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bennysbooks's reviews
664 reviews
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
If you're just looking for a basic read to give you the spooky vibes and atmosphere of the season, or you're more of a plot reader than a character-driven reader, this might work fine for you.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
I wrote a long review for this, and then my child closed all my apps when I got up to get them a water... so here are my basic thoughts instead:
- Characters bland (I couldn't tell you anything about Veris except a list of what happened to her on page)
- World does not feel real (and not in a cool magical/fairytale way, but as in I can't picture it in my mind beyond the events of the book)
- The writing felt a little utilitarian, like reading an article or maybe a blog post. Wasn't bad per se, it just didn't pull me in.
- The pacing was whiplashy - it's possible some of the above issues could have been resolved if we ever had a time to sit with characters/moments. It needed to be either shorter (and more fairytale like) or longer (and more developed) than it was
- As a result of all of the above, I couldn't get invested in the kind of basic plot of there's something spooky in the forest, save the children
If you're just looking for a basic read to give you the spooky vibes and atmosphere of the season, or you're more of a plot reader than a character-driven reader, this might work fine for you.
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
...she means her daughter, her in-laws, her recently deceased husband, the wife of the man she was stringing along. Lady Susan would be the kind of person to share pithy wellness lines, completely divorced from context, to encourage her own bad behaviour. Austen had these women pegged before they could tell on themselves online.
3.5
Delightfully horrid.
"I am tired of submitting my will to the Caprices of others - of resigning my own Judgement in deference to those, to whom I owe no Duty, and for whom I feel no respect..."
...she means her daughter, her in-laws, her recently deceased husband, the wife of the man she was stringing along. Lady Susan would be the kind of person to share pithy wellness lines, completely divorced from context, to encourage her own bad behaviour. Austen had these women pegged before they could tell on themselves online.
The City & the City by China Miéville
3.75
The City & the City was perhaps not the best place for me to start with Miéville, though I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Of all the possible sci-fi/fantasy sub-genres there are to explore, noir-style detective fiction was never going to be my thing. The problem is that I tend to prefer going into a book knowing as little as possible, and from everything I’d heard about Miéville I gathered that this approach would work particularly well for the types of stories he tells. I was correct, I believe, but unfortunately it means that I started with the wrong book.
My inability to connect with the genre aside, I think this was a fascinating and intelligent book. I have to admit that when a book (maybe especially noir-style detective novels) features a dead young woman, I have this involuntary internal cringe. It’s such a thing, and not often handled well (to my standards), but I was pleasantly surprised by the way that the female victim was very much still a presence throughout the book and an agent in her own story. Even her dead body was treated with dignity and grief it deserved, rather than being used for some morbid titillation:
"She was almost naked, and it was sad to see her skin smooth that cold morning, unbroken by gooseflesh."
I loved how unique the world that Miéville created was - the mental gymnastics required of the citizens of these cities were unsettling in the best way, and the implications of this kind of intense, learned othering are explored throughout the book without being explained in a heavy-handed way. And the language he created to describe the world? Incredible. Crosshatching?? Loved. The language, the history, the politics – I thought it was well thought-out, and thought-provoking in turn.
“Most of those around us were in Besźel, so we saw them… of the exceptions, some we realized when we glanced were elsewhere, so unsaw…”
Unfortunately, I think the writing occasionally let it down. The syntax was confusing at times, transitions were jumpy, and the dialogue kind of samey. Time will tell whether this is a problem I have with Miéville or a problem with this book specifically. I also think the plotting sometimes felt a little frenetic, like there was so much going on that it was difficult to understand the threads of the mystery myself. It’s possible it was a me thing, but while there were pieces of the puzzle that I was able to put together, I never felt like I was remotely close to a solution. There were too many twists and missing tidbits of knowledge or worldbuilding, so that when Borlú came to any sort of conclusion about what was going on I was unable to follow the thread of his logic.
Ultimately, despite what might seem like a tepid review, I really enjoyed my time with The City & the City. It was immersive and peculiar, and I can’t believe I waited this long to pick up a Miéville.