I was so excited to hear Sabaa Tahir was releasing a YA contemporary novel because her fantasy series is amazing, and this did not disappoint.
Set in aI was so excited to hear Sabaa Tahir was releasing a YA contemporary novel because her fantasy series is amazing, and this did not disappoint.
Set in a desert town in California, USA as well as flashbacks to Pakistan, the novel deals with two teenage best friends who must grapple with grief, racism, abuse, alcoholism and everything else life is throwing at them. Part of these problems are exacerbated by systemic issues within the United States, and reading this as an Australian is particularly frustrating because at least one of the major plot points would not even be an issue in many other countries.
The novel has Sabaa's usual beautiful writing and her ability to create characters that you love as if they were your own family. I really enjoyed the food descriptions, particularly how they are linked to the feeling of comfort and home. I'm half Indian so most of the food was very familiar to me and I was hungry by the end of the book!
This is not a happy novel with sad parts, this is really quite a sad novel the whole way through - so if you don't like sad books, this one isn't for you.
At times it was frustrating, hearbreaking, funny, hopeless and hopeful.
Highly recommended but please read the trigger warnings on this one....more
More than anything, this novel reminds me of like a B grade movie with B grade actors and over the top, slapstick humour.
It wasn't terrible, but it waMore than anything, this novel reminds me of like a B grade movie with B grade actors and over the top, slapstick humour.
It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. I'm fine with some dark humour, but this one crossed the line a little and made the characters so unlikeable that it couldn't recover.
Some of it was funny and tries to be like a Weekend at Bernies kinda thing. I did laugh at the end scenes and the exaggeration of the 'Aunties' but overall, it just didn't quite hit the spot I think it was intending to....more
Reading this book made me angry on its behalf that it has not had the hype of other fantasy novels that are not even in the same stratosphere as this Reading this book made me angry on its behalf that it has not had the hype of other fantasy novels that are not even in the same stratosphere as this book (*cough* looking at you Powerless and Fourth Wing).
This was marketed as a YA novel but I really question that decision as one of the main plot points in the novel deals with rape, and other than the ages of some of the characters, there is nothing really YA about it.
Anyway, the novel focuses on two main characters. Lazlo Strange is an orphaned Librarian who dreams of the city of “Weep”, a city whose name disappeared from the world suddenly during his childhood, like it was plucked from his brain.
The second is Serai, one of five blue skinned “godspawn” (a word intended to be a slur), who are trapped in a ‘citadel’ and are believed to be dead by all the humans who live in weep.
It’s difficult to really explain the plot of this novel even a little without giving away spoilers, but the crux of the plot is that the “Gods” (now all dead) were terrible to the humans on ‘weep’ and the godspawn are hated as their descendents, though assumed to all be dead. The real villains are already gone, and all that is left is the generational trauma that now physically (you’ll see) and symbolically hovering over the humans of weep.
What we really get is some of the most luminous, magical writing and scenes that I’ve read in a book for a very long time, a plot with both heart and complexity that speaks to our own world’s problem as well as well drawn characters that you will feel connected to.
It’s fascinating to read a novel where the main villains are (mostly) absent from the story. As a result we get to question and discover how good people can do terrible things, how ‘sides’ are not always as black and white as they seem and we get antagonists that still provoke our empathy and understanding. Memory, generational trauma, identity, found family, the effects of dehumanisation of ‘the other’ - it’s all here, wrapped up in such a careful, understanding package.
There is a romance plot but it isn’t a focus for most of the novel. When it is, it’s done so sweetly and while you could argue it’s a little ‘insta love”, I think given the background of the two characters, it does make sense.
I couldn’t predict at all how this was going to go as a novel because there was no obvious easy path to take, no obvious winner, no obvious loser. Even the most heinous act in the novel, is still uncomfortably understandable in why it happened.
This kind of plot and intricate, world building would have crumbled with a lesser author, but she does a truly amazing job of creating such a unique world.
I recommend this for people who almost loved The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. The vibes are very similar, but the plot is more structured and less confusing.
I recommend it to anyone willing to read fantasy, but bear in mind this is book one of a duology, and you will want the second one straight away....more
I feel like this book scraped the insides of my brain, took out the contents and fashioned it into this book. Not that I am anything like either of thI feel like this book scraped the insides of my brain, took out the contents and fashioned it into this book. Not that I am anything like either of the characters in most ways, but this book is for ANYONE who feels too much, or feels they are too much.
It's a love story between two people who aren't what society thinks of as the 'norm'. Regan is a force of nature, torn between containing herself into a more manageable box or letting everything spill out everywhere chaotically. Aldo is essentially the opposite, not feeling much of anything at all. They are both damaged, difficult people.
The writing is beautiful, it feels almost manic at times itself, in fact you will feel very much like you are floating in the ether with Regan and Aldo themselves. I wouldn't call it purple or flowery writing, it feels more like it just poured out of her. I can imagine many people hating this book, I think it will suit a specific set of personalities.
The plot is just the relationship and the characters. It is suffocating and intense, frustrating, you are just as much in their relationship as they are.
The Church scene towards the beginning is so elite I didn't even realise I was holding my breath while reading it!
This book is definitely a victim of hype. SO much hype on booktube and booktok about this one so I was expecting something a little special. Instead IThis book is definitely a victim of hype. SO much hype on booktube and booktok about this one so I was expecting something a little special. Instead I found a pretty average, occasionally boring, standard YA romance.
The main problem with the novel is the main character - she's annoying most of the time and wields the miscommunication trope with way too much gusto. It made no sense that someone whose character is meant to be obsessed with romcoms and standard romcom tropes would take 200 pages to realise Wes was going to be a love interest for her.
There's nothing really 'wrong' with the book as such - it's just very average and I don't really understand where any of the hype came from. ...more
Betty is one of the hardest books I've ever reviewed. It feels wrong to give it three stars, to lump it in with average, forgettable books while a3.75
Betty is one of the hardest books I've ever reviewed. It feels wrong to give it three stars, to lump it in with average, forgettable books while at the same time 4-5 stars doesn't reflect my reading experience.
Betty is set in the foothills of the Ohio Appalachians and follows Betty Carpenter, a half Cherokee/half white child and her large family. There's no flowery way to say it - this book is absolutely filled with trauma - racism, incest, rape, animal abuse, poverty, and death. If you find dark books hard to read, this one is not for you.
The strength of the novel is in McDaniel's prose, which is really beautiful and lyrical. Landon, Betty's dad, is the central 'adult' figure in the novel and is a wonderful, thoughtful man who spends a lot of time trying to understand and give hope to his children. We get a lot of his 'stories', his explanations for the natural world and Cherokee traditions. He imparts his wisdom to Betty, the only child out of the six children who 'looks' Cherokee and their relationship is a highlight of the novel.
Its weakness though, is the lack of a plot for the bulk of the book and the repetitiveness of "nice story from Landon" followed by "violent piece of trauma". Rinse, repeat. As much as I liked Landon's explanations of everything, it was too much - we needed to get enough to understand his character and his relationship with Betty, but when it became story/trauma/story/trauma, I found it hard to stay engaged.
That for me was essentially the problem. I would be engaged during the traumatic, dramatic part of the chapter, and then that would fade away and we'd be back to a fairly uninteresting account of some siblings playing together. Towards the last quarter of the book, so many bad things happen at once that I had the same reaction as when I read A Little Life - I checked out.
Character development was decent, but because we only have Betty's point of view as a child, retold from Betty as an adult, we don't really get much of a feel of the other character's relationships with each other. For example, we barely see any interaction at all between the mother and father. What did Landon think of his wife's behaviour? What did the other kids feel for their mother? Did she treat them the same as she treated Betty? I have no idea and wish I knew.
There is a lot of good in this novel, the beautiful writing, the solid characters, the truly heartbreaking stories, but an account of trauma without any light in it at all is difficult to enjoy.
For me, this novel was like reading Cloudstreet with characters I liked better.
While the writing is different (*cough* better), it’s very similar in sFor me, this novel was like reading Cloudstreet with characters I liked better.
While the writing is different (*cough* better), it’s very similar in scope and feel, and I just couldn’t shake that feeling.
Still Life is basically a plot-less novel about a group of people who are connected through love and found family. If you need a plot driven novel- this isn’t for you.
Very loosely, the book’s basic ‘plot’ is that we follow a young soldier called Ulysses through his life from the end of WW2 through to the 70s - and we follow the people who orbit around him.
The characters are well drawn, despite the fact we are rarely in their heads. I still felt I knew them really well and I was definitely attached to them by the end, particularly Cressy who was just so real and so loveable. It might sound cliche, but I knew them in basically the same way as if they were a still life - all the details there, but with some of the interpretations left to me.
The novel does resemble a still life in many ways - it’s a collection of moments a lot of the time, where the scene is described in full detail and you can easily pause it in your head and see all the connections and details between the cast of characters.
The novel did lose my interest in certain parts and even though the connection between Ulysses and Evelyn is pivotal to the plot - I never really *felt* it when it came to the original chapter between them. I don’t think their time together and the impact was as fully realised as it should have been.
I also just wasn’t interested in Evelyn at all much as a character. She felt pretty boring to me and disconnected from the rest of them through social class and life trajectory. As others have said, the end chapter felt useless and killed the vibe. I wondered if Winman was trying to make Evelyn the ‘cloud’ in the still life (if you’ve read it, you’ll understand) and some people are interested in that ‘cloud’ - but, for me it dulled my enjoyment down.
The book’s setting is a huge part of it, probably a little too much for me. I have zero emotional/personal connection to Italy so while this reads like a love letter to Florence - it was nice to read but didn’t impact me. If you’re someone who really enjoys being swept up in the location of a novel, you’ll really appreciate how detailed and evocative this is done. Some of the passages are truly beautiful.
Overall, the book is basically one big vibe. I’ve seen criticisms that it’s overly sentimental, but that didn’t bother me at all and I’m a sucker for when little moments scattered throughout a book find their place later on. The book is funny, heartwarming and a fairly light read. Considering the world right now, it’s not a bad choice to be swept up into the lives of these characters for a few days....more
**Synopsis** - This is a short, sparse novel based on the true story of a Portugese woman in Angola who bricks up her ap# A General Theory of Oblivion
**Synopsis** - This is a short, sparse novel based on the true story of a Portugese woman in Angola who bricks up her apartment and closes herself within - for over 30 years. We get diary entries from Ludovica’s point of view as well as chapters describing the many creative ways she manages to survive. The other chapters are from the point of view of various interconnected characters that somehow relate back to Ludo even though she has been absent from society from many years. The novel takes place in Angola during the War of Independence, and we see and feel snippets of how that plays out through the other characters. J
**Characters** - I really enjoyed all the chapters that focused on Ludovica - they were beautifully and deftly written. She’s a simply drawn but thoughtful character that inspires both sympathy and admiration in equal parts. Her story is told matter of factly and without sentimentality, but it is emotionally effecting and the slow reveal of the reasons for her agorophobia really made me pause.
It was the chapters about the other characters that lost me a little as a reader. For me, the characters were not drawn evocatively enough for me to remember who was who - and I often had to go back and re-read the other chapters to remember who they were and how they fit in. Most of those characters fell very flat for me, and while I appreciated the way the novel ties in seemingly insignificant events to the fates of everyone involved, the blandness of the characters deadened the effect of this.
**Prose** - The writing is sparse, economical, and really gorgeous. I loved the writing. The reader’s intelligence is really respected here and you’re left to really piece things together for yourself. Even though the novel can feel quite simple, it is really a complex, intricate piece of writing and you do need to pay attention. The writing is also quite funny at times and aware of the absurdity of both the situations, the characters and humanity in general. I did find myself laughing out loud a few times. Ludo’s diary entries are just
**Pace** - If you’re looking for a fast paced novel, this isn’t for you. There are no huge plot points, everything just slowly falls more into place as you go on, but it’s more of a meditative than plot based novel.
**Themes** - The novel of course looks at the effects of the political landscape in Angola during the fight for independence but just like Ludo, we only really get snippets of the outside world, like we’re brushing against it but not delving in deeply. If you don’t have much knowledge of Angola during this time period, expect to come away with more of a general sense of the time rather than anything specific. Ludo’s story deals with the themes of isolation, trauma, violence and the human need for connection. Even though Ludo bricks herself a way, her actions are still intricately linked with the fate of the other characters, some of whom are literally inches away from her on the other side of the wall.
**Who will like this** - I think fans of Gabriel García Márquez will be drawn to this novel. Appreciation for writing over plot and form over characters. It is definitely worth reading - I enjoyed it a lot, I just didn’t love it....more
Cringey and as shallow as they come, it wasn't even fun to read. It actually started off okay but as sooWhy in the insta-love is this book so popular?
Cringey and as shallow as they come, it wasn't even fun to read. It actually started off okay but as soon as they got together it was just cliche after cliche, wooden dialogue and unrealistic responses to trauma.
I was convinced this was going to be a 5 star read but unfortunately, it just didn't get there for me at all.
I am not the kind of reader that doesn't I was convinced this was going to be a 5 star read but unfortunately, it just didn't get there for me at all.
I am not the kind of reader that doesn't like a book because of an unlikeable character or narrator, but in this case, Marion was so hard to like that it really did impact the enjoyment of the novel for me. It is also one of the few cases where I wasn't convinced that this was some of the author coming through and not just characterisation.
What I didn't like:
The demonising of Genet by Marion. While his reaction to her *is* consistent with his character, the fact that at no time the author implied he was being unreasonable is what left a bad taste in my mouth. The emotional impact of his 'betrayal' doesn't resonate for me because he makes so little sense. Even though Genet's character and story are filtered through Marion, we still get little to no evidence that she EVER wanted to be with him at all. He simply decides he loves her and then expects her to be on board, acting like he owns her and her life going forward from age 11! He then blames his brother for 'ruining her' because he didn't get to to be her first lover.
Not to mention he is ONLY concerned with himself when she is circumsized by her mother, acting more concerned he was getting the blame for her sexual decisions than the fact she almost died and was mutilated.
Never at any point does Marion 'realise' how unfair he is being, how ridiculous his fight with his brother is, over a girl he was never really dating, just randomly decided he was going to marry.
And then, he essentially rapes her at the end, forces himself inside her without a condom and essentially blames her for his brother's death because she got him sick. What...on...earth.
The book should never have had Marion as the narrator, because I just didn't get any sense that the author knew Marion was such a flawed character. What was the point of spending all that time in his head. Multiple points of view so we can see how others saw Marion would have been more interesting.
Unfortunately there are other instances of women and sexuality in this novel that again make me question how much is the narrative intention and how much is the author being unable to write women as real people.
I had a great WTF moment when the staff probationer tells Marion, a person she held as a baby, that she was waiting to have sex with him. I mean, what? Where did that come from?
Then the other woman he helped when he was also a child, also offers to take his virginity and wants to sleep with him. She tells him she 'owes' him because as a child he is there for when her own child dies? I just can't.
Why are these grown women suddenly desperate to sleep with a man they associated with as a child? Why would the staff probationer (who barely gets a name) be waiting to have sex with the child whose mother she basically killed? "I waited for you all these years". All I can say is, huh?
None of these things make sense. None of the women in this novel, except Hema (who is also shown as playing with Ghosh's feelings for years mind you) make any sense.
As for the rest, it was okay. The pace is up and down with some unnecessary details that drag and yet not enough at other times. I appreciated that the characters of Ghosh and Hema did get some decent time at the beginning from their own points of view so that their stories later on resonated. I wish we had the same from Shiva.
There are some very well written passages and events and some beautiful writing.
But the bad taste in my mouth and the feeling of pointlessness at the end of such a long novel.....it just wasn't enough.
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