aaronj21's Reviews (912)

This book was, ...whew, well to say it was good or enjoyable doesn't quite fit, though it is stunningly well written in a technical sense. The reading certainly isn't "enjoyable", the whole thing extracts a toll on you even as you eagerly, apprehensively turn the next page, it is a profoundly searing, moving book, and as if by magic, the trauma on the pages wounds you as well. Lionel Shriver's prose is inspired and lambent and her skill for unsettling and unnerving, for taking a simple scene you're familiar with and turning it into a nightmare, is absolute. By all means read this book, but do not read it lightly, it will affect you, it will make you consider the worst case scenarios of parenting and relationships in general.

The Outsider had me hooked from sentence one, and I stayed enthralled until the very end. Stephen King proves once again that he's an absolute master of pacing, characterization, and suspense. Without getting into spoilers, the Outsider brings compelling elements of legal drama, crime fiction, and genuine horror all wrapped up with King's signature style and fascinating characters. The whole thing was a joy to read and while it probably won't be ranked among his other masterpieces (The Stand, IT, etc.) it's a powerful novel in its own right and decidedly deserves your attention.

An interesting read on how slavery and the profit it produced were inextricably woven into almost all aspects of early American society. The author demonstrates that slavery wasn't merely a moral failing isolated to a few southern states, it was backbone of American commerce for decades, its implementation and survival were seen as necessary to making white men obscenely rich and indeed keeping the country financially solvent. The half has never been told is an appropriate title for this work, as most Americans (myself included) aren't fully aware of how ubiquitous and monstrous slavery was, nor how complicit the whole country was in its continuance.

This Arabian Nights-esque fantasy, adventure story was a tad slow in the beginning and a bit complicated in parts but was more than worth the reading. The story follows Nahri, a con artist from Cairo, who through a series of misadventures comes to realize she's the last living member of a powerful Djinn family, the Nahid. Her ancestors were as famed for their healing abilities as they were feared for their powerful magic and this makes her a target and a prize to numerous creatures and factions she knows nothing about. The main plot concerns Nahri and her summoned bodyguard Dara fleeing Cairo and the dangerous forces pursuing them, seeking safety in the eponymous city of brass, a legendary capital populated and ruled by magical Djinn. This book is beautifully written and is set in a fully fleshed out and awe-inspiring fantasy world, the characters are immediately likable and interesting and they and the plot are capable of truly shocking the reader in a way that is as refreshing as it is surprising. I'm thrilled that the City of Brass is part of a planned trilogy, because like a story from Scheherazade this tale ends in several astonishing and titillating cliff hangers.

P.S.
You're required to read the epilogue, you just have to.

Tragic and messes you up but you don't really mind.

Deeply disturbing and intricately unsettling until the very end, this book will make you question who the real monsters are and if anyone's testimony can be trusted. It's also a powerful and timely musing on the way societies punish men and women differently for similar peccadilloes and crimes.

An interesting, if all too brief, read for anyone among us (and who hasn't?) who has wanted to live forever and considered the weighty implications of such a prolonged existence. Ultimately this vivid page turner is about time, family, and the reasons we all discover or invent to doggedly cling to life no matter the pain it costs us.

The author's tone and writing style are informative yet light and humorous; a good thing too otherwise a book about impactful historical documents could be dead boring.

An interesting book that contends that, far from being freak accidents or aberrations, guns have always been tied to violence, genocide, and white supremacy and that these are inveterate aspects of American history and culture. Without going into detail, this is a fresh and intriguing perspective on a debate we've grown all too familiar with, it's not a complete history of guns in America or the second amendment but rather it offers a framework for exploring and researching these subjects.

This heartbreaking narrative is sad not only for touching on the inhuman atrocities of slavery in America; it's also tragic for telling what comes after emancipation, how even when Cudjo Lewis was a free man he and his family were attacked and unjustly discriminated against but a country that had decided he needn't live in chains but was still far from willing to treat him as a human being.