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unlikelyplaces's reviews
242 reviews
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
4.25
The perfect follow up to the first one!
This will be a short review from me because you can pretty much take everything I said about the first one and apply it to this sequel. I love this series so much!
I will say, this had a lot of similarities to the first one plot-wise but it was just as fun and charming and I loved the way the story developed and I really can’t wait for the next one!
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
2.75
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
⭐️ - 3
📖
I finally finished it!
I was really expecting to love this but it was such a slog. If you split this book into quarters, I really enjoyed the 2nd quarter but I really didn’t enjoy the other 3 at all. I’m sorry but I just didn’t understand what the point of this was.
I’m giving this 3 stars because the writing is stunning, the tension in that 2nd quarter is done brilliantly, and I did love Jane as a character. I loved her bluntness and her desire for independence. At the half way point I thought this was going to be a high 4⭐️ read for me.
However, I hated pretty much the whole 2nd half of the book… we spent so long just not doing anything. The relationships in this are all so abusive and controlling but the narrative doesn’t make me believe that that was the intention.
I can totally see the influence of this, particularly in the thriller genre but it just so didn’t work for me. People who love this book, please explain to me why? I genuinely would like to understand, because I just didn’t get it.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
4.75
The Wager - David Grann
🎧
⭐ - n/a (I don’t tend to rate non fiction)
I really need to read more non-fiction. I was obsessed with this the whole time I was listening to it.
So this is a non-fiction telling the story of the ship “The Wager” and its crew who were castaway on an island and then follows all the events and scandal surrounding it. Although this isn’t my usual period, I am a general history nerd plus, I’m well up for any historical scandal and drama so when I heard about this I knew I had to pick it up.
This is written in a really accessible, narrative way so if you don’t read a lot of non-fiction (like me) but are interested in history or people’s behaviour when faced with desperate situations, I’d definitely say that this is a good one to pick up.
You can tell that the author has taken all the different accounts of events into consideration to piece together a narrative, while not shying away from addressing the issues present at the time like colonialism and lack of scientific knowledge. It goes into enough detail to explain the context around the events without getting too bogged down in every tiny little piece of information and keeps it to a really streamlined narrative. I will say, it did take longer to get to the island than I thought and the beginning did feel a little slow but I can recognise that it was necessary to set the context.
So yes I really enjoyed this, it’s one of those stories that you hear about and just can’t believe that it actually happened. I absolutely flew through this because I just wanted to be listening to it all the time. I would love for someone to make this into a tv series! Highly recommend this one!
Content warnings: Gore, graphic illness descriptions, animal death, real world violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Gore
Moderate: Vomit and Violence
Minor: Cannibalism
The Fates by Rose Blythe
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.
Unfortunately just found the writing in this to be a bit cheesy and wasn’t feeling very invested so just decided not to continue
Mary or the Birth of Frankenstein by Anne Eekhout
2.5
Mary or the Birth of Frankenstein - Anne Eekhout
⭐ - 2.5
🎧
This one was a bit meh to me.
So I read Frankenstein last year after listening to a podcast about Mary Shelley’s life and have since been fascinated by Mary Shelley and the people around her because I think that she had a really interesting, if tragic, life so when I saw that this English translation came out recently I was really excited to pick it up.
There were elements of this that I really did enjoy, firstly, the translation itself was stunning. The translator did an amazing job at making this flow really nicely and still feel as though there was some creativity in the language. In my experience translated works often end up feeling a little dry but this was really well done.
The past timeline also had a little hint of a “magical realism” feel to them, as though Mary believed her own stories, which I thought was clever and gave it the creepy vibes that I think a book about Mary Shelley should have. This actually in some ways reminded me a little bit of “The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” with the dual timeline, the focus on obsessive relationships, the blurring of fantasy and reality, and the general dark gothic vibe.
Unfortunately, my major issue with this was the pacing! I think that in this case the dual timeline was a hinderance to the story where it just felt like nothing was happening in either storyline and the two didn’t really feel like they were connected to each other in anyway other than they happened to be about the same person. Normally in dual timeline stories I feel as though the stories each leave hints about the other and build at similar times etc but this just felt disjointed and random.
I’m also a bit confused by the decision to focus on a section of Mary’s childhood which, from the small amount of research I’ve done, the author almost entirely made up when there’s so much fascinating material to work with in Shelley’s later life that could have easily be used to explore the same themes. But that’s probably just me being a stickler for historical accuracy, I probably should have paid attention a bit more to when the description called it a “reimagining”.
So I think this would work for you if you’re a fan of “no plot, just vibes”, if you love “The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” and if you don’t mind historical inaccuracy for the sake of a story. But unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Child death
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Gods and Monsters - Mythological Poems by Ana Sampson
emotional
informative
lighthearted
4.75
Gods & Monsters - Ana Sampson
⭐ - 4.75
📗
I feel somewhat under-qualified to review a poetry collection as I don’t really read poetry very much but I loved this a lot more than I thought I was going to!
This is an anthology of poetry written about myths and folklore from around the world by many different writers (including some of the classics like Homer) and is stunningly illustrated by Chris Riddell.
The first thing I will say is don’t be put off by the fact that this is officially published as a children’s book, I don’t think I would have even realised if I hadn’t already known. Because of the vast variety of writers and styles in this collection I definitely think it can be enjoyed by all ages (maybe if you are buying it for a child, I’d probably recommend more pre-teen age due to the complexity of some of the language). Some of the poems and illustrations have a more light-hearted, silly feel, but many of them are beautiful and tragic and reflective and I really think that there are entries in here that could be enjoyed by anyone.
I was absolutely blown away by the art in this. I’ve included some of my favourites in my post but I honestly could have taken photos of the whole book. Every page is illustrated and they each fit the mood of the poem that they’re with and Chris Riddell did such an amazing job on them.
As with any anthology, there were some entries that I liked more than others but that’s all going to be down to personal taste and I loved that they weren’t all just focused on Greek Mythology but many different traditions from around the world. As I say, I’m really not a poetry girl, I like it on occasion but I think a lot of it tends to go over my head and I found this collection to be really accessible.
I really haven’t seen anyone talking about this (I only picked it up because Natalie Haynes wrote the introduction and I love her work) so I would highly recommend checking this out if you’re interested in mythology or poetry.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Beartown is set in a small town that really hasn’t got much going for it apart from it’s love of hockey. Everyone in the town is obsessed with hockey and it’s the thing that keeps them all going. But things kick off when a s*xual assault is committed by one of the hockey players and then we follow the ways in which this affects the townspeople.
5.0
Beartown - Fredrik Backman
⭐- 5
📱
I’m not even sure how to begin to review this book. This book had such a profound impact on me, I’m just going to gush about it.
I have enjoyed all of the Backman that I’ve read but none have impressed me as much as this. It would have been so easy to take this subject matter and write something completely bleak and hopeless, but Backman somehow managed to craft something so full of hope and empathy and understanding while never diminishing the gravity of the situation. He has such a unique perspective of how people function and their emotions, I’ve never seen an author write characters with such a level of understanding.
(This next paragraph may be considered spoilers but I think that it’s important that you know the subject matter of this book before going into it but just to warn you if you want to know nothing…)
As I said, this would have been so easy to write something really bleak but the themes that Backman explores of loyalty, friendship, parenthood, family, and sports culture make it such a more interesting and rounded story than that. It’s a story that is filled with tragedy but also filled with healing and love and reflection and I thought it was so beautiful.
If I have any criticisms, I could understand people not liking Backman’s writing style. It does occasionally feel like “inspirational quotes” being inserted into the story at random points but that didn’t bother me and so much of what he has to say it so beautiful that I appreciated it.
And then Backman explores a lot of characters with a lot of prejudice and who say a lot of horrible things but there seems to be a weird underlying fatphobia which was unclear whether it was intended or not. I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt based on when it was released and the character’s perspectives but if you are particularly sensitive to that it’s something to be aware of.
So yes, easy 5 stars from me, I will definitely be getting to the rest of this series as soon as I’ve read some more of the books I already own…
Content warnings: Obviously sxual assault (this does happen on page and is described), child d3ath, sucidal thoughts, self h@rm, alcoholism, homophobia, fatphobia, racism, bullying