shawndotbailey's reviews
151 reviews

The Rain in Portugal: Poems by Billy Collins

funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.0

Nice read. Makes you stop and think in a few places. Favorites would be Portrait followed by Helium. 

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Techno-poetic language revealing a

love story

in the end. Although there were some intriguing parts and beautiful language here and there, it drags through the middle. If it wasn't for the viral hype, I would have probably DNF'd a little over halfway through due to its repetitive nature. The ending is satisfying, though not as earth shattering as I was expecting.

Favorite sentence: When you're used to hyperspace recharging stations, to sunlight and cosmic rays, when most of the beauty you've known lies in a great machine's heart, it's hard to see the appeal of using bones that poke from spit-coated gums to mash things that grew in dirt into a paste that will fit down the wet tube connecting your mouth to the sack of acid under your heart.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Reminds me of Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone. A village filled with idiots and superstition. I love how apophenia seeps into every pore of every individual. Not fast moving, but rich in character. Will be reading more from Ottessa.

Favorite sentence: He had nothing left then, only his ravaged brain that held memories in fragments, without words, small, desperate thoughts lifting off the smell of the air.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This reminds me of Cast a Deadly Spell. A noir-like approach to cosmic horror. Beautifully done. 

Favorite sentence: A cataclysm was happening on Parker Place, and below ground the air here smelled of sewage and smoke and the threat of divination. 

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica

dark funny medium-paced

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

4.0

A good read. Stories like Mary Carminum remind me of some of Thomas Ligotti's work.

I love the way she lets her mind flow freely as it results in some very creative and abstract pieces like the one about the girl who wants to be a circle, although stories like Architecture can become so abstract or metaphorical, I have no idea what to pull from them.

Favorite sentence: I had succeeded at stopping the tears and felt it was the moment to produce smiles and ultimately laughter and applause, though never, and in this I am very careful, never hysterical laughter, because this can lead to tears.

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Did not finish book. Stopped at 6%.

This started out good and I was zipping through it (I'm a slow reader, so that means I like the book), but then I hit a scene that I couldn't get past. 

The daughter is sleepwalking and is joined by two others. Something happens to one of the others and they die. Shortly after some more people join the sleepwalking group, then the dad says something to the other daughter akin to "Well, let's get back to the farm. We got work to do. The cops and doctors will take over and handle it." This after a cop caused the death of a walker.

Made no sense whatsoever. I think he was trying to use the 'buried myself in work after trauma' trope, but this doesn't work when your daughter's life is at stake. Makes no sense in any fictional world. 

Could have made the dad agoraphobic. Anything but this.

Audition by Ryū Murakami

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

"Japanese cuisine isn't inclusive at all - in fact, it's extremely inhospitable to outsiders, to people who don't fit into the community." I love these little reflections the main character has. Never thought of some food as xenophobic in nature. And "As if luck, normally dispersed in billions of tiny, free-floating, gemlike particles, had suddenly coalesced in a single beatific vision.." is another. 

This is the second book by Murakami I've read, and it looks like I'll be reading many more. So far, his books seem to follow a detailed slice of life of people with some serious issues. Slow moving, but intriguing until the end.

Piercing by Ryū Murakami

dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I want to write a review, but all I can hear is Julia Michaels singing #Issues 

Harold by Steven Wright

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.5

If you're expecting one liners, well... there are a few, but that's not what this book is about. It's a small boy's daydream with some neat reflections sprinkled throughout. I usually have a favorite sentence from books, maybe two if I'm lucky. I had 13 for this one, and the whole of pages 82 and 83. 

I'm not sure it's my absolute favorite, but I'll give you this sentence from page 4 because I like its statistical improbability: A strange sociopath parakeet drifted through the rectangle causing him to put his head down on his desk and fall asleep. 

If we didn't have a Steven Wright in this timeline, I don't think we would have this sentence. Don't worry. The sentence will make sense as you read.

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

If you like everything on solid ground, then look elsewhere. If you want to go on an adventure that will leave you thinking, then this is the way. Although there are more coherent and interesting lines in the book, the one that stuck with me the most, I'm still not sure I understand fully - "Her story travelled like an ancestor, always ahead of, beside and behind her."