Take a photo of a barcode or cover
porgyreads's reviews
148 reviews
Celestial by Olivia Wildenstein
3.75
This was kind of a slay. We love stand alones with interconnected narratives. Is it gonna win a pulitzer? No. Did I enjoy myself? Absolutely.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2.0
Do not let the short time it took me to finish this book fool you. The way exposition is so heavy handed in the dialogue? yuck HATED it. This is essentially the blood trials with dragons, except with less intricate world building and the most tenuous enemies to lovers trope known to man. Sigh.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
funny
informative
reflective
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
I really hoped I would love this but I wasn’t half aware of how much I would, or the reasons why. Selin is such a interesting character whose observations and descriptions and choice of words are so obviously the product of herself it’s really wonderful. It always takes a bit of time for a book to really sink in when I’m in awe of what has been accomplished. I also love how closely it treads beside creative non-fiction. It is a book about learning where you are learning as the character learns, but you cannot guess the content being thrown at you. It kept me captivated and also hurt my brain because I wanted to try to store as much of it as possible. Desperate for a hard copy but I HATE the UK covers so much it makes me feel nauseous. Give me the pink book with the big rock and let me live!
Six Scorched Roses by Carissa Broadbent
4.0
Did it reinvent the wheel? No.
Did I enjoy the payoff of a main character who is obsessed and emotionally stunted by her relationship to her mortality and the mortality of those around her developing a relationship with a vampire? Of course. Of course I did.
Did I enjoy the payoff of a main character who is obsessed and emotionally stunted by her relationship to her mortality and the mortality of those around her developing a relationship with a vampire? Of course. Of course I did.
The Wingspan of Severed Hands by Joe Koch
challenging
dark
tense
4.5
I was following and then I was very lost. The labyrinth of the plot was not nearly as appealing as that of the language used. Kind of leaves you feeling like you’ve been shocked with ridiculous amount of electricity and then lived to tell the tale.
So cool. So so cool.
So cool. So so cool.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
5.0
Suzanne Collins is a genius tbh, not many could pull of what she has achieved. The hunger games trilogy is a juggernaut and cultural touchstone even now but to write a prequel that contextualises the trilogy, expands the world and remarks upon so many of the philosophical questions of the games in a completely new way? To challenge the readers years later now older and wiser to see the content of the books in a more nuanced light? Honestly she deserves all the flowers.
So impressive and courageous to choose to follow snow and this “forgotten hunger games” knowing that it’s relationship to what katniss faces 65 years later. It’s importance is held not in the action of the games footage but of its erasure.
Snow as a character is compelling, an accurately morally grey character from the first chapter. He is manipulative and sociopathic, his empathy although employed is always tinged with a readiness to play toward his own selfish causes, he is judgemental and smart and worst of all naive enough to be indoctrinated and manipulated by Gaul at times.
His moral decline chafes the reader in the most sublime way because as the main character we want to root for him. We are like - it or not - invested in his legacy. And though you can never justify the means to his end you don’t wish for a different end because you can’t! it’s fixed before you read the very first page. There is no will he or won’t he become a villain, it’s more so: how does his life experiences shape his villainy? what are the things that he believes to be true and how did these truths develop?
I’m sure lots of people hate this book because all the things that draw you to the OG trilogy are inverted here. The book is about the hunger games, but the actual games features isn’t even half of the book’s content. Every page is in conversation with the very essence of the hunger games ideology as well as the trilogy. We watch what they mean to snow and those around him evolve. And we watch how the past influences the future. He faces adversity like all protagonists must and yet, every piece that should make him as sympathetic to the rebel cause (as sejanus - the perfect foil - is) does the complete opposite.
The ending is a tragedy of multiple shades. It’s tragic for almost all characters apart from him (and Dr Gaul) his tragedy isn’t actually in these pages but in how the trilogy ends, in district 13’s triumph. It casts the spark of rebellion during his reign as the greatest tragedy for him to live through because of his main goal is to prevent chaos. At first in his own life and then in the entirety of Panem. His desires to control the population and prevent another rebellion are ultimately to prevent him from ever having his agency robbed. Making him the perfect protagonist and subsequent antagonist. All because he doesn’t have the imagination to invision a future where peace can be maintained without bloodshed.
That’s award worthy stuff.
I honestly have no idea how they’ll capture the tug of war invoked within the reader and their relationship to snow on screen, since I think the beauty of the book is that the audience must root for him one page/chapter and condemning him the next, knowing for 65 years he triumphs regardless. But i will be seated.
So impressive and courageous to choose to follow snow and this “forgotten hunger games” knowing that it’s relationship to what katniss faces 65 years later. It’s importance is held not in the action of the games footage but of its erasure.
Snow as a character is compelling, an accurately morally grey character from the first chapter. He is manipulative and sociopathic, his empathy although employed is always tinged with a readiness to play toward his own selfish causes, he is judgemental and smart and worst of all naive enough to be indoctrinated and manipulated by Gaul at times.
His moral decline chafes the reader in the most sublime way because as the main character we want to root for him. We are like - it or not - invested in his legacy. And though you can never justify the means to his end you don’t wish for a different end because you can’t! it’s fixed before you read the very first page. There is no will he or won’t he become a villain, it’s more so: how does his life experiences shape his villainy? what are the things that he believes to be true and how did these truths develop?
I’m sure lots of people hate this book because all the things that draw you to the OG trilogy are inverted here. The book is about the hunger games, but the actual games features isn’t even half of the book’s content. Every page is in conversation with the very essence of the hunger games ideology as well as the trilogy. We watch what they mean to snow and those around him evolve. And we watch how the past influences the future. He faces adversity like all protagonists must and yet, every piece that should make him as sympathetic to the rebel cause (as sejanus - the perfect foil - is) does the complete opposite.
The ending is a tragedy of multiple shades. It’s tragic for almost all characters apart from him (and Dr Gaul) his tragedy isn’t actually in these pages but in how the trilogy ends, in district 13’s triumph. It casts the spark of rebellion during his reign as the greatest tragedy for him to live through because of his main goal is to prevent chaos. At first in his own life and then in the entirety of Panem. His desires to control the population and prevent another rebellion are ultimately to prevent him from ever having his agency robbed. Making him the perfect protagonist and subsequent antagonist. All because he doesn’t have the imagination to invision a future where peace can be maintained without bloodshed.
That’s award worthy stuff.
I honestly have no idea how they’ll capture the tug of war invoked within the reader and their relationship to snow on screen, since I think the beauty of the book is that the audience must root for him one page/chapter and condemning him the next, knowing for 65 years he triumphs regardless. But i will be seated.
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 68%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 68%.
I might come back to it tbh mood readers go brazy