larabavery's reviews
34 reviews

emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Everybody just kept having the same conversations over and over, inching toward the truth at a snail’s pace, killing time with rich people shenanigans and empty witticisms. Harriet’s parents made for hollow villains. That said, Henry writes fantastic sex scenes, and there were some nice friendship and emotional scenes as well.

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Take Arrested Development and recast it with 18th century German gentry. Mann (and his brilliant English translator John Woods) paint the undeserved wealth of this family with vanity, hubris, and listlessness, and somehow you still root for them as they slowly fall into decay. Took me five months to finish and I enjoyed every minute.

The Hunter by Tana French

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Not one of Tana French’s best. If there was any mystery driving the plot, it was the mob-driven motivations of a bunch of old men whose livelihoods are being ravaged by climate change. I found this as unsettling and uninteresting as I find the paranoid old white men who hoard power in the real world.

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 53%.

The writing was beautiful but there were too many useless side characters, unnecessary description, and detail. Not every book needs a thrilling plot but the indulgent pace of this one wore my patience thin.

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Some beautiful, insightful points made about capitalism, idealism, queerness, and trans-national identity. Solid character work. But the story meanders and plods, the wacky similes were often distracting, and the emotions of each scene seemed to balloon and deflate, getting cut off too soon, seeming forgotten or often disconnected from characters’ future actions. I don’t need clean, predictable arcs, but I do need to feel rooted in some kind of continuity or flow, and I didn’t always feel that from scene to scene.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

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funny informative fast-paced