Take a photo of a barcode or cover
merrrry's reviews
368 reviews
Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
emotional
reflective
4.25
Many of these poems seemed like they just came out of him because they had to, not because he sat down setting out to write. I’m still very new to poetry so I don’t know if that’s how all poetry feels, but Ocean Vuong’s just feel so genuine and transparent. His voice is clear in his writing and even when I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about, the ambiance of the poem still comes through.
I will read anything Ocean Vuong writes at this point, but I will say that his style works much better in a narrative structure for my tastes. As much as I enjoyed this collection, it does not compare to On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
I will read anything Ocean Vuong writes at this point, but I will say that his style works much better in a narrative structure for my tastes. As much as I enjoyed this collection, it does not compare to On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver
reflective
relaxing
4.0
Serene and wonderful. A perfect collection to read at the precipice of spring or at dawn.
Will definitely be picking up more Mary Oliver as I begin my journey in poetry appreciation!
Will definitely be picking up more Mary Oliver as I begin my journey in poetry appreciation!
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
reflective
4.25
Genuinely surprised by how much I liked this. I read The Fault in Our Stars when I was 13 and hated it. I thought it was cheesy, a bit cringey, and as a whole kinda boring... so I haven’t read another John Green book since. I can’t remember what exactly convinced me to pick this up, but I liked the title and the cover and despite not loving John Green’s books, I’ve always had a good impression of the Green brothers even though I’ve never watched their youtube videos. Being on a bit of a nonfiction audiobook kick lately lead me to listening to this book.
While this wasn’t particularly groundbreaking or moving for me, it felt so heartfelt that I couldn’t help but be enthralled. I also just love the book as a concept. My favourite thing was that it delved into the complexities of seemingly mundane things and explored personal feelings associated with them, which was fascinating and put wonder back into the trivial.
Something completely insignificant that bothers me was there were no ratings in the realm of 2 or 3 stars (though I might’ve missed one). Anyways, I give this book 4.25 stars.
While this wasn’t particularly groundbreaking or moving for me, it felt so heartfelt that I couldn’t help but be enthralled. I also just love the book as a concept. My favourite thing was that it delved into the complexities of seemingly mundane things and explored personal feelings associated with them, which was fascinating and put wonder back into the trivial.
Something completely insignificant that bothers me was there were no ratings in the realm of 2 or 3 stars (though I might’ve missed one). Anyways, I give this book 4.25 stars.
Troy by Stephen Fry
3.25
Listening to this not so soon after Song of Achilles was... underwhelming. That being said, I think having previous knowledge about the characters and major events of the Trojan war helped make this experience more enjoyable. I personally liked the first two installations of Stephen Fry’s Greek mythology collections more. This one was honed in on one event and lost a bit of the bedtime mythology story charm I loved the others for, which is really only a bad thing if you go in expecting that. It was extremely admirable of Fry to have successfully compiled so much about the Trojan War (and stories surrounding the Trojan War) into this one book. There were also a lot of stories that are less commonly told in the Greek Mythology realm, such as Paris’s backstory. Also, Stephen Fry’s narrating is reliably delightful to listen to.
Tomie by Junji Ito
dark
2.75
Not as good as Uzumaki. Loved this in concept—especially how it opens some discussion on beauty in society. It was also just entertaining to read and look at. That being said, this got repetitive and lacked direction. I also felt misogynistic undertones for some reason? Can’t quite put my finger on why though. This is worth reading regardless.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
One of those rare books that I wanted to reread 5 minutes after finishing it. Piranesi is quiet, lyrical, contemplative, melancholy, haunting, and magical. While the plot and characters were nothing particularly impactful for me, the atmosphere brought it all together beautifully. I love good character writing and well paced stories as much as any other person, but when a book’s mood is established well I will remember it forever (vibe > substance !). This book slows down and makes you wallow in its fantasy. If you like excessive prose and wandering descriptions (and I mean that in the best way), this book is for you.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
adventurous
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Really really liked this! I read The Martian in grade 10 so I don’t remember it too well, but I think I liked this a lot more. As charming as Mark Watney(?) is on his own, having Ryland Grace (who is essentially the same person) interact with Rocky was precious and packed an extra emotional punch. This was the buddy cop dynamic I never knew I wanted, except it was a scientist and an engineer. The book felt a bit slow at first, largely because of the flashbacks, but the moment we met Rocky I was completely sucked in. In general, I enjoyed the space stuff a lot more than the flashbacks, but I get that both were necessary to form a complete story. The sciencey bits did get a little much at times for my half asleep brain, but when I was actually fully conscious I loved all the little science experiments and problem solving. I haven’t really been reading scifi lately (the last one I read was Dune I think) so this was a wonderful change of mood. 100% reccommend.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Disappointing :( I always compare mediocre books to fanfic, but this was literally someone's fanatical fantasy that somehow got published. The first third-ish of the book was promising, but all of that promise just fell flat. Characters, worldbuilding, plot, pacing — all of it felt very unpolished or incomplete. It was extremely obvious that this was a debut novel. I actually was enjoying this quite a bit at the beginning because I went in wanting a blatantly feminist YA story. I was looking forward to seeing how all these classic tropes that I love would be interpreted in this Chinese history and mecha inspired story. When I’m in the mood for it, I love all the cheesy stuff that people usually hate in YA books: love triangles, overpowered protags, harems, youthful edginess, etc. While this had all of that, none of it was done well. I am a character-driven reader. If the story sucks but I love the characters, I will like the story. If a character serves zero purpose in the story but I like them, they are valid. The tropes that these characters fit into are good. I like the soft aristocratic make up guru vibes of Yizhi, the oh so cliche whumpy Shimin, and (ok I like this one less but) woke not-like-other-girls Zetian. Zetian sucked. She felt like a child, which would be ok because she is a child, except the book clearly does not want us to think of her as a child. She is literally the definition of toxic girl bossing. Yizhi was fine until he shouted “You can’t shoot me I’m rich!” at a bunch of soldiers that probably don’t know who he is? Also the way he killed his dad without even knowing what was even going on? Wack. Shimin I liked the most out of the three. I’m a sucker for a the tropes he fit into. I enjoyed reading about how he was a misunderstood boy who was forced into something he hates because he’s too good at it, then oppressed because people are afraid of him. He’s the character I feel like I know a little more about. His anger and actions were justified, and he showed genuine remorse for his past... at least until he turned into a Zetian puppy and stopped having personality.
The character writing was abysmal, but the relationships between them was worse. I know some people don’t like having romance shoved in their face and that’s totally fair, but this really needed more of something between the three because what was given was severely shallow. Yizhi and Zetian I can maybe kinda sorta forgive since they have off screen history (which is a cop out but sure). The opening was the most we got out of their relationship though and we definitely could’ve used more. Zetian and Shimin’s relationship was far from justified. She flipped so quickly from hating him to being in love with him it gave me whiplash. Shimin also got over his last girl very suddenly. He seemed like he was still grieving Wende and didn’t seem to want to pursue Zetian at all, but then suddenly he was dtf. huh?? And of course, because we just had to have the poly relationship set up before Shimin disappears at the end of the book, apparently Shimin and Yizhi are into each other too. You cannot tell me those two have anything beyond physical attraction. Maybe I missed something, but I only remember them talking like twice. This was just disappointing because I think this relationship could have worked if given more time. There was way too much going on already plot-wise, so there was no room for this three way relationship to properly develop and feel believable. Love triangles in most YA novels do not have to flesh out three relationships at once, on top of establishing the dynamics of all three together — even when they do do this (eg. Tessa/Will/Jem) it takes multiple books before things really reach a point where we know where everyone is at emotionally — so this one <400 page book struggled a lot. The way the three were so quickly in a somewhat stable relationship felt over convenient and unearned and seemed to serve the the sole purpose of letting the author write sex into the book.
One of the reasons why the relationship building was so bad was because of the pacing. I have never read such as blazingly fast paced book. While the pacing kind of worked in the beginning, it started feeling like things were happening with no preemption or consequences. There was no space to breath and caused character/world building to be severely lacking. I feel like Zhou just mapped out important scenes and plot points then only wrote those while entirely forgetting that you can’t only have pivotal things happening all the time (edit: I have since heard that they were pressured to cut a lot of stuff down, so the publisher likely played a hand in this). This, while far from being the only reason, was one of the major reasons why the book feels like a bad fanfic. I still have many grievances but this is getting too long.
Why am I giving this 1.75 stars and not 0? Because I love and support Chinese history and anime inspired stories. Also because I feel bad. I like what I’ve seen of Xiran Jay Zhou’s content on youtube. Her voice just didn’t translate very well in this novel. As much as I love something like Gintama that flips back and forth between crackhead comedy and gut wrenching serious arcs, it only works because Gintama is a long running anime/manga that was able to effectively develop the world and characters through its comedy. This also works for things like one piece or jojo which fully embrace the absurd humour. This book failed to find a balance nor integrate weight into its comedy. Iron Widow is one of those books that I could literally hear the authors voice in everything, and it was not a good thing in this case because every character just felt like puppets being spoken through by the same person. I haven’t decided if I’ll read the next book yet, but I am admittedly curious. The twist at the end was unexpected (reminds me of Chaos Walking!), and I’m interested in where the Qin Zheng stuff goes. As messy and juvenile as this book was, it wasn’t boring. I did almost give up around 60% because I was losing interest but as a whole it was an ok experience.
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
1.75
Disappointing :( I always compare mediocre books to fanfic, but this was literally someone's fanatical fantasy that somehow got published. The first third-ish of the book was promising, but all of that promise just fell flat. Characters, worldbuilding, plot, pacing — all of it felt very unpolished or incomplete. It was extremely obvious that this was a debut novel. I actually was enjoying this quite a bit at the beginning because I went in wanting a blatantly feminist YA story. I was looking forward to seeing how all these classic tropes that I love would be interpreted in this Chinese history and mecha inspired story. When I’m in the mood for it, I love all the cheesy stuff that people usually hate in YA books: love triangles, overpowered protags, harems, youthful edginess, etc. While this had all of that, none of it was done well. I am a character-driven reader. If the story sucks but I love the characters, I will like the story. If a character serves zero purpose in the story but I like them, they are valid. The tropes that these characters fit into are good. I like the soft aristocratic make up guru vibes of Yizhi, the oh so cliche whumpy Shimin, and (ok I like this one less but) woke not-like-other-girls Zetian. Zetian sucked. She felt like a child, which would be ok because she is a child, except the book clearly does not want us to think of her as a child. She is literally the definition of toxic girl bossing. Yizhi was fine until he shouted “You can’t shoot me I’m rich!” at a bunch of soldiers that probably don’t know who he is? Also the way he killed his dad without even knowing what was even going on? Wack. Shimin I liked the most out of the three. I’m a sucker for a the tropes he fit into. I enjoyed reading about how he was a misunderstood boy who was forced into something he hates because he’s too good at it, then oppressed because people are afraid of him. He’s the character I feel like I know a little more about. His anger and actions were justified, and he showed genuine remorse for his past... at least until he turned into a Zetian puppy and stopped having personality.
The character writing was abysmal, but the relationships between them was worse. I know some people don’t like having romance shoved in their face and that’s totally fair, but this really needed more of something between the three because what was given was severely shallow. Yizhi and Zetian I can maybe kinda sorta forgive since they have off screen history (which is a cop out but sure). The opening was the most we got out of their relationship though and we definitely could’ve used more. Zetian and Shimin’s relationship was far from justified. She flipped so quickly from hating him to being in love with him it gave me whiplash. Shimin also got over his last girl very suddenly. He seemed like he was still grieving Wende and didn’t seem to want to pursue Zetian at all, but then suddenly he was dtf. huh?? And of course, because we just had to have the poly relationship set up before Shimin disappears at the end of the book, apparently Shimin and Yizhi are into each other too. You cannot tell me those two have anything beyond physical attraction. Maybe I missed something, but I only remember them talking like twice. This was just disappointing because I think this relationship could have worked if given more time. There was way too much going on already plot-wise, so there was no room for this three way relationship to properly develop and feel believable. Love triangles in most YA novels do not have to flesh out three relationships at once, on top of establishing the dynamics of all three together — even when they do do this (eg. Tessa/Will/Jem) it takes multiple books before things really reach a point where we know where everyone is at emotionally — so this one <400 page book struggled a lot. The way the three were so quickly in a somewhat stable relationship felt over convenient and unearned and seemed to serve the the sole purpose of letting the author write sex into the book.
One of the reasons why the relationship building was so bad was because of the pacing. I have never read such as blazingly fast paced book. While the pacing kind of worked in the beginning, it started feeling like things were happening with no preemption or consequences. There was no space to breath and caused character/world building to be severely lacking. I feel like Zhou just mapped out important scenes and plot points then only wrote those while entirely forgetting that you can’t only have pivotal things happening all the time (edit: I have since heard that they were pressured to cut a lot of stuff down, so the publisher likely played a hand in this). This, while far from being the only reason, was one of the major reasons why the book feels like a bad fanfic. I still have many grievances but this is getting too long.
Why am I giving this 1.75 stars and not 0? Because I love and support Chinese history and anime inspired stories. Also because I feel bad. I like what I’ve seen of Xiran Jay Zhou’s content on youtube. Her voice just didn’t translate very well in this novel. As much as I love something like Gintama that flips back and forth between crackhead comedy and gut wrenching serious arcs, it only works because Gintama is a long running anime/manga that was able to effectively develop the world and characters through its comedy. This also works for things like one piece or jojo which fully embrace the absurd humour. This book failed to find a balance nor integrate weight into its comedy. Iron Widow is one of those books that I could literally hear the authors voice in everything, and it was not a good thing in this case because every character just felt like puppets being spoken through by the same person. I haven’t decided if I’ll read the next book yet, but I am admittedly curious. The twist at the end was unexpected (reminds me of Chaos Walking!), and I’m interested in where the Qin Zheng stuff goes. As messy and juvenile as this book was, it wasn’t boring. I did almost give up around 60% because I was losing interest but as a whole it was an ok experience.
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
reflective
2.5
Insightful as always, but a little too on the nose in my opinion. I much prefer the straight-forward philosophizing of "Mere Christianity" and enjoyed the format and cleverness of "The Screwtape Letters" exponentially more. While the premise of this book was interesting and likely much more revolutionary back in the 40's, it feels cliche reading it now. Lewis is a wonderful academic writer and also has fantastic ideas for fiction, but for some reason, when he puts them together both lose their charm. Instead of feeling accessible, it feels childish and contrived. That being said, this was worth the read considering its length.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.5
Short and sweet.
The thing that shone the most in this was the setting. I really enjoyed reading about Nigeria and all the trivial details really set the story apart from something set in America. I wished there was a little more depth in character development, but considering the length of the book it was a good read as a whole.
Highly recommend the audiobook.
The thing that shone the most in this was the setting. I really enjoyed reading about Nigeria and all the trivial details really set the story apart from something set in America. I wished there was a little more depth in character development, but considering the length of the book it was a good read as a whole.
Highly recommend the audiobook.