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gorgeousgirl's reviews
339 reviews
The Iliad by Homer
took me sooo long, but i've triumphed finally! i appreciate the logic behind wilson's translation choices, i just don't think her execution fulfills her ideals. she chose to emulate the poetry of the original by using iambic pentameter, but i really couldn't keep up with the meter just reading on my own, it really bogged everything down. eventually, i just started reading it as sentences. the vocabulary chosen was pretty spare & dull, except in the rare places where she reproduces the multi-syllabic or "strange" words from the original greek. overall, it suffered for a lack of style or flourish. i think it could be a good entrypoint to get an understanding of the skeleton of the verse & story, i don't think it really manages to give the reader the riveting & lively experience of the ancient epic. take it w a grain of salt, i'm very far from being an expert of classics
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
another time, i really can't deal w a european novel of manners rn
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
my library had it & i thought the blurb was interesting but nothing really called to me on a sentence level. was curious about the haunted house & the gaggle of magician-doctors, but each new development disappointed. didn't find it scary or creepy or gross & it felt like a lot of trudging through boredom just for it to end well, & then there were two more chapters that undid what i liked in chapter zero. left me w weird nitpicks (this world can have bombed out cities but no mathematical zero until just now? etc)
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
idk maybe this could have been a novella. short story even. WAY oversold the horror aspect. feels v tumblr zeitgeist-y, like "ooooh what if your wife Came Back Wrong?👻" but leaves it right there, nothing further. much like yellowjackets imo
P.S. just realized OMG! it's a gay annihilation by jeff vandermeer bootleg!!!!!!
P.S. just realized OMG! it's a gay annihilation by jeff vandermeer bootleg!!!!!!
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Did not finish book. Stopped at 36%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 36%.
surprised it wasn't YA, feels like it's written 4 idiots, like the author thinks readers r idiots. every little detail is hammered into your brain thru constant repetition, v mike flanagan. & there's a stupid level of attention to stupid details, reminiscent of The Silent Patient by that british guy
the characters r so bland, there's zero style or voice to the writing, the audiobook felt especially droning. no attempt to make the subject matter interesting, even a nerd like me was turned off more than drawn in. again with treating the reader like an idiot, there's no feeling of being drawn into the map world, no insider language, no jargon (made up or otherwise). dull, robotic reverence of authority: the cops, the academy. people who work at nypl keeping referring to it as "the NYPL," even in internal monologue, like they thought u would forget from the last paragraph. is it name dropping? really can't tell, tone is nothing except condescending
tbh it felt like the author doesn't know much about maps or cartography bcz everyone talks abt them with such alien distance. thought i'd tough it out since i have nothing else downloaded to listen 2 on my shift, but it's too blah blah blah. another MFA mill production that i'm just amazed about, like they're teaching u to write this badly there?
the characters r so bland, there's zero style or voice to the writing, the audiobook felt especially droning. no attempt to make the subject matter interesting, even a nerd like me was turned off more than drawn in. again with treating the reader like an idiot, there's no feeling of being drawn into the map world, no insider language, no jargon (made up or otherwise). dull, robotic reverence of authority: the cops, the academy. people who work at nypl keeping referring to it as "the NYPL," even in internal monologue, like they thought u would forget from the last paragraph. is it name dropping? really can't tell, tone is nothing except condescending
tbh it felt like the author doesn't know much about maps or cartography bcz everyone talks abt them with such alien distance. thought i'd tough it out since i have nothing else downloaded to listen 2 on my shift, but it's too blah blah blah. another MFA mill production that i'm just amazed about, like they're teaching u to write this badly there?
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
way too racist to get any further into :/ v low quality anyways
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
wow i can't tell if it was more funny or more depressing. welcome to the mind of a revolting little englishman!
v funny for me bcz i forgot that of course the enemy of a spy novel of this time is those evil commies. the existential crisis bond has after he's survived the cock & ball torture (heavy on the torture) is also answered in the most funny way. "what are we really? the dogs of our respective nation's militaries?" and the answer being: "well. I'M choosing to be a dog & YOU are forced to be by an evil organization. so🙄"
v funny for me bcz i forgot that of course the enemy of a spy novel of this time is those evil commies. the existential crisis bond has after he's survived the cock & ball torture (heavy on the torture) is also answered in the most funny way. "what are we really? the dogs of our respective nation's militaries?" and the answer being: "well. I'M choosing to be a dog & YOU are forced to be by an evil organization. so🙄"
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
damn it! philip!!!
maybe not the best choice for my first pkd novel, his prose leaves something to be desired, but the amphetamine effect really works well for the paranoia in this one. & at this point like, yeah where's palmer eldritch, bro we've been waiting on you since 2016AD according to this lol!
maybe not the best choice for my first pkd novel, his prose leaves something to be desired, but the amphetamine effect really works well for the paranoia in this one. & at this point like, yeah where's palmer eldritch, bro we've been waiting on you since 2016AD according to this lol!
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
wow!!! & i was so surprised that this came after the memory police, w how the current of memory hums in her work, but it makes sense in hindsight. lovely especially for math lovers <3 ohhh i love a story that's just abt the dignity & beauty of our simple little lives