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fynnsternis's reviews
52 reviews
The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton
2.0
"And reaching out in a spirit of intellectual curiosity, she took hold of his Magna Erectus Phallus and gently caressed it as he had caressed her before."
SPOILER REVIEW
I feel bad ripping into this book because the author clearly loves this story. Her acknowledgements were very sweet and I too clocked Beth as autistic as many readers have.
Anachronisms: To start with nitpicking: The author acknowledges that part of the fantasy is the fact that Beth is a professor at oxford as a woman in the year 1890. Even though there is still misogyny portrayed, it is far from what would be accurate for 1890. From the acknowledgement: "This is a historical fantasy, as may be obvious from the magical birds, not to mention the female professor. While every effort was made to accurately depict the various details of life in 1890, I took considerable artistic licence with the big picture (...)"
Yet I was very unsure what parts are purposefully anachronistic and which are accidentally. Both the words 'feminist' and 'misogyny' were used in the book and neither of them were used in 1890 in a way that we use it today, from what I could tell from a bit of googling (which I did because I was immediately suspicious.) That is obviously very nitpicky but I did wonder why the author gave it such a specific year for no reason that I could see.
Repetition: I feel like I read the same chapter several times. Beth and Devon get attacked by a bird, they catch the bird, journalists are trying to interview them very aggressively, and everyone recognizes them immediately as those 'orthilogist lovebirds'. They run from someone, they come to an inn, something is wrong with the beds, everyone immediately recognizes them as those 'othorinolist lovebird'.
This could describe at least five different chapters and a grew tired of it quickly.
Magical Birds?: I was so excited for the magical birds and they barely showed up. I wanted to learn more about them but they only appear to attack Beth and Devon and then be caught. One of them casts ice, the other fire and the caladrius is a healing bird but the book never ellaborates.
I was disappointed because I had hoped for some magical bird world building and I got birds used as a plot device. But at least Beth says their latin name every time, huh.
Conspiracy plot: This is a big part of the whole thing but the background plot/plottwist that everything was instigated by the International Ornithologist Society and the press to get more people to study ornithology was conceited and annoying. Beth's and Devon's romance happened extremely publicly which I found uncomfortable more then anything. At the end several hundred Londoners await them to deliver the bird and witness Devon's proposal. This book should get a content warning for exhibitionism. (Not for the sex, that happens in the middle of a goddamn forest.)
Romance pacing: I admit that I personally like a slower starting romance. They already started out as rivals who want to fuck the other so badly in the beginning of the book, to the point it makes them sound stupid but in a bad way. The entire first third or so is purely filled with "he was so hot BUT SO ANNOYING", "he would go to oxfordto meet her again to find out more about the Caladrius" and it was so not for me. These two drove me crazy and they didn't start having conversations about their family and interests and thoughts until the sex scene at ~80%. They had ample opportunity to actually talk to each other and they spent it quietly pining. Until the end the romance stayed incredibly surface level, almost completely based on physical attraction.
Formatting: To conclude with nitpicking again: I find strikethrough formatting in books annoying. Purely a personal preference but the amount of times Beth thought something thirsty about Devon which was then striked through and 'corrected' made it read more like fanfiction. I'm gonna type an entire paragraph-sentence where it appeared 4 times:
"Devon stared out the window, thinking aboutreuniting with Beth catching the caladrius, kissing Beth presenting the caladrius to the IOS committee, and sinking himself into Beth's warm soft depths like a man experiencing a little death and temporarily visiting heaven winning Birder of the Year and the best reward of all, Beth's love tenure."
Speaking of, the word tenure would most of the time appear as **tenure**, both in italics and with two asterisks. Italics were liberally used in general and caps were also used a few times.
This is obviously all part of the comedy in this book and did not work for me at all.
Over all, it was too ridiculous for my taste. They were a few cute passages but those were the ones when Beth and Devon were just doing plot and not pining for each. Their pining just annoyed me and by the end of the book (I'm not a dnf-er) I wanted to throw it against the wall.
I will find another romance that I like, I know it.
SPOILER REVIEW
I feel bad ripping into this book because the author clearly loves this story. Her acknowledgements were very sweet and I too clocked Beth as autistic as many readers have.
Anachronisms: To start with nitpicking: The author acknowledges that part of the fantasy is the fact that Beth is a professor at oxford as a woman in the year 1890. Even though there is still misogyny portrayed, it is far from what would be accurate for 1890. From the acknowledgement: "This is a historical fantasy, as may be obvious from the magical birds, not to mention the female professor. While every effort was made to accurately depict the various details of life in 1890, I took considerable artistic licence with the big picture (...)"
Yet I was very unsure what parts are purposefully anachronistic and which are accidentally. Both the words 'feminist' and 'misogyny' were used in the book and neither of them were used in 1890 in a way that we use it today, from what I could tell from a bit of googling (which I did because I was immediately suspicious.) That is obviously very nitpicky but I did wonder why the author gave it such a specific year for no reason that I could see.
Repetition: I feel like I read the same chapter several times. Beth and Devon get attacked by a bird, they catch the bird, journalists are trying to interview them very aggressively, and everyone recognizes them immediately as those 'orthilogist lovebirds'. They run from someone, they come to an inn, something is wrong with the beds, everyone immediately recognizes them as those 'othorinolist lovebird'.
This could describe at least five different chapters and a grew tired of it quickly.
Magical Birds?: I was so excited for the magical birds and they barely showed up. I wanted to learn more about them but they only appear to attack Beth and Devon and then be caught. One of them casts ice, the other fire and the caladrius is a healing bird but the book never ellaborates.
I was disappointed because I had hoped for some magical bird world building and I got birds used as a plot device. But at least Beth says their latin name every time, huh.
Conspiracy plot: This is a big part of the whole thing but the background plot/plottwist that everything was instigated by the International Ornithologist Society and the press to get more people to study ornithology was conceited and annoying. Beth's and Devon's romance happened extremely publicly which I found uncomfortable more then anything. At the end several hundred Londoners await them to deliver the bird and witness Devon's proposal. This book should get a content warning for exhibitionism. (Not for the sex, that happens in the middle of a goddamn forest.)
Romance pacing: I admit that I personally like a slower starting romance. They already started out as rivals who want to fuck the other so badly in the beginning of the book, to the point it makes them sound stupid but in a bad way. The entire first third or so is purely filled with "he was so hot BUT SO ANNOYING", "he would go to oxford
Formatting: To conclude with nitpicking again: I find strikethrough formatting in books annoying. Purely a personal preference but the amount of times Beth thought something thirsty about Devon which was then striked through and 'corrected' made it read more like fanfiction. I'm gonna type an entire paragraph-sentence where it appeared 4 times:
"Devon stared out the window, thinking about
Speaking of, the word tenure would most of the time appear as **tenure**, both in italics and with two asterisks. Italics were liberally used in general and caps were also used a few times.
This is obviously all part of the comedy in this book and did not work for me at all.
Over all, it was too ridiculous for my taste. They were a few cute passages but those were the ones when Beth and Devon were just doing plot and not pining for each. Their pining just annoyed me and by the end of the book (I'm not a dnf-er) I wanted to throw it against the wall.
I will find another romance that I like, I know it.
Pimpinella: Reise zu den Seesternen by Usch Luhn
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Es ist beeindruckend wie wenig in einem Buch passieren kann. Es wird wirklich sehr lange Zeit für nichts verwendet um dann den Plot in zwei Kapiteln abzuhandeln.
Außerdem löst Nella ihre Probleme selten selbst sondern wird nur aus Glück gerettet. Zufällig hat sie den Korallenring, zufällig hat sie den Seesternring, genau die beiden, die man braucht um dem Grauen König entgegen zu treten.
Es ist trotzdem süß, und es ist ein Kinderbuch. Als Kind mochte ich die sehr, also seh ich nicht ein das Buch irgendwie schlecht zu bewerten.
Außerdem löst Nella ihre Probleme selten selbst sondern wird nur aus Glück gerettet. Zufällig hat sie den Korallenring, zufällig hat sie den Seesternring, genau die beiden, die man braucht um dem Grauen König entgegen zu treten.
Es ist trotzdem süß, und es ist ein Kinderbuch. Als Kind mochte ich die sehr, also seh ich nicht ein das Buch irgendwie schlecht zu bewerten.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
4.5
I havent been glued like this to a book in a while. The plot really pulled me along for most of the book, save for the media plot, that one I found a bit exhausting.
Zetian is certainly a unique protagonist, turning several cliches on its head, and I really like the romance plot.
I don't know what to make of the ending. I thought for a while that villain protagonist is a bit overexaggerated but with the ending I guess she very much is exactly that. I'm curious how the author will make us root for her in book 2 because at the end she did lose some sympathy from me.
Zetian is certainly a unique protagonist, turning several cliches on its head, and I really like the romance plot.
I don't know what to make of the ending. I thought for a while that villain protagonist is a bit overexaggerated but with the ending I guess she very much is exactly that. I'm curious how the author will make us root for her in book 2 because at the end she did lose some sympathy from me.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
4.0
See my 12 year old self would have given it 5 stars but by now with 23 in the year 2024 the humour dates the book quite a bit and the US American exceptionalism is coming through to an uncomfortable degree. Its still one of the most influential childrens books of its time and its extremely good, and i'm happy riordan fixed a lot of the weeknesses in following serieses.
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay
3.0
It might be because i'm much younger than the author or that i'm not English but i found the sacasm a bit heavy handed for most of the book. I think towards the end i got used to it but not every footnote needs to have its own punchline.
It was nonetheless entertaining for the day that i read it between responding to emails for my very relaxed and non-emergency office job. I'm glad to know the worst thing i can do is accidentally send too many emails to the same company or lose us or the customer a couplr hundred euros.
It was nonetheless entertaining for the day that i read it between responding to emails for my very relaxed and non-emergency office job. I'm glad to know the worst thing i can do is accidentally send too many emails to the same company or lose us or the customer a couplr hundred euros.
As Yet Unsent by Tamsyn Muir
I cant believe we get the confirmation of the location of gideon's body from a .5 book. Now I wonder if the person in the harrow epilogue was in gideon's body but also which one of them it is.
Inspektor Jury sucht den Kennington-Smaragd by Martha Grimes
3.0
Mein erster Inspektor Jury Roman. Grimes schafft es gut die verschiedenen Personen zu charakterisieren, obwohl es gefühlt zwei Dutzend sind. Bei Zeiten fragt man sich warum man seit mehreren Kapiteln nichts von Herrn Inspektor Jury gehört hat, und von dem Wechsel an Sichten kriegt man Schleudertrauma, aber ich habe mir sagen lassen, das ist in den anderen Büchern auch nicht anders.
Die Autorin sollte ein wenig normaler von den Frauen sprechen, ich weiß nicht warum es notwendig ist, jedes einzelne weibliche Geschöpf in hässlich oder schön zu teilen, sobald sie auf der Seite auftauchen. Ich bin mir unsicher, wie wichtig es ist, wie sehr genau sich das Kleid über den Busen spannt, aber vielleicht hat es Jury ja einen Geistesblitz gegeben.
Die Auflösung des Falls habe ich wirklich nicht kommen sehen, was wohl das wichtigste an einem Krimi ist.
Die Autorin sollte ein wenig normaler von den Frauen sprechen, ich weiß nicht warum es notwendig ist, jedes einzelne weibliche Geschöpf in hässlich oder schön zu teilen, sobald sie auf der Seite auftauchen. Ich bin mir unsicher, wie wichtig es ist, wie sehr genau sich das Kleid über den Busen spannt, aber vielleicht hat es Jury ja einen Geistesblitz gegeben.
Die Auflösung des Falls habe ich wirklich nicht kommen sehen, was wohl das wichtigste an einem Krimi ist.