thestoryprofessor's reviews
865 reviews

Persuasion by Jane Austen

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Bookshops & Bonedust: Special Edition by Travis Baldree

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad fast-paced

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

4.75

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This is my favorite Jane Austen novel by far and wide. 

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible...on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

4.25

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

Grendel by John Gardner

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

There is so much about this novel that is incredibly intelligent and creative. Layers and layers of themes are piled onto rich Caribbean lore transplanted (very relevantly) into a modern day, American context. Zoboi starts conversations about colorism, racism, gentrification, climate, cultural appropriation, motherhood, sisterhood, poverty versus the rich, and more snuggle up quite comfortably with the plot and the characters. This is a perfect example of allowing your story and its characters share the final message for you as opposed to the author forcing their agenda onto a weak plot and characters (looking at you, The Book Eaters).

Additionally, Zoboi has some really creative and intelligently thoughtful storytelling choices that fully realizes the novel-in-verse structure potential and does a lot to characterize fantastic characters. Everything from spacing within lines, stanza construction, and reversal page formatting all the way to word choice, poetic language and repetition, and imagery creates an effectively beautiful, haunting story about prejudices inherited by a society that built walls on them. It convicted me to look at how I am similar to the father character; how I appropriate cultural storytelling to get entertainment and enjoyment out of a practice, tradition, story that means so much more than delightful words on a page. I thoroughly love this book, the storytelling choices it chose to make, and the importance of its messages that ride the waves of strong characters and unique world building.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing

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

4.0

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

4.0