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fedelikeslego's reviews
63 reviews
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Writing this is very hard because I can’t really point out what did not convince me.
It is definitely amazingly written, but still, I don’t really like the message? I would except much more for a book written fourty years ago.
The title is amazing but I don’t really understand it. First of all, it’s not right, she knew men, even if she didn’t talk to them or had a relationship with them. So, what’s the point of the title? Second of all. Why is there this obsession of relationship with men? I do understand the 39 women because they did leave a normal life in the past. But like? Friendship is still a thing and they basically never talked about it??? Even if some of them were great friends?? Why would you want to write a book about relationships between people and then, you just don’t do it.
It doesn’t tell anything about womanhood. Neither in a good or bad way. It’s just stream of consciousness. It was a nice read, I would still recommend it, but… don’t expect anything revolutionary. It’s advertised everywhere as a revolutionary womenhood book, and no, it isn’t at all. It would have been if it was written at the beginning of 1900, but not at the end of it! That’s all we know and think about womanhood in 1995? It’s a bit embarrassing…
I don’t mind the fact that we don’t know anything about what happened. But if you choose to do that, give us less details about this world and give us more about the relationships between the characters. It feels like it wasn’t finished neither way. I’m a bit disappointed.
Still going to give 3 stars (really heartbroken by this) because it is really well written. Nice read, but nothing more
It is definitely amazingly written, but still, I don’t really like the message? I would except much more for a book written fourty years ago.
The title is amazing but I don’t really understand it. First of all, it’s not right, she knew men, even if she didn’t talk to them or had a relationship with them. So, what’s the point of the title? Second of all. Why is there this obsession of relationship with men? I do understand the 39 women because they did leave a normal life in the past. But like? Friendship is still a thing and they basically never talked about it??? Even if some of them were great friends?? Why would you want to write a book about relationships between people and then, you just don’t do it.
It doesn’t tell anything about womanhood. Neither in a good or bad way. It’s just stream of consciousness. It was a nice read, I would still recommend it, but… don’t expect anything revolutionary. It’s advertised everywhere as a revolutionary womenhood book, and no, it isn’t at all. It would have been if it was written at the beginning of 1900, but not at the end of it! That’s all we know and think about womanhood in 1995? It’s a bit embarrassing…
I don’t mind the fact that we don’t know anything about what happened. But if you choose to do that, give us less details about this world and give us more about the relationships between the characters. It feels like it wasn’t finished neither way. I’m a bit disappointed.
Still going to give 3 stars (really heartbroken by this) because it is really well written. Nice read, but nothing more
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I don’t know how to feel honestly. I had very highly expectations because the premise is amazing. What I found is an extremely boring collage of ideas. There’s so many things that are just randomly put in the plot and then never explained/finished? It’s just frustrating honestly. It feels like Yoder’s publisher just forced her to make the novel longer.
- Who where those strawberry dogs? Was she just loosing her mind? I didn’t get it.
- What was even the point of the Wanda plot? I have no idea.
- The relationship with Nightbitch husband was just so useless, also he changed in a second? Like, so unexpectedly? I got the point of him just being good, but “typically male” the whole time, but it could have been deepen it better? It just sounds so stupid
- Honestly, just the whole dog thing that she randomly set aside.
- her son just disappear? Like, I get the point of her finally being a free human being (again, difficult after motherhood), but like, he just suddenly disappear?
What was I expecting from this book before reading it?
Literally a mother who turned in to a dog, but like, fisically, not only mentally.
What would i have preferred, after reading it?
A short book would have been much better, not a short story, but like a 100-120 pages book, so less then the half of it.
As a artist myself I loved every single time she talked about art, making art and being an artist. I also loved the performance at the end, made perfect sense with her feelings (Not feeling sure about his husband reactions? You’re eating a rotten cadaver from the ground? Sounds great! I’ll shower you, i’ll love your performance!)
The domestic cat violence was a blow to the heart, I didn’t want to read it.
So… I’m just disappointed, I expected much more in terms of both plot and general message? Let’s objectively look at it, no emotions, how could you not found obvious what she said? The “perfect mother era” finished like decades ago? A lot of people think that and admit that right now, there’s communities, support groups. Literally nothing was revolutionary about it.
Don’t get me wrong, the 1 star is not because “it’s too weird”, I read weirder books, it’s just not good, extremely poor execution.
- Who where those strawberry dogs? Was she just loosing her mind? I didn’t get it.
- What was even the point of the Wanda plot? I have no idea.
- The relationship with Nightbitch husband was just so useless, also he changed in a second? Like, so unexpectedly? I got the point of him just being good, but “typically male” the whole time, but it could have been deepen it better? It just sounds so stupid
- Honestly, just the whole dog thing that she randomly set aside.
- her son just disappear? Like, I get the point of her finally being a free human being (again, difficult after motherhood), but like, he just suddenly disappear?
What was I expecting from this book before reading it?
Literally a mother who turned in to a dog, but like, fisically, not only mentally.
What would i have preferred, after reading it?
A short book would have been much better, not a short story, but like a 100-120 pages book, so less then the half of it.
As a artist myself I loved every single time she talked about art, making art and being an artist. I also loved the performance at the end, made perfect sense with her feelings (Not feeling sure about his husband reactions? You’re eating a rotten cadaver from the ground? Sounds great! I’ll shower you, i’ll love your performance!)
The domestic cat violence was a blow to the heart, I didn’t want to read it.
So… I’m just disappointed, I expected much more in terms of both plot and general message? Let’s objectively look at it, no emotions, how could you not found obvious what she said? The “perfect mother era” finished like decades ago? A lot of people think that and admit that right now, there’s communities, support groups. Literally nothing was revolutionary about it.
Don’t get me wrong, the 1 star is not because “it’s too weird”, I read weirder books, it’s just not good, extremely poor execution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gore, Mental illness, and Misogyny
Le mani piccole by Andrés Barba
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I rarely, rarely, give 5 stars but I think that this book really deserves it. I read a digital copy on my laptop and I wish I had a physical copy to annotate because there's so much to say about it.
This book is a ~60 pages short story, and it is amazingly executed. The prose is flawless, the story is so touching and I would recommend it to anyone. I think that this book can have the same impact as classic because that's what you use to analyse the "contemporary" society (in this case, our time, since the book was published in 2008). I'm not saying this because of the book itself, I'm thinking about how people reacted to this book. You can easily see why I'm saying that just reading some of the other reviews.
I honestly think that most people didn't get this book, and I can understand why since it's advertised as an horror book. People had fake expectation. "Such small hand" can be considered an horror since the tough topics that it faces, but that's not the main genre. Another big problem that I think impacted some of the reviews is the lack of empathy, which is such a big problem now days. A lot people asked for more details about the characters' violent backstories, but that's not needed because cruelty and suffering it's not entertainment, and true crime is a perfect example of that.
This book is about kids living with their trauma, it's about how trauma can impact you as a person. It's about young, small girls living in an orphanage and experiencing the world for the first time. They can't tell whats right from wrong because they all suffered. This girls don't have any parental figure to talk to, they just have each other's trauma to live with, and that is not helping them overcoming their past. Andrés Barba did an amazing, flawless job giving us enough information to understand everything about the story without unnecessary "bloody" details (I didn't see that in media in such a long time, that's my number one turn-off while consuming any type of media). One of the girls believe that loving someone means to make them suffer, that's why she bully and physically torture her friends, that's probably what she experienced for all of her life. If you read between the lines you can understand it so easily, it's crystal clear.
I really enjoyed the story, it's about a 7 years old girl, called Marina, which has to live in an orphanage after the death of her parents. In the book there's an alternation of Marina's point of view and the other girls' point of view. I really liked how this was executed because it's done neatly and it doesn't feel like jumping in to a different story each time (like it happens in most books). This works perfectly because there's only one story, and there's only one side of it: this kids are all violent, they're abusive, but they don't really mean it, that's all they've ever known. The ending is tough, but it's also "fair", because it is super faithful to what has happened in the rest of the book.
So... should you read it? Yes, definitely. It's not the greatest thing you'll ever read but keep in mind what I said, and that will probably give you another point of view of this amazing story. Hope you like it <3.
P.s. even though you'll probably not care: the first time I wrote this review I erroneously refreshed the page as I was finishing it. It was gone. I cried for hours because english is not my mother tongue and I spent hours translating and correcting this thing. It was all gone, it's still gone and this thing isn't as great as the other one, there's so many aspects I don't remember. My mind is boiling and I honestly don't give a f*** anymore, I did my best.
This book is a ~60 pages short story, and it is amazingly executed. The prose is flawless, the story is so touching and I would recommend it to anyone. I think that this book can have the same impact as classic because that's what you use to analyse the "contemporary" society (in this case, our time, since the book was published in 2008). I'm not saying this because of the book itself, I'm thinking about how people reacted to this book. You can easily see why I'm saying that just reading some of the other reviews.
I honestly think that most people didn't get this book, and I can understand why since it's advertised as an horror book. People had fake expectation. "Such small hand" can be considered an horror since the tough topics that it faces, but that's not the main genre. Another big problem that I think impacted some of the reviews is the lack of empathy, which is such a big problem now days. A lot people asked for more details about the characters' violent backstories, but that's not needed because cruelty and suffering it's not entertainment, and true crime is a perfect example of that.
This book is about kids living with their trauma, it's about how trauma can impact you as a person. It's about young, small girls living in an orphanage and experiencing the world for the first time. They can't tell whats right from wrong because they all suffered. This girls don't have any parental figure to talk to, they just have each other's trauma to live with, and that is not helping them overcoming their past. Andrés Barba did an amazing, flawless job giving us enough information to understand everything about the story without unnecessary "bloody" details (I didn't see that in media in such a long time, that's my number one turn-off while consuming any type of media).
I really enjoyed the story, it's about a 7 years old girl, called Marina, which has to live in an orphanage after the death of her parents. In the book there's an alternation of Marina's point of view and the other girls' point of view. I really liked how this was executed because it's done neatly and it doesn't feel like jumping in to a different story each time (like it happens in most books). This works perfectly because there's only one story, and there's only one side of it: this kids are all violent, they're abusive, but they don't really mean it, that's all they've ever known. The ending is tough, but it's also "fair", because it is super faithful to what has happened in the rest of the book.
So... should you read it? Yes, definitely. It's not the greatest thing you'll ever read but keep in mind what I said, and that will probably give you another point of view of this amazing story. Hope you like it <3.
P.s. even though you'll probably not care: the first time I wrote this review I erroneously refreshed the page as I was finishing it. It was gone. I cried for hours because english is not my mother tongue and I spent hours translating and correcting this thing. It was all gone, it's still gone and this thing isn't as great as the other one, there's so many aspects I don't remember. My mind is boiling and I honestly don't give a f*** anymore, I did my best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Car accident, Death, Abandonment, Child death, Murder, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Child abuse
La carta da parati gialla e altri racconti by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
emotional
sad
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.5
Una bellissima e incantevole lettura. Non mi soffermo nel creare un’analisi dettagliata di un classico della letteratura, per quello esiste internet. Sono tutti e tre racconti sul femminismo, ma trattano temi diversi e in maniera completamente diversa.
- La carta da parati gialla. È il racconto più famoso, in parte autobiografico, molto triste.
- Via da qui! Anche questo è triste ma giusto.
- Quando ero una strega. Questo è sicuramente il mio preferito e quello che mi ha colpito di più. Modernissimo per essere stato scritto nel 1910.
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This is the most boring thing I have ever read. I love no plot just vibes. Here's there's no plot, there's no vibes, the characters are boring as f***. I will not read any of her other works.
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I read this without knowing anything about this book, I came here completely blind. I hated the first chapters, they sounded pretty stupid and there was too much description. I loved the end though! The only reason I'm giving 2.5 stars is because I love this exact "plot twist" and I consumed other similar media. I love it but it can be done much better. If you liked this book you'll absolutely love "Mother! (2017)", the story is similar but it's done so much better (tw: a bit of gore in one single short scene).
The Choice by Claire Wade
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Idea originale, dialoghi e personaggi odiosi, do 1.5 di incoraggiamento
Un buon presagio by Gillian Flynn
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
What a strange little book. I would have rated it more but I know that Flynn can do much better. It feels the same as Gone Girl, it's a "similar story/vibe". I did enjoy the writing, I just think it would have been better if it was inside a short-stories book.
Il diavolo nel cassetto by Anne Milano Appel, Paolo Maurensig
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I wanted to give it 4 stars, but then I read the last 10 pages. They were so bad I changed my whole mind.
Pro:
Pro:
- I enjoyed the style.
Cons:
- There was no need for that plot twist. It didn't make sense, things weren't explained well (except for the dog episode and the cliff one), and it just sounded stupid. I loved the town story and the books, and the story about the devil, but the end just doesn't make sense at all.
- There was no need for this thing about a novel, in a novel, in a novel (three!!!!). The first two "boxes" appear for like a couple of lines at the beginning and at the end for no reason. It would have been better with just the main novel.
- This whole things about foxes just doesn't make sense at all. You could take it off and nothing would change, in fact, it would just be better and make more sense.
- Some characters (the vet) didn't make sense at all, again, you could take it off and nothing would change, in fact, it would just be better and make more sense.
- I would have loved so so so much to know more about the people of the village.