushes a good message about it.

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I LOVE Sanderson's world building! Half the reason I keep reading this series is just to learn more about how the world functions.

Learning that Calamity is an epic itself especially makes me excited for the next book, knowing it's named after them.

This book does involve some of Sanderson showing his hand as a white writer, but I am still glad he makes sure to explicitly state the ethnicities of some of the characters.

I'm really excited to see more about Prof, because I think he's my favorite and I'm worried about him 😭
.

Also very intrigued in a lot of the character stories. Overall a great setup for a third book, excited to see where The Reckoners end up next, though I hope the series ends satisfyingly.