selfiegrandpa's reviews
187 reviews

PTSD Radio, Vol. 1 by Masaaki Nakayama

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

It was okay. 

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Whoa imagine my face when I'm reading the acknowledgements and Donna Tartt makes an appearance! 😱

I enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to, even when I got to the second part and was really questioning if I wanted to continue. I would not say this is horror, but more so has horror elements that really help establish this story. As you continue to dive into the plot, which is very slow burn, the horror also dissipates and becomes more of a steady mystery. I enjoyed the writing and how Darnielle creates scenes you can really feel yourself in.

Although it did feel like the story lost itself for a couple pages in the middle, where everything was just a tad bit too confusing, it really does come together in the end. This is definitely a book I want to reread, knowing everything that is going to happen because I do think it would create an even better experience. I am excited to pick up Darnielle's other books if the writing in those are at all similar to the writing in this.

The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

mysterious medium-paced

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

1.5

In 2024 I really want to make my way through my physical TBR and create better curated bookshelves. Anyway, I finally picked this YA thriller up and despite not really being interested in YA anymore I decided to finish it all.

I'll be short: the way this book spoke about horror movies really grinds my gears. Felt like a very typical "this girl is so quirky and misunderstood" YA trope, but done in an even more unoriginal way. It took too long to get to anything actually exciting and spent far too many pages being repetitive about everyday stuff. I really have nothing else to say other than Bram is a pretty cool first name.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was an okay read. Nothing necessarily exciting, but also nothing so bad that made me pause. I will give it to TJR, her writing style is simple and digestible, I found myself turning the page even when I was questioning some plot choices made. I did feel like this was both too long for the story told and not long enough for the story it wanted to tell. I didn't care for the whole Monique story and reading those scenes just felt so out of place for me. I wanted to hear more about Evelyn and old Hollywood, instead whatever scenes we did get were more surface level stuff. I can admit when a book is not for me and this book just wasn't for me. I was hoping this would have some substance and I'm sorry but that ending was kind of lame.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

I'm not gonna rate this as the majority of it went over my head. I don't think I am at the right stage in my life or in the right headspace for this book. There are elements I really enjoyed and others where I was just so lost. Definitely will be rereading some time later down the road I think. 

Ring by Kōji Suzuki

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The American movie version played a big part in my childhood and to this day I will sometimes get really creeped out remembering certain scenes from the movie and will sleep with the lights on. 

I was really excited to read where it all began and I think it’s extremely fascinating to see how this could have influenced some of the J-horror that followed. I will admit that I didn’t find this as scary as I was hoping, even though there were some creepy feeling scenes, overall any terror I felt was amplified by remembering movie scenes if anything. I would say this is more mystery, thriller than horror. 

I liked how easy it was to get into the story and even when it felt like things may start to drag a little something immediately came up to move everything along. Although I was not the biggest fan of the two main characters, I thought that everyone else was fairly interesting to read about. At times did feel like things came up a little too conveniently, but these were things I could overlook. I know any little thing that might not have done it for me could probably be due to this being a translated work. 

TLDR: I had fun! I’m excited to revisit the movies and I have already ordered the sequel to this book. 

The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade

The same year (1785) that Sade was in prison writing this book, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb published his paper on the electrostatic force between two charges. This is now known and studied as Coulomb’s Law, in which he even has a constant (a Coulomb) named after him. This paper was monumental and allowed for even more discoveries about electromagnetism (my favorite part of physics) to be made. 

Sade is the origin for the word sadism. 

I will not be rating this book other than to say that it is very clear this is an unfinished piece of writing and interesting to see the political aspects (and how they can relate today). 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

There are better reviews out there that perfectly capture why this book was mildly disappointing to read after all the hype. I would like say though that for a book that relies a lot on talking about online discourse, especially Twitter, I wish this was formatted differently. A more mixed media approach would have made for a more enjoyable experience. The ending felt a little too rushed and a pretty obvious "twist", if you want to call it that. 

I do feel that this would make a really fun movie, one where we're not just in this character's head the whole time. I did enjoy the overall concept, but the execution just didn't do it for me. Still interested to read Kuang's other books. 

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Many have already mentioned this, but this book really drags on until about the last 50 pages where it actually feels like something is happening. My biggest gripe is that Eileen spends, what feels like, every other paragraph alluding to what is going to happen as if to build suspense. However, this makes the book feel like one big tease to, what I feel, an ending that isn't big enough to pay off. We get to learn about Eileen and her weird habits and thoughts (none of which I think are really truly repulsive) and yet it feels like I gained nothing that I couldn't have gained with 100 less pages. 

I wish there had been more of a build up with Rebecca and interactions between them. I feel this would have solidified Eileen's reasoning more than just her rambling about how great Rebecca was. This really was a lot of just talk instead of showing. The ending didn't feel satisfying and honestly felt extremely rushed compared to the rest of the book where there were paragraphs upon paragraphs of very similar things. 

Yet despite that all, I did still enjoy it enough to keep turning the page. I do really enjoy Moshfegh's writing and her ability to write characters are just interesting enough to keep me in engaged. I do also think that she did a really job with creating a really cold, wintery atmosphere and that really added a nice vibe to this. Overall, I am actually excited to see how they brought this to life in the movie.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I like what this book could have been; the concept of being trapped in an home that's not yours with strangers as things happen that you cannot explain. But oh my god is this book so full of itself, I had to constantly stop and ask myself if what the author was writing actually served any purpose to the story or if they were just trying to meet some type of word count. I am not sure if it's the writing that makes it hard to actually like any of the characters and flat out makes me hate that family. 

I feel this book suffers from too little real substance and too much yapping. The mystery really only works if I actually want to keep reading what the characters are going through. The last 15% of this book was where fun and exciting stuff actually happens. Other than that, it was just a bunch of weird sexual references, whole lot of swimming, and 50 words instead of the necessary one or two to describe an action. Also felt extremely shallow for what I think it was trying to prove as whatever message there was, was lost in the miles long paragraphs of overall ramblings that added nothing to the plot.

I was really excited about this because of that new Netflix movie (which I will now be watching), but alas I also have not heard good things it too.