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geraldine's reviews
319 reviews
Dead Letters from Paradise by Ann McMan
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
realizing that the moravian church body came from the hussites explained everything about this book. if this doesn't make sense to you know that you are free
i wish i didn't know anything about jan hus, if only i myself was free as well
i'm leaving this unrated here but i think an honest rating would be a 2.75, not quite a 3 but rounding down to a 2 seems cruel.
the author clearly did a lot of historical research for this book but a lot of it ends up feeling like flat set dressing, especially the parts about segregation and racism in winston-salem in the 60s. i'm not against the protagonist being an ignorant white woman who doesn't think of herself as racist (she has black friends!) but doesn't notice clear discrimination in front of her until it's pointed out, i think that's unfortunately realistic and an interesting character move. but then the resolution is that... the city desegregates lunch counters and she doesn't really change her behavior all that much. and lottie and nelson feel like they're only there to give her Words of Wisdom or Pointed Advice which is unfortunate, especially nelson.
i also didn't love that like... why did she need to get a 90s high school movie style makeover. this girl is out digging in the garden all the time it makes sense for her hair to be up!!!
and additionally i feel like i wanted the book to end like 5 pages earlier, the infodump of dorothea's last letter feels clunky to me! i did think the reveal of who dorothea was in love with originally was subtlety implied earlier (and well!) but it really felt like sledgehammering it in at the end. did like that it does end open ended though.
i liked that everyone is called a single name except fay marian is always fay marian. this was funny to me and i genuinely think it worked. i also liked harrie and felt like she worked as a kid character, it can be hard to make a precocious child without making them seem to precious or twee and i felt like she had a solid balance. also harrie calling ej "eej" was such a funny way of spelling that but i think it worked too!! and as mentioned before i do think ej was a compelling character, just kind of floating through her life, this worked also.
really read two north carolina books back to back. this woman also north carolinas
i'm leaving this unrated here but i think an honest rating would be a 2.75, not quite a 3 but rounding down to a 2 seems cruel.
the author clearly did a lot of historical research for this book but a lot of it ends up feeling like flat set dressing, especially the parts about segregation and racism in winston-salem in the 60s. i'm not against the protagonist being an ignorant white woman who doesn't think of herself as racist (she has black friends!) but doesn't notice clear discrimination in front of her until it's pointed out, i think that's unfortunately realistic and an interesting character move. but then the resolution is that... the city desegregates lunch counters and she doesn't really change her behavior all that much. and lottie and nelson feel like they're only there to give her Words of Wisdom or Pointed Advice which is unfortunate, especially nelson.
i also didn't love that like... why did she need to get a 90s high school movie style makeover. this girl is out digging in the garden all the time it makes sense for her hair to be up!!!
and additionally i feel like i wanted the book to end like 5 pages earlier, the infodump of dorothea's last letter feels clunky to me! i did think the reveal of who dorothea was in love with originally was subtlety implied earlier (and well!) but it really felt like sledgehammering it in at the end. did like that it does end open ended though.
i liked that everyone is called a single name except fay marian is always fay marian. this was funny to me and i genuinely think it worked. i also liked harrie and felt like she worked as a kid character, it can be hard to make a precocious child without making them seem to precious or twee and i felt like she had a solid balance. also harrie calling ej "eej" was such a funny way of spelling that but i think it worked too!! and as mentioned before i do think ej was a compelling character, just kind of floating through her life, this worked also.
really read two north carolina books back to back. this woman also north carolinas
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
3.5
was more put together and cohesive than the previous book i read by her (the twisted ones) but the atmosphere didn't grip me as much mostly because.... well obviously the hoarder house part is going to resonate with me more... also thought it was funny that the location of the twisted ones is a little vague (my book club tried to pinpoint how close it was to us and we figured about an hour away, but weren't exactly sure where) whereas in this one you can get the location down to like a very specific 3 mile area. funny. this woman north carolinas
had some really good imagery and was compelling! obviously the most effective horror to me is likethe part with the ladybugs like i don't mind a ladybug but the thought of being COVERED in bugs............................................................................................
spoiler reason for not rounding up and rating this 4 stars:she played civilization on her laptop to de-stress. incredibly true to life and obviously i highlighted the passage on my kindle but i was resentful that i was a little too seen so i pettily am not giving her 4 stars
had some really good imagery and was compelling! obviously the most effective horror to me is like
spoiler reason for not rounding up and rating this 4 stars:
System Collapse by Martha Wells
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
the problem with reading this was that it's a direct sequel to Network Effect and because i read so much of Network Effect while in jury duty my memories of that book are wholly combined with my memories of a jury trial i didn't actually get picked for (and that i would have contributed to a hung jury if i had been)
look sometimes murder is justified ok!! talk shit get hit!!!
didn't realize it wasn't as much of a novella as the others and i was in my bed reading it going, i thought these were shorter?
definitely had better pacing than network effect but maybe that was because i was happily warm in my bed and not freezing my ass off on a jury duty bench*
*just looked it up and it's twice as long as the novellas but like 60% the length of network effect and i feel like this works. nice length for exploring caves and once again almost dying. classic
look sometimes murder is justified ok!! talk shit get hit!!!
didn't realize it wasn't as much of a novella as the others and i was in my bed reading it going, i thought these were shorter?
definitely had better pacing than network effect but maybe that was because i was happily warm in my bed and not freezing my ass off on a jury duty bench*
*just looked it up and it's twice as long as the novellas but like 60% the length of network effect and i feel like this works. nice length for exploring caves and once again almost dying. classic
The Murder Between Us by Tal Bauer
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
IF YOU LIKE MIDWESTERN MEN SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU JUST MARRY THEM
guys i could really go for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with canned tomato soup
i just don't like cops or feds. wish they weren't!! would be 4 stars easily if they weren't cops/feds but then of course most of the story doesn't work then, now does it?
guys i could really go for a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with canned tomato soup
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
i liked it on the whole! i liked the framing device and thought it really worked and was invested in both stories. i do think the pacing on the... outer story (?) was a bit rushed in terms of the university/corporation part like, that part just felt like it came and went so fast before our narrator shall we say "absconds" (his words) with the manuscript even though it isn't even early in the book. and personally i thought that the end/where he went would have worked better if it was a little more vague and less spelled out but i don't think it didn't work or anything. interesting book, kept me engaged
The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart
he should have gotten eaten by alligators at the end. two stars.
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
i liked it. i thought her first novella was better but i did like this and i liked the framing device that the author is a co-author of the fictional memoir, i thought that was a nice touch. was surprised by some of the restraint in leaving a lot of questions unanswered and a lot of stories not told but i think it worked.
originally this review had a note saying that i had something else to say but that my mom follows me on goodreads so i wouldn't. however, is this goodreads? am i not free from my mother's curious eyes? these are my free thoughts to you, o storygraph readers. this book made me get the appeal of fisting. there was a very significant portion of the book about fisting and you know what? have fun. live your best life. thank you hazel
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
honestly i was the most invested in the hoarder house part. call that #relatable. wait where's that quote about finding a spider in the hollow handle of a rake (shovel?) and going "well this belongs to the spider now" because that was ALSO #relatable. could perfectly picture the house in my mind's eye. could perfectly SMELL the house in my mind's.... nose.....??
i honestly think it could have been a little more vague and a little more unreliable narrator about things! like a little more that mouse is making some guesses that are incorrect (though not unreasonable given that she has limited perspective) like, about anna and her little poppet sentries. and also like... man she's complicated and all and i get her reasoning but i absolutely would have kept the $8000 like GIRL. HELLO
also, the author's note at the end regarding writing about a character transcribing something from memory, but then is mouse not doing the same thing the author criticizes with her grandpa's diary? she explicitly has his manuscript about the green book saved since it wasn't in the house when it burned down so she likely is directly copying what he wrote into what's she's writing up (and what we're reading) but then i didn't think she had his handwritten diary with her?? unless i missed this in which case i will mark this part out and accept that i am wrong lol
i highlighted the paragraph about central/eastern NC highways AND it got quoted by someone else out loud at my bookclub so she really had that down. this woman north carolinas. i've literally driven home from work and forgotten both where i was going AND what time it was because of how they all look literally identical. crazy
also, the author's note at the end regarding writing about a character transcribing something from memory, but then is mouse not doing the same thing the author criticizes with her grandpa's diary? she explicitly has his manuscript about the green book saved since it wasn't in the house when it burned down so she likely is directly copying what he wrote into what's she's writing up (and what we're reading) but then i didn't think she had his handwritten diary with her?? unless i missed this in which case i will mark this part out and accept that i am wrong lol
i highlighted the paragraph about central/eastern NC highways AND it got quoted by someone else out loud at my bookclub so she really had that down. this woman north carolinas. i've literally driven home from work and forgotten both where i was going AND what time it was because of how they all look literally identical. crazy
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
wish i had my kindle here because I marked a lot of notes about this one. it was definitely gripping even though i'm not sure i loved it. i feel like i still hated her dad regardless and maybe also her husband but can't remember why because i don't have my kindle notes. will update later. should have added this already so it would have been closer to when i read it!!
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
jay, dearest. therapy would have been easier <3
this poor kid and his grief over a terrible man. and then in a terrible situation comes to the wrong conclusion????? his dad fucking SUCKED dude like dude your dad is not a whale you are desperately trying to make sense of a bad situation and your dad DID suck even though you did love him and he is not a whale!!!!
i had some additional thoughts of the "reading WAY too far into things and interpreting them wildly different than i think they were intended" way but they will stay locked with me.
should i read hatchet 2: he hatchets again
secret additional review update for storygraph only and not goodreads that is not a plot spoiler at all:my date read tags are accurate, but i need to clarify: i read this in one go on a worknight. yes i work labor day
i had some additional thoughts of the "reading WAY too far into things and interpreting them wildly different than i think they were intended" way but they will stay locked with me.
should i read hatchet 2: he hatchets again
secret additional review update for storygraph only and not goodreads that is not a plot spoiler at all:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent