turninpages_sippintea's reviews
241 reviews

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

Well holy moly. That was an interesting read. It was a bit hard to power through at times due to the main character's complete lack of likeability, but I understand that he's supposed to be that way. He's a pathetic person, but an interesting character to analyse. The very end, the last conversation, gave me so much anxiety I feel like I need a cold shower now.

EDIT: nevermind, I've rated the book immediately after finishing it, but then I read a few 1* reviews, and... yeah, they raised very valid points about the misogyny, plot holes, and really weak logic of certain things, and I agree. I didn't pay attention to them while reading, but those criticisms definitely take out a chunk out of my rating.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

1.0

I think I haven't been this angry with a book since Night Without End. There was not a single thing I liked. Not a single character I could empathise with because they were bland, no meat on those hollow bones. The writing was either pompous and pretentious 90% of the time, or so boring and abrupt that I started wondering how it passed the editing stage. 

I also have a slight suspicion that Alex Michaelides doesn't really know how to write a dialogue between two women, because what the actual fuck was that conversation between Lana and Kate in the flashback, at Kate's house? Compare it to dialogues between Lana and Elliot, the narrator: incessant talking (mostly from Elliot), constant attempts at wit and wisdom (exclusively from Elliot), lengthy  discussions of feelings and trauma. And then Lana and Kate: Yes. No. Oh God. Ok. Yes. Stop. Well. 
Like...
Ok... Yeah, sure, that's how women, FRIENDS, talk to each other, mhm...
Was it supposed to show how self-obsessed Elliot was and how little value he thought Lana's conversations had with people other than him? I'm sure it could've been done in a more impressive way.

Then there's the whole "unreliable narrator" thing. Learning that Elliot was withholding some information might've been fun the first couple of times. But the endless cat-and-mouse with the reader, "and here's what happened. SIKE! I actually lied before, that's not how it happened, but here's the truth now. OR IS IT??? I lied again! but no, really, now comes the tru--- NOPE, another lie!", was so so exhausting to power through! Elliot makes several claims that he was not an actual writer, hence some of the inconsistencies in the story, but... man, he was written by a real, published author, who thought that gaslighting the reader in such a tiresome way would be a good idea. Again, it could've been handled in a better way.

My last criticism is about the "deeply disturbed man obsesses over weak woman" trope. The Fury is practically The Silent Patient, but in a different font. Maybe it's time to write characters other than men with severe saviour complex, who see women in only one light - where they are in constant need of saving, where they are so so silly and can't make rational decisions? One book like that is cool. Two? With weirdly similar motives for the narrator and

"but it is I!"

twists? Come on. I haven't read The Maidens yet, but the bar could not be lower.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

Ooooh I liked it! The logic didn't always feel consistent, and frequent misunderstanding between Martha and Henry was quite frustrating (I suppose the running theme of miscommunication from Normal People that Martha's been reading escaped her perception somehow), but despite all this I still enjoyed the story! (Or, stories, I should say. Because woof, there were quite a few to follow.)

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark funny sad tense 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

3.5

I thought this book would be about a quest to save the main character's sister and kill the prince. But I don't think it's about that at all. (And reframing my understanding of the story helped me find some enjoyment in it.) To me, this book was about:

• Marra's becoming an adult: she managed to spend 30 years of her life sheltered from brutal politics and her mother's scheming, which made her too naive and ignorant of what was going on around her; this journey showed her how harsh and cold family relationships can be, how important it is to learn skills (embroidery alone won't help you much if you need money), how crucial it is to be able to ask for help - Marra was absolutely and utterly useless alone, but people liked her enough to agree to help;
• found family: A motley crew, but with more heart than Marra's mother could ever dream of;
• the dangers of helicopter parenting: I know The Queen wasn't helicoptering per se (or if she was, it definitely wasn't due to abundance of care for her daughters), but she still had tight control over her kingdom, and I totally understand her motives - what are 3 daughters in comparison to thousands of  lives? But her meddling with Marra's education and upbringing made her youngest... well, dumb. Kind, but very very dumb and inept. (She was a quick learner when it came to midwifery, but it turned out the skill lost its usefulness as soon as she ran away.) The fact that Kania grew up smart and perceptive feels like an anomaly in these circumstances. 

And these were the things that I liked. What I didn't particularly enjoy was just how dull and meek the main character was. And it's paradoxical, given I've just explained WHY I think Marra was the way she was, yet it bored me so much, the only thing I was looking forward to were funny exchanges between the dust-wife and the godmother and Bonedog's shenanigans. I mean, it's not great when a demon-possessed chicken that clucks from time to time has more personality than the protagonist.

The atmosphere was interesting, though. And if there's ever a sequel with Agnes and the dust-wife adventures, I'll be definitely eager to read about them!

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

dark informative mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

challenging dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

3.5

I found it a bit weird that this memoir read like a really well-written fiction. Not in the sense that I questioned whether certain events happened or not - the author must have embellished the dialogues, because humans don't speak like characters from a dramedy, but I do believe that she did what she claims to have done - more in the sense that it all tied up so neatly in all the right places, all the shocking reveals and cliffhangers (in a memoir!) were exactly where you'd expect them to be, that it made me feel slightly manipulated, as if Patric Gagne wanted me to really like her book instead of trying to debunk preconceived notions about sociopaths. (Also good lord, was it really necessary to mention her diagnosis several times in every single conversation? 😭)

However, despite lengthy dramatic dialogues, repetition of the same thoughts, and David, Patric's husband, the book did make me rethink my understanding of sociopathy. It raised such important questions like absense of empathy in sociopaths (how are they supposed to get this learned behaviour when it is never shown towards them?), the classification of the disorder (if there are differences between sociopathy and other behavioural disorders, why doesn't it have its own category?), marginalisation of sociopaths in the media (why do we label every diagnosed sociopath as automatically evil?), and lack of reliable treatment (it is believed to be untreatable, but is every sociopath a lost cause, then, or are there ways to ease the symptoms for the patient and people around them?). 

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

I was pleasantly surprised by the end! I was sure it was going in a different, more

morose

direction. 

I'm a fan of Leszy, what a chill dude!

NOT a fan of the Holy Order, what a bunch of self-righteous assholes! 

I mean, the whole

"maybe the villains aren't all inherently bad, and maybe some of the good guys are prejudiced and slightly psychotic?"

idea is not new, but we still need this reminder from time to time. 

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

 "My humans" ❤️‍🩹

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

informative fast-paced

3.75

I really enjoyed the chapters on definitions of love, honesty, communication, the connection (or lack thereof) between love and abuse, parenting and receiving love in one's childhood, and how patriarchy is detrimental to building a caring and loving society. However, I disagreed with the heavy implication that love inevitably leads to spirituality, or that spirituality is a prerequisite to love. I think that both can coexist, and many religions are indeed built on preaching love for thy neighbour. But, realistically, preaching and practising are two different things. Personally, I see religious love as something conditional and exclusive, like a contract that guarantees your expulsion and isolation in case you breach it. And that's not love at all.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

challenging emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

 the first 1/3 was amazing, the last one lost me. perhaps generational dramas are just not for me, because by the time the last family member, Solomon, was introduced, i'd already been too invested in the lives of his parents and grandparents and couldn't retain my interest when they started fading from the narrative. 
i also thought the book could do with less graphic teenage sex. or more adult scenes between two actual adults to, i don't know, balance it out.
ALSO! Noa. HUH? WHY???

from his chapters we could see how smart and studious he was, but NOTHING could've prepared me for the way he left the story!! like... why?? no explanation whatsoever. just "he was always a sensitive child" afterwards, but at least a paragraph on his thought process before killing himself would've been nice. because for someone who needed everything to make sense him leaving his wife and 4 children made NO sense whatsoever.