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the_gandy_man's reviews
112 reviews
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
I really like this book. I like the progression from what you initially think the story will be to what the story ends up being. Even though the book never explicitly tells you what the real story was, you can figure it out before long and after that point most of the rest of the book is very predictable. It also likes to repeat somethings a lot, so even though the book is very short, it feels a little too long at times. I like the voice a lot, and I like how fucked up certain parts are. This book is really fucked up.
4.0
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
3.25
I can't really place why, but in the previous book a little and in this book a lot things just feel a lot more forced. Beartown is one of my favorite books, but I like the rest of the series significantly less. It feels like things are the way they are just to get an emotional response from me. Which I guess is true of all of Backman's books. I don't know why the other ones feel real and these feel fake to me. This book is also too long.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
3.5
Pretty good book. A lot of the reveals and the way everything comes together is pretty good. Harry is a horcrux and Snape was on Dumbledore's team the whole time are really good. Ron and Hermione get neglected after the penseive part, which feels really weird. The reasoning for why Harry didn't die in the end, and why the Elder Wand is really his are unsatisfying and bad. And of course at the end of her huge epic bestselling fantasy series, at the final climax in the struggle between good and evil, Harry and Voldemort have an unnecessarily drawn out conversation like in Prisoners of Azkaban. Lupin and Tonks die off-page. The culmination of the SPEW plotline is Ron saying "we need to warn the house elves so they can escape" and then Hermione kisses him and then they do not warn the house elves. These are just a few of the many bad parts of this book. But the book is still pretty good. It's a sufficiently epic conclusion to the series. It has a lot of good character stuff.
The series as a whole is kinda crazy. It's pretty good. It has a very engaging world, and some great characters. At the same time it's infuriating. The worldbuilding is frequently nonsense. The plot is frequently nonsense. The dialogue is frequently terrible. The books introduce several interesting societal issues, like the fucked up slavery of house elves, or how wizards don't let goblins have wands, or how they kick centaurs off their land, but it feels like the book says nothing more about them then "man that's messed up, but we can just ignore it because it doesn't affect us." In the case of house elves, Hermione advocating for their freedom is played as a joke. The constant lack of competence displayed by Rowling is incredible considering the books are actually good. I haven't finished my rewatch yet, but I can confidently say the movies are much better. They improve on so much. There are countless scenes that are mediocre in the book and iconic in the film, and a lot of unnecessary bloat the films removed.
The series as a whole is kinda crazy. It's pretty good. It has a very engaging world, and some great characters. At the same time it's infuriating. The worldbuilding is frequently nonsense. The plot is frequently nonsense. The dialogue is frequently terrible. The books introduce several interesting societal issues, like the fucked up slavery of house elves, or how wizards don't let goblins have wands, or how they kick centaurs off their land, but it feels like the book says nothing more about them then "man that's messed up, but we can just ignore it because it doesn't affect us." In the case of house elves, Hermione advocating for their freedom is played as a joke. The constant lack of competence displayed by Rowling is incredible considering the books are actually good. I haven't finished my rewatch yet, but I can confidently say the movies are much better. They improve on so much. There are countless scenes that are mediocre in the book and iconic in the film, and a lot of unnecessary bloat the films removed.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
3.75
Probably the best one so far. It's a little messy. This book has some of the best character stuff and relationship stuff between the main 3. I do think Ron and Hermione's feud drags on a bit too long. It's not quite the same, but there is still a bit at the end where they painfully explain things that happened. I'm pretty sure the last book will have something like that too, so I'm guessing Rowling thinks they are good rather than partially ruining the climaxes of every book.
Quidditch is ruined. It was already a terrible sport. It was already clear Rowling has never seen a sport in her life. But in this book, it's confirmed that the standings are completely determined by points scored rather than winning games. This is completely ridiculous.
Also there's a point where they're like "time turners? there aren't any they were all destroyed at the ministry last year!." It's so obvious Rowling realized she fucked up and time turners fill her plot with holes, so she destroyed them all, which doesn't patch any of the holes before the time turners were destroyed. It would be better if she just pretended they didn't exist and let me forget about them. And of course this means all the time turners in the entire world are located in the British Ministry of Magic.
Quidditch is ruined. It was already a terrible sport. It was already clear Rowling has never seen a sport in her life. But in this book, it's confirmed that the standings are completely determined by points scored rather than winning games. This is completely ridiculous.
Also there's a point where they're like "time turners? there aren't any they were all destroyed at the ministry last year!." It's so obvious Rowling realized she fucked up and time turners fill her plot with holes, so she destroyed them all, which doesn't patch any of the holes before the time turners were destroyed. It would be better if she just pretended they didn't exist and let me forget about them. And of course this means all the time turners in the entire world are located in the British Ministry of Magic.
Carrie by Stephen King
3.75
One of King's weakest books I've read, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Being already familiar with the musical, I was worried knowing the ending would lessen my enjoyment, but luckily this was not the case. Through in-universe news article and book excerpts, King tells the story from the perspective of afterwards in addition to as it happens. It didn't matter that I knew shit was gonna go down at prom because King told me beforehand anyway. And then the shit that went down was notably different from the musical. The book has moments where King flexes his incredibly horror writing, but it's not as pervasive as some of his other works. What is pervasive are his "King-isms". There's lots of problematic stuff that in my opinion doesn't need to be in the book. Characters are casually racist because ya they probably would be. But it lessens my enjoyment of the book.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
3.5
Weakest HP book so far. It has a lot of good stuff, but it had trouble keeping me interested at various parts. It's very messy. There's a lot of bloat. SPEW stuff is still bad. The whole sequence in the Department of Mysteries kind of doesn't work. It's just kind of unclear and drawn out. Rowling still has never failed to include The Part Where Everything Is Explained For Way Too Long. Harry is angry basically the whole book. He has every right to, but it gets tiresome to read. It's incredible that at the end the plot hinges on Harry failing to contact Sirius via floo powder after Sirius had given him a gift specifically for contacting him. Pretty lame that Sirius died just because Harry forgot about the object he had meant for that exact purpose. And then when he finds it later, he doesn't think "I'm a fucking dumbass I should've just used this. Not only would it have been more reliable, it would've been quicker and easier." He just thinks he can use it to talk to dead Sirius now. Idiot.
Umbridge is a very well-done hate-able character. I like how Fred and George get to become successful and their big departure from Hogwarts. I think the family dynamic with Percy is interesting. I like Sirius a lot in this book. I like how he isn't quite the father figure Harry wants him to be. He sees too much of James in Harry. He's too irresponsible. Harry learns a lot about his dad in this book through Sirius and Snape, and learns he wasn't as perfect as he thought, and this affects how Harry sees himself as a person separate from his father who doesn't need to live up to his father's example because maybe that example wasn't all great.
Umbridge is a very well-done hate-able character. I like how Fred and George get to become successful and their big departure from Hogwarts. I think the family dynamic with Percy is interesting. I like Sirius a lot in this book. I like how he isn't quite the father figure Harry wants him to be. He sees too much of James in Harry. He's too irresponsible. Harry learns a lot about his dad in this book through Sirius and Snape, and learns he wasn't as perfect as he thought, and this affects how Harry sees himself as a person separate from his father who doesn't need to live up to his father's example because maybe that example wasn't all great.
The End by Lemony Snicket
4.0
Great end to the series. It drives home the themes of the series pretty well, and there are some really emotional moments. I really like the ending. I think, given everything that came before, this book feels like it lacks some revelation. Some question that is finally and definitively answered in a satisfying and impactful way. It leaves a LOT open-ended, and that works with the book's theme of not being able to solve all the mysteries. I'm fine not knowing what's up with the sugar bowl, or what exactly Olaf and the Baudelaire parents' entailed, or any of the other countless little things. But I found myself wanting something, like at least one of those. We learn a lot about the parents in this book, but not much that actually answers established questions.
The series as a whole is fantastic. I've rated the series 79/100 while the individual books averaged 73/100. This final book is the only one I've given a higher rating than the series as a whole. It's just a fantastic story. It's so interesting. Snicket's voice is incredible. These books read like no other. They are hilarious all the time in an extremely subtle and clever way, and Snicket is incredibly creative, pushing the medium to its limits with things like text that is backwards to be read in a mirror, having two identical pages back to back explaining what deja vu is, when referring to reading while sleepy repeating the sentence "He found himself reading the same sentence over and over." three times in a row, a full page repeating "ever, ever, ever, ...", to name a few.
The slow discovery of all the mysteries at play is fantastic. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are great characters that really fuckin go through it over the course of the series. Sunny is a stand out character. Her journey is fantastic. You'd think the baby would be the least interesting of the three, but the opposite is true. I especially like how her speech gets less baby-like throughout the series in a way that feels natural and aligns with her forced maturing. For children, I can't imagine a better series. My biggest problems with it were how much time was devoted to reminding me of stuff from previous books, and defining words. The whole defining words bit (which I talked about in one of my previous reviews) got old, but I think for a child it's a great way to expand vocabulary without feeling like bits of the dictionary have been pasted throughout the book.
The series as a whole is fantastic. I've rated the series 79/100 while the individual books averaged 73/100. This final book is the only one I've given a higher rating than the series as a whole. It's just a fantastic story. It's so interesting. Snicket's voice is incredible. These books read like no other. They are hilarious all the time in an extremely subtle and clever way, and Snicket is incredibly creative, pushing the medium to its limits with things like text that is backwards to be read in a mirror, having two identical pages back to back explaining what deja vu is, when referring to reading while sleepy repeating the sentence "He found himself reading the same sentence over and over." three times in a row, a full page repeating "ever, ever, ever, ...", to name a few.
The slow discovery of all the mysteries at play is fantastic. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are great characters that really fuckin go through it over the course of the series. Sunny is a stand out character. Her journey is fantastic. You'd think the baby would be the least interesting of the three, but the opposite is true. I especially like how her speech gets less baby-like throughout the series in a way that feels natural and aligns with her forced maturing. For children, I can't imagine a better series. My biggest problems with it were how much time was devoted to reminding me of stuff from previous books, and defining words. The whole defining words bit (which I talked about in one of my previous reviews) got old, but I think for a child it's a great way to expand vocabulary without feeling like bits of the dictionary have been pasted throughout the book.
The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket
3.75
This book is a little messy. There's just a lot everywhere. I'm not a fan of the part where the good guys and the bad guys just talk at each other in the lobby instead of, like, doing something. I think everything after that is really good. I like the focus on the theme of good people not helping in this book, which has of course been a theme throughout the series. I also like the development of the discussion about what it means to be a good person from the last book, and the revelation that the Baudelaire parents may have had something to do with orphaning Olaf plays into that.
The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket
4.0
I think the last couple books have been missing the bit at the end where the Baudelaires put it all together and really achieve something, and this book does that well. I also like how the Baudelaires' feelings about some of their more villainous actions develops into them discovering that morality is more complicated than black and white. This book does a lot, and it does it really well. It's the best so far in my opinion.
The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket
3.75
Sunny is great in this book. I really like her character, how she's been forced to grow up, and how that's been happening throughout the books by her using more complex and comprehensible words, as well as gaining a new interest in cooking. We also uncover some secrets and gain some more mysteries, which is great. I wish the new mysteries were a bit more concrete. The only thing we know about the sugar bowl is that it's important, and there's these two new villain characters about whom we know nothing. I feel like at this point in the story I want things to come into focus a bit more, and while that has happened with VFD, these new mysteries keep the overall mystery out of focus.