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ribbenkast's reviews
77 reviews
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
fast-paced
3.0
It's genuinly beautifully written but I feel like the strong prose and the extensive metaphores were hiding the the fact that the book barely has any substance. I really like the rotting paradise imagery, it was very evocative. But the plot didn't have enough built up and bulk to warrant it. It feels like a waste.
I don't think I'm the right audience. Im Dutch and I don't know much about Norwegian literature. But the "weirdness" of this book is bog-standard Ducth lit nonsense. I think this book was meant to shock me somehow. And from that shock it wanted me to draw the conclusion that this book must have a deeper meaning. But to me it wasn't shocking, maybe this works better on less desensitised audiences. Long overly descriptive passages about piss don't necessarily make a book literary or deep, unfortunately.
I loved the themes and I desperately wanted to connect more with this book, but when I finished I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.
I don't think I'm the right audience. Im Dutch and I don't know much about Norwegian literature. But the "weirdness" of this book is bog-standard Ducth lit nonsense. I think this book was meant to shock me somehow. And from that shock it wanted me to draw the conclusion that this book must have a deeper meaning. But to me it wasn't shocking, maybe this works better on less desensitised audiences. Long overly descriptive passages about piss don't necessarily make a book literary or deep, unfortunately.
I loved the themes and I desperately wanted to connect more with this book, but when I finished I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
funny
reflective
tense
2.25
When I started reading this book, I truly thought this book was going to be 5 stars. The more I kept on reading the worse it became. The ending belongs in a 1 star book. So let's meet in the middle?
The Postmortal is written in 2011 and tells the story of an alternative timeline where in 2019 the cure for ageing (not the cure for death) is discovered. It tells this story through the diary entries of the main characters John Farrel in 2019, 2029, 2059 and 2079. This is all intermixed with selected news excerpts, online posts and interviews John finds relevant to share with us.
This all sounds great, and it's a great way to tell the story. The book gets a bit philosophical with what such a cure would mean for all of us, what to do with overpopulation climate change, what does this mean for politics and hpw do we punish crimes if live in prison really means forever? Admitedly this book has a very politcally American take l, but hey the book takes place in America so can you blame the author? The writing is at times very funny as well.
But oh boy, does the positive end there. The main character is an unlikeable asshole who's only interested in himself and his self interest. This would be okay, authors write unlikeable protagonists all the time, however the way the book is written makes me feel like this wasn't on purpose. Drew Magaray probably set out to create an every day American man. This man never sees the consequences of his bad behaviour. He gets the girls, the money, and even the undeserved unconditiona love of his family who he has abandoned multiple times.
I am confused by the author's note where Drew Magaray thanks his wife and children. This is because I am convinced Drew has never spoken to a woman, ever. Every woman in this book is obsessed with having children, and that's it. That's their only personality trait, besides being inexplicably immediately into this douchebag of a man. Not to mention, not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 separate women get fridged to further his character arc. Besides being really weird about women, this book is also weird about its descriptions of black people (which is impressive because there aren't barely any).
The ending completely went off the rails and turned into a self-indulgent action movie of some sorts completly stepping away from the original draw of the book. It was a chore to get through and I had to push myself to finish because at that point the sunk cost fallacy was too big.
I'm honestly very upset that this book was this bad. Last year, Drew Magaray's book The Hike pulled me out of an 8 year reading slump. I went from reading 1-2 books every summer to reading 5+ books a month. This book nearly put me back into one.
The Postmortal is written in 2011 and tells the story of an alternative timeline where in 2019 the cure for ageing (not the cure for death) is discovered. It tells this story through the diary entries of the main characters John Farrel in 2019, 2029, 2059 and 2079. This is all intermixed with selected news excerpts, online posts and interviews John finds relevant to share with us.
This all sounds great, and it's a great way to tell the story. The book gets a bit philosophical with what such a cure would mean for all of us, what to do with overpopulation climate change, what does this mean for politics and hpw do we punish crimes if live in prison really means forever? Admitedly this book has a very politcally American take l, but hey the book takes place in America so can you blame the author? The writing is at times very funny as well.
But oh boy, does the positive end there. The main character is an unlikeable asshole who's only interested in himself and his self interest. This would be okay, authors write unlikeable protagonists all the time, however the way the book is written makes me feel like this wasn't on purpose. Drew Magaray probably set out to create an every day American man. This man never sees the consequences of his bad behaviour. He gets the girls, the money, and even the undeserved unconditiona love of his family who he has abandoned multiple times.
I am confused by the author's note where Drew Magaray thanks his wife and children. This is because I am convinced Drew has never spoken to a woman, ever. Every woman in this book is obsessed with having children, and that's it. That's their only personality trait, besides being inexplicably immediately into this douchebag of a man. Not to mention, not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 separate women get fridged to further his character arc. Besides being really weird about women, this book is also weird about its descriptions of black people (which is impressive because there aren't barely any).
The ending completely went off the rails and turned into a self-indulgent action movie of some sorts completly stepping away from the original draw of the book. It was a chore to get through and I had to push myself to finish because at that point the sunk cost fallacy was too big.
I'm honestly very upset that this book was this bad. Last year, Drew Magaray's book The Hike pulled me out of an 8 year reading slump. I went from reading 1-2 books every summer to reading 5+ books a month. This book nearly put me back into one.
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Not sure what would be worse. If there was no actual sex in this book or if there was. You can tell that the author is truly self indulging in her kinks. Which is 100% okay I do not intent to kinkshame here. However so far it is taking the cowards way out by trying to still be marktable as a fantasy novel.
Either the horniness should've been editted down or this should be a cnc kink novel marketed as such. Now it's neither. I'm pretty sure I've read more selfaware stuff on A03, where it comes with the approptiate content warnings.
Either the horniness should've been editted down or this should be a cnc kink novel marketed as such. Now it's neither. I'm pretty sure I've read more selfaware stuff on A03, where it comes with the approptiate content warnings.
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
The prose of this book was beautiful, you can really see that MacKenzie is a poet. The book is a beautiful transformative text of two of the first written texts by women in English. I love the creativy of the concept and the love that went into this book.
But other than that, it felt a bit... boring? Part 1 (which was a 130 out of 164 pages) kept dragging on a bit too long. The meeting between Julian and Margery could've been fleshed out a bit more, that probably would've made a bigger impact. It's a good book, but I wish it made a bigger impact on me as well.
But other than that, it felt a bit... boring? Part 1 (which was a 130 out of 164 pages) kept dragging on a bit too long. The meeting between Julian and Margery could've been fleshed out a bit more, that probably would've made a bigger impact. It's a good book, but I wish it made a bigger impact on me as well.
You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
2.75
The premise of this book is strong, a report of the found bemusings of a serial killer; transcripts of sound recordings, diary entries, poems, intertwined with another horror novella written by said serial killer.
The execution, less so..
The writing is unfortunately not that strong. The poems are cliché and most prose lacked substance. The bad writing for the poems and in the novella could theoreticall be explained away as LaRocca simply writing in another voice, the voice of the character, named Martyr Black, he has created. But in the least spoilerly way, that is not the case. The writing is unfortunately just not that great, not because LaRocca was trying to do something clever, they just didn't write a better book.
Overall the book felt very disjointed. It felt like LaRocca came op with too many concepts that on their own wouldn't be enough to base even a short story on so he threw them all together in one book. The novella within the novel was the best part but it has zero thematic resonance with the rest of the overarching story. This could've been done way better.
There's a small "twist" at the end which I really liked. The ending was strong and it made me see what the author was getting at the entire time. However it was somewhat poorly forshadowed. I feel like If the author went back and tweaked some things in the poetry and the Novella that the book would've worked way better overall.
Last year I read 'Things have gotten worse since we last spoke' and absolutely loved it. In my eyes, Eric LaRocca had cemented themselves as one of the new voices in horror. But now I'm afraid it might have been a one off
The execution, less so..
The writing is unfortunately not that strong. The poems are cliché and most prose lacked substance. The bad writing for the poems and in the novella could theoreticall be explained away as LaRocca simply writing in another voice, the voice of the character, named Martyr Black, he has created. But in the least spoilerly way, that is not the case. The writing is unfortunately just not that great, not because LaRocca was trying to do something clever, they just didn't write a better book.
Overall the book felt very disjointed. It felt like LaRocca came op with too many concepts that on their own wouldn't be enough to base even a short story on so he threw them all together in one book. The novella within the novel was the best part but it has zero thematic resonance with the rest of the overarching story. This could've been done way better.
There's a small "twist" at the end which I really liked. The ending was strong and it made me see what the author was getting at the entire time. However it was somewhat poorly forshadowed. I feel like If the author went back and tweaked some things in the poetry and the Novella that the book would've worked way better overall.
Last year I read 'Things have gotten worse since we last spoke' and absolutely loved it. In my eyes, Eric LaRocca had cemented themselves as one of the new voices in horror. But now I'm afraid it might have been a one off
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
Much like Khaled Hosseni's first novel The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns has been met with an abundance of praise. I'm here to ad to the chorus.
Hosseni's writing style is pehnominal. The prose is beautiful and heartbreaking. The literary crafstsmanship just on an alinea level is so impressive. Hosseni builts tension, writes character forward and really understands the meaning of showing, not telling.
On a macro level, It becomes even more impressive. They way how things are forshadowed, how everything seems circular. There's a certain thought to this writing that surpasses the story that's being written.
In a Thousand Splendid Suns we follow the lives of two women throughout the turmoil of Afghanistan's history. A history that's probably unknown to most Westerners, beyond the Soviet infasion and the aftermath of 9/11. Something the text rightfully calls out.
As said before, Hosseni writers very character forward, we get to see how this political unrest and war effects the lives of normal people in Kabul. This story is not a happy story and shows two women surving a society that has always been blinded by a seething hatred for women. It does so without blaming religion. By the end, I was in tears.
This is such a profound book, I think everyone should read this at least once in their lives.
Hosseni's writing style is pehnominal. The prose is beautiful and heartbreaking. The literary crafstsmanship just on an alinea level is so impressive. Hosseni builts tension, writes character forward and really understands the meaning of showing, not telling.
On a macro level, It becomes even more impressive. They way how things are forshadowed, how everything seems circular. There's a certain thought to this writing that surpasses the story that's being written.
In a Thousand Splendid Suns we follow the lives of two women throughout the turmoil of Afghanistan's history. A history that's probably unknown to most Westerners, beyond the Soviet infasion and the aftermath of 9/11. Something the text rightfully calls out.
As said before, Hosseni writers very character forward, we get to see how this political unrest and war effects the lives of normal people in Kabul. This story is not a happy story and shows two women surving a society that has always been blinded by a seething hatred for women. It does so without blaming religion. By the end, I was in tears.
This is such a profound book, I think everyone should read this at least once in their lives.
Wat wij zagen by Hanna Bervoets
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Specifieke extra content warnings voor Holocaust ontkenning en anti semitisme
Prince of Lust by Lucien Burr
dark
funny
fast-paced
2.75
It was,,, alright. The plot part of the book, although short, was actually fun and tense. Some of the prose was surprisingly poetic as well.
But the erotica didn't go anywhere if I'm being honest. It was mostly a lot of swear words l, all bark no bite.
It's weird to say about an erotica novella but this probably would've worked better as a longer horror novel with more plot between the sex scenes (in the style of Katee Roberts books for example.) There's themes about religious imposed self hatred, abuse of power in the church, even class struggle that where touched upon which honestly where more interesting than the sex. Expanding would make for a more interesting read.
Also, the theological implictions of this. Why is no one thinking about the implictions!
But the erotica didn't go anywhere if I'm being honest. It was mostly a lot of swear words l, all bark no bite.
It's weird to say about an erotica novella but this probably would've worked better as a longer horror novel with more plot between the sex scenes (in the style of Katee Roberts books for example.) There's themes about religious imposed self hatred, abuse of power in the church, even class struggle that where touched upon which honestly where more interesting than the sex. Expanding would make for a more interesting read.
Also, the theological implictions of this. Why is no one thinking about the implictions!
To Cage a God by Elizabeth May
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
If I had to describe this book in one word it's: ambitious. Full disclosure I am not (yet) a big fantasy reader so maybe I'm a bit too easily impressed. However I did think the world building was great. The magic system was set up really well, it had clear draw backs and limitations and the way the world and its politcs was shaped around the magic system was intriguing.
I loved that the story started essentially in the middle. Our main characters Sera and Galina are essentially roped back into a revolution that their mother started when they can no longer ignore the cruelties of the empress once more. It felt like a very natural point to start from.
I found the characters well written for the most part. I liked that characters could be flawed and complicated such as Irina. There's room for the characters trauma, and the character with chronic pain was handled very well. But the author did not become unnecessarily preachy by giving the empress complicated motivations. She's another monarch in a line of evil monarchs. A fun villain that for once gets to be the villain without a redemption arc.
I had some minor qualms about the writing. Mostly, sometimes it's okay to use the word "said"! Furthermor, Elizabeth May is not that good in "showing" and oftens opts for "telling" us instead how characters feel.
Sometimes the characters behaved in ways that seemed a bit weird to me, especially when it came to the romance. People (Galina mostly) where a little bit too quick to betray their own ideals. I also wonder if Sera and Vitaly ever just hang and have a good time, or is their romance just based on indescribable lust?
I found this easy to get over though, these are just classic romantasy tropes I think. I'm not a romance reader either, but I understand the appeal of characters that need to stay at least 20 feet away from me irl.
In fiction sometimes the plot needs to be driving by things that would be horrible if they happened in the real world. Vitaly would be extremely annoying, obsessive and downright dangerous if he was real, but on the page he was absolutely endearing. I'd assume one would be a better communicator before entering a marriage, but Sera downright refuses to be honest with the person we can assume she loves the most. Yet, the romantic intrigue works for me. If you don't like romance plots that hinge miscommunication maybe don't pick this one up.
Overall the book was a fun romp, the ending was a nice climax and satisfying. If this doesn't get a sequel I can live with it. If it does I would gladly pick it up.
I loved that the story started essentially in the middle. Our main characters Sera and Galina are essentially roped back into a revolution that their mother started when they can no longer ignore the cruelties of the empress once more. It felt like a very natural point to start from.
I found the characters well written for the most part. I liked that characters could be flawed and complicated such as Irina. There's room for the characters trauma, and the character with chronic pain was handled very well. But the author did not become unnecessarily preachy by giving the empress complicated motivations. She's another monarch in a line of evil monarchs. A fun villain that for once gets to be the villain without a redemption arc.
I had some minor qualms about the writing. Mostly, sometimes it's okay to use the word "said"! Furthermor, Elizabeth May is not that good in "showing" and oftens opts for "telling" us instead how characters feel.
Sometimes the characters behaved in ways that seemed a bit weird to me, especially when it came to the romance. People (Galina mostly) where a little bit too quick to betray their own ideals. I also wonder if Sera and Vitaly ever just hang and have a good time, or is their romance just based on indescribable lust?
I found this easy to get over though, these are just classic romantasy tropes I think. I'm not a romance reader either, but I understand the appeal of characters that need to stay at least 20 feet away from me irl.
In fiction sometimes the plot needs to be driving by things that would be horrible if they happened in the real world. Vitaly would be extremely annoying, obsessive and downright dangerous if he was real, but on the page he was absolutely endearing. I'd assume one would be a better communicator before entering a marriage, but Sera downright refuses to be honest with the person we can assume she loves the most. Yet, the romantic intrigue works for me. If you don't like romance plots that hinge miscommunication maybe don't pick this one up.
Overall the book was a fun romp, the ending was a nice climax and satisfying. If this doesn't get a sequel I can live with it. If it does I would gladly pick it up.
Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Nishioka Kyodai
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
The art in this manga/graphic novel was stunning. I deeply connected with it. Even without the text it felt like visual poetry. Every "shot" felt so intentional and the framing was so well done I wish I could give this book 5 stars just for that. Some highlights: The Vulture, The Trial, The Hunger Artist.
However, as an adaptation it doesn't really work. I'm sorry to admit that I have yet to read any actual Kafka. I bought this book both for the art and I to dip my toe in the water of his work. Some of the short stories are nearly incomprehensible if you haven't read the original unfortunately. Even though the metamorphosis is quite arguably one of Kafka's most famous stories, I found it really hard to follow. This felt a bit alienating to me, as I don't think you can expect your reader to read 9 whole other books in order to comprehend a 170 page manga.
It did make me excited to actually start reading Kafka now.
However, as an adaptation it doesn't really work. I'm sorry to admit that I have yet to read any actual Kafka. I bought this book both for the art and I to dip my toe in the water of his work. Some of the short stories are nearly incomprehensible if you haven't read the original unfortunately. Even though the metamorphosis is quite arguably one of Kafka's most famous stories, I found it really hard to follow. This felt a bit alienating to me, as I don't think you can expect your reader to read 9 whole other books in order to comprehend a 170 page manga.
It did make me excited to actually start reading Kafka now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror