tiggum's reviews
735 reviews

The World House by Guy Adams

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can't rememebr the last time a book gripped me like this one. I finished it in a day. There are similarities to books like House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski) or The Cypher (Kathe Koje) but I as most reminded of a web serial I read years ago and can no longer found that I think was called Hotel Flamingo? Anyway, it's really good.

The concept isn't particularly novel (though it's certainly not worn out its welcome) but the characters and the way it plays out are great.
The Elementals by Michael McDowell

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dark mysterious

4.0

Read this book ages ago so i don't remember much specific but i know i liked it.
the more you ignore me the closer i get by 826LA West

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funny fast-paced

2.0

This is a bunch of writing exercises by students up to the age of about 14 or so. I don't remember where I got it from or why, but it's pretty much what you'd expect from the premise: there's a lot of random tangents and "Oh, I can see what movie you saw recently" moments. I'm not really sure who the target audience for this is, or how it ended up being distributed in a way that I even saw it.

There was one entry I liked though, and since it's so short I'll reproduce it here.

Idiot Country by Axel Martinez

Once upon a time there was a country called Idiot Country. Some idiot people lived their lives there. Idiot people.
Death and Letters by Elizabeth Daly

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book is weirdly bland. The mystery is decent but everything felt very flat and samey. I didn't dislike it, but I literally just finished it and I already feel like I'm forgetting it. If I pick it up again in a year I'm certain I will have no memory of it, except perhaps the blue envelopes, which stood out like the bits of colour in Sin City.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.
Thoroughly unpleasant.
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Prince Valiant Volume 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster, Dan Nadel

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

More fun adventures. Ogres, giant monsters and several dragons. Introduces some great characters (Boltar, Angor Wrack) and includes a bit of Gawain, which you love to see. And as for Val himself? I'll quote Angor Wrack: I like that hot-headed young idiot.
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Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas

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funny lighthearted slow-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? Yes

3.0

Dumas's writing is still great but the plot goes nowhere and I could do without ever reading the qord "coquette" again. And once again the fact that this is only part two of four means that there's no conclusion. Hopefully things pick up a bit in the next volume.
The Body in the Belfry: A Faith Fairchild Mystery by Katherine Hall Page

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I can't believe this book was first published in 1990. I would have guessed at least 20 years earlier. The characters feel very early-to-mid 20th century and the cultural touchstones all went over my head because of how dated they were. At one point the protagonist compares another character to James Dean (died 1955) - or one of the children of "Ozzie and Harriet". I looked that one up and it's a sitcom from the early 60s.

It's also weird that the protagonist ends up not being the one who solves the mystery. And I thought there were a few too many characters who weren't really fleshed out properly so when the killer was revealed I wasn't really sure who they were. Their motives and such are quite clear so it does all make sense but I didn't get the feeling that it would have been possible to figure out ahead of the reveal, just because you don't get enough opportunity to get to know everyone.

There were a couple of other quirks that I didn't really care for as well: the protagonist is a real snob about food and I found that irritating, and her husband has this habit of using bits of French - but in ways that never felt natural. Like, he refers to their baby as "my petit chou" rather than "mon petit chou" and that's pretty repesentative of the types of things he says. It rang false for how people throw bits of other languages into their speech.

But overall I didn't mind the book. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't recommend against it either. It's fine. Read it if you want.
Killer Calories by G.A. McKevett

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
Too American, too '90s, and trying way too hard to be cute.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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challenging dark funny mysterious 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

4.0

I love books about awful people. Really digging down into them and exposing the full scope of the shittiness before seeing them reap the rewards of their terrible decisions. Plus the book is really funny in places. Bunny's essay is a particular highlight.
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