onegin's reviews
36 reviews

Bockfesten by Mario Vargas Llosa

challenging dark medium-paced

5.0

Väldigt välskriven. Intressanta personer, skickligt berättande på flera tidsplan samtidigt.

Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly

dark medium-paced

4.0

First of all, Donnelly's prose is delicious. The word choices are exquisite.
Secondly, there's something wrong with the narrator, and I love it. As the story progresses, the narrator kept crossing lines, and not in the order of legal severity, but of moral crime. Is murder okay, if the one you murdered is a bad person? Can you blackmail friends, if it ultimately leaves them better of? How about murder again? The novel raises these questions, and leaves satisfying answers - not as a lecture or a lesson, but as effects on the main character's life. In addition, the novel is a discussion about art under capitalism.
Some of the narration was a bit wonky (due to simultaneously doing an after the fact-retelling and yet keeping the tension and mystery up), but it was saved by the excellent characterisation. Like in Donnelly's other novels, the characters' feelings were complicated, messy, and in that way very human, and she portrays them masterfully.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

dark reflective

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

5.0

Beautifully written, it focuses on the deeply flawed characters. It's a slow burn: as a reader, you slowly get to learn to know the characters, and you can't help feeling attached to them, before their cracks start to show. Heartbreaking, and lovely. An absolutely fantastic, and very dark, read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Suicidal thoughts

Hur mår fröken Furukura? by Sayaka Murata

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Boken är tunn, men det ryms mycket mellan dess pärmar! Jag läste den på en förmiddag, och den har inte lämnat mina tankar sen dess. Vad behövs för ett gott liv? Varifrån kommer kraven på det? Bokens tema är "samhällets krav", ett ämne som ältats i oändlighet, men Muratas roman kommer med en uppfriskande vinkel: istället för en huvudperson som lider under ouppnåeliga krav, följer läsaren en huvudpersonen Furukura som behöver varken en make eller ett "riktigt" jobb. Det finns ett grundliggande oförståelse mellan Furukura och hennes omgivning: hennes närmaste är bekymrade över hennes liv, medan Furukura fullständigt uppriktig när hon hävdar att hon inte behöver något mer.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.

I made it as far as page 156 hoping it would get better - the plot would become engaging, the characters would become interesting - yet the epic proportions of the worldbuilding made only a shallow impression.

Röda rummet by Kaj Korkea-aho

dark medium-paced

3.0

Kan inte riktigt sätta tummen på vad som saknades i boken - trots den intressanta premissen blev resultatet medelmåttigt. De fantasifulla liknelserna som då och så dök upp i texten kom plötsligt utan att passa in i sin omgivning. Personen Lotta verkade vara halvfärdig: hon hade knappt mer karaktärsdrag än en kartongbit. 

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

It’s a delightful read! I loved how the novel depicted the Golem and the Djinni not only through their relationship to the setting (the Syrian and Jewish neighbourhoods of New York at the turn of the 20th century), humans (which they aren’t), and each other - both are mythical creatures, but that’s where the similarities end. One is clay, the other is fire - when one is order, the other is chaos.

It’s the contrast between the Golem and the Djinni, and the contrast between them and humanity, that I liked the most about this novel. I also loved the human characters - they were all so, well, human, with all their complexities and inconsistencies (both as individuals and as a group) - which of course baffled and seemed incomprehensible for the non-human characters. There’s layers upon layers of “us versus them” - who are us and who are them, are they like us, or are they different?

The Golem and the Djinni spend the novel trying to figure out how to live in the human world - and so did their human friends.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Don’t I love reading about morally questionable people! It’s with morbid fascination I read about the mutual destruction of the main character and her ex-husband: they’re both terrible people, and no-one would deserve to be married to either, but maybe they did deserve each other… And the wider themes of this novel fit well with the personal chemistry of the main character: what is a person? Is a clone of yourself the same as you? Do you own a person you created in a lab? What’s the difference between being created in a womb, without design input, and being created in a lab, where everything from your flesh to your mind has been carefully planned in advance? Can you be yourself, if that “you” is the product of someone’s design? These questions might be philosophically grand, but they’re presented together with a thrilling plot - as reader, you’re on the edge of your seat, wondering if the characters will be able to pull of their schemes (involving getting away with murder), and only once you’ve put down the book do you find yourself asking these questions.

Jade War by Fonda Lee

dark tense fast-paced

4.5

It speaks for the strength of the worldbuilding that although it was a while since I read the first book of the series, I was immediately drawn back into this world. This world is so vivid and rich with details, that I sometimes forget every location described is fictional. It adds to the worldbuilding's believability that the economics are well developed: the trade of jade (that has magical properties) has a major influence on both the world and its characters.
Speaking of the characters: they are entirely driven by their personal ambitions and desires, and most importantly, their sense of honor and (indeed dubious) morality. The effect they have on each other, and the often violent actions they take, form an intricate web of plotlines that keep the reader on the edge of their seat for the entirety of the novel. The tension is strung masterfully.
I cannot recommend this series enough for the reader that loves reading about characters with questionable moralities. I eagerly await the publication of the next book.

Eländet by Andrzej Tichý

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Väldigt, väldigt mörk bok. Trots sitt ämne var den ändå inte dyster, den gottade sig inte i eländet den skildrade. Texten var en stream of consciousness: om författaren vore mindre skicklig skulle den ha varit svårläst, men Tichýs språk var verkligen levande och som läsare blev jag indragen i berättelsen. Berättarrösten gled sömlöst från nuet till det förflutna och tillbaka till nuet. Efter varje stycke kippade jag efter andan - som om jag hade störtdykt i berättarens medvetande och kom tillbaka till ytan för att andas. Det här är en bok som bäst läses långsamt: den är tung och man vinner på att smälta varje stycke innan man fortsätter läsa.