lighterthaneyre's reviews
169 reviews

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Dust by Hugh Howey

3.0

A good, if not strong, ending to the trilogy.
Shift went into a lot of the mechanics and how events unfolded. I think Dust was meant to address some of the motivation, and conclude the series.

I found Thurman's motivation extremely confusing, and weak. He's at once a control freak, power hungry, set himself up to live forever while dooming others, and also never expected to make it. The artificial lone surviving silo never felt grounded in the other decisions being made by those "in charge".

For the Juliette plot lines, that felt much more interesting and developed. Her growth and the journey taken in those plots were satisfying.

There was a half attempt at a mystery solving angle, but if I set that aside and focus on her internal narrative, the part I always found strongest from Wool, it feels more complete.

The references to church and religion seemed extremely left field, since they were barely touched on in previous books.

I think an attempt was made at a point along the lines of "religion is sometimes a strength and sometimes an excuse for poor behavior" but it never came together well.

Narrative wise I like it as an ending to a trilogy, but the themes were floundering more than in previous books. 

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

• 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

2.5

A real nice sense of tension was built. The trickle feeding of information to the reader was a bit heavy handed (ex: one POV referring to the victim exclusively as 'the guest' to obfuscate who died), but the slow characterization build worked well. Less impressed by the build of the myster itself - lots of mood, little in the way of clues.

Honestly annoying that the flaws and conflicts between the characters wasn't the spark of the crime. It doesn't count as red herrings if Everything is a red herring and the real enemy was communism personality disorders all along

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Stalking, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Gore, and Grief

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I've heard repeatedly that this book is amazing from lots of men whose opinions I respect. 
This is a very dense, hard sci fi book. I found it a little tedious from a pacing perspective, and I found the main character an irritating emptiness. He is often an excuse for other characters to contemplate upper level physics.
The descriptions of the physics, and the extremely human reaction to the ideas ka fascinating. This book presents a lot of ideas that were interesting to think about. This might not be on any of my "all time best" lists but I absolutely want to hear the author expand on the ideas he has set up.

Also it's so refreshing to get a very un-American/non-Western voice for sci Fi. Another reason to look forward to the next book

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Police brutality and War

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey

dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

dark tense medium-paced

4.0

And Then There Were None meets cheerful children's book author. Extremely fun read, builds a good level of suspense and weaving family history and drama.

I did call the twist ending, the narrator being a ghost, but it was still fun to guess how and when as the story goes on. And guessing WhoDunnit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

2.75

I really loved the "time loop + WhoDunnit" premise. Unfortunately the way the ending played out, it felt like less than the sum of its parts.

TBH I don't think Anna got much personality defined, so the end wasn't a payoff. Also weird that they pulled "war criminal" out as a justification. Also weird that they made Old Anna and Evelyn the Murder so similar? Idk with so few women in the cast it felt weird

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Multiple chapters are completely derailed by the narrator and author's disgust of fat bodies. Not in passing, it's repeatedly brought up

The Unexpected Guest by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie

mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Period typical treatment of neurodiversity

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Extremely good. Extremely good. It's clear to me that the main character is supposed to be likeable, but she is not meant to be a good person.

Main Character reflection:

She's terribly clever, but at several points willfully dense. Because sometimes it's easier to not acknowledge truth when anger and retaliation feel so good in the moment. Every warning she gets, she reflects later on with something like regret. It's not regret, it's almost nostalgia for the person she was allowed to be before she choose her path. She's told repeatedly about costs, and refuses to internalize it. But at the same time, the anger and fear and rashness are this very relatable Thing. This series is going to be a tragedy, it seems. Rin will be her own destruction.

Themes:

The way trauma and violence changes Rin is very interesting. She's always been driven (possibly too much) but prior to Golyn Niis, she doesn't react to war with retaliation. She thought striking back against the Federation in Khurdalain was "halfhearted, disrespectful and pointless" (Ch 16). By the end, she's pivoted entirely, so that striking back is the most important thing. More important than safety of her own side, or the ability to live a "avenged" life in peace. There is only the next Real Enemy. I think exploring that change is sort of fascinating. She suffers terrible traumas, but it's pointed out repeatedly that her friends suffered worse. Kitay lived through the actual events of Golyn Niis. Alton spent years enduring torture and more direct memories of the genocide of his people. Not that this is a suffering Olympics, but it's to say that this wasn't inevitable. Some of her friends are horrified by what she's done. And I think is the difference is in the lies Rin tells herself. "I won't go out like this", "power is the only solution", "a good martial artist is a good commander/wise leader". She wants to believe, so she turns off her other lines of thought. And she becomes a monster. A monster who lies and says she's in control.

The trigger warnings are no joke, as a heads up.

The most graphic violence is an after the fact recounting and a review of the aftermath. That being said, it is pure human evil ripped from real life history books. It is the sort of trauma that creates monsters. Even as presented it's pretty disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, and War

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, and Drug use

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

2.5

Less fun than a normal Christie, for me. The idea of the serial killer really works at odds with what I find fun about a Christie.