bexellency's reviews
889 reviews

Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen

2.0

Meh, just wasn't that enjoyable.

The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett

2.0

Repetitive language, sad in a way that overshadows how precocious and interesting Kemi’s character might be, obsession with statistics feel simplausible, repetitive (yup, that’s intentional on my part).  I’m not the target audience (not a middle reader), so the repetition might sit better with that target reading age.  Overall, it feels more suited to an essay or short story than a novel length.  The metaphor is powerful, but it’s so slow until you get to it.  The snappier writing of a shorter form would give it more impact.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

4.0

Pretty darn amazing.  Not quite up to the House in the Cerulean Sea level for me, but of course this time I went in with high expectations which changes how things hit.  A charming read.  I could have done without the Epilogue; a tighter and quite satisfying ending would have been to put the final paragraph before that in as a very brief and quite pithy epilogue.

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

2.0

Huh.  This book was going alright.  Katie Williams displays the same light technology - definitely future tech but just enough to enable the story - as I’d seen in My Murder.  And seemed to be heading for the same themes of mothers and their willingness to do anything for their children (which shouldn’t have surprised me as I believe authors only have one story to tell but still disappointed me as I like her writing but that theme doesn’t do anything for me).  And then I hit the

middle of the book where the narrative viewpoint suiddenly switches away from Pearl, without motivation and follows Ethan and Vela  for a while.  From that point on, the book lost the plot, or at least I did.  Nothing made much sense or had much impact after that.  The narrative tension was gone.  The ending abrupt.  While I didn’t love how My Murder ended, it was strong through to the end, whereas this got aimless.  Things end happy ever after but not really.  Was there a point to the story that I missed?  

A Smoking Bun: A Bakeshop Mystery by Ellie Alexander

2.5

Alright.  A bit slow moving.  And how many times can you say “ski patrol” in one novel?  The resolution

of the mystery feels odd, that they take so quickly to the new comer who really owns the lodge.  Seems strange for a tight knit community and given that they’ve known the other owner for so long that there’s almost no hesitation at rejecting her after her misdeeds.  A sentence of remorse and that’s it?  Also, it was painfully obvious from early on that ther was something going on with development and the lodge owner.  

But Inpick these up for something cozy and light, not for stellar literary matter.

Well, That Was Unexpected by Jesse Q. Sutanto

1.0

Oof da.  So bad.  Felt weirdly pitched for a YA book; the age of the characters, the angst and immaturity felt right; other stuff felt off - the swearing, crassness, and drinking (with no flicker of hesitation and suggestion of experience by a 17 year old raised in the US?  It felt like perhaps the book was originally written with a low 20s aged character, then rewritten with a younger main character at editor direction and this never got fixed.). Odd analogies or references - is crying over split milk really an idiom that translate to Indonesia?  Actually, I don’t know and perhaps it is.  Super heavy handed with the gay/bi character reveals, the consent language.  Yeah, I regret giving this author another go.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

4.0

Delightful.  The octopus is an amazing character and especially really wrought in the audio book where the narrator selection is excellent for this ostentatious creature (“I am a smart cookie” in the perfect patrician accent).  I also liked the people stories; I see myself a lot in Tova’s lack of comprehension at what her peers expect of her.  Fun to be set in the Pacific NW, as books so rarely are.  Only a little frustrated to discover I was reading another in my accidental series of books about failing at motherhood (curious how our reading can take on unexpected and unplanned patterns).

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

1.75

This was a slog.  Interesting premise but it was a lot of work to get through it for me.  And the footnotes!  My least favorite writing device.  I was briefly intrigued, as it seemed an interesting technique to have this fictional  distopian world in the main text and these footnotes of facts that fit that world but are real.  But then the footnotes were used in other ways and I find footnotes irritating and lazy; if it’s important, say it in the text and if it’s not important have the discipline to edit it out.  
Reads a lot like one of those business book “novels”, like Who Moved My Cheese or The Unicorn Project.  It felt a like those which are non-fiction thinly covered by a fictional story to make the points in an “entertaining” way.  I finished because it was a book club read but would have abandoned otherwise.

Unsure how feel about the ending as well.  I get that belief that Thurwar would fight for something better.  But I wanted Thurwar and Staxxx to deny them the entertainment of their fight (probably by suicide before the match since refusal to fight on the ground would have led to Influencing).    And I’m skeptical Thurwar would actually be freed, that they wouldn’t just change the rules again.  

Quince by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner

Not rating as I picked this up to practice my Spanish.  Only read the first issue (but the individual issues don’t seem to have existing entries in Storygraph and I’m not passionate to add it).  The art work didn’t do much for me and the Spanish isn’t at a level that’s quite right for me.  Not much fun and that’s what I’m looking to add to my language learning.

El Peor Día de Karen by Ann M. Martin

Not rating.  Reading these to practice my Spanish, not because they are great literature or because I am the target audience.  Mid reader graphic novels are a great level for me and without the overwhelming amount of language in a novel.