spinstah's reviews
1280 reviews

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

dark tense slow-paced

4.5

I enjoyed this but it’s definitely not for everyone, even setting aside the length. While it switches POV regularly (with interesting stylistic changes for each character), it’s all very interior, so sometimes there’s not a lot actually happening. There’s also a lot to keep track of in terms of how the timelines line up, frankly there’s one key part I’m still not sure about but I decided the details didn’t really matter. I liked the ending, though given the length there really wasn’t any room to do something different there. 

Blackouts by Justin Torres

slow-paced

4.0

This was slow to start for me, but I think I just needed some time to sink into it. While there is a little bit of a plot to hold this together, it’s mostly vibes. I enjoyed the vibe. 

If you’re planning to read this, know that there  are a lot of photos and other elements of this that would be difficult to read on a kindle. 

In the Quick by Kate Hope Day

4.0

This wasn’t quite what I thought it would be based on the description, but it was still good. It’s set in a universe where space exploration isn’t super new but also isn’t super advanced, which I liked. I wish there was a little more depth to it, that we saw just a little bit more of the protagonist’s relationship to a couple of particular characters.

The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths

4.0

I’m still enjoying this series, though I think it’s more for the character development than the myster, which is fine by me! 

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

3.75

There’s a lot going on here and I found it a but difficult to keep track of. The story sort of winds back around itself in interesting ways, but there were also some elements that I think could have been cut to simplify things, without any impact on the main narrative. 

In the kindle edition of this the chapter headings, which set the timeline, are extremely difficult to read due to the font choice, which definitely didn’t help. 

Witch King by Martha Wells
Did not finish book.

Paused this on Sept 26. I’m having trouble separating my opinion so far from how much I want to like this.

Sept 30: Read something else in the meantime and am not interested in picking this back up. 

This was moving pretty slowly. There’s a ton of world building but it’s not the kind that happens as you go along, it’s more passages and descriptions that feel a little out of place to me. Also there is some kind of political thing going on that I suspect is integral to the book but that I do not care about at all.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

adventurous funny fast-paced

5.0

This was super charming! I liked the world of this book and the characters, and really wanted to go to the shop. :D 

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

4.0

Somehow this library loan expired, but didn't disappear from my kindle so I was able to finish it, which is good because I think if I had wound up having to wait for it again, I would've had to start over to keep the thread of the story. This picks up where Annihilation leaves off, but from the perspective of the Southern Reach, the government organization that's running expeditions into Area X. As it turns out, one of the expedition members from the last book was the director, and the new director is trying to untangle the mess of documents and information she left behind. There's a lot of weird internal politics in this one, and some very strange happenings. I'm interested to read the third part.

August 2019: Second time around I feel like there’s still a lot I didn’t quite pick up on, but then again I think that’s the point. There’s supposed to be a certain amount of weird disorientation. The internal politics felt like less of an issue this time as I started to wonder to what extent the people working for the Southern Reach were entirely in control of their own actions.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

5.0

This was really interesting - it's the story of an expedition of nameless women who are sent into "Area X," where something has happened - in the universe of the story, no one seems to know. This is the twelfth expedition, and the story is told from the perspective of the biologist, whose husband was on the previous one. It's strange and unsettling and swings along at a rapid pace. It's the first in a series, which I didn't know initially, but I to plan to read the rest. Definitely recommend this for fans of sci if and dystopian type fiction.

July 2019: rereading these back to back and I was definitely less disoriented this time through. I think I picked up more of the nuance of the story, which will help with the next two installments. Also bumped the rating from 4 to 5, anything that holds up this well on a reread deserves it!

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

4.0

I was not that far into this when I decided that I definitely need to re-read this whole trilogy, back to back. It's so intricate, it took me a bit to remember who people were, and their connections. But, I very much enjoyed this. The surreal aspect of the world is kept up very well in this final installment, but a lot of threads are connect as well. And the ending was satisfying!

August 2019: I did still enjoy this, and the way you can put the pieces together. But there are a couple of scenes that I really don’t think added quite enough to carry their weight, and I would have loved to see those pages used to provide more insight into the lighthouse keeper.