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brennanaphone's reviews
651 reviews
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
5.0
A wonderful second novel for these delightful and vivid characters (and surprising! I had not expected the first book to end on a cliffhanger). Romantic, clever, and with a real feeling of danger at every turn. This is a well-paced story and in some ways even better than the first one. Not only is there a lot of growth and catharsis, but many of the characters feel deeper and more human. Getting more of Jesper and Inej's backgrounds did a lot for their arcs.
Also, on a smaller note, Bardugo has a really nice way of using metaphors that reveal a lot about how the character thinks. Good on her.
Also, on a smaller note, Bardugo has a really nice way of using metaphors that reveal a lot about how the character thinks. Good on her.
The White Girl by Tony Birch
4.0
Snuck up on me a bit. Thought when it started that it was a little stilted, with a lot of the dialogue feeling very much like an historian's idea of dialogue, which is to say that it was often overly crammed with information and was treated like a pipeline for exposition of certain historical events.
That said, by the end I found myself surprised and moved. Birch is kind to his characters--for all that this is about the tragic reality of racism, it's not suffering porn, and the predictions I made for what would happen to almost every character were really nicely inverted. In reality this is a love letter to community, family ties, and the resilience of friendships.
That said, by the end I found myself surprised and moved. Birch is kind to his characters--for all that this is about the tragic reality of racism, it's not suffering porn, and the predictions I made for what would happen to almost every character were really nicely inverted. In reality this is a love letter to community, family ties, and the resilience of friendships.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
4.0
How DARE a book this amazing have an incredibly dry and tedious 200-page start? Read this book! Persevere!
Reading this book is like watching a Shakespeare play when it's been a few years. It takes like a full act to get your ear adjusted to the language, and then you're in. This book did that to me. I don't know how a modern author managed this incredible balancing act, but she did: She managed to capture--note perfectly!-- the voice of an early 19th-century narrator while still writing a story that featured a more expansive array of characters and progressive storyline specific to the 21st century.
The characters in this book have all the hallmarks of Austen or Dickens. The point of the novel is to examine their foibles and aspirations and hubris and do so with dry wit. The brief flashes of vulnerability and honest intimacy are therefore more notable for the setting. But the novel is also doing some thunderous, lush, and terrifying worldbuilding of a whole system of magic and an entire history shaped by it. The footnotes are STUNNING.
Ultimately, this manages to both be a book starring two white gentlemen and a book about how they are not the real heroes at all. After those first 200 pages, it is a completely engrossing, astonishing achievement of a book.
Reading this book is like watching a Shakespeare play when it's been a few years. It takes like a full act to get your ear adjusted to the language, and then you're in. This book did that to me. I don't know how a modern author managed this incredible balancing act, but she did: She managed to capture--note perfectly!-- the voice of an early 19th-century narrator while still writing a story that featured a more expansive array of characters and progressive storyline specific to the 21st century.
The characters in this book have all the hallmarks of Austen or Dickens. The point of the novel is to examine their foibles and aspirations and hubris and do so with dry wit. The brief flashes of vulnerability and honest intimacy are therefore more notable for the setting. But the novel is also doing some thunderous, lush, and terrifying worldbuilding of a whole system of magic and an entire history shaped by it. The footnotes are STUNNING.
Ultimately, this manages to both be a book starring two white gentlemen and a book about how they are not the real heroes at all. After those first 200 pages, it is a completely engrossing, astonishing achievement of a book.
The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard
3.0
In the introduction to this book, Maynard goes on a bit of a white boomer rant, where she's like, "I was told I wasn't allowed to write from the perspectives of other races, so I wrote a book about a white woman living in a Spanish-speaking country, you people are so sensitive!" Which was a weird way to start a book.
Despite that, I absolutely loved the beginning. Irene is such a wounded, withdrawn character who opens herself up to love and encounters heartbreak over and over again, and I really felt the pathos of the writer for this life immediately, the way Irene needs to run away from the pain or else she'll die. I was captivated by the first few chapters. And then Irene moves to an unnamed country in Central America, and, well, I began to see where this criticism of Maynard was coming from.
Irene's story is lovely. The descriptions of La Esperanza are lovely. The American who runs the hotel there is beautifully wrought, as is the slightly sketchy British handyman who works there. In fact, there are numerous characters from all sorts of countries who visit the hotel throughout the book who feel like they have real history and weight to them. But the characters native to La Esperanza are so flimsy. Irene claims to love a small boy who lives there, but we see maybe two interactions with him, and she never tells his story or even finds out much about it. Irene is gifted the hotel after knowing the (white) hotelier for a month. The (white) hotelier's logic is that she can't give it to the two native people who've run the place for decades because they couldn't handle it (but they can handle remaining employed there doing menial labor, I guess). Those two characters work at the hotel with Irene for years, but they have almost no dialogue, and they definitely have no growth or arcs or anything to make you care about them. It's like Maynard was told not to be appropriative or stereotype and instead she said, "Fine! I'll stay in my lane!" and wrote a Central American story where she ignored all of the Central American characters.
What a weird book.
Despite that, I absolutely loved the beginning. Irene is such a wounded, withdrawn character who opens herself up to love and encounters heartbreak over and over again, and I really felt the pathos of the writer for this life immediately, the way Irene needs to run away from the pain or else she'll die. I was captivated by the first few chapters. And then Irene moves to an unnamed country in Central America, and, well, I began to see where this criticism of Maynard was coming from.
Irene's story is lovely. The descriptions of La Esperanza are lovely. The American who runs the hotel there is beautifully wrought, as is the slightly sketchy British handyman who works there. In fact, there are numerous characters from all sorts of countries who visit the hotel throughout the book who feel like they have real history and weight to them. But the characters native to La Esperanza are so flimsy. Irene claims to love a small boy who lives there, but we see maybe two interactions with him, and she never tells his story or even finds out much about it. Irene is gifted the hotel after knowing the (white) hotelier for a month. The (white) hotelier's logic is that she can't give it to the two native people who've run the place for decades because they couldn't handle it (but they can handle remaining employed there doing menial labor, I guess). Those two characters work at the hotel with Irene for years, but they have almost no dialogue, and they definitely have no growth or arcs or anything to make you care about them. It's like Maynard was told not to be appropriative or stereotype and instead she said, "Fine! I'll stay in my lane!" and wrote a Central American story where she ignored all of the Central American characters.
What a weird book.
Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
3.0
Important and informative. I found the style a little uneven and occasionally clunky, but this is a perspective that a lot of Americans would love to gloss over, and this forces the reader to take a hard look at the many casualties of the Vietnam war.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
4.0
Loved this duology. It's a fantasy heist! In a dangerous world that doesn't feel like the same medieval England setting as everything else. The characters are distinct and clearly wrought, and they are all talented, damaged, witty, and clever. But oh my god, maybe it's because I am the ancient age of thirty-five, but I had to laugh because every single introduction to a character felt like this:
"He was a grizzled man with the raspy voice of someone who had smoked for forty-seven years. He walked with a limp and had run a gang of misfits for two decades. He was the veteran of the old wars and the grandfather of six children. He was seventeen years old."
"He was a grizzled man with the raspy voice of someone who had smoked for forty-seven years. He walked with a limp and had run a gang of misfits for two decades. He was the veteran of the old wars and the grandfather of six children. He was seventeen years old."
“You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon
3.0
An important primer on how to tackle internal biases and the many, many myths that are blatantly trumpeted about fat bodies in public and private discourse. Gordon speaks with authority.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
2.0
This book was really hyped up for me, and mostly it's...fine.
The world is imaginative, and I can tell he has the whole thing perfectly intact in his mind, which is always nice with fantasy. It's very Mormon, by which I mean there's a lot of minced oaths instead of swearing ("Stormfather!"), super traditional gender roles that feel a little different than medieval Europe but not by much, and no LGBTQ representation whatsoever. But of course there are whores, because white men love writing medieval-Europe-inspired fantasy, and so that must include whores, even if no one ever says "fuck."
I liked that the hero comes to us at the bottom of the ladder, disposable battle fodder fighting against his own sense of utter hopelessness. I like that it's about learning how to cling to something, how to fight for something (in any way you can), and how to find meaning in life even when it feels meaningless. That was lovely.
His female characters are a bit cringe, or maybe it's that he doesn't actually know how to write witty dialogue. Shallan (one of two women, but she's feisty, so guess her hair color!!) is mostly meant to be witty but sheltered, and she comes across absolutely deranged for it. The Wit is supposed to be the jester of the court, but his jests are so tepid I could take a disappointing bath in them.
Honestly, it was fine, occasionally pretty good. But it was also 1,000 pages and there are like six of these books, so no thanks.
The world is imaginative, and I can tell he has the whole thing perfectly intact in his mind, which is always nice with fantasy. It's very Mormon, by which I mean there's a lot of minced oaths instead of swearing ("Stormfather!"), super traditional gender roles that feel a little different than medieval Europe but not by much, and no LGBTQ representation whatsoever. But of course there are whores, because white men love writing medieval-Europe-inspired fantasy, and so that must include whores, even if no one ever says "fuck."
I liked that the hero comes to us at the bottom of the ladder, disposable battle fodder fighting against his own sense of utter hopelessness. I like that it's about learning how to cling to something, how to fight for something (in any way you can), and how to find meaning in life even when it feels meaningless. That was lovely.
His female characters are a bit cringe, or maybe it's that he doesn't actually know how to write witty dialogue. Shallan (one of two women, but she's feisty, so guess her hair color!!) is mostly meant to be witty but sheltered, and she comes across absolutely deranged for it. The Wit is supposed to be the jester of the court, but his jests are so tepid I could take a disappointing bath in them.
Honestly, it was fine, occasionally pretty good. But it was also 1,000 pages and there are like six of these books, so no thanks.
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
1.0
I feel terrible giving this such a low review. I hold Abrams in the highest esteem, and I was really looking forward to a gripping thriller with twists and turns and also with an insider's eye into how our systems of government really work (and the political cat-and-mouse games that could inspire).
I was disappointed to find this rote, flat, and a bit tedious to read. The villain was laughably ridiculous, not because I didn't believe they couldn't be the villain but because of how neatly they faced justice by the end.
I was disappointed to find this rote, flat, and a bit tedious to read. The villain was laughably ridiculous, not because I didn't believe they couldn't be the villain but because of how neatly they faced justice by the end.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
4.0
Timely, bleak, gripping, and smartly paced. I didn't realize it was a series until this exact moment, but it felt conclusive in its minimally hopeful way.