dylanhenning's reviews
94 reviews

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

5.0

This book is so beautifully written and I can tell I’m going to be obsessed with the themes and messages presented with this story for a long time. It made me laugh and cry. I felt a range of emotions from annoyance, sadness, anger, joy, and empathy.

In this story we meet a curmudgeonly older man named Ove and initially he’s very unlikable in how he interacts with the people in his town and his neighbors but Fredrik Backman slowly starts peeling back the layers and we get more details on things Ove has experienced that had an impact and shaped who he is. As the reader I slowly began to understand and ultimately love this grumpy man for who he is at his core.

The cast of characters is wonderful and add so much personality to bounce off of the abrasive nature of Ove.

This is one book not to skip or DNF. Stick with it. I promise you the journey is worth it.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 4: The Heart's Desire by Cliff Rathburn, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I want to like The Walking Dead comics. I really do. Unfortunately they are rooted in 2005 which means rampant and unapologetic sexism, misogyny, and slurs. 

As I’ve said in a previous post Kirkman doesn’t know how to write women or doesn’t seem to enjoy writing women. He improved a bit in the first half of this volume but in the second half he reverted back to women existing solely to fuel the plot for the men. Even Michonne a really cool new character to the story is quickly used for sex and drama. 

The story seemed like it was even going to address it’s misogyny head on when Rick was baffled that no women were going to be on this new committee but it was quickly explained away as “they would rather us men do it” as if women wouldn’t want to have some say in a functional democracy.

Later there is use of the R slur which unfortunately was used pretty frequently in media back in the early 2000’s and no one seemed to think twice of it.

Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad 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

3.0

I don’t typically read books that have romance as the main plot. I’m not sure why. I love rom-coms and the holiday tv movies that come out every winter (as cheesy as they are) but for some reason romance books haven’t been my cup of tea.

However with it being February and the month of love I decided to step outside of my usual comfort zone and read something I normally wouldn’t read. 

I was pleasantly surprised to say I enjoyed this book. It didn’t captivate me and had me obsessively turning the pages until I devoured it but this was a cozy and sweet story about a book shop owner dealing with the recent loss of her grandmother and a budding friendship turned romance with an author who writes romance novels.

It was a cute story that felt true to life. Like Alexa Martin writes characters and dialogue that feels the way actual humans talk and behave which is rare in my limited exposure to the romance genre.

I enjoyed the various pop culture references that helped ground these characters in their relatability.

My biggest gripe with this book is the plot twist towards the end that creates conflict between the lovebird characters felt forced for the sake of shock to the reader and didn't feel like enough of a reason to split them up.

The main character also has an adversarial relationship with her father that I thought was going to play more into the end of the story but that plot point was conveniently solved and thrown away by a random third party character and didn’t give any satisfying conclusion to that plot thread.

Child of the Sea: A nordic folklore horror story by Elvira Dahl

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This short story was really interesting and engaging. My biggest criticism is that it should’ve been longer. It had areas where the author could’ve expanded and gone deeper into the main characters thoughts and feeling or her mother’s backstory.

Would definitely like to read more from her.

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book gives me everything I want from a story with Thrawn at the center of it. He’s devious, cunning, and calculated. And when he seems out of his element I’m left wondering is he really or is he seeming that way to the other characters and to us the reader? That’s the brilliance of not just Thrawn but his creator Timothy Zahn.

While it’s not essential to watch Rebels to enjoy this novel I will say there were certainly added moments of knowing some things about who some characters are and where they end up later in the timeline.

Lastly this will be one of the books I will use as an example when someone asks how can Star Wars work without the Jedi, Sith, or lightsabers. 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was an interesting little book about a haunted house.

I greatly enjoyed the way we as the reader don’t quite know if the governess is losing her mind or if she’s actually seeing the things she’s seeing. 

I can see this book being challenging for some as it obviously has dated language and a dated writing style that admittedly took a little bit to adjust to but I quickly found my footing with it and was able to glide through the story and understand what was happening and what was being said.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

I don’t typically read historical fiction but damn Vanessa Chan wrote an incredibly engaging and emotional book. 

The different perspectives and events kept pulling me in more and more all the while giving me nuggets of information I’ve never known about what happened to what is now known as Malaysia before and during World War II under occupation from the British empire then the Japanese empire. 

This book through the perspectives of the different family members shows the hardships and sacrifices and hard choices that were made to have a better life or just to simply survive. 

We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I really wanted to like this book and so much about this should have been right up my alley. There are LGBT+ characters, there’s horror, a mystery, and a creepy town. 

There are themes of love, family, friendship, selfishness and betrayal all wrapped up in a witchy magical story.

The downside here is the story wasn’t very good. I feel like the author focused more on the prose with its beautiful and complex language than having a fully fleshed out plot with fully fleshed out characters.

I found myself not really connecting with any of the cast of characters because they never really felt defined with their own distinct personalities. When switching from one character POV to another they all kinda read in the same flat tone.

Similarly there were elements of the plot that I felt needed to be expanded upon or explained earlier in the book to give me a reason to care and be invested.

Unless I’m mistaken I think this is this authors debut and I’d be interested and hopeful to see her learn and grow as an author.

The Star Wars: Based on the Original Rough Draft Screenplay by George Lucas by J.W. Rinzler, Mike Mayhew, George Lucas

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This comic miniseries was interesting. It was neat to see some of the early ideas George Lucas had for the epic Star Wars franchise we all know today. A lot of characters, places, and plot points he already had in mind to use. It’s interesting to see what stayed the same from this rough draft idea to the final film and what got changed. For example here Han Solo is an alien reminiscent of DC’s Swamp Thing. Luke is the Ben Kenobi old Jedi, Owen Lars is with the Wookiees and Valorum is more of a threat. 

The story honestly wasn’t that interesting. It was a fair amount of the plot from the original trilogy string together but this clearly is a rough draft because the story felt unpolished and I respect it for what it is but I have to review it fairly for what it is as well.

Overall if you’re a Star Wars fan this is a cool peek into what might have been Star Wars if it hadn’t had some significant changes along the way. It’s a neat bit of history for sure.

Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur

adventurous informative medium-paced

4.0

This book has been sitting on my kindle for years and here I am finally reading it in 2024. I figure it’s an election year so it fits with the theme of the year at least.

Having the privilege to know the full scope of what the Trump presidency looked like, a lot of the information in this book isn’t shocking anymore. In fact most of the comments or moments Katy Tur captured seem tame by comparison to what we know in the present day (January 2024). But this is still a fascinating book offering a peek at what it’s like to be a reporter on the campaign trail and especially following an erratic and unpredictable candidate. 

If you like history, politics, or the bizarre train wreck that is Donald Trump this is an insightful read.