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magnoliabloomfield's reviews
54 reviews
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.75
Very very slow paced. Writing the accent annoyed me so much. The characters don’t recognize their own accent and you should write what they mean or else you distract the reader and distracted readers aren’t immersed in the story. We are bombarded with so much information about Kya in the beginning when we don’t necessarily want that much, and then later so much that we actually would have wanted to know was withheld. Also it felt like the author created a lot plot hole fixes on the spot and didn’t edited them into the story further back to foreshadow. For instance Jodie’s scar. If we knew he had it from the beginning we could have felt recognition when we see a scarred man later instead of getting a big chunk of backstory explaining it when what we really want is to stay in the present moment. Overall I was underwhelmed and unsatisfied. Don’t get the hype at all.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Funny, smart, inventive, as believable as Michael Crichton’s work and written in a way most people will be able to understand. It took me a while to get through it since it wasn’t my normal type of read and I found myself losing a little focus and interest in some of the explanations and scenes that were science heavy toward the end. Good story and well written by a talented author.
Alien: Covenant - The Official Movie Novelization by Alan Dean Foster
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Don’t get me wrong, I adore the Alien franchise. The thing is, the movies are a million times better than the novelizations. I know that sounds dramatic but I promise it’s true.
First of all, it’s dry as hell. Not a single emotion was stirred in me.
Too many inconsequential details given about the ships and equipment and how they work. We know we’re reading a book about freaking aliens, you don’t have to try so hard to sell us on how realistic all the equipment is especially when you’re in the middle of a tense action scene. Alien is scrambling about and two seconds away from killing everyone but oh do please tell me about how they purposefully put in manual controls since they’re easier to jury-rig, especially when that info isn’t a Chekov’s gun that comes in handy later.
While it failed in some areas to stay accurate to the movie, in ways that weren’t very important but still made it worse, it also failed to add anything new, failed to take us deeper into the world and the plot and show us more than the movie could in its meager screen time allotment.
I keep reading Alien novels in the hopes of learning more, getting some extra nugget of information or character introspection that satisfies my curiosity. I keep being disappointed.
First of all, it’s dry as hell. Not a single emotion was stirred in me.
Too many inconsequential details given about the ships and equipment and how they work. We know we’re reading a book about freaking aliens, you don’t have to try so hard to sell us on how realistic all the equipment is especially when you’re in the middle of a tense action scene. Alien is scrambling about and two seconds away from killing everyone but oh do please tell me about how they purposefully put in manual controls since they’re easier to jury-rig, especially when that info isn’t a Chekov’s gun that comes in handy later.
While it failed in some areas to stay accurate to the movie, in ways that weren’t very important but still made it worse, it also failed to add anything new, failed to take us deeper into the world and the plot and show us more than the movie could in its meager screen time allotment.
I keep reading Alien novels in the hopes of learning more, getting some extra nugget of information or character introspection that satisfies my curiosity. I keep being disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, and Death
The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I won this book in a book store raffle, I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, I’m keeping that in mind as I try to leave a fair review. The characters were interesting, unique, and likable. No two could be confused with each other by personality, though as someone who walked into the middle of this series I struggled to keep the names straight. One thing I’d nitpick about the character names is that, in Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card, he advised writers to use only one name for a character in the narration, while other characters could call them anything in the dialogue. The narrating third person bounces between first and last name and a combo of both at will. I think the narrating voice should have used only one name per character consistently. The characters had wonderful witty dialogue, Armand Gamache is a compelling and likable character, maybe even lovable since he seems to improve the people around him just by his example. The story feels very cozy, winter in a cute village where you can cross the street from your house to a bistro with a fireplace, staff and patrons that are your friends, and delicious baked goods and hot drinks. It leads to it having a slower pace and some parts feeling unnecessary, but the writing was good enough for me to believe it was intentional and didn’t move me to skim or skip or DNF. The only thing that kept me from a four star review isn’t really a fault of the author. She started writing it in March 2020 as she mentions in the acknowledgements and I think the book was published in 2021. So in her fictional world the vaccine seems to be much more effective and people much more willing to get it so it’s mentioned briefly like ah the vaccine came and and saved us all and it’s fixed now. It’s more like wishful thinking on how the pandemic should have ended than the reality of it still being ongoing in 2023. Maybe if I read it sooner the plot and what professor Robinson wanted to do would have been shocking, but now with the Chernobyl-esque situation in Ohio with the train derailment and actual talk of women in vegetative states being used as baby incubators this story feels tame. I enjoyed it, I liked seeing so many characters thoughts and feelings on the matter, I loved the cozy town and deeply good people in the center of it, but as Marie Kondo taught me, it doesn’t inspire me to reread it or spark joy to see it on my shelf, so it hasn’t found a forever home in my modest bookcase. However I am open to exploring more from this author, probably via the library. (Thanks to Beach Books in Sea Side Oregon for the awesome raffle prizes!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Medical trauma, Ableism, Chronic illness, and Classism
Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Child death, Suicide attempt, War, Grief, Abortion, Child abuse, Genocide, Trafficking, and Rape
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I had a few qualms with the logic of it at times, and it felt like there would be a well done foreshadowing sentence but soon the tension was cut with a clear answer and it was disappointing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
I watched the movie and felt like they had crammed a whole series into one film, so I got the book hoping it would be paced better and easier to understand. No. It wasn’t. It was 100% just like the movie and I just couldn’t keep up with it all and lost interest.
The Princess Electric by Derek Silver
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
I received a copy for free to review, but I couldn’t finish it for two reasons, the first being inconsistencies early on, and especially involving villainization of the mentally ill. For instance this paragraph in chapter 1 “Within a heartbeat the two men were siphoned into the cylinder, their slender bodies narrowing and stretching even more until they disappeared. The cylinder hung in the air, folding in on itself. As Violet reached the bed the cylinder disappeared with a sparkle-flash of neon green light.”
Is contradicted a few paragraphs later with
“She crouched down and picked up the cylinder.”
Did it disappear? Apparently not.
The second instance was this bit of info:
“They weren’t high-risk patients in her sister’s wing, but those who needed assistance with the day-to-day tasks of life. Only those with brain injuries, or dementia and Alzheimer’s, or those afflicted with minor deliriums, were housed in this wing. Those with more debilitating illnesses, some of whom had violent tendencies, were in the next wing over.”
Followed later with
“Before she could contemplate just how sugar-free her birthday was going to be, heavy, distorted breathing filtered into her room from under the door. First she thought it was some perverted patient out for their late-night grope-stroll. ”
The view the MC has of the patients her sister lives with seems to change sharply and they become more dangerous than previously stated. The way mentally I’ll people were talked about rubbed me the wrong way, but I thought hey, MC’s can have flaws they need to correct through the course of a book, they can’t start out perfect. But once something “disappeared” and yet she picked it up off the floor I stopped reading.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Is contradicted a few paragraphs later with
“She crouched down and picked up the cylinder.”
Did it disappear? Apparently not.
The second instance was this bit of info:
“They weren’t high-risk patients in her sister’s wing, but those who needed assistance with the day-to-day tasks of life. Only those with brain injuries, or dementia and Alzheimer’s, or those afflicted with minor deliriums, were housed in this wing. Those with more debilitating illnesses, some of whom had violent tendencies, were in the next wing over.”
Followed later with
“Before she could contemplate just how sugar-free her birthday was going to be, heavy, distorted breathing filtered into her room from under the door. First she thought it was some perverted patient out for their late-night grope-stroll. ”
The view the MC has of the patients her sister lives with seems to change sharply and they become more dangerous than previously stated. The way mentally I’ll people were talked about rubbed me the wrong way, but I thought hey, MC’s can have flaws they need to correct through the course of a book, they can’t start out perfect. But once something “disappeared” and yet she picked it up off the floor I stopped reading.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
Excerpt From
The Princess Electric
Derek Silver
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.