torchlab's reviews
105 reviews

Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth

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4.5

Really really really really good
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

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4.5

Sensuous and devastating .. the attention to minute physical detail in this is somehow just as / maybe even more ?? heartbreaking than the sheer knowledge of the horrific loss that drives this book’s story. A lesser author would focus only on the enormity of their pain … Deraniyagala makes it realer by showing us its tininess
How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto

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3.5

Many moments in this made me laugh out loud. Didn’t quite stick the landing i felt but plenty of fun nonetheless!
The Idiot by Elif Batuman

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5.0

Yup still one of the greatest books of the 21st century so far
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

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5.0

This is still one of the best and most harrowing memoirs I've ever read
The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto

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2.0

Theres definitely interesting / aesthetically-enticing ways to write incest in fiction but this is not one of them
Devil House by John Darnielle

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4.0

This was crazy (compliment). Love the switching POVs, a device which can be really hard to pull off but is done here so well. Love how you go into it thinking it’s going to be about horror/true crime and then it ends up being about California real estate and its discontents. 
A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar

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3.0

The strength of this book is in its descriptive language: lots of perfect singular images that flashed directly into my mind’s eye from the page. Plot and characterization are a bit lacking. Could have been edited down maybe 25%.