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rebeccazh's reviews
2624 reviews
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
The descriptions of anxiety/nerves were really good. This is the last happy book in the series. I love reading about the Triwizard Tournaments. Harry pitting himself against the first and second task and excelling are just so cool and satisfying to read about.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Rereading this series after Cursed Child made me thoroughly disgruntled and made me miss these familiar characters. Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix is when it all starts getting grim -- a death a book; oh, Harry. First Cedric, now Sirius. He's so angry in this book. But after Sirius died, Harry becomes so withdrawn and quiet. He doesn't speak for pages. Oh, Harry.
Reading about the students' uprising is as vicariously satisfying as ever. Fred and George's epic departure from Hogwarts is one of those mic drop moments. Umbridge is really that villain you love to hate.
It's so good being back in this world, reading about the familiar, beloved characters and discovering the wizarding world along with Harry. I love JK Rowling's style too.
Reading about the students' uprising is as vicariously satisfying as ever. Fred and George's epic departure from Hogwarts is one of those mic drop moments. Umbridge is really that villain you love to hate.
It's so good being back in this world, reading about the familiar, beloved characters and discovering the wizarding world along with Harry. I love JK Rowling's style too.
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
I love this book. This book is an epic tale of love, sacrifice, courage and endurance. Sorcha's immense strength to carry on is frankly amazing. She is that rare combination of softness and strength. Of course, I cried reading her ordeals. The injustices she has to swallow and the suffering she has to endure is heartbreaking.
I loved her close relationship with her brothers. And I loved that she saved her brothers by sewing and defied others by her silence. It's a subversive and subtle strength. It's like Dorothy Parker's poem, Penelope. It's a different kind of strength that the patriarchal world doesn't recognize and dismisses/underestimates it.
The ending bit felt anticlimatic. There was graphic rape in the book, but when it came to Sorcha and Red -- all that build-up to show a loving, consensual relationship was wasted. It felt anticlimatic. There was a point the book had been making/building towards -- sex is not always ugly -- but when it came to the moment where the point was supposed to be made, it was glossed over in a short paragraph. The whole part after Red found Sorcha again felt like a pale imitation of everything that had previously came before; the story there was strangely pallid, lifeless and slow-moving. None of the vibrancy and strength of the other parts of Sorcha's story. Pretty anticlimatic ending. Life returns with a whimper, not a bang.
But anyway, I do love this book. My favourite Juliet Marillier book lbr.
I loved her close relationship with her brothers. And I loved that she saved her brothers by sewing and defied others by her silence. It's a subversive and subtle strength. It's like Dorothy Parker's poem, Penelope. It's a different kind of strength that the patriarchal world doesn't recognize and dismisses/underestimates it.
The ending bit felt anticlimatic. There was graphic rape in the book, but when it came to Sorcha and Red -- all that build-up to show a loving, consensual relationship was wasted. It felt anticlimatic. There was a point the book had been making/building towards -- sex is not always ugly -- but when it came to the moment where the point was supposed to be made, it was glossed over in a short paragraph. The whole part after Red found Sorcha again felt like a pale imitation of everything that had previously came before; the story there was strangely pallid, lifeless and slow-moving. None of the vibrancy and strength of the other parts of Sorcha's story. Pretty anticlimatic ending. Life returns with a whimper, not a bang.
But anyway, I do love this book. My favourite Juliet Marillier book lbr.
Emma by Jane Austen
Had to reread this for a module I'm taking and I was surprised by how much I missed the first time round. It's a lot more revolutionary than it appears.
One of the biggest differences from what I remembered was that I used to think it was a love story. And I liked both Knightley and Emma. Now, I wouldn't call this a love story, because it's about Emma, the heroine of fancy and imagination. She's like a budding young author who goes around trying to rewrite everyone's narratives (and fails, because her world is too closed off from the outside world). This time rereading, I found that I didn't like Knightley. He's always moralising. I couldn't stand Emma at first, although I loved her characterisation, but I like who she became near the end of the novel. I think the romance in the novel is really actually secondary to Emma's story.
And the writing is so complex! The narrator's voice is really subtle at times. It's cool reading this the second round, because I see how much is packed into the writing. All the multiple layers of meanings, all the different characters' and their reactions and interpretations... Also, there were some parts that were just hilarious.
I liked Jane Fairfax a lot more than I remember. This book is really revolutionary, because Jane is what you would expect of a typical heroine. Her moral dilemma with Frank causes her so much distress and would make a pretty good novel by itself. And yet the story is about Emma. Spoilt, presumptuous, overly self-confident and overbearing Emma. I loved her as a character but didn't like her at all as a person, and still I would rather read about her than Jane.
One of the things that interested me was the way Austen viewed class hierarchies. She seemed to see the relationship between the gentry and the lower class in a similar way to the relationship between landlords and tenants. The gentry's duty is to be guardians of civility and manners, and to, in a way, take care of the lower classes. But, no matter how much good feeling exists between the two groups, they could never truly mix nor be equals. Knightley and Robert Martin are friends, and Knightley sort of guides and looks after Robert Martin, but he would never invite the latter to dinner.
So, on the surface, the story of a woman who realizes her mistakes and finds true love, but I think it's a lot more destabilising than that. It's about a woman who has to learn to balance her solipsistic inner world with the outer world, so that she can achieve a clarity in her understanding of the world.
One of the biggest differences from what I remembered was that I used to think it was a love story. And I liked both Knightley and Emma. Now, I wouldn't call this a love story, because it's about Emma, the heroine of fancy and imagination. She's like a budding young author who goes around trying to rewrite everyone's narratives (and fails, because her world is too closed off from the outside world). This time rereading, I found that I didn't like Knightley. He's always moralising. I couldn't stand Emma at first, although I loved her characterisation, but I like who she became near the end of the novel. I think the romance in the novel is really actually secondary to Emma's story.
And the writing is so complex! The narrator's voice is really subtle at times. It's cool reading this the second round, because I see how much is packed into the writing. All the multiple layers of meanings, all the different characters' and their reactions and interpretations... Also, there were some parts that were just hilarious.
I liked Jane Fairfax a lot more than I remember. This book is really revolutionary, because Jane is what you would expect of a typical heroine. Her moral dilemma with Frank causes her so much distress and would make a pretty good novel by itself. And yet the story is about Emma. Spoilt, presumptuous, overly self-confident and overbearing Emma. I loved her as a character but didn't like her at all as a person, and still I would rather read about her than Jane.
One of the things that interested me was the way Austen viewed class hierarchies. She seemed to see the relationship between the gentry and the lower class in a similar way to the relationship between landlords and tenants. The gentry's duty is to be guardians of civility and manners, and to, in a way, take care of the lower classes. But, no matter how much good feeling exists between the two groups, they could never truly mix nor be equals. Knightley and Robert Martin are friends, and Knightley sort of guides and looks after Robert Martin, but he would never invite the latter to dinner.
So, on the surface, the story of a woman who realizes her mistakes and finds true love, but I think it's a lot more destabilising than that. It's about a woman who has to learn to balance her solipsistic inner world with the outer world, so that she can achieve a clarity in her understanding of the world.