April 2023
read these:
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, ★★★★★
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman, ★★★★☆
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ★★★★☆
I liked all of these... Lolita was beautifully written, so much so that I occasionally almost forgot the disgustingness of the topic, until it would be brought back with a vengeance. Coraline was good, though I knew the plot already since I've seen the movie a bunch of times. The Song of Achilles... I didn't think I'd like it at first but as I continued reading it just kept getting better. The ending was especially amazing!
May 2023
just one this time:
- Cyberboy by Tanja de Jonge★★★☆☆
I wouldn't call it a literary masterpiece or anything but I don't know, it kept me amused and it gave me an excuse to sit outside and read in the sun. The main character seemed very stupid though. He kept getting clues that his friend was a cyborg (spoilers. whatever. you're not going to read this book anyways) but only found it out near the end of the book.
October 2023
I was reading a Hitchcock Presents pocket on the train but I think I dropped it because it is no longer in my bag. whoops. well it was quite bad anyways. every story I read (and I was about halfway through) was about a different guy killing his wife. Thanks Hitchcock
November 2023
- The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor ★★★★☆
Read this on the overnight ferry when I couldn't sleep. I liked it! it was realistic yet still interesting to read about. Mattie was my favourite of the women. Kiswana being visited by her mother was a really interesting scene, and the bit about Cora Lee was delightfully uncomfortable. Thanks Gloria Naylor. RIP
January 2024
- Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow ★★★★★
SO good. started reading it in December, in a shitty hotel room, in the bathtub until 4 AM. just finished it. GOD this book was good. I'm still crying a bit. This is it. This is my favourite on this page, so far. It's really sad but it shines through, again and again, that people are good, and even if they don't know you very well, most people will want to help you, because that's just humanity. Normal people. Christ. Really good book.
February 2024
-Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir ★★★★☆
oooh! very good and very sad. There is no way around the sheer arrogance of what I am about to say, so avert your eyes, but-- I think I enjoyed this book a lot because it reads like something I would write. Okay, maybe without the fight scenes, which never really interest me in anything. But the lore was really interesting, the relationship between Gideon and Harrow is (obviously) just perfectly written and... yeah. I get why everyone likes this series. Will start reading the second book as soon as possible. I think it's a trilogy, but there are three books out, and another one coming..? which together makes more than three, I'm pretty sure. But. Well, I'll look it up once I finish reading the second book. They say that is where it gets really sad.
-Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher ★★☆☆☆
this book was dumb. I don't really know what else to say about it. a large plot point is the main character (a cis girl) getting called transphobic slurs by a classmate. The main character also just spends the whole book getting called names for being fat. Unpleasant to just read, like, 400 pages of a girl hating herself and being hated. it just doesn't end.
April 2024
-Mijn tante is een Grindewal by Anne Provoost ★★★☆☆
Good story, but the ending feels like it's written by a completely different person. Ends very abruptly too. Strange. The start and middle are good, though. It's mainly told from the perspective of a child (and later, a teenager) but the true 'main character' is her cousin/neighbour. It's interesting. That's probably why it's extra off-putting that it ends so badly.