diazona's reviews
71 reviews

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm all too used to reading the promotional blurb for a book and being pretty underwhelmed; within any given genre they all kind of sound the same after a while. After She Wrote Him is different. The teaser paragraph caught my interest, because it starts off with a really cool idea: two authors, Edward and Madeleine, each writing a book about the other one. It's a pretty cool sci-fi premise, maybe with just a touch of horror to boot (plus, we're promised a murder mystery), and I couldn't wait to see what would come of it.

It turns out the book is... not that. Instead of a story about two authors each writing about the other, it's more like a story that tries to keep the reader confused about which of Edward or Madeleine is "really" the author and which is "really" the character in the other's work. And by the end of the book I had a pretty good feeling that there's one who is supposed to be the "real" author. I guess that was the goal, and if so, well done Sulari, mission accomplished, I just feel a bit let down because I was looking forward to something different, where the plot could be built around the ambiguity between the two stories.

Anyway, the blurry line between author and character lets the book do some cool trippy things with the point of view. Like, there are times when I'll read several pages of, say, Edward's story, and suddenly there will be a bit of "narrator commentary" interjected by Madeleine, or vice versa. The narrator-as-character thing works pretty well. There are also parts where it seamlessly switches from Madeleine's point of view to Edward's or vice versa; typically we'll be in the middle of one of their stories, the other one makes an appearance as a (presumably imaginary) character in that story, and then a couple paragraphs later we're following the other one's story. These transitions were well executed, they really sneak up on you, but I found it quite confusing to be jumping back and forth between the two stories never being quite sure which one you're really in. Though again, that may have been the point - the POV transitions become more and more frequent throughout the book, giving the feeling of the two worlds becoming indistinguishable, so props to the author once more.

So, I've been saying is that this is a really interesting concept and it was very skillfully crafted. Why am I rating this book with only three stars, then? Well, despite having such a unique twist, the story neglects some of the basics. Like the plot. There are a bunch of plot threads that never really get resolved, they just trail off or get forgotten. If that's supposed to be part of the book's mystique as well, it goes too far for me. And the plot doesn't seem all that well thought out; events seem to happen arbitrarily with little purpose, which again may be intentionally part of inserting the audience into the role of the author, but the fact is it diminishes my enjoyment of the story. I came out the end of this book feeling enlightened but ultimately unsatisfied.

I'd say this is a great book to read to broaden your perspective of how an author can do some mind-bending things with nested stories and point-of-view characters. Anyone who considers themselves an author would probably find it an interesting case study. But if you want plain old entertainment value, you can do better.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.75

When I first started considering this review, I thought how ironic it'd be if the book wound up getting three stars, in light of the obvious pun. Fortunately it turned out to be better than that... but actually not by that much. While I definitely liked the book, it fell far short of the expectations I'd built up based on how often it had been recommended to me and how much recognition it's gotten.

First things first though: the plot of The Three-Body Problem is legitimately really interesting. It takes a while to develop, but when it does, the book's take on first contact with an alien society, and humanity's reaction to it, is pretty unique among stories I've read. Kind of bleak in a way, but the uniqueness makes it fascinating regardless. (If I read another book that handles first contact the same way I will be much less into it.) And I like the way the Three-Body game was originally introduced in the story as a mysterious element that eventually ties in to the alien contact plot line in a way that you can kind of see coming but is still a powerful experience when it finally gets revealed.

On the other hand, the way that this fantastic story is presented leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. For instance, there's a whole introductory section that I really don't understand the purpose of. I guess it provides some interesting background information about the characters, and maybe tying the story back to the Chinese cultural revolution is more meaningful for readers whose cultural background focuses on those events, but it doesn't really do anything for me. A lot of it could have been skipped over without taking anything important away from the story. Plus, large parts of the book read like dry technical reports - and I'm not even talking about the parts that are dry technical reports, I mean there are long stretches of dialogue that feel like the characters are just reciting an amateurish script to convey information to the reader.

Even when the characters are acting like characters, they're not always particularly distinguishable or memorable. This is something I've noticed across a bunch of the books I've been reading recently: the best ones seem to have characters whose speech patterns and behavior are distinctive and blatantly obvious. It's as if the characters' personalities jump off the page and embed themselves in your brain. In this story, they do not. I kept losing track of who was talking, except for Da Shi because he's rude and swears a lot, which is distinctive enough I guess but not exactly the most interesting character profile.

And last but not least: the science. We have to talk about the science. It was clear that Liu Cixin has experience in this area (or, I guess, could have been working extremely closely with someone who does): the book reflects knowledge of physics down to a pretty deep level of technical detail, as well as of the process of academic research. But many of the passages that reference science felt kind of... insincere, maybe even mocking. It's as if - not that I think this is what really happened, but this is how it felt - as if I was reading text written by someone who had studied science in great depth without actually believing in it, someone who could never quite shake the belief that science is a bunch of complex arbitrary rituals, and you could wake up tomorrow to find that those rituals are different and that would just be that, no big deal, enjoy your new reality from this point forward. As someone who appreciates realism in the science of a story, this just felt a bit too outlandish.

All of this adds up to a story that I liked, but not as much as I was hoping to. It was a bit of a struggle, honestly. I'll still probably read the sequels, though, since I'm kind of interested to see what happens to the people of this alternate-universe Earth, but I expect to have to build up my mental energy before I keep going down that path.

Content Warnings

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I found this book quite enjoyable for a story where not very much actually happens. I mean, of course there are things that happen, there wouldn't be a story to tell otherwise, but it's driven more by developments in the characters' thoughts and feelings rather than the events that occur. You get the feeling that most of the events could have not happened, or been left out of the story, and it wouldn't really make a difference.

There are a couple of pretty neat plot twists toward the end. They definitely make the last quarter or so very interesting indeed, I just don't think it's enough to make me forget about the lack of things happening during the first three quarters.

Normally a story without meaningful events is not one I'm going to be very interested in, but I think what saves this one is the rich character development. All the main characters have distinct and consistent personalities (except for gruff Jamie who shows an unexpectedly soft side at some point in the middle), they feel realistic and relatable, and most of all they're nice. These are the kinds of people I wish I could have as friends and family. So it didn't take very far into the book before I started caring about them and getting invested in their successes and failures. According to the afterword, the author was inspired to write this story as a reaction to the loneliness of the pandemic, and in that sense, mission accomplished.

All in all, it's a good book. I wouldn't put it on my list of all-time favorites, and it's not one that I see myself coming back to read and reread regularly, but any time I'm in the mood for something heartwarming and comforting, I'll be glad to have this on my (virtual) shelf.

Content Warnings

The Sea of the Dead by Amy Kuivalainen

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I had a somewhat weird reaction to this book, of both liking it and not liking it at the same time. What I think it is: Penelope (the main character) is living out a bit of an academic fantasy, finding acceptance in a tight-knit group of friends that not only support but appreciate her inquisitive mind. That's comforting. So I care about her enough to want to find out how her story ends, which is why I was invested enough at the end of the book to keep reading the series.

But... otherwise, I think the book is just okay. Most of the other characters seem kind of shallow, with relatively little character development, as if they're devices inserted into Penelope's world to give her that group of friends she wants and to drive the action - NPCs, more or less. I don't feel like I understand their mindset or motivation. And they're not even particularly distinctive. With a couple of exceptions (mostly Marco), all the characters sound pretty similar, to the point where sometimes in long blocks of dialogue I couldn't keep track of who's talking. Sometimes those long blocks of dialogue play a significant role in moving the story forward, and when you throw in the difficulty of distinguishing the characters, it really starts to feel like there's just a narrator explaining what's happening.

The worldbuilding left something to be desired for me, too. I really appreciate it when an author sets a scene, allowing me to really build a mental image of what's going on in the story. This book didn't have much of that. Plus, the magic system seems kind of haphazard. There's not very much repetition or consistency between the different uses of magic, making it feel like, again, a device to do whatever needs to happen to drive the plot along at any given moment.

Anyway, all that being said, it's not a bad book. It definitely captured my interest for a few days, and like I said, I enjoyed it enough that at the end I was excited to go on to the next one in the series. I had fun. No regrets. It's just not one of those standouts that I could see myself coming back to.

Content Warnings

The King's Seal by Amy Kuivalainen

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Content Warnings

Landing by Moonlight: A Novel of WW II by Ciji Ware

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adventurous emotional tense 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? No

2.75

This is a fictional story inspired by real historical records of the secret agents (especially the often underappreciated female agents) operating in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. It was a dangerous and difficult situation, so unsurprisingly it's a harrowing story, but the ending did not disappoint, and there were enough ups and downs at every step to keep me interested. However, I found the writing style not to be the most compelling. A lot of the dialogue feels more like narration, detailed and formal, and the way many of the characters speak is not particularly distinctive, so it was hard to really immerse myself in the world.

It's not a bad book, and I certainly don't regret taking the time to read it, but also it's not getting anywhere close to my favorites list.

Content Warnings