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jeremynelson0899's Reviews (49)

Why Mummy Drinks

Gill Sims

4.0

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Priory of the Orange Tree

Samantha Shannon

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Iron Widow

Xiran Jay Zhao

3.0

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Under normal circumstances, I input my personal rating out of five stars and be done with it, moving swiftly onto the next book, or else having a rest from reading for a while to recuperate.

However, this book gave me plenty to say. I'll sum them up. Spoilers ahead, I'm afraid.

The constant comparison to The Handmaid's Tale makes no sense to me. Beyond the concubine idea, nothing sticks out to me as bearing a striking similarity to the Atwood classic.

The main character comes across as extremely preachy at times, which is fine since she is extremely frustrated with the system. However, tied in with the prose and the world-building, it feels extremely on the nose at times, alongside the randomness that comes along with some of the scenes.

Also, the ending. The twist villain made no sense at all. Since there was absolutely no build-up to it, this twist came completely out of the left field and felt extremely random, almost as if it was added in at the last second. Not only that, but the ending did come across as rushed and last-minute. I mean, the Earth turning out to not be Earth at all and actually being an alien planet we colonised? All revealed in half a page? All without any preliminary build-up to this at all!

When all is said and done, and despite my grievances, I gave it three stars.

It is well-written, the prose flows extremely well, and the descriptions are poetic. Not only that, but the characters feel real and flawed, and the way this society works was well-described, albeit if a little top-sided on the telling rather than the showing.

I will be looking to this author for future releases, simply for their extremely interesting concepts, ideas, and messages.

Hag-Seed: William Shakespeare's the Tempest Retold

Margaret Atwood

5.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Absolutely brilliant read. Then again, did I really expect less of my all-time favourite author?

And the ending genuinely moved me like some of her other bodies of work.

Usually, I find myself having beef with retellings but this one was very well-done. In fact, I probably enjoyed this one more than the original!