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flyingfox02's reviews
260 reviews
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Let me get this out of the way because it irked me quite a bit. There's a mention of Israel on page 15, "Whether it came from Egypt or Israel or somewhere else entirely, one thing is certain: falafel is not Persian." How could you as an Iranian-American author even entertain that discourse? Left a bad taste in my mouth honestly.
Anyway, rant over. Aside from that I thought this was a very solid coming of age novel. We follow Darius, a 15 year old boy, who has a massive Star Trek and LOTR obsession that he references those two things for pretty much everything. He's also dealing with clinical depression and being picked on at school and feeling like never good enough for his father and a plethora of other teenage problems. However one day he gets to go to Iran with his family, to see his mother's family for the first time. He gets to meet his maternal grandparents, make a new friend, and starts to find himself and you know all that stuff.
I really liked how the book deals with the topic of depression, it was very nuanced and well done. I liked how it talked about father issues because uhh um anyway. I loved how Darius loves his grandmother. I also liked the first person narration in this novel. Normally I'm averse to that in contemporary writings, especially YA, so it was a nice surprise.
I found the nerdy language to be a little bit over the top but I'm just being curmudgeony. Younger me would've probably appreciated it.
Anyway, rant over. Aside from that I thought this was a very solid coming of age novel. We follow Darius, a 15 year old boy, who has a massive Star Trek and LOTR obsession that he references those two things for pretty much everything. He's also dealing with clinical depression and being picked on at school and feeling like never good enough for his father and a plethora of other teenage problems. However one day he gets to go to Iran with his family, to see his mother's family for the first time. He gets to meet his maternal grandparents, make a new friend, and starts to find himself and you know all that stuff.
I really liked how the book deals with the topic of depression, it was very nuanced and well done. I liked how it talked about father issues because uhh um anyway. I loved how Darius loves his grandmother. I also liked the first person narration in this novel. Normally I'm averse to that in contemporary writings, especially YA, so it was a nice surprise.
I found the nerdy language to be a little bit over the top but I'm just being curmudgeony. Younger me would've probably appreciated it.
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
2.5
I came into this expecting fine dining but was served the driest, most unseasoned chicken and rice.
Space operas are always fun to read, this one was no different. At least initially. I really enjoyed getting to know the interstellar world that Alastair Reynolds created, traversing through space and meeting different people from various systems.
However, I noticed even early on that characterisation in this novel was very weak. Chapters alternate between two narrators, Campion and Purslane, the two main characters. They both have the same tone and voice, plus they were together most of the time, it was near impossible to discern which person was narrating at any given point. Only in the last third or so of the book did they separate, and it was purely from that could I tell who was speaking.
Neither of them nor anyone else had nearly enough personality for me to care even minutely. We met some individuals at the beginning that could've created interesting dynamics and brought a bit of a spark to the story but alas they were forgotten after a few chapters.
Aside from that, the plot is lacking too. It took too long to get to the main plotline. The ending was way too rushed, it felt so abrupt and unsatisfying. Abigail's chapters were pointless. They did nothing to advance the plot, and as a back story it didn't compel me to care about any individual or group of people. Get rid of them and the book would be exactly the same.
This novel is grand in scope and ambitious in the concepts it's trying to present, but it's let down massively by the uninspired writing. It could've been a thrilling read, but it was just monotonous and I'm a bit disappointed.
Space operas are always fun to read, this one was no different. At least initially. I really enjoyed getting to know the interstellar world that Alastair Reynolds created, traversing through space and meeting different people from various systems.
However, I noticed even early on that characterisation in this novel was very weak. Chapters alternate between two narrators, Campion and Purslane, the two main characters. They both have the same tone and voice, plus they were together most of the time, it was near impossible to discern which person was narrating at any given point. Only in the last third or so of the book did they separate, and it was purely from that could I tell who was speaking.
Neither of them nor anyone else had nearly enough personality for me to care even minutely. We met some individuals at the beginning that could've created interesting dynamics and brought a bit of a spark to the story but alas they were forgotten after a few chapters.
Aside from that, the plot is lacking too. It took too long to get to the main plotline. The ending was way too rushed, it felt so abrupt and unsatisfying. Abigail's chapters were pointless. They did nothing to advance the plot, and as a back story it didn't compel me to care about any individual or group of people. Get rid of them and the book would be exactly the same.
This novel is grand in scope and ambitious in the concepts it's trying to present, but it's let down massively by the uninspired writing. It could've been a thrilling read, but it was just monotonous and I'm a bit disappointed.
My Friends by Hisham Matar
emotional
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
There's a lump in my throat.
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara
informative
sad
4.5
Outrageous.
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj
2.75
Straightforward sentences, quick paced stories, and set in the current time, this book was a breath of fresh air for me... Up until the halfway point when I was just tired of the drama. This book consists of short stories in the perspective of different members in a Palestinian-American community. All of the stories have some sort of family drama going on. Like most short story collections, this one was a mixbag and it was 50/50. I enjoyed some of them. A couple felt a little too "YA" for my liking. The writing quality was a real jumble too I feel, like some were great, some needed proofreading. Perhaps the author wrote them over years of her life (I don't know, I didn't research).
Blindness by José Saramago
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
This book had me in the first half, not gonna lie. I thought it would end up being a boring classic with little plot and dull prose, but it redeemed itself.
The structure of this novel made it quite a difficult read for me. The writing is very dense, with huge blocks of paragraphs and long run-on sentences. Normally that's not an issue (Prophet Song is similar in that regards) but with Blindness, we don't get character names, or any names really, and especially for much of the first half, very little development in the storyline. It felt like an endless bore.
But then things escalated and people started to reveal their worst sides, and this is not an action-packed story at all, but the events that happen really make you think about society and humanity. At one point I was thinking, "This would never happen", but then I realised, of course it could happen. The horrors in this book are very realistic and have happened to some degree over the course of human history.
Of course I love the "hero" of this story, the doctor's wife. I was in awe of her proactiveness at the very beginning. Her strength, resilience, morality.
Overall this is an intriguing and thought-provoking book about life, the society we live in, the things we take for granted, and many more.
The structure of this novel made it quite a difficult read for me. The writing is very dense, with huge blocks of paragraphs and long run-on sentences. Normally that's not an issue (Prophet Song is similar in that regards) but with Blindness, we don't get character names, or any names really, and especially for much of the first half, very little development in the storyline. It felt like an endless bore.
But then things escalated and people started to reveal their worst sides, and this is not an action-packed story at all, but the events that happen really make you think about society and humanity. At one point I was thinking, "This would never happen", but then I realised, of course it could happen. The horrors in this book are very realistic and have happened to some degree over the course of human history.
Of course I love the "hero" of this story, the doctor's wife. I was in awe of her proactiveness at the very beginning. Her strength, resilience, morality.
Overall this is an intriguing and thought-provoking book about life, the society we live in, the things we take for granted, and many more.
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.
Loan expires tomorrow. Will continue from Chapter 4.
Loan expired again.
Loan expired again.