this was a short book that was mostly about two things: - overcoming hyper-specific and very disturbing trauma - smut.
these are talia hibbert forever!
this was a short book that was mostly about two things: - overcoming hyper-specific and very disturbing trauma - smut.
these are two things that i don't love in my romances in general, and especially in combination due to the breakneck tone shifts switching back and forth between them entails, but i enjoy everything by talia hibbert and it was nice to read about these two nice people being nice to each other.
in the moments that weren't, you know. the stuff that makes me upset and the stuff that makes me blush like a proper old woman.
i'm sorry. i wish i was cool.
bottom line: not my favorite talia hibbert, but still by talia hibbert.
this is a book about sisters, scams, paris, magic, sapphic romance, and ghosts.
that's like 6 of my 10 all time favorite things.
turns out it also has athis is a book about sisters, scams, paris, magic, sapphic romance, and ghosts.
that's like 6 of my 10 all time favorite things.
turns out it also has a lot of my least favorites.
what it doesn't have enough of is story. it's not even 300 pages long and yet we don't have enough content to cover us! we try our hand at multiple perspectives (all my homies hate multiple perspectives) that cover the SAME TIMELINE, resulting in the first 200 pages becoming totally redundant as we sit through the same story once more. 150 pages of the first pov, 100 pages of the next one telling the same story, all with a slow pace and an actual plot beginning at the halfway point. by the time we catch up to where the first perspective left off we have less than 50 pages to go.
did that description make sense? it was so surreal as i was reading it i'm struggling to capture the experience.
and the bummers continued apace. this is allegedly set in paris, but it has literally 0 atmosphere and contains a bizarre choice to write one perspective in what i can only describe as "old-timey british dialect." two unredeemed, deeply annoying protagonists were the killing blow.
the writing and synopsis aren't quite my cup of tea, but i thought this could be the exception to the various rules in my hater's heart.
throw in a bunch of unresolved thoughts about familial abuse, suicide, depression, infertility, motherhood, social class, and love...and it's safe to say it was not.
bottom line: it was the best of tropes, it was the worst of tropes.
this is like if ottessa moshfegh wrote a brandon taylor book.
and also shakespeare is somehow involved, i guess. i (like many people who dare to call tthis is like if ottessa moshfegh wrote a brandon taylor book.
and also shakespeare is somehow involved, i guess. i (like many people who dare to call themselves bookworms) have not read any of shakespeare's history monarch-y plays, so much of the henriad retelling was lost on me even though i very bravely read the wikipedia.
like moshfegh (more so than melissa broder), it delights in being crass and gross-out without being cheerful about it. i thought it was very good, if a little shallow in places, which is a critique i have of moshfegh and not at all of taylor.
if anything with taylor it's the opposite. please stop being so deep about everything. i'm haunted by a description of an underenjoyed potluck submission i read 3 years ago.
anyway.
my only other real thought about this is that no one on earth could possibly eat as much lamb as these people do. is that how you have to be rich in britain? maybe i'm ok with being a middle class american after all.
anyway again.
bottom line: i read this 2 months ago but it still stands out for me. even if a lot of that is lamb.
------------------- tbr review
if brandon taylor calls it "one of the finest novels I’ve ever read," i'm reading it
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)...more
they already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas andthey already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas and fell flat on the execution. it never really works for me when the first 200+ pages of a book are exposition and then the climax hits with 40 pages to go, and this was left feeling sloppy and rushed. this book felt like it had the concept it wanted, and the ending it knew it wanted to get to, and then it just kind of rambled in between.
reading the epilogue and finding our protagonist transformed, (view spoiler)[armed with friendships with barely mentioned characters, a terminated relationship that had showed no signs of being stopped, and a totally different career path (hide spoiler)] with none of the development it would have taken to get there, felt frustrating. also i just don't know why this book felt like it needed a love triangle, or why the roommate had to be constantly eating and made fun of for that, or (and maybe it's just me) why this had to do that sci-fi thing where you just capitalize common phrases to indicate they have taken on some sort of dystopian brand.
oh well.
bottom line: this was really promising, and i really enjoyed moments of it, but its last page and its middle pages threw me off.
i could give a lot of reasons i wanted to read this, but the top one was always going to be "look at that gold detailing on the cover."
unfortunately ii could give a lot of reasons i wanted to read this, but the top one was always going to be "look at that gold detailing on the cover."
unfortunately it turns out it's orange, and that this book is not really for me.
i love short books, but that's because i typically read literary fiction, and books about the ennui in the life of a woman in her 30s don't normally need extra pages to clear up any confusion.
this, about polish magic in chicago featuring a romance, a movie theater showing alien as a cover, climactic, action-packed sequences like a guy trying to pick a flower, and musical mythical creatures, probably could've used some.
but it wasn't a bad time.
bottom line: i don't really know what happened in this book, but i might've liked it.
short magical realism story collection about the beauty of being alive...this book is for me, specifically.
mini reviews for each story:
THE RETURN TO Mshort magical realism story collection about the beauty of being alive...this book is for me, specifically.
mini reviews for each story:
THE RETURN TO MONSTERLAND pretty traditional parent abandonment story, except what if your mom left your family to pursue the scientific study of godzilla. rating: 3
PLACENTOPHAGY this was just about the opposite of the last one: short and extremely unique. rating: 3.5
ROKUROKUBI if i were a demon and my only power was having a stretchy neck i would be so disappointed. all this guy does with his power is steal underwear and get cheated on by his wife. rating: 3
GIRL ZERO finally, some good f*cking food (if gordon ramsay was talking about a unique, emotional story that reminded me of why i loved the author's other work).
even if it lost it along the way. rating: 3.5
PEACH BOY i do love a fairytale vibe.
maybe now is a good time to point out that there are fun one-page interludes between these stories, which i enjoy even though they're messing with my format. rating: 3.5
THE INN OF THE DEAD'S ORIENTATION FOR BEING A JAPANESE GHOST the concept: :) the execution: ... :/
(this is the reaction of when you really want to like something but it's kinda just trying too hard and you have to cringe a bit.) rating: 3
THE PASSAGE OF TIME IN THE ABYSS contents aside, we've got some great titles here.
sorry but if i were taking my grandchildren on a fishing trip, i simply wouldn't go out when a huge storm was coming "because the catch is better before the storm." i'm just kind of built different like that. rating: 2.5
THE REST OF THE WAY sad one. but not sad enough? does that make sense? more depressing than emotional. rating: 2.5
WHERE WE GO WHEN ALL WE WERE IS GONE title story title story title story!
if you asked me to guess what this was about i probably would have had to go for a while before getting to "dystopian style dance party." rating: 3
THE SNOW BABY okay. rating: 2.5
HEADWATER LLC no matter how many interchangeable upsetting stories there are about human greed destroying nature, they will always be depressing. rating: 3.5
KENTA'S POSTHUMOUS CHRYSANTHEMUM i mean, the title is very literal. rating: 2.5
OVERALL i'm so disappointed by this book as to be actually confused. the author's novel is so emotional, so evocative, so powerfully rendered that each of its many perspectives feel unforgettable. with a few exceptions, this was...weird? trying to shock the reader? totally emotionless? shallow plays at feeling? i have no idea how the same person could have written both.
this book is not bad, but compared to the author's other work...sheesh. rating: 2.5...more
(this comes to mind because this book explores the line between dream and reality, and not because i'm just thinking about childrenlife is but a dream
(this comes to mind because this book explores the line between dream and reality, and not because i'm just thinking about children's songs)
(anyway)
there were moments this was truly interesting, but for the most part it was overambitious and seemed to find the huge number of symbols, motifs, themes, and Various Things Of Literary Significance it had saddled itself with unwieldy. it didn't nail the dismount, so to speak.
i love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration oi love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration of womanhood, of what it means to mother and to work and to try to do your moral best and look around at everyone else and be unconvinced they're doing any of it — and for that worry to extend so far you wonder if you're actually doing any of it yourself.
this encapsulation of a few days in one ordinary life totally riveted me. i loved the protagonist's children, and while i wish a few more things were fleshed out — the husband, the babysitter, the ending — all in all this felt like drinking a cool glass of water.
this was VERY DIFFERENT from a good girl's guide to murder.
alternate title proposal: a mean girl's guide to family drama and bullying the people arouthis was VERY DIFFERENT from a good girl's guide to murder.
alternate title proposal: a mean girl's guide to family drama and bullying the people around her.
it was a lot more dramatic, a lot less realistic, and a lot more filled with secrets and cringy moments of the meanest teenage girl you've ever encountered in your fiction-reading life making adults cry. which is...not my usual demographic.
the last third or so was a lot more enjoyable of a reading experience, but it wasn't a satisfying conclusion. instead it was really info dumpy, very unrealistic feeling.
if a good girl's guide to murder is like the first few seasons of pretty little liars, this is like the last few. unrealistic, confusing, and vaguely alarming.
but still surprising and weirdly fun.
bottom line: the real plot twist is how much i didn't expect about this book.
2.5
------------------ tbr review
a good reader's guide to adding too many books to her tbr
the important thing to know about this is it's a bad book written by a good writer. the characters: flimsy. their rellike a reverse irish exit?
anyway.
the important thing to know about this is it's a bad book written by a good writer. the characters: flimsy. their relationships: inexplicable. the plot: filled with years-long gaps to the point of being incomprehensible.
but the writing itself? the dialogue? the little jokes? excellent.
the other thing to know is that it is very weird. it's a white woman who was once a backup singer in a Black group and can't get over it. that's not much to carry us through 250 pages and it never feels any more normal.
maybe it was a different time.
bottom line: sometimes books are forgotten for a reason.
this is a book about monsters and girls and girls who become monsters and monsters who become girls.
it's also a book i really wanted to like. it has athis is a book about monsters and girls and girls who become monsters and monsters who become girls.
it's also a book i really wanted to like. it has a weird eerie cover! it has weird eerie contents! it's filled with teeth and blood and sex and ghosts! i like books with all of these things.
in execution, though, it felt uneven, maybe less than the sum of its parts. the stories didn't seem to build on one another, and though their synopses varied, their themes felt unrelentingly the same. it was more cringey than spooky, and generally seemed as though the author's intent may have been beyond the scope of her writing talent.
in other words, a debut!
that being said, i'll definitely read more from this author.
this was the rare short story collection that makes me wish it'd been a novel instead: one synopsis, pursued to the extent of its meaning, rather than many short stories shallowly delving into the same one.
but i found it fast-paced and readable, two things i rarely think about short story collections.
bottom line: this is a review of a book about monster girls written by a girl monster. sorry i'm mean.
------------------ pre-review
...ok fine i'm judging books by their covers again
short stories about "slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life"??? gimme
mini reviews for each story because i'm pretendinshort stories about "slightly off-kilter worlds tucked away in the corners of everyday life"??? gimme
mini reviews for each story because i'm pretending i have my life together:
TABLE FOR ONE sometimes i think that the title story being the very first story in the collection is not a good sign. this is a fun one about people who take lessons on how to eat alone, and it made me want korean bbq very badly. rating: 3.5
SWEET ESCAPE this story, which is about people eating popsicles and becoming obsessed with preventing bedbugs, includes a scene in which everyone in an apartment building smells cilantro — which apparently smells like bedbugs? — and is disgusted.
as a cilantro fan, i can't abide this insect-based propaganda. that's not the reason this story isn't great, but it didn't help. rating: 2.5
INVADER GRAPHIC i kinda wish i was a kleptomaniac. i love free stuff so i wish i didn't have my rule abiding self holding me back. plus i always made my sims have that trait since i thought it was fun to have them bring little presents back from work.
anyway. this is a story about a woman who works from a department store bathroom every day. rating: 3.5
HYEONMONG PARK'S HOUSE OF DREAMS it turns out if dreams were for sale it would mostly just be a capitalist contest to corner the industry.
which i guess is not that surprising. but it's also not all that fun to read about. rating: 3
ROADKILL there should be another word for "kafkaesque" meaning trying really hard to be. rating: 3
TIME CAPSULE 1994 i'm going to be real with you: i don't know what this one means. rating: 3
ICELAND this is a story about the category of "iceland person," which is a person who is obsessed with the concept of visiting and/or living in iceland.
we all know at least one. rating: 3
PIERCING they say if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. but this is MY goodreads account, so i get to say this was disgusting and stupid and i hated it so much. rating: 1
DON'T CRY, HONGDO this one was just about a kid who has to eat organic and has a crush on her teacher. maybe i'm just sensitive because being forced to eat organic was my trial in youth (i still remember the day they took the slushy machine out of the cafeteria...), but this one didn't quite click. rating: 2.5
OVERALL i honestly love when story collections are united by a theme, and it's something that if i were evil dictator of the world i would make a requirement. unfortunately these felt a bit elementary, and a little off, like they needed another polish before being sent out into the world. rating: 2.5
the thing about collecting everything an author has ever written about a subject as broad as "art," as she wrote it with no future awareness of its lothe thing about collecting everything an author has ever written about a subject as broad as "art," as she wrote it with no future awareness of its looming collection, is that you definitionally are kinda taking the good with the bad.
i'm not new york-y, in so many ways: i don't pay a lot in rent, i'm not adventurous, i stay inside a lot, and i don't know how to even begin to understand abstract art. i don't think i'm above it. quite the opposite. i would never be like "my four year old could create this painting / bash this barbie's head in / create this sculpture that is a talking refrigerator." i'm closer to the four year old — it just goes over my head.
i loved the parts of this that included maggie nelson in conversation with interesting people, including those i hadn't heard of and those i had. i loved the parts that were explorations of things i know, or of books.
but for me, there is only so much blood and sh*t and gore and violence smashed into a canvas or a polaroid or film recording i can bear.
bottom line: i always love maggie nelson but she is way cooler than me. this was made up of exclusively the cooler than me parts.
i have marked 1,865 books as read on goodreads. i have reviewed 1,813 of them. of those, i would say at least 1,727 had at least one complaint. and STi have marked 1,865 books as read on goodreads. i have reviewed 1,813 of them. of those, i would say at least 1,727 had at least one complaint. and STILL, i just discovered a whole new negative thing to say:
this book is all feelings. the characters don't really have personality traits, they have emotions. they don't have development, they have new feelings. there is no romance, just instalove. there isn't really a plot, just people going through feelings together (for a podcast) and people going through feelings together (that will eventually lead to them being together).
it makes it all feel shallow, like there's no actual connection between these people or their story, and that means there's no connection between the reader and the book.
for this reader, at least.
bottom line: you learn something new every day. i already knew i was a soulless void, but today i learned a new effect of that.
------------------------ tbr review
what's your favorite niche book trope? mine is road trips.
unfortunately this is not really a road trip book. my bad.
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