persimmon_lover's reviews
25 reviews

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This is one of the greatest novels that I have ever read. The breadth of characterization and the realism that George Eliot is able to convey is absolutely astounding. Additionally, the realism is absolutely mind boggling: every character is fully fleshed out, meaning they have preferences just like real people do, political opinions, everything, and every part of their lives (geography, psychology, social situations, random chance, illness, death, politics) affects them in a realistic way.

Unmatched prose style and philosophically dense and meaningful, packed with allusions, and extremely poetic. Nearly perfect.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

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adventurous challenging funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.5

I started out loving this book, then hated it, then loved it again. I think that it sometimes feels dated with postmodern tropes from the 70s/80s -- the world is a text, how can we know which text is authentic, what is an author, bla bla bla, it gets kind of tiring and annoying and feels too "on the nose". However, it is saved by the very intuitive and genuine feeling that Calvino brings. Also, the philosophical themes are indeed pretty interesting and deep, but it is just that they sometimes feel a bit overbearing or stereotypical, which I think is more due to the dating of the book and isn't the author's fault. The way that all of this convoluted nonsense gets built up just gets to the point of feeling overbearing and useless, but then it sort of wraps up nicely. Also too many stupid useless creepy sex scenes.

Content Warnings

A Journal of My Father by Jirō Taniguchi

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

4.75

Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was amazing artistically, thematically, and the paneling was very cinematic and unique. I do think the themes and pacing could have been better, I was left with a lot of questions and felt like there was a lot that ended up unexplored. Ultimately, it is the story of Calvin and not Teddy or Sandra or Sabrina, but it was kind of hard to get that focus until late in the book. This really amazed me stylistically and thematically though, and I am excited to read other stuff by this author.

The Walking Man by Jirō Taniguchi

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Amazing, but I felt like two of the stories at the end of the book that were drawn in a different style didn't fit the main collection very well and shouldn't have been included. The main stories are some of the best comics I have ever read.

Chihayafuru, Volume 5 by Yuki Suetsugu

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4.0

Chihayafuru, Volume 3 by Yuki Suetsugu

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4.0

Chihayafuru, Volume 4 by Yuki Suetsugu

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4.0

Chihayafuru, Volume 1 by Yuki Suetsugu

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emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced