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joehardy's reviews
320 reviews
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
3.0
3.5: the writing was consistently beautiful, however, I felt like about 25% of the book was unnecessary. It was too long, dragged in the middle, and created some frustrating characters. The parts that I enjoyed, I enjoyed a lot, and the parts I didn’t like, made the book really difficult to finish.
I feel like I was thrown off of the actual plot the entire time by the guise of the unsolved murder of Harriet’s brother. This aspect was especially frustrating, and the murder creates such a mystifying whodunit that once you realize that’s not what the book is about, it’s nearly over.
Additionally, Harriet was an intriguing character, but I’m not sure I found her as stimulating as many others did. I enjoyed the sections about the Ratliffe’s much more dynamic than any *most* of the ones pertaining to Harriet, Hely, or their families.
I feel like I was thrown off of the actual plot the entire time by the guise of the unsolved murder of Harriet’s brother. This aspect was especially frustrating, and the murder creates such a mystifying whodunit that once you realize that’s not what the book is about, it’s nearly over.
Additionally, Harriet was an intriguing character, but I’m not sure I found her as stimulating as many others did. I enjoyed the sections about the Ratliffe’s much more dynamic than any *most* of the ones pertaining to Harriet, Hely, or their families.
The Stranger by Albert Camus
5.0
In terms of writing and plot, I found The Stranger delightfully simple. I felt like a cat sprawled out in a late afternoon sunbeam. Camus’ writing, and construction of the setting, was evocative, and relatable. The simplicity of the writing belied the heavy questions that Camus was asking, and the themes the main character represented.
There definitely wasn’t an emphasis on creating a rich backstory for the protagonist, but the simplicity with the underlying themes worked for me regardless. It was short, sweet, and gratifying.
There definitely wasn’t an emphasis on creating a rich backstory for the protagonist, but the simplicity with the underlying themes worked for me regardless. It was short, sweet, and gratifying.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
4.0
Easy and fun book to read. Although there were some overused tropes, fantasy cliches, and somewhat recycled storylines, Abercrombie created an interesting world with depth and solid characters.
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
4.0
Very enjoyable and quite difficult to understand; it took me a while to finish this novel and I’m afraid I understood very little of it.
“We know what we know, we had to pay dearly enough for it.”
“We know what we know, we had to pay dearly enough for it.”