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bexellency's reviews
892 reviews
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.
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.
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.
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
4.0
Definitely the best Raina Telgemeier! If a book makes you cry, you’ve got to rate it high. Consistent with Raina’s recurring themes about youthful anxiety, fear of not fitting in, making friends, etc. but also the sweetest sharing of fears and love between the sisters.
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
2.75
I was intrigued making it easy to return and listen frequently. But I didn’t unreservedly like it. There are a ton of characters; it’s a lot and the shifting viewpoints are a lot, constantly taking you between voices and potentially from a style you like to a style you don’t. Of course, all those lives intersecting is what the book is about. There are also a ton of themes all shoved in there together, too much for my taste. Again, that’s what the book is about, all the complexities people bring into each situation. But because there are so many people and so many themes, a lot of doors get opened and just left there, with little treatment within the story. A case in point is Selma, who pretty clearly fulfills the trope of the dutifu l sibling, who does what’s expected precisely because their sibling doesn’t, but who is desperately unhappy. At least, that was my take, the author starts to take on Selma, then backs away. There are a lot of characters who are unlikeable for various reasons (Jeremy for his obliviousness on how his military service past intersects with Nora’s cultural background; Nora for her obliviousness on the logistics of not selling the diner and her desire to blame others for her relationship problems around infidelity; AJ for his desire to blame everyone else for his business loss; etc. Realizing it’s lots of people who are oblivious or unwilling to take ownership, in various ways.). The end of the book seemed very rushed - starting from where Nora leaves to go back to San Francisco.
Interesting as an audiobook primarily because I knew so many of the narrators from other audiobooks. Several voiced similar characters to where I’d heard them elsewhere (The Stationary Shop, The Book fo Unknown Americans). One voiced something very different, and I never got used to it (We Came, We Saw, We Left).
Interesting as an audiobook primarily because I knew so many of the narrators from other audiobooks. Several voiced similar characters to where I’d heard them elsewhere (The Stationary Shop, The Book fo Unknown Americans). One voiced something very different, and I never got used to it (We Came, We Saw, We Left).
My Murder by Katie Williams
4.0
As this book began, it wasn’t what I expected. Much more of a sci fi clone story than a murder mystery. I stuck with it and quickly was drawn into the world, the clones reflecting on whether they were different people than their other selves, the poignant zings about the values we instill in girls. It’s science fiction/speculative fiction without a lot of complicated world building, which I’ve found I no longer have patience for. There just enough sci fi tech to enable to story plot, but not beyond that and that tech is not much of a leap from where we are today so it felt familiar-ish. The book could have been light and trite being sci fi, murder mystery, but it took on some huge themes.
For example… “We girls had been taught mindedness from a young age. Kindness had been stressed. But there was another lesson in that, one the adults hadn’t known they were teaching. How kindness could be expected of a girl, demanded of her really, and then levied against her.”
As a runner, I didn’t enjoy that our main character had been attacked and killed while out on a run (because of where it sent my thoughts, not because it was a bad plot point).
As the mystery unfurled, I remained hooked and could see all kinds of theories - such as her partner, her boss, Odd, mother of the other murdered women who was trying to get the commission to bring her daughter back and thought of spawning the celebrity campaign. I never did think of the commission itself. And I certainly didn’t think of the actual story and ending. Which wasn’t for me.
After all the hefty content on women and fear and danger and assault (because of course you can replace murder with assault and get to what the clones were going through here in real life), a story of post partum depression wasn’t the unraveling I had in mind. It’s a bummer, I loved so much about this book - such as the online hordes figuring out a way to turn on all the online Edward Earlys - but that ending doesn’t speak much to women like me who aren’t mothers.
Perhaps part of my reaction is having recently finished another book that was all about motherhood and women feeling they are being a “bad” mother and was surprised/dismayed to have stumbled into another story about that. I wanted this to be a story about women, their common experiences, and how they bond together. And a lot of it was. But not the final denouement.
For example… “We girls had been taught mindedness from a young age. Kindness had been stressed. But there was another lesson in that, one the adults hadn’t known they were teaching. How kindness could be expected of a girl, demanded of her really, and then levied against her.”
As a runner, I didn’t enjoy that our main character had been attacked and killed while out on a run (because of where it sent my thoughts, not because it was a bad plot point).
As the mystery unfurled, I remained hooked and could see all kinds of theories -
After all the hefty content on women and fear and danger and assault (because of course you can replace murder with assault and get to what the clones were going through here in real life), a story of post partum depression wasn’t the unraveling I had in mind. It’s a bummer, I loved so much about this book - such as the online hordes figuring out a way to turn on all the online Edward Earlys - but that ending doesn’t speak much to women like me who aren’t mothers.
Perhaps part of my reaction is having recently finished another book that was all about motherhood and women feeling they are being a “bad” mother and was surprised/dismayed to have stumbled into another story about that. I wanted this to be a story about women, their common experiences, and how they bond together. And a lot of it was. But not the final denouement.