bklassen's reviews
743 reviews

Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids by Ken Jennings

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I slept on this book for way too long – it’s a wonderful fairy tale-esque story that feels warm and cozy during this cold winter months, like a thick quilt woven with Russian mythology and magic. 
I absolutely loved the language, with free flowing prose, and truly a story that did not go where I expected. I texted a friend theories and almost none of them came true, unless we’re giving half points (or in my case, eight points because my theories were quite off). 

At the heart of this book is the push and pull between “modern day” Christianity and the old ways of honoring the spirits and magical creatures of old Russia. One is full of fear and distrust, while the other is fading and requires a fair amount of belief, as well as some cunning. 

I never expected the main villain in this series to be

Father Konstantin, but it totally makes sense. He is driven not actually by a love for God, but by his own need for praise and victory and being a beloved figure to the masses. He is hungry and ambitious, but in denial about it, and uses his charisma, good looks, and soothing voice to put the fear into the village and make it easier for Medved to succeed. Not only that, but he is tormented by his attraction toward Vasya, much like Frollo from Hunchback of Notre Dame. In classic religious figure, he never takes the time to introspect and look inward about what this says about himself, but only lets this unwanted desire drive him to violence and hatred, as well as, you guessed it, further denial and projection.

 

There is also a strong feminist bent in the story, one that only grows stronger in later books, as Vasya is looked down upon for being herself and not acting like other girls or women. 

But most of all, I loved the characterization and the growth, or lack thereof in some cases, of everyone. No one was perfect and everyone made decisions based on their personal beliefs and motivations. Absolutely stellar. 

Vasya as a character is compelling; how can you not root for the young girl with magical abilities, who is kind to the small creatures only she can see? She is wild, yes, but it’s like she has the forest in her blood and is not suited to an ordinary life as either a wife & mother or a nun, for those are the only two options women had in most of history, especially in past Russia. Not only that, but her magical blood has set her apart from others, and thus her future and prophecy is inherently tied to larger and more mystical forces in Russia. 

I tore through this book and then proceeded to read the other two in rapid succession. It’s just a fantastic book to be enveloped in with its moral ambiguity, mystery, and magic.

The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Arden

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As other reviewers have said, this book was necessary to give Vasya an opportunity to grow. After saving some young girls from a mysterious group of thieves and bandits who no one can seem to trace, Vasya then goes to Moscow disguised as a boy to get a taste of freedom that she will never has a girl. However, this now puts her family in not only a risky spot, but great danger. Olga and Sasha are now wrapped up in the lie as naïve and hot blooded Vasya now gets to explore this huge city. However, despite having a great capacity for kindness and curiosity galore, she is also impetuous, selfish at times, stubborn, and competitive, which leads to a pickle, if we’re putting it lightly.

There was a lot of clever string pulling behind the scenes as the villain deftly pulls the strings behind the scenes and manipulates people to result in quite the climax of this book.

I loved how imperfect Vasya was, despite wanting to grab her shoulders and yell at her. Not only is she fighting against the constraints put on her simply because of her sex, but she is also fighting magical forces and evil that others cannot see and believe, which makes her struggle even more of an uphill battle.

Despite it all, I never felt like Vasya lost her inherent qualities, and she is now set up for a wallop of a third and final book in the trilogy. 

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

HOT DOG this was an action packed and fraught book filled with suspense and heartbreak and joy. Vasya leaves Moscow wiser and sadder now, seeing how she put others and herself in danger for acting rashly, as well as having experienced great loss. Now is time to wrap up the other subplots of this series, including the Tatar army, Medved’s return to power, their fraught relationship with the prince of Moscow, and Vasya’s relationship with the Winter King. And boy, does Katherine Arden deliver.

There are many forces against Vasya in this book, but she is tenacious, determined, clever, and resourceful. You get to see all the growth from book 2 come into play and change how she approaches problems, as well as find lasting and positive change for Russia.

Absolute banger of a wrap up to this trilogy, which I couldn’t recommend highly enough for whimsy, character growth, and some fantastic villains who seemed destined to win given how much the scales tilted in their favor, but watching Vasya think around them or receive favors or help from others who received a small good dead from her was A+. 

Neuromancer by William Gibson

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

I don’t think it can be overstated enough how brilliant and ahead of its time this book is. Gibson had never seen or used a computer before, and his book came out around the same time as Blade Runner, which means he and Ridley Scott (who based the movie off of Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) had parallel ideas about a cyberpunk world and what it would look like.

I will say that Gibson nails the atmosphere – everything described and even the language gave off a dystopian futuristic world full of cybernetic enhancements, computer visualization, unique slang, and so much drug use.

It is such a well thought out world to its detriment, at least for me. The world at times became super vague, the plot became confusing due to its abstractness, and character motivation was confusing because there is little to no character development in this book. Someone pointed out that sci fi is not often known for super well fleshed out characters or deep development, and Neuromancer certainly does just that.

It felt like reading A Clockwork Orange or Dune with its own language that does not slow down or explain things for you, so if you’re willing to put in the effort, you can get a lot out of this book. I personally did not vibe with the book and especially didn’t really connect with the rather flat characters, so I did not feel very motivated to put a ton of effort into grasping the lingo or visualizing cyberspace. Also the women in this book feel not quite like women. It is all very odd. 
But Gibson definitely gets points for style, and major points for his legacy. I mean, the dude put words like “cyberspace” and “the matrix” out into the world and inspired pretty much every other piece of Cyberpunk media out there. Also street samurai and console cowboy are objectively cool terms.

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

5.0

 This was such a validating read. It offers so much empathy to a human task that has somehow been given a moral value, as if you are a good person if you keep a clean home. 

There really doesn’t need to be the amount of guilt and shame associated with cleaning when we’re all out here trying to survive, and guilt and shame really don’t help you be a healthier or even cleaner person. 

K.C. also gives some great tips and strategies on how to balance mental health with organization and cleanliness, how to get past that negative self-talk, and how to find systems that work for you. 

Get out of the grind or perfectionist mindset and let yourself be human. You are not failing. You are struggling, and that’s okay. 

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to love this one. I’m a big fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia (SMG!) and her writing, especially her willingness or even passion for writing in other genres. I adored Mexican Gothic, Velvet Was the Night, and really enjoyed The Beautiful Ones and Gods of Jade and Shadow. I love the settings and the characters and the writing. 

Silver Nitrate just didn’t hit like I wanted it to. There were certainly things that I really loved, like Monserrat (or Momo, for short) Tristan. She is so good at writing layer and multi-faceted characters. They’re not perfect. They struggle. They have strengths and weakness, and their humanity can either get in their way or push them to be better. I especially love that SMG lets her female characters be cruel, harsh, less than beautiful, selfish, petty, acerbic, and just plain flawed. She lets them be real. 

While Momo is stubborn, cynical, bold, brave, brash, and the farthest thing from meek and simpering as you can get, Tristan is selfish, vain, flippant, cowardly, and often thoughtless. However, you can really feel the deep friendship the two share as they’ve been friends since childhood, despite their clashing personalities and small spats. 

Part of my disconnect with this book could be that it has a very slow pace, the horror didn’t feel very horrible (this book didn’t really scare me, and I wanted to be scared), and the subject matter of old school horror films just doesn’t really interest me. This book has a lot of “easter eggs” and tidbits dropped about old school Mexican cinema, especially low budget horror, as well as some more popular American horror films, but there was so much name dropping in this that it was making me go cross-eyed. Perhaps a lover of silver screen cinema would have connected with it more. 

I wanted this book to be scarier than it was, and the only scene that truly scared me was when Montserrat was in the old house and could feel a presence there. I wanted more of that. The villain didn’t really feel that scary to me, and while Nazi occultism has so much there to work with (Indiana Jones, anyone), it just didn’t really connect with me. 

100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife by Ken Jennings

funny informative medium-paced

3.0

 If you have ever wanted a brief dive into how the afterlife is presented in cultures, religions, mythologies, and pop culture across the world, look no further. Admittedly, there are times I’d like more of an anthropologist’s take on these afterlives, like what their heaven, hell, or purgatory/limbo said about the writer, group of people, culture, etc. I’d love to learn what values that society holds or held at the time that resulted in such beliefs in their afterlives. Admittedly, that gets deeper in a way that is less peppy and needs to be presented sensitively. 

Also, note to self: look up why so many afterlives involve or contain the number 9. 

However, it is a fun way to get a sampling of the multitude of afterlives out there and how similar or different some are to each other, all presented with Ken Jenning’s snarky humor that genuinely made me laugh out loud sometimes. 

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-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? No

4.0

This is my first Brandon Sanderson book – I know he’s a powerhouse name in the fantasy world (a genre I have dipped my toe in), and I was a little disappointed to learn that this is his not his normal style of writing. That is not to say that his writing is bad or that I wouldn’t like it, but I loved the omniscient narrator that had a delightful sense of humor that greatly reminded me of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman. It should not come as a surprise then that in the post script, Sanderson mentions that William Goldman’s tone in The Princess Bride was the one he was trying to emulate, with Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman being a second close comparison. 

I love Good Omens. Seriously, if you have read Tress of the Emerald Sea but not Good Omens, drop everything and pick up that book, because it’s amazing. It’s hilarious, fascinating, and has a compelling story and unforgettable characters. 

From what I could tell, this book definitely feels like an introduction to fantasy book, and not only because it is a standalone. It felt a little like “cozy fantasy” in the sense that there isn’t really any talk of sex, there’s no swearing, and while there is some violence, it’s pretty minimal compared to other fantasy I’ve read, which is again, quite limited, so take this whole review with a grain of salt. I know Sanderson is considered pretty clean, and a clean book or lack of sex/violence/swearing does not preclude fantastic fantasy, or a compelling and well-written story. I suppose a book that involved so much piracy and a truly heinous and villainous pirate captain did not go to the places I expected it to. Maybe that just gives you some insight into my biases or assumptions. 

But beyond the psychotic Captain Crow, all the other pirates on board fall in love with her. I think it’s that the book lacks grit and cynicism, because being kind and thoughtful and generous wins the day here. Again, I’d like to reiterate, this is not a bad thing. I like books that believe in the goodness of humankind and that you don’t have to be cutthroat, cruel, or cynical to achieve your goals or “win”. But it definitely does set the tone for the book, and I am a firm believer in understanding the tone of a book before you read it more than anything else (I guess the exception is sensitive material), because understanding of tone allows you to set your expectations reasonably. 

It's all highly likely that this just a “me” thing. Carry on. 

Similarly, it felt like there were some slight plot holes. There are so many moments that felt like a character didn’t ask the oh-so-obvious question, like

Huck avoiding questions about curses (or something similar – I just remember telling the book “Huck is clearly cursed; he’s avoiding the question as they’re talking about curses!”

. Or maybe I’m just being too harsh and expecting every author to be a mega genius that’s always 15 steps ahead of the reader. It is nice to have foreshadowing or irony that pays off later. 

Finally, my last qualm is that there are some highly suspenseful and intense moments that seemed to lack, for lack of a better word, payoff. For instance,

Captain Crow is set up as this badass pirate who is not only bloodthirsty and unkillable, but also just able to hurt others and beat others into submission without even relying on her seed eater status that makes her unkillable. She single-handedly takes down 4 of the best and toughest crew members and removes any sense of hope they have in a mutiny. It’s truly an incredible scene and at that moment, I hated Captain Crow in the best of ways. 

But when we get to a major moment in the book, the penultimate crux that the book has been leading toward and the defeat of a major villain and hinderance to Tress’ journey, it felt like a letdown. We meet this awesome dragon who lives under the spore sea who will take Tress as a servant forever to remove the captain’s terminal condition. 

How does it resolve? Tress and the captain exchange reasons why the other would be a better servant, and for most of that exchange, Tress is obviously the better choice as someone who is generous, smart, good at cooking, hard working, humble, and meeker than the captain. But Tress is clever and fearless, so how does she use her quick thinking to tip the scales in her favor? She passionately cries that she will always try to escape so that she can go save her true love from the Sorceress. And the dragon just accepts it, gags Captain Crow to shut her up, and lets Tress go with some gifts. It has that fairy tale for children quality, except that the scene beforehand of Captain Crow mercilessly beating up the mutinous group and cold-heartedly shooting her helmswoman in the leg really lent a lot of suspense and high stakes, only to be so easily resolved with a passionate speech that didn’t feel like it held up against this badass scene beforehand. 

Again, a counterpoint is that Sanderson copied Goldman or Gaiman/Pratchett in these built-up climaxes that, mostly for comedy’s sake, turns out to be an easy fix by a simple solution or talking up the villain/powerful being. Like in the Princess Bride, the trio of Fezzick, Wesley, and Inigo scaring away the massive group of guards with a wheelbarrow, a torch, and a cloak. Or even Wesley being brought back to life with a miracle pill. I think my expectations were a bit out of whack, because it’s not like the tone of the book isn’t cheeky or sweet or sincere. I’m starting to think it’s the so-close juxtaposition of this cutthroat captain fight scene against a simple exchange of words. Your mileage may vary.

Reading this, you may think that I didn’t actually like the book, which isn’t true! I really enjoyed it! I loved the setting, the pirate ship, and the characters. Tress is a fantastic character that grows quite a bit during her time on the pirate ship and finds something that she’s passionate about. She’s level-headed, reasonable, intelligent, kind, practical, and tenacious. It’s funny when the narrator, Hoid, mentions the thwarting of a miscommunication or plot advancement by a character’s assumptions when Tress decides to pause and think of alternate reasons or options instead of jumping ahead. It’s a nice subversion of a trope or “cheap” plot advancement (not always cheap, but easily can be considered cheap in a great many books). 

The world building and magic system feel second to none – the descriptions and complexity are top notch and highly vivid and thought out, which reminds me a bit of the world building in Locke Lamora. Another thing I know about Sanderson is that his magic systems and world building are complex and highly examined; no hand waving away explanations from him. It felt like a union between science and magic, which is cool. 

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – this book is really funny. I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and other tongue-in-cheek artists (which usually seem to be British – is that just my perception or is it the dry or absurdist British humor?) Sanderson nails that tone and I remarked multiple times that the tone and writing absolutely were in the same vein as Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. 

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.

Eh, this one really isn't for me. I really wanted to read a story set in Cuba, but I feel like I'm noticing a trend of books relying on a present-past dual POV writing style that really falls flat. I can't put my finger on it, and I may be noticing a pattern that isn't there, but I intend to look into it.
 
The writing style felt mediocre and relied on so many phrases or idioms that feel lazy or cliché. The main characters felt flat, the impending romance already felt too insta-love and contrived for my taste, and the writing was just descriptive in a way that feels like they're describing every micro action like it's a too-detailed screenplay. The same style as "I sat on the couch, crossed my feet on the coffee table, opened up my laptop in my lap and typed in my password so that I could open my favorite internet browser." SNORE. It's repetitive, unnecessary, and doesn't propel the story or explain the character in any way.