m4rtt4's reviews
290 reviews

Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

Way more boring than I expected. Considering that this is such a well-known classic, I expected it to have more societal commentary, or at the very least have Gregor go out of the house.

Pienen hauen pyydystys by Juhani Karila

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Toinen kerta tän teoksen parissa ja se oli just niin hyvä kuin muistelinkin!! Ekalla kerralla luin fyysisen kirjan, tällä kertaa kuuntelin Anna Saksmanin lukeman äänikirjan ja hänen äänensä toi vielä oman ihanan lisämausteensa tälle kaikelle. Ei tätä lukukokemusta voi verrata mihinkään muuhun kirjaan tai aiemmin koettuun, pitää vaan uskaltaa sukeltaa suohon ja luottaa siihen ettei päädy hauen suoleen. Ehdottomasti parasta tässä on hahmojen välinen vuorovaikutus; huumori, ihmissuhdekiemurat, kipeät tunteet ja välittävä vittuilu ja kaikki se, mikä kommunikaatiossa ja kirjoittamisessa on kaunista. 

Paljon melua tyhjästä by William Shakespeare

funny fast-paced

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

3.0

Muurahaisia ja dinosauruksia by Cixin Liu

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

A solid satire — the critique was accurate, but the story itself wasn't that creative. Other Liu's works and the beginning of this story (the ant medicine!!) gave me high expectations, but unfortunately the level of creativity didn't stay that way. The world of ants and dinosaurs was nearly identical to our human one, which made the satire blatantly obvious and boring to read as there was nothing new or original to read about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and War

Tuulen puolella by Leena Lehtolainen

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was not necessarily bad, but the thing with series is that the story needs to improve in order for the reader to continue the series... and in many ways this book just felt like a filler episode that relied on shock effects. I won't stop my Maria Kallio audiobook marathon because of this, but I'm seriously hoping that she gets a hold of herself in the upcoming books. It bothered me that underlying alcoholism is related to many male characters, yet Maria's habit of drinking whiskey after every inconvenience is completely ignored?? And why does she fantasize about every conventionally attractive man she meets and takes her husband for granted? Also she is STILL the epitome of "not like other girls" despite being over 30 years old, and her feminism is sooooo white it irks me that she's being called 'feminist' in every other sentence. She gets brownie points by condemning Ström's blatant racism, yet she makes so many subtly racist comments about Anu Wang.. "she was very tall for her race",, well,
1) at 170cm she's tall for Finns as well and
2) you could just say "tall"? :) :) :)

it unfortunately shows that these were written in the 90s. The stories aren't even bad, but Maria Kallio's personality is a huge turn off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Sexual assault, Grief, Alcohol, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Blood, and Cancer

Kaikki mitä jäljelle jää: Oikeusantropologin elämä kuoleman parissa by Sue Black

dark funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

So interesting!! Sue Black just made me regret dropping my biology major... :') The only thing I would change about this book would be the sections about her personal life, honestly I only cared about the aspects of the job and I wish there had been even more scientific stuff in this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Excrement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Child death, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Death of parent, Grief, and Genocide

Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

Soooo wholesome once again (and relatable, both for when I was 16 and now at 21). I could never not like this series or anything Oseman writes, but this volume was a bit bland regarding the plot? My favourite parts were the snippets of Tori and Michael <3

Kirjallisuuden kiihottava historia by Silvia Hosseini

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

En varsinaisesti lähtisi vaihtamaan mitään, mutta minun puolestani teos olisi saanut olla laajempi. Ainakin näin kirjallisuuden opiskelijana tunsin tyylisuuntausten peruspiirteet ja monet Hosseinin käsittelemät teokset jo ennestään, jolloin en päässyt nauttimaan uuden oppimisesta niin paljoa kuin olisin halunnut :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam by Nguyễn Thị Ấm, Đỗ Phước Tiến, Mai Kim Ngọc, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, Thế Giang, Trần Vũ, Lê Minh Khuê, Đức Ban, Phạm Thị Hoài, Linh Dinh, Trần Ngọc Tuấn, Dương Thu Hương, Nguyễn Minh Châu, Đỗ Kh., Bảo Ninh

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Sexual content, Rape, Incest, and Death