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pedanther's reviews
478 reviews
The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Tin Dog by Alexander McCall Smith
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
DNF. There's a lot going on, and I'm just not that interested in any of it. It's quite unpleasant, too, in ways that sometimes feel gratuitous. Everybody's having a bad day, but so do lots of people, and I don't see any reason why I should have to hear about this particular bad day in such detail. Maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it, but anyway I'm giving up here and going to read something I'll enjoy more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Abortion, Pregnancy, War, and Classism
The Martian by Andy Weir
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
The Friendship Factor: How to Get Closer to the People You Care for by Alan Loy McGinnis
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
A set of sensible guidelines for developing and maintaining healthy relationships, expressed clearly and straightforwardly.
The author is a Christian, and from time to time gives examples of how the guidelines relate to the principles of his faith, but the guidelines themselves are grounded in our common humanity and not dependent on any religion, a fact which he recognises, and if you're not interested in those parts it's easy enough to do the readerly equivalent of nodding politely and moving on to the next bit.
The author is a Christian, and from time to time gives examples of how the guidelines relate to the principles of his faith, but the guidelines themselves are grounded in our common humanity and not dependent on any religion, a fact which he recognises, and if you're not interested in those parts it's easy enough to do the readerly equivalent of nodding politely and moving on to the next bit.
The Rout of the Ollafubs by Katharine Greville Lethbridge
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The Rout of the Ollafubs is a collection of linked short stories, with a shared setting and a cast of recurring characters, but focussing on a different character for each story (apart from the first and last, which bring all the characters together). I read it once when I was much younger, and some of the ideas and moments have stuck with me, along with a recollection that there were other parts I found dull and skipped over. Re-reading it as an adult, there are some imaginative ideas and fun characters, but the stories are rambling and in the end I feel that the whole is somewhat less than the sum of the parts.
One of the things that made my experience of reading it now different from reading it back then is that now I'm able to recognise the influence of some of the other authors that preceded it; in particular, there were several points that reminded me strongly of George MacDonald's work in the genre, a comparison that tended to come out to Rout's detriment. With MacDonald, you can always tell that there's some underlying pattern or purpose even when the story's apparently being arbitrary; with this book, there were occasional moments where I got the sense that the author might have some idea of what the stories were driving at, but that idea never communicated itself to me (and the book ends with an explicit refusal to offer any explanations).
Of the individual stories, my favourites were the ones featuring the family of talking bears. There's something about making a bear cub with a West Country accent the hero of a fantasy story that ensures it won't be as straightforward as a story revolving around a generic human protagonist, and these stories include most of the bits that had remained with me from my first read.
One of the things that made my experience of reading it now different from reading it back then is that now I'm able to recognise the influence of some of the other authors that preceded it; in particular, there were several points that reminded me strongly of George MacDonald's work in the genre, a comparison that tended to come out to Rout's detriment. With MacDonald, you can always tell that there's some underlying pattern or purpose even when the story's apparently being arbitrary; with this book, there were occasional moments where I got the sense that the author might have some idea of what the stories were driving at, but that idea never communicated itself to me (and the book ends with an explicit refusal to offer any explanations).
Of the individual stories, my favourites were the ones featuring the family of talking bears. There's something about making a bear cub with a West Country accent the hero of a fantasy story that ensures it won't be as straightforward as a story revolving around a generic human protagonist, and these stories include most of the bits that had remained with me from my first read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Racism, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail
Biggles Forms a Syndicate by W.E. Johns
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
It's a pretty slight story, even compared to other Biggles novels I've read. The villain's a pretty perfunctory plot device who doesn't even qualify as the biggest threat of the novel, where the environmental hazards are much more significant. And being set in the British-occupied Middle East there's that thing where the depiction of even the sympathetic Arabs is a bit off. Still, it moves along at a good clip and passes the time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gun violence, Racism, Islamophobia, Colonisation, and War
Confinement: One of the dramatic set-pieces of the novel is a sequence in which two people are trapped in a cave by a rockfall and not rescued for several days.
Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-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? Yes
3.5
It might be useful to know, going in, that this is one half of a duology, so it ends abruptly at the point where, arguably, the story is really getting moving.
It's also quite slow to start: The first third of the book consists of brief glimpses of the protagonist's childhood mixed with explanations of the worldbuilding and backstory, before it finally settles down to a contiguous narrative around the time she turns thirteen. I struggled with the first third, but found it easier to get on after that.
Some of the worldbuilding is quite interesting, though I felt that the most interesting parts ended up feeling like window-dressing that didn't really affect a fairly familiar-seeming plot. I expect those parts will be more important in the second half of the duology, but I'm not particularly interested in reading on and finding out.
One of the features of the book is that it's interspersed with legends and scholarly articles from later centuries, showing how the key events of the protagonist's life left their mark on posterity. The first few piqued my interest, but in the aggregate I felt that they rather weighed the story down, and although I got some wry humour from the scholars' biased misrepresentations of the past, I found that the accumulation of them had the effect of making me less invested in how things turn out: how important can the details of the protagonist's life really be, when posterity will forget most of it, misunderstand the rest, and disbelieve all of it?
It's also quite slow to start: The first third of the book consists of brief glimpses of the protagonist's childhood mixed with explanations of the worldbuilding and backstory, before it finally settles down to a contiguous narrative around the time she turns thirteen. I struggled with the first third, but found it easier to get on after that.
Some of the worldbuilding is quite interesting, though I felt that the most interesting parts ended up feeling like window-dressing that didn't really affect a fairly familiar-seeming plot. I expect those parts will be more important in the second half of the duology, but I'm not particularly interested in reading on and finding out.
One of the features of the book is that it's interspersed with legends and scholarly articles from later centuries, showing how the key events of the protagonist's life left their mark on posterity. The first few piqued my interest, but in the aggregate I felt that they rather weighed the story down, and although I got some wry humour from the scholars' biased misrepresentations of the past, I found that the accumulation of them had the effect of making me less invested in how things turn out: how important can the details of the protagonist's life really be, when posterity will forget most of it, misunderstand the rest, and disbelieve all of it?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War
Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexism, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol