vacanthungarian's reviews
40 reviews

Problem Child by Victoria Helen Stone

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It's a pretty good book. I actually had no idea that there was a whole series behind it, but that's neither here nor there. 
So Jane is a very intelligent, career ori nted woman who likes to remind us every page or two that she is a sociopath and what that entails. She is pretty badass, not in the violent way, but in the smart way. She vanquishes several cretinous men on her journey to locate a missing niece who she never met, but clearly decided from the outset to turn into her protégé. 
A little bit of backstory is offered about Jane's upbringing in Oklahoma and we see a full picture of abuse and child neglect.
She does eventually find her niece who turns out to be just like her and they leave Oklahoma together with very sweet and understanding boyfriend (Jane's) agreeing that they all live together happily ever after.
Lots of trigger warnings.

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

At first I wasn't really sure what to make of this. The books seemed to be laid out like an endless series of moments flickering, sometimes completely unrelated. It was hard to understand what it was really meant to be.
Then the point of it all became apparent. Very quickly. And it was beautiful. It's hard to imagine how it must feel to face such a thing, but the characters had wisdom and love far beyond my capacity. I saw a beautiful, peaceful and joyous approach to such a delicate subject.
Rarely do I give such a high rating to any book, but I really feel that this story deserved it.

The Sweet Smell of Psychosis: A Novella by Will Self

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.25

So that was a bit of a hard read. 
For the most part, it paints a grotesque picture of coked up, bitchy writers scrambling to either discredit or suck up to one another. Literally everyone on this book is a little bit of a cretin. It does give the impression that Will Self may have a bone to pick with the industry and/or the people involved in it.
I feel like this could have been a great book if there hadn't been so much desperation to squeeze as much vulgarity and shock in as humanly possible, though I acknowledge that I would probably not have finished it if it hadn't been so liberally decorated with both those things. But still, it just felt a bit hollow as a story.

Blackberry Blue: And Other Fairy Tales by Jamila Gavin

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? No

3.0

This is an excellent children's book. Rather than one long story that may be daunting for some of the slower kids, there's a bunch of vaguely familiar short stories. Loosely based on old fairytales, but with a multicultural twang.

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

adventurous challenging lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

Ok... So to start off, there's a vary weird use of language here. For about half of the book, I was fairly certain that Treacle Walker just spoke absolute nonsense. It's like a weird amalgamation of something that Dr. Seuss conjured up, which was then edited by Keller in Keller's happy campers and then finally seasoned by Terry Pratchett for good measure. The action scenes were bewildering and a little hard to fully comprehend, so I'm afraid I have no idea of what was going on for a solid 30 pages. It's a little bit like listening to an over excited toddler tell a story of something that happened at nursery. However, the book suddenly comes together at the end, it all makes perfect sense and you feel at peace with what you just read. It somehow feels like this was not entirely by accident.

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

An old timey classic that is exactly what it says on the tin. Though one would expect this to be more science fiction than anything else, I think it actually has a lot more to tell on human character than the wild fantasies of the 19th century. I found it quite surprising that it was not the rest of society, but the protagonist himself that demonstrated this. 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This is an incredible story that was inspired by real life events. It speaks predominantly of racial disparities of the time, focusing particularly the nature of southern states. Injustice and maltreatment is rife. It was a hard read at times with an interesting twist. A worthwhile read. I'm not going to bother to list the trigger warnings, but there are plenty for those who are particularly sensitive, so keep that in mind. However, the gruesome scenes should not deflect from the ultimate message of this story and the reader shouldn't fixate on that alone as there's a lot more to be taken from the story. 

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

Three hapless men from perfectly sensible backgrounds decide to take a break from their usual routine of hypochondria and finding everything  just a little bit taxing. They embark on boating journey and it is littered with mishaps, disagreements and general bad luck. The book is terribly, terribly boring and I found myself zoning out a lot. Perhaps making events a little more concise and less exaggerated would have made it feel a little less like pulling teeth. If sensible, gentle humour with a hint of slapstick is your bag, this is the one for you. Just as a side note, this edition has a few typos in it towards the last 30 pages.

This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes

adventurous funny informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

4.75

I'm not one for autobiographies, but I am one for Miriam Margolyes. So a friend of mine loaned me this book and it was a lovely light-hearted collection of stories and memories from the nation's favourite motor-mouth OAP. Miriam really is a bit of a legend, a word that isn't often afforded to stage actors, but she had her finger in so many pots with a personality that's outright impossible to ignore that really, you couldn't avoid knowing who she is. And now at 80, she is the old lady we all hope to be one day.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a truly poignant story. A story that really is about an ordinary man with an ordinary life. But really it isn't about that at all. And it really isn't about the Magdalene laundries. But it kind of is.
I guess that ultimately what we can take from this book is that so many people (good people) will turn a blind eye to wrong situations when the people who are doing wrong are conventionally considered good. And so many people fear the repercussions of sticking their neck out that they ultimately ignore the immoral and try to find justification in their own morals. Justification like "if the church punishes you, it's because you deserve it"
But our protagonist will take a different route, knowing that it will be costly because the highest of moral values is empathy.