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condensedmilk's reviews
24 reviews
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was an enjoyable read. A great book for tweens and young teenagers to learn a bit about the California Gold Rush through the eyes of the ditzy, dreamy Lucy. I was surprised by how much I cared about the Whipples in the end, not expecting to finish this book when I picked it up. It is no masterpiece, I'll say that, but it should be given credit for being a captivating account of ordinary women and children during this era.
Though this was a fun, emotional read I think it does lack depth when depicting certain issues such as misogyny and racism. I understand it is partly due to the book's audience being young but I don't think these issues should be shielded from young people because they might have faced the brunt of these biases themselves. I liked the subtlety of the men's prejudice against Bernard Freeman and the Native Americans but I wish more could have been done about misogyny in this era. Though I don't doubt Arvella's strength to stand up to men who doubt and fight her, I wonder if making Arvella a no-nonsense type of woman was a way of pillowing the real underlying issues at hand—making her 'on par' with her male counterpart. That men would listen to her because she was harsh and uptight, which wasn't always the case in this era when men, a gender in power, expected to be heralded and followed by other marginalized groups. Honestly? This paragraph might be a nitpick.
Because this book isn't without hardship. Despite its lack of depth in societal issues and prejudices, this tale depicts era-specific tragedies in a natural but devastating way, showing how death and destruction was a common occurrence before and after the Industrial Revolution and how ordinary people like you or I might have dealt with these issues, changing for better or worse, and simply marching forward.
Though this was a fun, emotional read I think it does lack depth when depicting certain issues such as misogyny and racism. I understand it is partly due to the book's audience being young but I don't think these issues should be shielded from young people because they might have faced the brunt of these biases themselves. I liked the subtlety of the men's prejudice against Bernard Freeman and the Native Americans but I wish more could have been done about misogyny in this era. Though I don't doubt Arvella's strength to stand up to men who doubt and fight her, I wonder if making Arvella a no-nonsense type of woman was a way of pillowing the real underlying issues at hand—making her 'on par' with her male counterpart. That men would listen to her because she was harsh and uptight, which wasn't always the case in this era when men, a gender in power, expected to be heralded and followed by other marginalized groups. Honestly? This paragraph might be a nitpick.
Because this book isn't without hardship. Despite its lack of depth in societal issues and prejudices, this tale depicts era-specific tragedies in a natural but devastating way, showing how death and destruction was a common occurrence before and after the Industrial Revolution and how ordinary people like you or I might have dealt with these issues, changing for better or worse, and simply marching forward.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The Metamorphosis and other Stories by Franz Kafka
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 28%.
I don't particularly enjoy Kafka's writing style. I picked this book up because I wanted to read the title short story: The Metamorphosis, and to get there I had to read some other short stories too. I didn't really enjoy those ones because they were kind of childish in a way, because they tried to be complicated but fell short of it and were more angsty than anything. Like in 'Before the Law' the ending was confusing but not in an intellectual or interesting way—it just was vague but meant to be very symbolic and metaphorical, I assume. It just didn't give me anything. There's no 'aha moment' when I read the ending because I didn't really know what the story meant and nothing tied together in the end either. 'The Judgement' is better but still not as great as the story to come because it was very reactive. The ending was intense in a way that didn't make sense. (I will write what happened in this story in spoiler text to make more sense of what I mean, though I encourage you read the story yourself first! It is a short read afterall.) In the story, the son is reprimanded by his father for lying to his (the son's) friend of his own success in life. The son does this because he didn't want his friend to feel bad, and was actually planning to tell him the truth eventually (as I remember) and invite him to his wedding. The father is unusually mad at him for doing this, even though the son didn't mean any harm and was at worst an idiot not a fiend, and the son is so upset over this that he (the son) KILLS HIMSELF. Now, I want to remind the reader that he has a BRIDE WHO HE LOVES waiting for him and he also has a successful business. So why??? Is the intensity of his emotions supposed to justify killing himself spontaneously??? It's odd to say the least, and I thought it inconsiderate of the guy considering he has somebody he loves waiting for him. Now, I know I complained a whole lot about Kafka's stories, but 'The Judgement' is actually not that bad. I have another interpretation of the events that makes sense to me so I didn't really suffer reading this story (or any of the stories I mentioned, really. It's just that some of them were over the top). If you've read 'The Judgement', then I shall propose my interpretation in more spoiler text. I think the son (I cannot remember his name for the life of me lol) is overwhelmed by the fact that he led his life dishonestly and even though he has a loving bride and a flourishing business, all of that means nothing when he loses the people he held close to him as he got lucky in life, and the possiblity of them dying thinking you were an honest but unlucky man, like the son's friend, was too real. I don't know if that makes sense but basically, the son offs himself because he was deceiving the people cheering him on because they thought he was one of them, when in reality it was long past when he'd crawled out of misfortune and was doing quite well with them none the wiser. I feel kind of insecure of my interpretation when it's written out but it sounds right in my head. Perhaps this feeling of guilt of deceiving his loved ones was amplified by his father being the one to point it, the only family member he was close to him criticizing him and disowning him (literally or figuratively, I can't remember) for being a deceitful person. Perhaps the son realizes that he was probably hiding the truth from his friend to make himself feel better and not the friend. To avoid the guilt and telling the truth, he nearly lives a double life. I don't think I agree with death as the answer to this problem because... you'll see next. I also want to talk briefly about the bride of the main character to segue into a slightly feminist discussion of the story. I'll do it in more spoiler text because I have to. It worries me that the son doesn't consider his bride when offing himself, considering this is somebody he loves enough to marry. He doesn't think of her when he jumps off to his death? That last thing he thinks of are the two men in the story, his accusing father and his misled friend. I feel like the value of his lover is depreciated when the son thinks nothing of her as he jumps, but then again, perhaps it was because he was truly selfish. Selfish when he held back the truth from his friend and selfish in death. It is fitting. I just wanted to talk about the bride because even though she's not integral to the story, she exists for a reason and perhaps it is to show how much the son abandons in death. Nevertheless—as more of a person than a reader, how could he just do that?! Ass. Anyway, I think all my digressions almost made me forget the point of this review. I did like some of this stories clearly, and I liked 'The Metamorphosis' too. But truth be told, it is a really depressing story and at the time I thought it would be more of a light read so perhaps this is why I shall be abandoning this collection. It is really a me problem: I don't want to read a short story collection in a while and Kafka's writing is depressing. I really liked 'The Metamorphosis' and its message though, clearly his previous stories were just juvenile attempts and his writing seems to get better as you read through the collection, I think that's because in this collection the stories are chronologically ordered. I think I might pick this collection back up again, maybe once or twice, when I feel critical of life and its tricky elements. For now, it's novels for me.
The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.
Too many short stories a day keeps other books away! Reading these short stories slowed my reading pace to the point that I stopped picking up reading. The stories are okay, it's mainly me who is the problem. It's me not you, Roald Dahl.
Collected Stories by Tennessee Williams
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
I thought I could read all of his short stories (because I was a big fan of his plays) but turns out that was a stupid idea. There are wayyyy too many for me to dedicate my life to reading them all lol.
Village Matters by Rebecca Shaw
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Bad. Just... bad. There are a lot of things I dislike about this book even if I can recognize that this kind of book was not written for me. It also seems to be a product of its time in a way, as I understand that this was written in 1997. I picked this book up because the edition I had had a really pretty cover but it seems the cover was the best part of this book.
*I came back to this review to add that the 'r' slur is used on page 141 of the book, in my edition. In the scene, the parents talk about the possibility that their child has a mental disability in a rather insensitive way. I say this for anybody sensitive to that kind of discussion. Obviously this book is quite old so I'm not sure if it is anybody's fault that it is still in there but proceed at your own discretion.
I really don't like the characters. The main cast seem to be written as perfect people with as minimal flaws as possible and the most flawed characters of the novel are the antagonists to our main characters or the less important minor characters such as background characters. This book is more of a village utopia than anything and though the village has its conflicts, they are far too easily and quickly resolved to the point that it is not interesting or compelling. It is like the author is unwilling to put the characters through any real conflict and that sucks and of course everything is worked out perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after. I'm not petitioning for the characters' lives to end in despair (though because I hate all the characters I would personally prefer that) but just give me something here. Show the reader that the conflicts they go through affect them in the long run, even if they are resolved. And why are all of their problems so cleanly worked out anyway? As far as I'm concerned, this book isn't a serialized children's book, even if it is serialized, why is this book absent of a more mature way of ending things? Frankly, it is super boring. Because it's abundantly clear that the writer only wants their Mary-Sue characters to live their best lives possible, even if that means that they become stale in the process.
This book is a huge disappointment because the genre and overall idea of the book is something I was really interested in. The idea of 'small world, small minds', was something the book touches on but fails to make interesting, again. I think the author was trying to do something with that idea but maybe I just found everything else to be so dissatisfactory that I couldn't enjoy this aspect of the book. As for the genre, a soft, slice-of-life, small village read sounded perfect. I love slice-of-life so it is not as if I disliked this book because I didn't like the genre. I just didn't like this book. Slice-of-life isn't meant to be boring, it is meant to be an escape of sorts with the character/s in their own little world doing whatever, really—just living life. But the world of Turnham Malpas is so disengaging that I wanted to bang my head on the wall every time I saw how perfectly these characters are carrying out their lives. Where's the conflict?! what's the goal of this read?? I don't know about anyone else but this book gave me stress not relaxation.
Another thing that was annoying was how conservative this book was. It was always the dreamy idea of a family and what not. I'm getting into things that annoy me more personally so be warned. This book is really just an old, white woman's fantasy and not even an engaging one. I really hated Flick, a young girl in the book, because she is really such an annoying, obsequious character. She's like the picture-perfect daughter your parents' wishes they had but they got you instead.I gained great joy from when that car rammed into her and consequently very disappointed when she survived. I just hate her because she is infinitely boring. I hate every character in this book because they're all basically the same person with the same views and same ideas but with a few unimportant differences to feign diversity. They're all family people with family values and whatnot and the people who are not these things, want to be. It's really dumb. They all have the same ideals. Also, when I say white woman's fantasy I also mean that there are no people of color in this story. I don't really care if there aren't because not every story has to be diverse but there really are no POC at all. Not even a token black character or anything. Any characters that are not beautiful or rich are ugly and poor. Like the lady who works at a school or something (can't remember her name) has more descriptions of how ugly her hair is than her internal life. She's also poor but gets a house at the end of the book so that's nice. She was the closest I had to a favorite character.
To wrap this review (more of a rant really) up, would I recommend this book to anyone? No. Of course not, I gave it 2 stars. I hate this book, it was such a slog to get through.
*I came back to this review to add that the 'r' slur is used on page 141 of the book, in my edition. In the scene, the parents talk about the possibility that their child has a mental disability in a rather insensitive way. I say this for anybody sensitive to that kind of discussion. Obviously this book is quite old so I'm not sure if it is anybody's fault that it is still in there but proceed at your own discretion.
I really don't like the characters. The main cast seem to be written as perfect people with as minimal flaws as possible and the most flawed characters of the novel are the antagonists to our main characters or the less important minor characters such as background characters. This book is more of a village utopia than anything and though the village has its conflicts, they are far too easily and quickly resolved to the point that it is not interesting or compelling. It is like the author is unwilling to put the characters through any real conflict and that sucks and of course everything is worked out perfectly and everyone lives happily ever after. I'm not petitioning for the characters' lives to end in despair (though because I hate all the characters I would personally prefer that) but just give me something here. Show the reader that the conflicts they go through affect them in the long run, even if they are resolved. And why are all of their problems so cleanly worked out anyway? As far as I'm concerned, this book isn't a serialized children's book, even if it is serialized, why is this book absent of a more mature way of ending things? Frankly, it is super boring. Because it's abundantly clear that the writer only wants their Mary-Sue characters to live their best lives possible, even if that means that they become stale in the process.
This book is a huge disappointment because the genre and overall idea of the book is something I was really interested in. The idea of 'small world, small minds', was something the book touches on but fails to make interesting, again. I think the author was trying to do something with that idea but maybe I just found everything else to be so dissatisfactory that I couldn't enjoy this aspect of the book. As for the genre, a soft, slice-of-life, small village read sounded perfect. I love slice-of-life so it is not as if I disliked this book because I didn't like the genre. I just didn't like this book. Slice-of-life isn't meant to be boring, it is meant to be an escape of sorts with the character/s in their own little world doing whatever, really—just living life. But the world of Turnham Malpas is so disengaging that I wanted to bang my head on the wall every time I saw how perfectly these characters are carrying out their lives. Where's the conflict?! what's the goal of this read?? I don't know about anyone else but this book gave me stress not relaxation.
Another thing that was annoying was how conservative this book was. It was always the dreamy idea of a family and what not. I'm getting into things that annoy me more personally so be warned. This book is really just an old, white woman's fantasy and not even an engaging one. I really hated Flick, a young girl in the book, because she is really such an annoying, obsequious character. She's like the picture-perfect daughter your parents' wishes they had but they got you instead.
To wrap this review (more of a rant really) up, would I recommend this book to anyone? No. Of course not, I gave it 2 stars. I hate this book, it was such a slog to get through.
Content Warnings
Due to this book aging like milk, the 'r' slur is on page 141 of my edition of the book.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Be prepared to peel back the glamor and see the duller truth beneath it. Not to give too much away but I think whoever wants to read this book should be prepared to get tired, especially towards the end. Emotionally. I think I felt some of Evelyn's fatigue press onto my heart muscle and stay there. My thoughts that are spoilers: I think this book taxes you emotionally when you realize that your loved ones—at any moment—could drop like insignificant flies. I think that after I felt the far-away pain of Harry's death, and Evelyn says she'd do it all again and even worse if it meant she could save her family, I understand that the people she loves are hers and though I feel pain for her, it is not my pain.
Overall, pretty easy read. It needs no reading between lines or anything, or motivation to read: the excellent pacing of the story propelling the reader forward like a fish eager to migrate. I love these characters but I'm not so sure I'd love them as people. And I think this internal dilemma is what makes them so seamlessly human and interesting.
Overall, pretty easy read. It needs no reading between lines or anything, or motivation to read: the excellent pacing of the story propelling the reader forward like a fish eager to migrate. I love these characters but I'm not so sure I'd love them as people. And I think this internal dilemma is what makes them so seamlessly human and interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Outing
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Suicide, and Abortion
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
It reads like a really bad Wattpad fanfic. I loved Scorpius (he is so precious) but even he was not enough for me to suffer through this pile of shit. And the end reveal is laughably bad. I'll put it in spoilers if you want. Rose is the daughter of Voldymort!!! Yeah—told you it's like a Wattpad fanfic.
Content Warnings
Graphic descriptions of cringe
Normal People by Sally Rooney
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-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