susana82's reviews
164 reviews

O Doutor Jivago by Boris Pasternak

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This is one of those books that takes me time to read because, well, it's a thick book, but more importantly, very dense.
It feels like a lot of this book includes thoughts from the author himself about Russia back in those days pre and post revolution, and civil war.
We follow a few characters from a young age, including, of course, doctor Jivago. We get to see them grow under huge difficulties, and... oh, what a life, their adult lives are no better!
We follow mostly Jivago, and the way he lives shows us in depth the harshness of life during those decades after the end of the Czars, WWI, the civil war putting Whites and Red under confrontation, and even WWII. We can see how initially people were so open about the revolution, but then how things got so difficult since there was an incredible amount of brutality, Russian against Russian. People lived in misery prior to the revolution, but things got no better after that. And along these terrible years we see Jivago's life entangled first with Tonia, his wife, later with Larissa, his lover, and also how the post revolution takes him away from some people, and again entagles him with others.
There is no joy in this book. None. It is sad, feels depressive, like a grey Winter that never ends. This book is filled with the brutality of people against each other and even the harsh Winters that made people's lives all the worst.
This book definitely needed some serious editing, as there is no need for it to be so dense. There are too many boring passages with religious topics, which I don't find interesting at all and add little to the plot. But I guess that portraits well the way they thought and lived back then. Many of the passages about the revolution and civil war are also too long and dense. They feel like they are appendixes to the story. Pages and pages where we don't even get to follow the main plot anymore. Just following the depressive life back then; the lack of food, the violence, the cold... 
I didn't like any of the characters either, didn't engage with them. I felt like I only got to know them superficially. They all feel depressive, like the weather.
With that being said, despite this being a difficult book to read, it is at the same time a great chronicle that portraits really well the difficulties and brutality of the time. What people believed in, and fought for, how things changed over time, how people made enourmous sacrifices to stay alive, how they accepted that life is harsh. But they live with few moments of joy, and everything feels, well... depressive. 

Beren e Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien

adventurous challenging sad tense 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

3.75

This is supposed to be the greatest of love stories, but I don't really think it is.
There is some epicness to it, and the base of the story is good, but I didn't find it amazing.
However, the imagination of Tolkien is quite amazing, of course.
We do not follow a straight timeline for this story. The narration of the story and its making go back and fourth in time, and not only in prose but also in verse. We get to read different versions of the story where many important events are changed or replaced by others, and even the names of some characters are altered, or some characters are added while others disappear.
Tolkien could spend a long time working on a story with all its details, and then would abandon it to dedicate himself to other things, and then he would have no problems to start from zero and write the story in a different direction and make as many changes as he thought better.
It was both confusing and quite interesting to read the different versions, and along with other small complementary texts that only enrich the world of Middle Earth.
Tolkien spends a lot of time adding a lot of details or creating alternative versions, but sometimes I wish he could spend more time on the same story and give it as much detail as he did the Lord of the Rings, for instance.
Nonetheless, this is a nice book.

Um coração simples by Gustave Flaubert

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.25

This is a book with 2 short storiew: "A simple heart", and "The legend of Saint Julian the Hospitalier".

We follow Felicité in "A simple heart" from a young age until her death. We get to see her falling in love, but also having her feelings betrayed, and once she was afraid to love again, she dedicates her life as a maid. She goes through life in a dedicated and humble way. She owns nothing of her own, but she is kind. She grows fond of the people in her surroundings, and faces loss after loss through the years until we finally lose Felicité.

It might seem a too much of a humble and insignificant life, but... it is not. Even simple lives as this matter.

The second story introduces us to Julian who seemed like he was going to have a brilliant life, but I couldn't care for him much during most of the story. He behaves like a psychopath killing every single wild animal around him. Always eager to spill blood and the end result is carnage around him.

Years go by, he ends up being afraid of engaging in such carnage as before, goes on adventures and finally he marries the daughter of a lord. He might have had a good ending, but he caves in again to his murderous cravings and without meaning it, commits the murders he was afraid to. Lives the rest of his days as an hermit and does one final good deed.

O Pregador Atormentado by Thomas Hardy

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

This was a short and easy story to read. I was expecting something serious, but it actually ended up being funnier.
Simple story with a simple plot. A young minister falla for his tenant, a young atractive widow. If at first it might seemed as if the widow was a bit too flirtaceous, she was in fact hidding an obscure business not only of her own but of the entire village, which then causes some discomfort with the minister.
The end came short and according to what was expected at the time  although Hardy had another less romantic ending for our minister.
The story might have been more developed, as well as its characters, but for a quick read, this was fine.

A Christmas Carol (Amazonclassics Edition) by Charles Dickens

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

No wonder this is such a classic and so many times adapted to the visual arts.
Dickens writting is excelent, specially for the time. He doesn't sound so heavy or flourished as other writers, but still manages to keep us engaged in elegant style and with enough world building.
We follow the cold-hearted, cheap, and unkind Scrooge. Not empathic, not understanding, always grumpy. And one Christnas eve night he is visited by a Ghost and Three Spirits from Past, Present and Future whi show him what was, what is, and things that were yet to come. And these visits he is able to do, or visions he is able to see, teach him a lesson and soften his heart.
During the story it is plain to see about the poor people's difficulties, and how cruel life can be for those who have very little to none. At the same time, people, as poir as they are, still find some joy in simple things as comforting food, good company, old songs, and play.
Things for us to keep in mind all year long.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Nice little story. We follow Sara, a little girl that was born into riches. She goes to London and joins a boarding school while her father is away doing his business in India. All goes well, and Sara lacks nothing, until her father dies and she is left penniless. The owner of the school is an unkind cold-hearted woman that dislikes little Sara and that shows even more when Sara's condition turns to the worse. Either during good fortune or in poverty, Sara always behaves well, and is kind to others. This doesn't go unnoticed by some people and help finally comes.
The story is filled with hope and it feels almost magical, however (and I guess this is the patronizing tone of the period) there are so many passages in the story that show how superior the white people feel toward people of other "colour" or poorer monetary condition, and that tone annoyed me. This was the part I didn't enjoy, but I guess the author felt herself superior and her condescending tone was normal at her time.
I saw the 1995 film many years ago and a few times after that, and it is quite magical, although a little different from the book, but I highly recommend it.
It is a lovely princess story, afterall.

The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Such a nice, cosy, magical book!
It includes a hidden island, an ellusive magician, his familiar rabbit, and his adopted daugher, it includes magic, but so scarce. And it includes other magicians, and 1910's London and with its niceties and its hardships. 
We follow Biddy, a 16 year old, that has become restless, feeling trapped in an island, but eager to see the world. She has been kept safe in that island, despite the young girl's frustrations, but her foster dad will have to let her out in the world at some point. And so it happens when one night he doesn't return home. This is when he tells her more about her past and they travel to London to set some things right. They end up facing the old Council of magician's, which includes some old friends of him.
The story is kept at a good pace, with different sets with proper world building. The story focuses a lot more on Biddy's thoughts and feelings than the world building, but there is enough of ut for us to enjoy the story. In the end, all the ends are properly tied up, perhaps a bit too much. We didn't need to have confirmation with so many pages after things were solved, and a little could have been left to the imagination, but there is still plenty to imagine after the story ends.
It was a nice, cosy reading.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This was very good. Perhaps I dare say even better than "The handmaid's tale". I guess it has some advantages, like having different points of view to follow, hence obtain a wider view of things. Specially because 2 of the people we follow are well informed about how the totalitarian regime works.
We follow "good old" Aunt Lydia, and also 2 young ladies that experience the regime from different places. We get to see how it affects them and how little by little, their lives become entangled, with a little help of the unassuming Aunt Lydia.
The first part of the book contains some scenes and events that are quite horrid. If bad things happen to women, they too happen to little girls. It is horrible, and difficult to read at times. But our preserverance will be rewarded.
As things are revealed and a plot comes into action, everything falls into place, as per Aunt Lydia's plans. Was she wicked or good, after all?

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I saw the Hulu series before I read the book. If the book had enough material to terrorize our minds, the series went beyond.
The story in the book is not as developed, neither the characters, but the oppressive environment, the strictness, the claustrophobia, the fear, it is all there. We have enough to work with with this terrible, brutal world. Women are no more than baby-makers, so if you cannot have one, you either are lucky enough to be a Wife of a Commander, and be relatively safe, or you have to make yourself useful by working as a Martha, an Aunt, or sent to the Colonies until you die. Men of power make the strict rules for others, but as usual, those rules don't apply to them. Sounds familiar? Some things never change, I guess.
Gilead is a country born out of a coup d'état and civil war in which women become second or third class citizens. But come to think of it, women are already treated differently in our society, as if less than men. Funny how men consider themselves better, when they cannot cope with a simple flu, or organise things, and they would never be able to go through the pains of menstruation or childbirth. Neither they control their emotions. Anger is an emotion, right? Pathetic.
The whole thing makes me angry, to be honest.
Atwood gives us a world where misogyny, control over women, lack of religious freedom (and lack of many other things that we took for granted) come to an extreme. Everything is enforced through fear, propaganda, brutality, punishment. This was wrote to be a dystopian story, but take a look at what is going on out there. We have never been closer to Gilead than now. Caucasians like to brag how they are better and far superior to other "races", and how evil Muslims are, because of the way they treat their women (one of the many reasons, anyway), and how they are stripped of many basic things, but women too are stripped of many basic things in our Western "civilization". Well, civilization is a failure.

O Homem da Forca by Shirley Jackson

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I was hoping I would love this more than I did. I couldn't engage with the character, abd I missed some plot. The story is very much divided between what is happening in reality and what is going on in Natalie's irrational mind. And this girl is mostly living inside her mind, so there is a lot of nonsense and crazy ideas. She lacks social skills, she doesn't care for her family, she is unable to make friends, she is akward. And if things weren't easy at home, they don't improve much at university.
We get to follow her life, but there isn't much happening, as what matters is more psychological.
I couldn't engage much with the story, but as usual, Shirley Jackson writes beautifully and this book is filled with many amazing phrases.