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finallyfinnian's reviews
72 reviews
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
4.0
I loved so much about this book. And I love Octavia Butler in general. I found this book readable and tough. The descriptions of slavery, the strange connection between Dana and her ancestor, the "we don't know why" time-travel. It was all good. It was interesting. I just didn't care enough about the characters - I didn't *feel* as much as I wanted to feel. Overall, I recommend the book as a good read, but I wish I had felt more for Dana.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
5.0
I've been sitting with this for a few hours and I still can't quite wrap my mind around how I feel about it.
This is an incredible book. Aster is an unusual main character - unique, off-kilter, brilliant and socially awkward. Born into the lower levels of a spaceship that is supposedly looking for the promised land. The ship is a caste system of white supremacy and getting worse every moment. Aster is almost an anti-hero - she doesn't necessarily want to be the one to fix things, she just wants to understand what happened to her mom.
Theo was a delightfully well-developed character, as was Giselle. This book was, in places, hard to read, but ultimately worth it.
Potential slight spoiler to follow:
The ending was unsatisfactory to me - not because it wasn't well-written. It was. But, as with Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, it really couldn't have ended any other way and still been true to the story. Anything else would have felt contrived. So, in a way, it was a perfect ending, but in another way, I can't help but feel horrible and anxious about it.
All in all, I highly recommend this book, even if you aren't into science fiction, because the spaceship is really just the backdrop. The real gem here is in the characters, the race relations, and the family dynamics that continually evolve.
This is an incredible book. Aster is an unusual main character - unique, off-kilter, brilliant and socially awkward. Born into the lower levels of a spaceship that is supposedly looking for the promised land. The ship is a caste system of white supremacy and getting worse every moment. Aster is almost an anti-hero - she doesn't necessarily want to be the one to fix things, she just wants to understand what happened to her mom.
Theo was a delightfully well-developed character, as was Giselle. This book was, in places, hard to read, but ultimately worth it.
Potential slight spoiler to follow:
The ending was unsatisfactory to me - not because it wasn't well-written. It was. But, as with Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, it really couldn't have ended any other way and still been true to the story. Anything else would have felt contrived. So, in a way, it was a perfect ending, but in another way, I can't help but feel horrible and anxious about it.
All in all, I highly recommend this book, even if you aren't into science fiction, because the spaceship is really just the backdrop. The real gem here is in the characters, the race relations, and the family dynamics that continually evolve.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
4.0
This was an enchanting tale that ran a little too long. I loved the evocative language, the varied and deeply developed characters, and the skipping back and forth in time. But once I figured out how it was going to have to end, my interest started to wane a bit. Ultimately, it was worth the read, but toward the end, I felt as if the author was explaining a lot that really didn't need explaining. Overall, I highly recommend this book.
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
4.0
I'm conflicted about this book... I almost want to give it three and a half stars, but I'd hate for anyone to skip this book because of my review. It is a compelling story. Probably the most engrossing story I've read this year, if you think in terms of I started it and couldn't really put it down until I finished. The characters were believable and their relationships authentic and relatable. The premise is interesting and the author does a good job of not spoon-feeding the moral, the reader is left to decide something on their own, which I like.
There was some contrived drama and throughout a lot of the story, I kept having the feeling of reading my mom's old Danielle Steel books - particularly the ones that follow a whole family through the course of their lives.
Overall, it was enjoyable, well-written, and interesting. If you enjoy a good family drama, this is for you.
There was some contrived drama and throughout a lot of the story, I kept having the feeling of reading my mom's old Danielle Steel books - particularly the ones that follow a whole family through the course of their lives.
Overall, it was enjoyable, well-written, and interesting. If you enjoy a good family drama, this is for you.
The Circle by Dave Eggers
3.0
Really, I'd call this a two and a half - but three feels more right than two stars because I did enjoy the book enough to read the whole thing.
I'm not going to outline the plot because you can figure out everything you need to know by reading the back blurb. The story itself is interesting and the descriptions of the Circle's company culture is compelling. (Hint: It's an introvert's nightmare. Tell me how they have all of these nerd programmers and inventors and still have outside social-time as a measure of job performance?)
Mae is a kind of flat character - she has so little character arc that it's hard to care about her at all. The book is written in an omniscient voice, so while the narrator tells us what Mae feels sometimes, we don't really feel any of it.
There's very little tension - no real surprises.
And yet--there is something compelling about the story. Maybe because I personally wrestle with my need to be connected and my desire for privacy-I waver between wanting transparency from our government, but not wanting all of my business broadcast to the world. The book doesn't dive deeply into these ethical questions. It can't because it isn't that deep. But it does serve as kind of a low-key, low-effort way to gloss through the issues and since the book itself requires so little thought, it does give the reader space to think about the potential without having to deal with anything pesky like expending brain energy trying to figure out where the book is going.
I'm not going to outline the plot because you can figure out everything you need to know by reading the back blurb. The story itself is interesting and the descriptions of the Circle's company culture is compelling. (Hint: It's an introvert's nightmare. Tell me how they have all of these nerd programmers and inventors and still have outside social-time as a measure of job performance?)
Mae is a kind of flat character - she has so little character arc that it's hard to care about her at all. The book is written in an omniscient voice, so while the narrator tells us what Mae feels sometimes, we don't really feel any of it.
There's very little tension - no real surprises.
And yet--there is something compelling about the story. Maybe because I personally wrestle with my need to be connected and my desire for privacy-I waver between wanting transparency from our government, but not wanting all of my business broadcast to the world. The book doesn't dive deeply into these ethical questions. It can't because it isn't that deep. But it does serve as kind of a low-key, low-effort way to gloss through the issues and since the book itself requires so little thought, it does give the reader space to think about the potential without having to deal with anything pesky like expending brain energy trying to figure out where the book is going.
Adam by Ariel Schrag
1.0
Transphobic, misogynistic, with a main character who rapes his "girlfriend" Oh, and she ends up with him because the lesbian girlfriend wanted a man anyway. Adam is a cishet piece of shit who pretends to be trans in order to catfish a lesbian. There are so many things wrong with this book on so many levels - I wasn't even going to write a review since others have stated my opinion all over this book but as someone in the LGBTQ+ community, I couldn't keep silent about this atrocious attack on it.
The Woman Between the Worlds by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
3.0
I read this book so many years ago, I had actually forgotten the title until I found it in a used bookstore recently. I remember being enthralled with it back then - I guess twenty years changes a lot. Or perhaps just my attention span. The story is still interesting and I enjoy the characters. But I found it dragged quite a bit. Still, it's a fun fantasy read and I liked it well enough to say if you enjoy tattoos and science fiction/fantasy, you'll probably enjoy this.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
5.0
It's rare that a book gets to me physically - makes me actually uncomfortable while reading it. It's intense, poignant, and unrelenting in places. I love the deviation Whitehead took from historical fact - this is a work of fiction and Whitehead weaves in and out of reality deftly, creating a world that feels real and gives the reader a painful and literal knowledge of the treatment of slaves and freemen. I love the distant POV that allows the author to move in and out of the characters - it created a buffer between the horror of the events and the Cora, the main character. I felt almost numb at times. This is brilliantly written. I even think the lack of character development was part of the overall feel of the book. I highly recommend this book.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
5.0
Absolutely fantastic - a compelling story about a teenage cyborg with a hard-knock life. Of course, there are some fawning over the prince parts that I skimmed in favor of the meatier action, but since this is a new take on the old Cinderella story, I wasn't too fussed about it. Overall, it held my interest and kept me reading. I was a little vexed at the end because I didn't realize it was a cliffhanger... but she made me order the second book with that ending, so I'd say the author did her job. Nicely written YA for all ages.
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
5.0
I loved this sequel to Cinder even better than the first. Scarlet and Wolf are an odd couple with a lot of chemistry and I love the comic addition of "Captain" Thorne. Add in a neurotic spaceship and an army of wolf/lunar hybrids and this book soars. I'm looking forward to continuing the series.