lyloster's reviews
566 reviews

Boulder by Eva Baltasar

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Rouge by Mona Awad

challenging dark mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

Ugh... really liked the writing, although there was an obscene amount of adverbs in the beginning. Especially enjoyed the blanks and the slipups throughout the book. However, I haven't read genre fiction is such a long time, it took me 3/4 of the book to get into the story. 

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

challenging dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Enjoyed it very much, the first story was phenomenal. Writing was dense, flowing, ideas bled into one another.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Beautifully written, masterfully woven stories and the time travel and its consequences make sense to me... I think. I'm never sure with time travel but on first reading and impression this definitely tracked for me.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.0

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

dark fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

The book read like a meta commentary on book-writing right now, competitiveness and loneliness. It was incredibly interesting to read semi-fictionalized accounts of how the publishing industry works. The book is very much a product of the times but it's very engaging and well-written. 

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

A very tender account of what happens to a family in the aftermath of a tragedy.  An ordinary story that is beautifully written.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Superb writing and very imaginative way to tell a story of corruption, violence, forgiveness and forgetting.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

slow-paced

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

2.0

Update: managed to finish it as an audiobook. 

So many characters for the sake of having many characters, none of them sufficiently developed. Under all those studies I couldn't find a compelling story. Tried pushing through it but gave up at 61%. I feel like this was not a good introduction to James McBride.