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lowercaselena's reviews
84 reviews
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Normal People by Sally Rooney
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
the more i think about this book the less i like it.
i started it and up until the middle of the college section i was interested and pleased by the direction this was going. at some point tho it became exhausting. it hits a lot of very accurate points about class, especially in the context of higher education, and it tries to fairly address mental health and other tricky subjects but it never truly gives them the room they deserve.
the writing style is fine, it's a bit jarring at first, but you get used to it. i'm not huge on descriptions but this book seemed weirdly disembodied to me, you hardly get a sense of place, which is a bit of a missed opportunity as it moves around a bit in Ireland and Europe. but i understand that it's more of a character study so i don't really hold it against the author.
the main issue for me tho was that at some point, it seemed like rooney was putting her characters through shit just for the sake of it. i really felt at some point weirdly complicit in the cruelty that the characters kept experiencing. it was a lot of - painful - build up for so little pay off. especially in the case of marianne, i feel like in the narrative she's afforded less sympathy and less space to "unpack" her trauma than connell. i think a lot of what she goes through is more unsaid or implicitly explained by her family situation and i think it's unfair and borderline cliché. i like connell's attempts to deconstruct masculinity in his own life but i just wish it had been mirrored for marianne's connection to femininity/womanhood
and frankly i don't really like what their relationship grew to mean, a few passages in their internal monologuse (towards the end, when they're supposed to have grown or undergone a character arc) really disturbed me and struck me as unhealthy conceptions of love based on possession. for reasons related to this, the sex scenes were quite uncomfortable for me as well.
yes, to some extant their struggles were relatable, but at the same time, their characters felt flaccid and powerless, like things just kept happening to them. for a book that is supposed to be a character study, despite fleeting moments of clarity and tenderness, marianne and connell hardly went through an arc. if anything they've been going in circles, and at the end seem ready to spiral right back to where they started
i started it and up until the middle of the college section i was interested and pleased by the direction this was going. at some point tho it became exhausting. it hits a lot of very accurate points about class, especially in the context of higher education, and it tries to fairly address mental health and other tricky subjects but it never truly gives them the room they deserve.
the writing style is fine, it's a bit jarring at first, but you get used to it. i'm not huge on descriptions but this book seemed weirdly disembodied to me, you hardly get a sense of place, which is a bit of a missed opportunity as it moves around a bit in Ireland and Europe. but i understand that it's more of a character study so i don't really hold it against the author.
the main issue for me tho was that at some point, it seemed like rooney was putting her characters through shit just for the sake of it. i really felt at some point weirdly complicit in the cruelty that the characters kept experiencing. it was a lot of - painful - build up for so little pay off. especially in the case of marianne, i feel like in the narrative she's afforded less sympathy and less space to "unpack" her trauma than connell. i think a lot of what she goes through is more unsaid or implicitly explained by her family situation and i think it's unfair and borderline cliché. i like connell's attempts to deconstruct masculinity in his own life but i just wish it had been mirrored for marianne's connection to femininity/womanhood
and frankly i don't really like what their relationship grew to mean, a few passages in their internal monologuse (towards the end, when they're supposed to have grown or undergone a character arc) really disturbed me and struck me as unhealthy conceptions of love based on possession. for reasons related to this, the sex scenes were quite uncomfortable for me as well.
yes, to some extant their struggles were relatable, but at the same time, their characters felt flaccid and powerless, like things just kept happening to them. for a book that is supposed to be a character study, despite fleeting moments of clarity and tenderness, marianne and connell hardly went through an arc. if anything they've been going in circles, and at the end seem ready to spiral right back to where they started
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
i've been procrastinating reading this book for 2 years and it's finally the one thing that gets through to me in this reading slump. the kind of short story collection that makes you go, "oh shit i have to talk about this with someone" after each one. i didn't expect it to be so deeply... magical? maybe that's the wrong word, because it's not magical in the disney sense, it's unsettling. maybe i'm betraying myself when i say i've never read anything like it. I still haven't digested "inventory". It's just brilliant and i want to read more of carmen maria machado
Anatomie de l'amant de ma femme by Raphael Rupert
Well here’s the first book i finished in 2019. it was funny and horny and meta and full of intertextuality but also deeply confusing.
the way this book references literature and cinema and pop culture is vivid, never pedantic and tbqh i found it delightful even if i didn’t get half the references.
the writing is at times hilarious and obscene and others meandering and symptomatic of a crazy mind. there is an uncertainty and lack of resolution that keeps you turning the page from the very beginning and leaves you wanting more once it’s over.
i don’t know if i despise this narrator or if i pity him
first of all he’s incredibly unreliable, especially in the final events of the novel, which seem anchored in a type of dreamscape, but we live entirely in his mind so we have to deal with that i guess
also, like, i didn’t really want to read another man’s perspective on why his wife cheated on him and his turmoil and obsessive thoughts about sex and humanising a nazi yadda yadda but in the end, that character was still vaguely endearing to me, for some reason. he’s just a very self indulgent, insecure little man with a loose grip on reality and that is Very Entertaining to read about.
although i am disappointed that the author didn’t dig deeper into the homoerotic potential of this novel. also the views on pornography exposed in the first few chapters are yikes but they’re told so ridiculously that i literally couldn’t take them seriously
honestly i’m just craving a closure i’ll never get, which probably means Rupert achieved his goal
the way this book references literature and cinema and pop culture is vivid, never pedantic and tbqh i found it delightful even if i didn’t get half the references.
the writing is at times hilarious and obscene and others meandering and symptomatic of a crazy mind. there is an uncertainty and lack of resolution that keeps you turning the page from the very beginning and leaves you wanting more once it’s over.
i don’t know if i despise this narrator or if i pity him
first of all he’s incredibly unreliable, especially in the final events of the novel, which seem anchored in a type of dreamscape, but we live entirely in his mind so we have to deal with that i guess
also, like, i didn’t really want to read another man’s perspective on why his wife cheated on him and his turmoil and obsessive thoughts about sex and humanising a nazi yadda yadda but in the end, that character was still vaguely endearing to me, for some reason. he’s just a very self indulgent, insecure little man with a loose grip on reality and that is Very Entertaining to read about.
although i am disappointed that the author didn’t dig deeper into the homoerotic potential of this novel. also the views on pornography exposed in the first few chapters are yikes but they’re told so ridiculously that i literally couldn’t take them seriously
honestly i’m just craving a closure i’ll never get, which probably means Rupert achieved his goal
Electre (Littérature Française) by Jean Giraudoux
3.0
i truly am on a french literature kick right now, but i'm sorry i can't help but compare this version to Anne Carson's. it's only my second time reading Electra (if you don't count Marina and the Diamonds' masterpiece Electra Heart but you should! cuz it fucks) and i feel like the bar was just too high.
i mean Giraudoux does have some things going on for himself.
1. this feels a lot more like it was written for the stage and it's clearly not an academic translation, or experimental. (it's funny because rn i'm looking up places to go see electre and orestes played on stage)
2. historically too, it's part of this in between wars era of french playwrights revisiting greek tragedies to make points about politics, which i can only stan.
3. there are a few lovely monologues given by minor characters which totally blindsided me
4. some of the dialogues were amusing and witty, especially with the beggar, and electre's verve remains my favourite thing ever.
5. interesting points made about electre and her relation to womanhood,
unfortunately it kind of lacks the character work that i'm so fond of. obviously greek tragedies are full of archetypes, but i rather like it when characters and their motivations are fleshed out, i feel like clytemnestra's motives were a bit weak, and Giraudoux really glossed over the fact that agamemnon literally offered iphigenia (their daughter) as a sacrifice and he also completely erased agamemnon bringing kassandra back as a slave from the narrative, which made clytemnestra come off as shallow.
still, i'm rather conflicted about this clytemnestra. while i found her wrath reduced by its cause, i think it was quite refreshing to see that her anger towards agamemnon was because he was an unsatisfying husband, and not because she was cheated as a wife, or struck with a mother's murderous grief. and then of course she had to be a 'villain'..... but simply for that, wig.
he also really went full freudian with electra's character, her deep hatred for her mother and blind adoration for her father. though her cause triumphs in the end, you don't feel like her acts were very righteous or god ordained. i'm still unclear on whether it was a bug or a feature
orestes as usual is the most Baby of all tools. Giraudoux does seem to argue that in tragedy the women are what set fate in motion and the men are mere instruments in realizing their own tragic destinies, which i found interesting, especially when you look at orestes' multiple tragedy spanning arc. wish he had pylades to take care of him :(
i feel like this review is all over the place and lowkey unfair of me, because i basically blame Giraudoux for writing one play that's not on par with Anne Carson's trilogy, but at the same time, it's true.
basically read it if you want a take on Electra's story that is a snapshot of the historical/political context of late 1930's/early 1940's france? go for it (actually read Anouilh's antigone first !! but you could read this one too it's a good time)
3.5/5 rounded down to ***
ps: i am very sorry for being too lazy to look up the proper english spelling of all those greek names, one day i will maybe be a proper reviewer but not today!
i mean Giraudoux does have some things going on for himself.
1. this feels a lot more like it was written for the stage and it's clearly not an academic translation, or experimental. (it's funny because rn i'm looking up places to go see electre and orestes played on stage)
2. historically too, it's part of this in between wars era of french playwrights revisiting greek tragedies to make points about politics, which i can only stan.
3. there are a few lovely monologues given by minor characters which totally blindsided me
4. some of the dialogues were amusing and witty, especially with the beggar, and electre's verve remains my favourite thing ever.
5. interesting points made about electre and her relation to womanhood,
unfortunately it kind of lacks the character work that i'm so fond of. obviously greek tragedies are full of archetypes, but i rather like it when characters and their motivations are fleshed out, i feel like clytemnestra's motives were a bit weak, and Giraudoux really glossed over the fact that agamemnon literally offered iphigenia (their daughter) as a sacrifice and he also completely erased agamemnon bringing kassandra back as a slave from the narrative, which made clytemnestra come off as shallow.
still, i'm rather conflicted about this clytemnestra. while i found her wrath reduced by its cause, i think it was quite refreshing to see that her anger towards agamemnon was because he was an unsatisfying husband, and not because she was cheated as a wife, or struck with a mother's murderous grief. and then of course she had to be a 'villain'..... but simply for that, wig.
he also really went full freudian with electra's character, her deep hatred for her mother and blind adoration for her father. though her cause triumphs in the end, you don't feel like her acts were very righteous or god ordained. i'm still unclear on whether it was a bug or a feature
orestes as usual is the most Baby of all tools. Giraudoux does seem to argue that in tragedy the women are what set fate in motion and the men are mere instruments in realizing their own tragic destinies, which i found interesting, especially when you look at orestes' multiple tragedy spanning arc. wish he had pylades to take care of him :(
i feel like this review is all over the place and lowkey unfair of me, because i basically blame Giraudoux for writing one play that's not on par with Anne Carson's trilogy, but at the same time, it's true.
basically read it if you want a take on Electra's story that is a snapshot of the historical/political context of late 1930's/early 1940's france? go for it (actually read Anouilh's antigone first !! but you could read this one too it's a good time)
3.5/5 rounded down to ***
ps: i am very sorry for being too lazy to look up the proper english spelling of all those greek names, one day i will maybe be a proper reviewer but not today!