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egbella's reviews
212 reviews
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
4.0
I'm currently catching up on reading while sick, and I picked this book up looking for something to distract me . . . it definitely did!
PROS:
- The plot and mystery of where the mother's son went kept me extremely engaged and wanting to know what happened. It definitely held my interest.
- The realness of how the author portrayed the characters' raw emotions. As someone who lost a brother, I was continually struck by how well she communicated those difficult emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions. That kept me captivated more than anything else.
- On a similar note, how messy the story world was. There were so many characters, each with their own lives, motivations, emotions, jobs, and thoughts, and I liked getting to watch as they all worked together on this case, while still being their own people in their own lives.
CONS:
- I'm conflicted on this, but I didn't like the ending, to be honest. It seemed to come out of nowhere and wrap up too neatly for me, but that could also mostly just be me and my story preferences.
- There were expletives sprinkled throughout that I could have done without.
- A couple minor grammatical errors or missing words.
Overall, I'm glad I gave this one a chance. It held my interest, gripped my heart, made me feel genuine concern and worry for the characters, and made me think deeper about people in real life that are dealing with the heartbreak of child abduction every day.
PROS:
- The plot and mystery of where the mother's son went kept me extremely engaged and wanting to know what happened. It definitely held my interest.
- The realness of how the author portrayed the characters' raw emotions. As someone who lost a brother, I was continually struck by how well she communicated those difficult emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions. That kept me captivated more than anything else.
- On a similar note, how messy the story world was. There were so many characters, each with their own lives, motivations, emotions, jobs, and thoughts, and I liked getting to watch as they all worked together on this case, while still being their own people in their own lives.
CONS:
- I'm conflicted on this, but I didn't like the ending, to be honest. It seemed to come out of nowhere and wrap up too neatly for me, but that could also mostly just be me and my story preferences.
- There were expletives sprinkled throughout that I could have done without.
- A couple minor grammatical errors or missing words.
Overall, I'm glad I gave this one a chance. It held my interest, gripped my heart, made me feel genuine concern and worry for the characters, and made me think deeper about people in real life that are dealing with the heartbreak of child abduction every day.
Intermittent Fasting for Women 101: The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide for Weight Loss, Even if You Are Over 50, with Keto Diet, 16/8 Method and the Self Cleansing through Metabolic Process of Autophagy by Jennifer Cook
2.0
I'm familiar with IF already, so I recognized much of the info in this book. It was informative and I thought it was interesting, but can't recommend it to others as a great guide. There were quite a few places where the information inside contradicted itself, and many more places that just didn't make sense. I admire the author and her research, but something was missing from this one. Maybe just someone to do a final fact-check?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
5.0
It doesn't matter how many times I read this series, I'm always amazed at how well they suck me in. I went into this book again actually intending to find some areas to critique, as I've previously only gushed about them, and I was once again too engrossed in the series to pay enough attention to the tiny details. That's not to say it's a perfect book, but it's one I will happily read and reread.
THINGS I ESPECIALLY LOVE:
- The worldbuilding. Rowling is SO good at creating an expansive, engaging fantasy world, and the amount of thought and details she put in is astounding to me (someone who struggles with worldbuilding). It feels so real, and I can picture everything clearly. I think that's a huge reason why the books are so engaging - it feels like we're really in that world with the characters.
- The narrative voice. Rowling's narrating is so quirky and fun, with great bits of humor. In the first few books, it's fairly simple, almost middle-grade in its simplicity, but I remember it growing in depth and detail as the series progresses. Appropriately, it seems to grow as the characters do. I also noticed this go-around that she doesn't always keep the narrative focus on Harry. I should have realized this before, but this time I found myself catching when her omniscient writing perspective shifted to Hermione and Ron, for example, revealing their thoughts, rather than just Harry's. It's different than what I usually read, but I think it helps create that sweeping, engaging movie in my mind.
- Characters! Each character is given a personality and identifying traits, and she does a great job making them memorable, even if they're only in the story for a little while. I also love how a very minor character can end up coming into the story in a huge way later, adding to the sense that this is a real world and each character is living their own life, even if not 'in focus'. (ex. Lavender Brown is mentioned in this one very briefly).
THINGS I DIDN'T LOVE AS MUCH:
I'm not actually sure what to put here, because I don't have any major complaints for this book.
My only thought --
There were a few times when I had to suspend disbelief for a situation, simply because it didn't seem right to me. For example, why a professor would react one way, or how the kids managed to pull off a certain situation. But most of those, I feel like will come into play and be explained better as the series progresses and I relearn more about the world and characters (it's been a while since I last read this series). So possibly by the end of the series, I'll have some bigger problems with how certain things were explained, but I can't claim that yet, because these are such intertwined books.
OVERALL, this is such a fun read so far, and I'm glad I'm working my way through this series again.
THINGS I ESPECIALLY LOVE:
- The worldbuilding. Rowling is SO good at creating an expansive, engaging fantasy world, and the amount of thought and details she put in is astounding to me (someone who struggles with worldbuilding). It feels so real, and I can picture everything clearly. I think that's a huge reason why the books are so engaging - it feels like we're really in that world with the characters.
- The narrative voice. Rowling's narrating is so quirky and fun, with great bits of humor. In the first few books, it's fairly simple, almost middle-grade in its simplicity, but I remember it growing in depth and detail as the series progresses. Appropriately, it seems to grow as the characters do. I also noticed this go-around that she doesn't always keep the narrative focus on Harry. I should have realized this before, but this time I found myself catching when her omniscient writing perspective shifted to Hermione and Ron, for example, revealing their thoughts, rather than just Harry's. It's different than what I usually read, but I think it helps create that sweeping, engaging movie in my mind.
- Characters! Each character is given a personality and identifying traits, and she does a great job making them memorable, even if they're only in the story for a little while. I also love how a very minor character can end up coming into the story in a huge way later, adding to the sense that this is a real world and each character is living their own life, even if not 'in focus'. (ex. Lavender Brown is mentioned in this one very briefly).
THINGS I DIDN'T LOVE AS MUCH:
I'm not actually sure what to put here, because I don't have any major complaints for this book.
My only thought --
There were a few times when I had to suspend disbelief for a situation, simply because it didn't seem right to me. For example, why a professor would react one way, or how the kids managed to pull off a certain situation. But most of those, I feel like will come into play and be explained better as the series progresses and I relearn more about the world and characters (it's been a while since I last read this series). So possibly by the end of the series, I'll have some bigger problems with how certain things were explained, but I can't claim that yet, because these are such intertwined books.
OVERALL, this is such a fun read so far, and I'm glad I'm working my way through this series again.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
5.0
I don't even have a thorough review, because I'll simply echo what I said for book #1 of the series - I really enjoy these stories! The plot is getting thicker and the weaving of details never ceases to amaze me, the characters are vivid and memorable (some more likeable than others), the settings well-described and interesting, and as usual, it ends with some touching life lessons and themes presented. I had a hard time putting this down, and can't wait to continue on to book #3!
(This is a reread of the series, and even though I know what's going to happen, I'm surprised how engrossed I still am.)
(This is a reread of the series, and even though I know what's going to happen, I'm surprised how engrossed I still am.)
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
4.0
Another reread in this series, and just like The Fever Code, I enjoyed it pretty well. The writing style itself is not my favorite, but the story is interesting and kept me interested, even after reading it several times already.
Pros:
~ The fast-moving plot and action. It kept me pretty engaged.
~ The amnesia (one of my favorite story tropes). I thought it was portrayed pretty well, although the unnatural way of remembering how everything works, but not recalling anything personal is hard to comprehend.
~ The characters, and their diversity. My favorite has always been Newt, but Chuck is also super sweet, and the rest of the characters all have their good points.
~ The world-building. The entire Maze, Glade, and way of life for the Gladers is pretty fascinating, and I like how well it seems to have been thought out. Most things tied in to the prequel books well. I also appreciated that the boys were mature enough to set up such an order in the Glade (Keepers, calling Gatherings, etc.)
~ The intrigue and suspense. Especially toward the end, I liked how quickly things moved and the way most of the Gladers worked together to figure out the mysteries of the Maze.
~ The whole method of solving the Maze. I can guarantee that if I was in their place, I would never have figured out all the maps, so I have a lot of respect for them for figuring it out.
~ Most of the characters' actions felt pretty realistic.
Cons:
~ I really dislike the whole system of 'fake swears' that the Gladers came up with. I get that we're referring to a bunch of teen boys in a very stressful situation, but when that language is used every other sentence and is only a letter or two away from real-life swear words, it gets old very quickly.
~ On the same line of reasoning (still immature guys), there were quite a few crude moments and conversations I didn't appreciate.
~ This is not exclusive to this book by any means, but like most YA books, I had trouble believing Thomas was only 16. However, the whole situation is so different than life now that I really can't know how teenagers would actually act there, so I'm not too bugged by it.
~ There were a few details given that seemed inconsistent to the prequels.
~ I really don't care for Thomas. For most of the book, he's actually really mean to Chuck, despite how kind the kid is to him. And I didn't appreciate how whiny he could be as well (as someone who grew up doing hard garden work, his huge complaining over less than 2 hours of gardening kind of frustrated me). In the end of course, he did a lot of good things, but I just didn't click with him.
~ I honestly don't really like Teresa either. She felt very shallow, and it seemed her character was mostly just there to communicate telepathically with Thomas, be referred to as pretty and jokingly fought over, and to 'prove her worth' by delivering sarcastic and mean comments to the rest of the boys.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was far less graphic and gory than the later books in the series, which I appreciated. And between the suspense, immersive world-building, realistic and diverse characters, and constant action, it kept me very interested.
Pros:
~ The fast-moving plot and action. It kept me pretty engaged.
~ The amnesia (one of my favorite story tropes). I thought it was portrayed pretty well, although the unnatural way of remembering how everything works, but not recalling anything personal is hard to comprehend.
~ The characters, and their diversity. My favorite has always been Newt, but Chuck is also super sweet, and the rest of the characters all have their good points.
~ The world-building. The entire Maze, Glade, and way of life for the Gladers is pretty fascinating, and I like how well it seems to have been thought out. Most things tied in to the prequel books well. I also appreciated that the boys were mature enough to set up such an order in the Glade (Keepers, calling Gatherings, etc.)
~ The intrigue and suspense. Especially toward the end, I liked how quickly things moved and the way most of the Gladers worked together to figure out the mysteries of the Maze.
~ The whole method of solving the Maze. I can guarantee that if I was in their place, I would never have figured out all the maps, so I have a lot of respect for them for figuring it out.
~ Most of the characters' actions felt pretty realistic.
Cons:
~ I really dislike the whole system of 'fake swears' that the Gladers came up with. I get that we're referring to a bunch of teen boys in a very stressful situation, but when that language is used every other sentence and is only a letter or two away from real-life swear words, it gets old very quickly.
~ On the same line of reasoning (still immature guys), there were quite a few crude moments and conversations I didn't appreciate.
~ This is not exclusive to this book by any means, but like most YA books, I had trouble believing Thomas was only 16. However, the whole situation is so different than life now that I really can't know how teenagers would actually act there, so I'm not too bugged by it.
~ There were a few details given that seemed inconsistent to the prequels.
Spoiler
How the 'WICKED is good' phrase was written on Teresa's arm is one example. I'll update if I can remember the rest.~ I really don't care for Thomas. For most of the book, he's actually really mean to Chuck, despite how kind the kid is to him. And I didn't appreciate how whiny he could be as well (as someone who grew up doing hard garden work, his huge complaining over less than 2 hours of gardening kind of frustrated me). In the end of course, he did a lot of good things, but I just didn't click with him.
~ I honestly don't really like Teresa either. She felt very shallow, and it seemed her character was mostly just there to communicate telepathically with Thomas, be referred to as pretty and jokingly fought over, and to 'prove her worth' by delivering sarcastic and mean comments to the rest of the boys.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was far less graphic and gory than the later books in the series, which I appreciated. And between the suspense, immersive world-building, realistic and diverse characters, and constant action, it kept me very interested.