This just isn't holding my attention. It was more interesting in some sections than in others for me. But when it was interesting, it was *reDNF @ 25%
This just isn't holding my attention. It was more interesting in some sections than in others for me. But when it was interesting, it was *really* interesting. Those parts were just few and far between for me. This book recounts specific cases showing off Wiltshire's abilities to use the natural world and her training as a forensic ecologist to help solve crimes, often violent ones.
I think the disconnect for me was that the book felt a little too detached from the events being investigated. This makes sense, as Wiltshire outright states in the introduction that in most of the work she does the body she is working on is just an object to her, although there have been a handful of bodies over the years that got to her and that she will never forget. But overall, you can tell it's the science she's interested in, and that comes off in the overall tone of the book.
The audiobook was very nicely produced, and I really liked the narrator's voice. This was also a double-sided sword, though, because I found her voice so soothing that I kept drifting off while listening.
I might try reading the author's previous book, TRACES, as several reviews of this book note that one is excellent and they liked it better....more
Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Orbit for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Okay, so I loved this, even though it wasn't Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Orbit for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Okay, so I loved this, even though it wasn't perfect, and I kind of want to bump my 4.5 stars up to five. I feel like it might be one of those cases where after I read future books and re-read this one, it will be a full five. I want to get a physical copy and annotate! There are a LOT of people who are not getting what this is going for, which is fine if sad. But it's important to go in knowing it's not just a campy, fun time. I think this book is a smart, fun send-up of fantasy as a genre with actual pathos behind it. I can't wait to see what happens with these characters once the author really gets a chance to do things with them.
Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
This was informative and clearly written, but it wasn'Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
This was informative and clearly written, but it wasn't as engrossing as I hoped it would be, mainly because of the style and the organization (which I couldn't really figure out). But also because he was weirdly defensive of the industry being built on Everest, and weirdly critical of anyone who criticized it, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. The focus he gives the Sherpas and their growing control over the industry on the mountain that is in their country, not the world's, was great, but I can't explain it, I just felt weird about some of how he wrote this. I knew going in this wasn't going to be a narrative thrill ride like Into Thin Air and other disaster books (Cockrell and people he interviews are very critical of Krakauer, which also rubbed me the wrong way) but I wish it would have had some sort of thread for me to follow. ...more
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Okay, so, this book was not AT ALL what I was Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Okay, so, this book was not AT ALL what I was expecting going in, based on the blurb. If you are expecting emotional good times and characters to identify with ala Murderbot, stop expecting that.
Our main character, Uncharles, goes on a sort of picaresque philosophical journey of What Does It Mean to Be Alive, with each section of the book being an ode/homage to a different classic (mostly sff) author: Agatha Christie, Franz Kafka, George Orwell, Luis Borges, and Dante Alighieri. Each section of the book has a different feel, and I liked some a lot more than others. The first section, Christie (spelled KR15-T bc robots) plays like a farce, as our main character murders his master but has no memory of it, and his programming and that of the other robots turns the whole situation into one of ridiculous proportions as they attempt to follow commands that make no sense.
Oh, and by the way, this is a world in which humans are vanishingly rare, as they seem to have turned over all their thinking, duties, and tasks to robots, and then as far as I can tell, disappeared.
All in all, Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to be weird and creative and I will continue reading his strange books as long as he keeps writing them, but I do prefer to have an emotional attachment to the characters I'm reading about, and because Uncharles is not yet a Real Boy for most of this novel, I had a really hard time with that and kept wanting to be reading something else.
Note: The audiobook is read by the author, and his voice is bAnAnAs. He does such a great job, he should just narrate all of his audiobooks from now on.
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC.
DNF @ 14%
This is a DNF for now. It was too weird for my brain at the moment, and audio wasn'Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC.
DNF @ 14%
This is a DNF for now. It was too weird for my brain at the moment, and audio wasn't the way to go for me, even though I really like Gabra Zackman as a narrator. I need a hard copy and a fresh brain to get down with this one. Not sure when I'll get to it again, and this is totally a me thing. I hope this finds its audience. Not rating. ...more
Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
DNF @ 22%
I'm just not interested in this, and the nThanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
DNF @ 22%
I'm just not interested in this, and the narrator's voice for the MC's son is very, very irritating. I'm sad about it. I will keep trying stuff from this author, but this one didn't work for me....more
I liked this but it didn't quite captivate me the whole way through, though the beginning was super creepy and promising. Full review tomorrow bc ARC.I liked this but it didn't quite captivate me the whole way through, though the beginning was super creepy and promising. Full review tomorrow bc ARC....more
Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select, Storm Publishing for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
I feel like maybe I shouldn't evThanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select, Storm Publishing for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
I feel like maybe I shouldn't even write this review because everything I can think to say about is sort of mean. Or is just mean full stop. My main reaction to this book is that it had a fantastic premise but the execution was entirely lacking. This book reads like what I imagine a crime book about serial killers would be like if it was filmed and aired on the Hallmark channel: terrible, naïve and cheesy dialogue from characters who don't feel like real people, shoddy research, barely any attention to detail, scenes playing out in what I imagine is a bid for tension, but which just end up frustrating the reader because the characters are being incredibly stupid. The book also unfortunately feels like an older man writing about things he doesn't have experience with and trying to be relevant. But again, no attention to detail, and the perspective on it all feels weird. (The MC's deaf daughter, MC's Indian family-in-law, racist microaggressions at work, anything to do with social media, the MC's autism and ADHD (which is in no way relevant to the story let alone actually apparent in the MC's behavior) etc.)
Emblematic of this whole book and its approach to writing is the fact that not once but twice, the author wrote about the MC doing things so that her deaf daughter wouldn't hear and be disturbed . . . let that one sink in.
I don't recommend this. It wasn't even bad in a fun way. It just felt like a waste of my time. I ended up putting the speed on my audiobook as high as I could stand it just so I could finish....more
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Listen, when it does the thing it does thing, so I hThanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Listen, when it does the thing it does thing, so I had to round up to five stars because it's so rare that I truly love a thriller. So many of them sound exactly the same, and have the exact same premise, and don't really do much interesting beyond trying to shock the hell out of you (which I find uninteresting as the basis for a book). This is not a book that will blow your mind, but it is a book that knows exactly what it wants to do, does it, and does it with style. I can't find a single fault with this book, and even better than that, I had a really great time with it. I will read it again! I regret not getting it in my Book of the Month box this month, but we shall be fixing that error shortly!
Anyway, I don't want to hype this up too much, and a lot of it could just be my personal tastes, but a well-written thriller with a voice is so hard to find! I also loved the plot.
Our main character is Lucy Chase, who was found wandering a road the night after a wedding with a traumatic brain injury that resulted in memory loss, covered in blood. Her best friend Savvy is found dead near the same time, also with a wound to the head. When no other leads can be found, the town turns on Lucy, overwhelmingly believing she killed her best friend. So she leaves town and doesn't look back. The worst part of this being, of course, that she doesn't remember what happened so a part of her believes she might have killed Savvy, too. Fast forward five years and we have the first sentence of the book, which made me laugh out loud (as did the whole first page).
"A podcaster has decided to ruin my life, so I'm buying a chicken."
Said podcaster is Ben Owens, host of "Listen for the Lie," which has taken on Savvy's case, and because the podcast is one lots of people listen to, Lucy can no longer go about her life in L.A. as if she wasn't a murder suspect. She gets fired, her boyfriend awkwardly dumps her (despite the chicken, which, she is hilariously cooking him the Marry Me Chicken). So she goes home for her grandma's 80th birthday, because where else is she going to go, and of course where is said podcaster? In Plumpton, TX. Her hometown.
Anyway, none of that conveys the tone of the book, which was funny and sad and full of characters that felt real to me. I loved Lucy's grandma. I loved Lucy! (lol) She's so sarcastic and darkly funny all the time, and watching her story unravel was a pleasure.
The book alternates between chapters from Lucy and transcripts (or in my case bc I did the audio, audio excerpts) from the podcast, and it was maybe the most well-done podcast I've seen in a book, because we actually got a substantial amount of content from it for once. Podcasts in books are often very truncated and can seem artificial, and this one didn't. (Although, audiobook producers still haven't gotten the hang of making fake podcasts SOUND good.)
Anyway, the ending made me tear up, and I didn't guess whodunnit (bc this is also a mystery), and I just think very fondly of my experience with it over the past couple of days. This did not read like a debut. I wish it had a better cover. I hope lots of people pick it up and have an equally fun time. Will *definitely* be reading from this author again.
Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the audio ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Another banger from Ira Levin. I didn't Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the audio ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Another banger from Ira Levin. I didn't love it quite as much as Rosemary's Baby, but you can clearly tell that this dude could write, and was waaay ahead of his time. And the actual book is much more subtle and impressive than its pop culture residue would have you believe. (Don't even get me started on the bastardization that is the 2004 film. Now that I've read the book, I hate that movie even more.)
It's the early 1970s and our main character is Joanna Eberhart, a photographer who has just moved to a pretty little town called Stepford with her husband and two kids. At first she's loving her new community, and even makes a couple of friends, but soon it becomes clear that all the other housewives (or hausfraus as they call them) are eerily similar in very disturbing ways. They are all obsessed with cleaning their houses, never socialize with other women, and have large breasts and trim waists. They are unfailingly sweet and polite, so Joanna holds no ire for them, but she is concerned nonetheless. Her concern morphs into distress when her friends suddenly seem to change into Stepford wives as well*, and she is sure that the Men's Association (which didn't exist until six or seven years prior) are responsible for what's going on with Stepford's women (the wives of course; no one cares about the children or the elderly).
*One friend, Bobbie, is initially described as messy, with a large bottom and dirty toes, and she is infamously haphazard with her housekeeping and mothering skills, so when she changes it's a huge red flag for Joanna.
The commentary here, that men (even ones that previously professed to be okay with—even proud of—their wives' ambitions, achievements, and personhood) would rather murder their wives and replace them with robots than have to rethink their view of women as inferior beings. There is a scene in here where in hindsight Joanna's husband has clearly just found out about what will happen to his wife soon, and his reaction is truly disgusting. I wish Joanna would have burned the house down with him inside it.
I'm giving this four stars because I'm unsure how I feel about the ending and its implications. It feels very decisive and right for the 1970s, but I would be interested to see if Levin had written it today, what he could have come up with instead.
(The new audiobook, narrated by January LaVoy, with the Peter Straub afterward narrated by Grover Gardner, was a great listen, and I highly recommend it.)
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. It hasn't affected the content of my review.
Okay, first, I'm going to take the chance here that Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC. It hasn't affected the content of my review.
Okay, first, I'm going to take the chance here that I'm going to sound ungrateful, but I mean this in the spirit of genuine feedback. Only giving out a PDF file for your ARC does not really encourage readers. It is very hard to read, limiting the devices on which it can be read. I could only read on my phone, which is a guaranteed recipe for not getting me to actually read something. To finish this book, I actually purchased it on pub day via audio and abandoned the ARC I had been given for free because the reading experience on it was so bad.
The audiobook was very well done, though! And I do prefer audio to e-books when there is the chance of that.
So this book was good and I liked it, but spoilers for the rest of this review, it didn't live up to the title, which was going to be my metric on whether or not it got bumped up to four stars. Maude's revenge was indeed revenge, but I wouldn't call it glorious. More like mostly competent.
Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge is a historical fiction novel set in Victorian England, when public hangings were public entertainment, people were still trying to find the Northwest Passage, and the British Empire was in its heyday. Maude's sister Constance disguises herself as a boy and joins an expedition to find the lost ships the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus*, and when the ship returns she's not on it. She was killed, and no one will tell Maude how or why. Her body, still dressed in its boy's clothes, was left in the Arctic. Maude decides to find out what happened to her sister and do something about it. When her efforts bring her a journal her sister kept while on board, she soon targets the very likely culprit: a man named Edison Stowe, who has recently started a business arranging tours for the wealthy to hangings all across Britain.
*The shipwreck remains were finally found in 2014, and basically all the crew starved to death because the ships were caught in ice floes that wouldn't melt. Dude, they found body parts in cooking pots. It got brutal.
The book is told in varying chapters from Maude, excerpt's from her sister's journal, and from the killer himself, who in a nice touch, never thinks of Constance (Jack, as he knew her) at all. The journal bits were very interesting, seeing Constance in peril, but also seeing the details of what an Arctic sea voyage in the 19th century would have entailed. Maude was interesting to follow, but could have been moreso, and I neither liked nor disliked hearing from Stowe. All of this came down the ending, however, and the titular revenge, and I just don't think the book delivered. The author made the questionable choice to keep Maude's POV distant and hide a lot of her actions from the reader until the very end. This made her look kind of incompetent, and more importantly, just wasn't very fun. If you're planning a revenge plot, let's see some plotting! Of course, save some twists for the end, but I just think it was a bad idea to obscure nearly all of it from us.
A huge problem is that Stowe isn't just being pursued by Maude, but by creditors who have promised him violence. The existence of these creditors does a lot more to harm him than Maude does, in my opinion, and their presence really takes away from any impact she makes on him.
I would say this is mostly a missed opportunity, but I did have a good time listening to it. I wish it could have been a great time, though....more
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Glorious Exploits is a semi-unhinged historicalThanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
Glorious Exploits is a semi-unhinged historical fiction novel about two dudes living in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War who decide they're going to take advantage of the Athenian prisoners of war currently being kept in their town's quarry in order to put on a production of Euripides's Medea, a super cheerful play about child murder.
Two things drew me to this: that cover (I mean . . .) And the fact that it was set on Sicily, the home of my ancestors. For all I know, one of these two dudes is the reason I'm alive! Or someone like him, anyway. Also, it sounded ridiculous, and indeed it was! Did I mention that the author is Irish and the Sicilian characters talk in Irish vernacular?
I think I would have rated this higher had I done the audiobook, as I did have a bit of a hard time keeping my attention on the e-book, but this is a funny and surprisingly hard-hitting book that executes a very weird premise with skill.
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