It's interesting to read the reviews to this book. Half are raving about it, the other half are bashing it completely. For me? I don't know, I'm I'm tIt's interesting to read the reviews to this book. Half are raving about it, the other half are bashing it completely. For me? I don't know, I'm I'm the middle. It feels almost as if this book was so bad it was good? If it was released now, it would certainly deserve another review, but since it's so old, and compared to the amount of books released now, there were so few books back then, and relatively so few people who read them... That it's not easy to apply the same standards at all. To say the least, this book is very interesting for its history.
The pathos in it is hilarious though. If you've ever read Anne of Green Gables, you can be sure that all the books the girls swoon over must be this one and others like it. This book is earnestly written in the same pathos that L.M. Montgomery takes the piss at in her books! I found that unbearably, incredibly hilarious. How cool is it to share the same joke with an author who lived so long ago? I definitely rolled my eyes at the pathos, but I have to admit, I also kind of picked up the popcorn.
The story is terrible, the deus ex machina is terrible, the writing is god awful, but YOU'RE IMMEDIATELY ENGROSSED. What we have here, my people, is a telenovela a couple hundred years old. AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING.
I'm not sure where I got this book. Maybe it was a freebie? Just in case it's an old forgotten review copy, I'll leave a review. If it is that case, dI'm not sure where I got this book. Maybe it was a freebie? Just in case it's an old forgotten review copy, I'll leave a review. If it is that case, disclaimer: the books provenance did not affect my opinion. At the time of this review, it was free on the author's website for an email newsletter sub, so if you're interested, you can grab it too.
Anyway, what an odd story! I take it this is a parody of zombie/vampire/any other kind of dystopias/fantasy, as it was popular about the time it was written. Maybe it's even parodying RPG games a little bit? It's really light-hearted and full of black humor. The characters are not taking themselves seriously, and it's kind of funny to read. From how the characters come up, I feel that the author was indeed taking the piss out of the many similar fantasy dystopias at the time. Especially with how the world was manipulated - how the laws of physics change to set up the story and the characters just accept it. This is a common trick in books like that, which made me chuckle. And despite all that - the story had its serious moments, which, despite the lighthearted and playful style of the story, did seem to belong and move you as they were supposed to. The more I read this book, the more I enjoyed it.
So this story was definitely weird, but I have to say, I was very entertained, and I don't even normally like parodies. This book, while totally a pisstake at these kinds of stories, managed to actually involve you on its own, and be engrossing despite using half of the same bad tropes the stories it was parodying would use. I'm not even sure how the author pulled that off! It was a silly and fun read. Definitely a few evenings well spent.
Also, funny story. The book joked on how the main character would rather prefer catatonia to Dame Shirley Bassey, and that's how I discovered her amazing music. I find that just as hilarious as the book, and I'm happy to disagree with the main character's taste in music
Merged review:
I'm not sure where I got this book. Maybe it was a freebie? Just in case it's an old forgotten review copy, I'll leave a review. If it is that case, disclaimer: the books provenance did not affect my opinion. At the time of this review, it was free on the author's website for an email newsletter sub, so if you're interested, you can grab it too.
Anyway, what an odd story! I take it this is a parody of zombie/vampire/any other kind of dystopias/fantasy, as it was popular about the time it was written. Maybe it's even parodying RPG games a little bit? It's really light-hearted and full of black humor. The characters are not taking themselves seriously, and it's kind of funny to read. From how the characters come up, I feel that the author was indeed taking the piss out of the many similar fantasy dystopias at the time. Especially with how the world was manipulated - how the laws of physics change to set up the story and the characters just accept it. This is a common trick in books like that, which made me chuckle. And despite all that - the story had its serious moments, which, despite the lighthearted and playful style of the story, did seem to belong and move you as they were supposed to. The more I read this book, the more I enjoyed it.
So this story was definitely weird, but I have to say, I was very entertained, and I don't even normally like parodies. This book, while totally a pisstake at these kinds of stories, managed to actually involve you on its own, and be engrossing despite using half of the same bad tropes the stories it was parodying would use. I'm not even sure how the author pulled that off! It was a silly and fun read. Definitely a few evenings well spent.
Also, funny story. The book joked on how the main character would rather prefer catatonia to Dame Shirley Bassey, and that's how I discovered her amazing music. I find that just as hilarious as the book, and I'm happy to disagree with the main character's taste in music...more
Got this book for free when an author sent me an email about it being free on Amazon sever years back.
It feels like the book wasn't edited. TDNF @ 22%
Got this book for free when an author sent me an email about it being free on Amazon sever years back.
It feels like the book wasn't edited. The tenses are weird - a paragraph can start with "she always has mixed feelings" and end with "was usually doing this and that". Has, but was? Umm? And this is not just one paragraph in one chapter. This is constant, and it bugs me and makes me reread the whole chapter thinking if I've missed anything.
The main character who is 11 is also written like an adult, with a lot of slangy words only an adult would ever use (and maybe even choose not to), and it just doesn't sound very natural. Some of her opinions were decidedly way too grown up and just didn't feel right for a child this young. I just read a review which said that the child's character was captured well, so maybe it's just me here.
But really, I stopped reading this because I wasn't comfortable with the author saying some weird things about foreigners. Like saying it's a miracle the dinner was good because the chef was a tiny Chinese man or something like that. There were other things. It made me pretty uncomfortable and I don't want to know if there are any more of those in this book....more
I loved it because there's so much promise for Beloved, Notte and perhaps Grey's part in it? (Or later connected stories.How I read this: freebie here
I loved it because there's so much promise for Beloved, Notte and perhaps Grey's part in it? (Or later connected stories.) Can't wait till the rest comes out.
This was one of the first freebies I got back when I got my first Kindle, probably back in 2012. Most of those have turned outHow I read this: freebie
This was one of the first freebies I got back when I got my first Kindle, probably back in 2012. Most of those have turned out to be weird reads, but this one was weird in a totally awesome way.
This is a short collection of scary stories in Indiana, submitted by random people. It reads as a Reddit thread would. Most of the stories are quaint or cute, and only one or two are genuinely creepy. But I enjoyed them all!
I'm torn about this book. The adventure was good. But the horrible taste, jokes and general mysogyny and casual homophobia was terrible. So it's annoyI'm torn about this book. The adventure was good. But the horrible taste, jokes and general mysogyny and casual homophobia was terrible. So it's annoying, cause I want to give three stars for the adventure itself, but I absolutely don't want to give anything higher than two for the nasty taste it leaves in your mouth. Just as soon as you get into the adventure, one of the shit for brains characters says something like "oh, like how I mounted your mother last night" or "I think I just came" as they're being healed, and you just want to throw your e-reader across the room.
The main characters are a bunch of rude, homophobic and immature incels. And I don't know if they're written to be that way cause that's the author's sense of humor, or what. But most of the book is really disgusting and quite offensive. The author is even specifically trying to appear to be un-racist by having the characters quibble about saying racist stuff, and yet it still comes across pretty much even more racist because of that. Incredible feat right there, didn't even know it could be done. ...more
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