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halfcactus's reviews
73 reviews
Dracula by Bram Stoker
mysterious
slow-paced
3.5
Finished this via Dracula Daily and enjoyed it that way! Loved all the suspense when Dracula first travels by sea, but other than that, I don't really have thoughts, lol. Reading it at this day and age, some of the aspects of Dracula's abilities and peculiarities felt unintentionally funny. And I love how in the ending it reads like Godalming and Seward got married to each other , which to be honest is the only ending I can envision for them. :P
I did also really enjoy the epistolary format.
I did also really enjoy the epistolary format.
长长的回廊 by Keigo Higashino
dark
mysterious
3.5
I read the Chinese translation, whic probably the one I would recommend the least since one of the subplots involves trying to figure out what name the victim was trying to write. The Chinese system of translating Japanese names is to import the names since they share the same writing system. However, since Chinese and Japanese characters are read differently (eg. Satonaka Jirou in Japanese would be read as Lizhong Erlang in Mandarin), and there's no glossary for the Japanese readings of the names, there was no way for me as a reader to participate in this guessing game. :( Instead, the Japanese readings are indicated in the footnotes as they come up. While this subplot isn't particularly crucial, it was still an ongoing thread of mystery that I feel that I completely missed out on. :(
The book itself is probably a 3.5 for me? It has the very immersive point-of-view of a CEO's assistant who survived an attempted murder (strangulation and arson) and is seeking revenge for her boyfriend who was in the same room with her during the fire. She comes back under the guise of an old lady at the scene of the crime, the hotel Kairoutei, where the guests have reunited to observe the final rites on the 49th day of the owner's death and open his will.
The centerpiece of the novel is the long cloistered corridor (part of the hotel's name and the book title) that guests have to pass through to get in their respective rooms and that offer various views of the hotel, and the reader similarly has to make the long-winded journey through past and present--by which I mean, this novel definitely can be much shorter, but takes the longest and roundabout route. It's all very thematic, but at some point I got tired of the protagonist purposefully withholding crumbs of information to prolong the suspense, which is compounded by how the protagonist's point-of-view is EXTREMELY limited by her identity (an outsider) and abilities (not a detective). What I like about it is how the protagonist's level of reliability is established within the first 5 chapters, so as a reader I felt I knew her well enough to engage with and interrogate her narration.
The most enjoyable parts were definitely her interactions with the other characters through her eyes! I just loved being part of her brain as she worked to maintain her disguise as a completely neutral old lady when she felt she was showing her cards; I loved the crumbs of the outsider investigation and observation she could see, and how the tension and urgency to fulfill her revenge mission ramps up whenever the lead investigator is onscreen.
A lot of the "revelations" I felt took too long for the protagonist to put together that they were unsatisfying, especially because tiny case-related details were deliberately withheld from the reader. But the escalation in the end was cinematic and satisfying! Just, I would have loved to be able to see more of the crime logistics lol. The PoV also depends a lot on characters explaining their actions to the protagonist that they didn't necessarily have to, which in the last few chapters felt awfully convenient.
tl;dr - this book LOOKS like a locked room mystery but is not really much of one! Rather, the murder mystery is the series of events that led to the crime. I do think the book does very well at introducing possibilities through parallels, and thematically is very strong.
The book itself is probably a 3.5 for me? It has the very immersive point-of-view of a CEO's assistant who survived an attempted murder (strangulation and arson) and is seeking revenge for her boyfriend who was in the same room with her during the fire. She comes back under the guise of an old lady at the scene of the crime, the hotel Kairoutei, where the guests have reunited to observe the final rites on the 49th day of the owner's death and open his will.
The centerpiece of the novel is the long cloistered corridor (part of the hotel's name and the book title) that guests have to pass through to get in their respective rooms and that offer various views of the hotel, and the reader similarly has to make the long-winded journey through past and present--by which I mean, this novel definitely can be much shorter, but takes the longest and roundabout route. It's all very thematic, but at some point I got tired of the protagonist purposefully withholding crumbs of information to prolong the suspense, which is compounded by how the protagonist's point-of-view is EXTREMELY limited by her identity (an outsider) and abilities (not a detective). What I like about it is how the protagonist's level of reliability is established within the first 5 chapters, so as a reader I felt I knew her well enough to engage with and interrogate her narration.
The most enjoyable parts were definitely her interactions with the other characters through her eyes! I just loved being part of her brain as she worked to maintain her disguise as a completely neutral old lady when she felt she was showing her cards; I loved the crumbs of the outsider investigation and observation she could see, and how the tension and urgency to fulfill her revenge mission ramps up whenever the lead investigator is onscreen.
A lot of the "revelations" I felt took too long for the protagonist to put together that they were unsatisfying, especially because tiny case-related details were deliberately withheld from the reader. But the escalation in the end was cinematic and satisfying! Just, I would have loved to be able to see more of the crime logistics lol. The PoV also depends a lot on characters explaining their actions to the protagonist that they didn't necessarily have to, which in the last few chapters felt awfully convenient.
tl;dr - this book LOOKS like a locked room mystery but is not really much of one! Rather, the murder mystery is the series of events that led to the crime. I do think the book does very well at introducing possibilities through parallels, and thematically is very strong.
In the Woods by Tana French
dark
mysterious
2.0
I appreciate how this book was upfront about what a scumbag the protagonist was, but it didn't make his headspace or his storyline any more palatable.
Witchmark by C.L. Polk
3.0
M/m fantasy novel featuring a secret witch and a fae. More story-driven than character-driven, but it builds to a really cinematic and emotional climax! I had a lot of trouble getting into this because the most interesting relationship for me was the complicated sibling relationship, which, because the novel started when they’re already estranged, felt very incomplete.
The plot was okay, with a little bit of magical murder mystery, genre-typical commentary about class inequality (witches vs Secondaries, whose sole differences are socio-economic class), and what I think of as FMA-esque revelations. It starts out pretty slow and then it goes way too fast haha (I ended up staying up to finish this, lol).
The plot was okay, with a little bit of magical murder mystery, genre-typical commentary about class inequality (witches vs Secondaries, whose sole differences are socio-economic class), and what I think of as FMA-esque revelations. It starts out pretty slow and then it goes way too fast haha (I ended up staying up to finish this, lol).
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
slow-paced
3.0
Didn't care at all for the plot or the characters, but true to form, it does come alive at the circus bits, which really take you in with how intricate and animated they are. Depending on my frame of mind, I was either soothed or frustrated by the lack of action. But it's not like this book led me on, it's exactly what it says on the tin.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
5.0
Wrote this back in 2014, and I'm not sure if it still holds true haha:
IN THIS BOOK: boarding school prank war shenanigans masterminded by one (1) Frankie Landau-Banks, age 15, in the name of social change and teenage love. The writing is bright and sharp and subversive, and it's possibly my favorite coming-of-age story of all time.
IN THIS BOOK: boarding school prank war shenanigans masterminded by one (1) Frankie Landau-Banks, age 15, in the name of social change and teenage love. The writing is bright and sharp and subversive, and it's possibly my favorite coming-of-age story of all time.
The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
3.5
3.5. This hits all my favorite beats. Interesting magic, interesting characters/relationships, really promising overall. Normally alternating POVs annoy me because I tend to be more interested in the female protagonist, but the balance here is good, with the bonus of Titus being a character I don't actively dislike.