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aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)
This is still proving itself to be a really solid series. I'm curious how the trilogy ends, mostly because I'd love for these books to surprise me a bit more. This tends to hit a lot of really similar beats to other dystopian type stories, and I really want this world to be a tad more original. The Colonies being run by corporations YES that's perfect give me more!!!! However at the same time, I almost like how it hits similar notes to other dystopian type stories. It fills me with a wonderful sense of familiarity and home; I love a YA dystopia for sure.
I'm constantly overwhelmed by how young all the characters are! June is 15!!! She's basically ten years younger than me since I turn 25 in 2 months. That's absolutely crazy to me, which is horrifying in so many ways. Mostly my existential crisis about me getting older.
I'm constantly overwhelmed by how young all the characters are! June is 15!!! She's basically ten years younger than me since I turn 25 in 2 months. That's absolutely crazy to me, which is horrifying in so many ways. Mostly my existential crisis about me getting older.
This might have helped me get out of my reading slump? This was absolutely delightful. Kelly Bowen is quickly becoming one of my favorite romance voices.
This is probably a bit closer to a 4/4.5 for me, but I really enjoyed Ramsey's narration so I rounded up!
This book functions a bit as a how to manual for participating on social justice in the Internet. Interspersed are stories of Ramsey's coming of age as a social activist, including the many times she has screwed up. I really appreciate the stories of how she learned and grew, and why we have to be forgiving for people coming into their own activism (without forgiving racism or people who are just contemptible). I've never read the book about public shaming, mostly because I kind of want to roll my eyes every time it's mentioned. I think Ramsey strikes a good balance of dealing with the trolls, coming clean when you've made mistakes, and learning how to balance all of this with the rest of your life. A decent amount of the activism discussed is pretty basic to me, someone who has followed a lot of internet celebrities like Ramsey, and is already familiar with certain buzzwords. However, there's still a lot of this book has to offer, so I would write it off just because you already understand the term "intersectional feminism."
This book functions a bit as a how to manual for participating on social justice in the Internet. Interspersed are stories of Ramsey's coming of age as a social activist, including the many times she has screwed up. I really appreciate the stories of how she learned and grew, and why we have to be forgiving for people coming into their own activism (without forgiving racism or people who are just contemptible). I've never read the book about public shaming, mostly because I kind of want to roll my eyes every time it's mentioned. I think Ramsey strikes a good balance of dealing with the trolls, coming clean when you've made mistakes, and learning how to balance all of this with the rest of your life. A decent amount of the activism discussed is pretty basic to me, someone who has followed a lot of internet celebrities like Ramsey, and is already familiar with certain buzzwords. However, there's still a lot of this book has to offer, so I would write it off just because you already understand the term "intersectional feminism."
The reason I was built
is to outlast some terribly
feminine sickness
that is delivered
to blood through kale
salad and pity and men
with straight-haired girlfriends
-RoboBeyonce
There's a lot to delve into in this collection. I'm looking forward to coming back to it.
is to outlast some terribly
feminine sickness
that is delivered
to blood through kale
salad and pity and men
with straight-haired girlfriends
-RoboBeyonce
There's a lot to delve into in this collection. I'm looking forward to coming back to it.
read for PopSugar 2018 challenge: a book set at sea
I'm really disappointed that I didn't like this book more. On the surface it delivers everything it promises: lady pirates fighting the violent warlord. But once you dig deeper, not much was there. The writing was incredibly weak. There's so little description about the technology and the world, that I was constantly confused whenever new vocabulary was introduced and just not explained. For example, what is Silt? An addictive drug that the warlord uses to control his armies. When did I figure that out? Oh probably about 3 or 4 chapters after it would have made sense to. What are Amina's Knots? I think they're elite snipers, under the technology person on the ship? Frankly, I still don't really know. There's a lot of complicated technical work going into the ship, but I was never confident I knew what was happening. Now this may be an ebook thing, but most ebooks do still contain it, but there was no map! You're writing a fantasy world? Give me a map!!!
Additionally, the writing was a prime example of telling instead of showing. This is a third person POV from Caledonia's perspective, and so much of the narrative was stating things instead of giving us a more nuanced look at the action. For example:
"Before her stood the most dangerous person in all of [spoilerish place], the one man she needed to avoid. This was a man who went to great lengths to appease Aric Athair in order to continue operating with authority, who would certainly turn over Caledonia and her crew if it meant securing his own interests."
I highlight this opening to a chapter because I started laughing. This was all information that had been previously revealed when the characters first reached this location! We as readers are aware of the consequences. This made things feel so much more anticlimatic! Let the characters speak and reveal how they feel towards one another, rather than giving the reader a basic primer (except please give me an index of the aspects of this world you don't over explain).
I also felt let down by the character work. I don't understand anyone's personality except Caledonia. We get to see her struggling with her guilt about her family's death, and her dilemma of leading a ship and living up to her mother. But we don't get great insights into other characters except for really wide brush strokes. Also... 53 girls on a ship and there's not a variety of romanic entanglements? Seems really unrealistic. There's one couple but they're more alluded to than out right everyone recognizing oh yes these people are in romantic love, not just sisterly love. I love romance so much, and I rarely find romances to be unnecessary, but the main romance of this book... so unnecessary. There's no buildup. No yearning. No dying for the two to finally realize their feelings. I saw it coming and just rolled my eyes so hard when it did happen.
I feel really let down by this book, because I don't even feel like it was just an average read. It was pretty bad. At least it helped me with my reading challenge.
Look call me a glutton for punishment, but I really want a love/hate, enemies to lovers type situation with Lir. Is he responsible for her family's death? Yes! I think? I mean I assume the bullets probably would've found the ship kind of easily, but who knows. She had way more chemistry with Lir than yawnface Oran, especially when Lir was threatening to kill her at the end. But maybe my romance desires for YA novels are a little too fucked up)
I'm really disappointed that I didn't like this book more. On the surface it delivers everything it promises: lady pirates fighting the violent warlord. But once you dig deeper, not much was there. The writing was incredibly weak. There's so little description about the technology and the world, that I was constantly confused whenever new vocabulary was introduced and just not explained. For example, what is Silt? An addictive drug that the warlord uses to control his armies. When did I figure that out? Oh probably about 3 or 4 chapters after it would have made sense to. What are Amina's Knots? I think they're elite snipers, under the technology person on the ship? Frankly, I still don't really know. There's a lot of complicated technical work going into the ship, but I was never confident I knew what was happening. Now this may be an ebook thing, but most ebooks do still contain it, but there was no map! You're writing a fantasy world? Give me a map!!!
Additionally, the writing was a prime example of telling instead of showing. This is a third person POV from Caledonia's perspective, and so much of the narrative was stating things instead of giving us a more nuanced look at the action. For example:
"Before her stood the most dangerous person in all of [spoilerish place], the one man she needed to avoid. This was a man who went to great lengths to appease Aric Athair in order to continue operating with authority, who would certainly turn over Caledonia and her crew if it meant securing his own interests."
I highlight this opening to a chapter because I started laughing. This was all information that had been previously revealed when the characters first reached this location! We as readers are aware of the consequences. This made things feel so much more anticlimatic! Let the characters speak and reveal how they feel towards one another, rather than giving the reader a basic primer (except please give me an index of the aspects of this world you don't over explain).
I also felt let down by the character work. I don't understand anyone's personality except Caledonia. We get to see her struggling with her guilt about her family's death, and her dilemma of leading a ship and living up to her mother. But we don't get great insights into other characters except for really wide brush strokes. Also... 53 girls on a ship and there's not a variety of romanic entanglements? Seems really unrealistic. There's one couple but they're more alluded to than out right everyone recognizing oh yes these people are in romantic love, not just sisterly love. I love romance so much, and I rarely find romances to be unnecessary, but the main romance of this book... so unnecessary. There's no buildup. No yearning. No dying for the two to finally realize their feelings. I saw it coming and just rolled my eyes so hard when it did happen.
I feel really let down by this book, because I don't even feel like it was just an average read. It was pretty bad. At least it helped me with my reading challenge.
read for PopSugar 2018 Challenge: a book by a local author
This book was not what I wanted it to be. I was expecting to close the book feeling hopeful and inspired, but mostly I was annoyed. Randy Pausch lived a really great life, and it's terrible that he died so young. But the lessons he imposes in this lecture... Well they're coming from someone who was incredibly privileged in life and doesn't quite seem to realize it. Sure, he acknowledges that he was really lucky, but Pausch seems to fall into a classic trap of privilege of thinking that everything in his life he gained only because of his hard work and not his position in the world. I mean he tells the story of getting into CMU because his professor got him an interview with the head of the department! This isn't to underscore whether or not he's qualified, but just that extremely few people would find themselves as fortunate as Pausch was. It's just not about a good attitude and hard work. Sometimes, you have to be born with a foot in the door, which Pausch was fortunate to have.
While I respect his optimism, it did seem overbearing? I've never been diagnosed with a terminal illness, so I don't know how I would handle the situation. But I was rubbed the wrong way by Pausch's declaration to choose to be an Tigger instead of an Eeyore. The world would suffer if everyone was a Tigger. Tigger is fun, but he's also manic and out of control, and the 100 acre woods needs the balance of all characters. It's not my fault the neurochemicals in my brain make me feel like more of an Eeyore most days. His over simplification of the world in order to stumble upon profundity was what made me frustrated during the snippets of "life lessons." They didn't go far enough or deep enough. Yes, Pausch didn't have time, and that's sad. It's hard for me to think negatively on this book when he tried to write this with so little time left.
All that said, this book isn't for me as the ending makes clear. It's for his children. They won't remember him, but they can carry him with them through life and get a bright and happy outlook from their father. He won't be able to tackle the difficulties they're going to face, so he tried to cram as much as he could into this book, and his lecture, for his kids. I cried a the end when he discussed his kids and his wife, mostly because that was what was real. These little lessons are just basically clips from the Farmer's Almanac, and not what was important. I hope he did make videos and write letters, and I hope his children watch and read them, and see how much they were loved by him.
This book was not what I wanted it to be. I was expecting to close the book feeling hopeful and inspired, but mostly I was annoyed. Randy Pausch lived a really great life, and it's terrible that he died so young. But the lessons he imposes in this lecture... Well they're coming from someone who was incredibly privileged in life and doesn't quite seem to realize it. Sure, he acknowledges that he was really lucky, but Pausch seems to fall into a classic trap of privilege of thinking that everything in his life he gained only because of his hard work and not his position in the world. I mean he tells the story of getting into CMU because his professor got him an interview with the head of the department! This isn't to underscore whether or not he's qualified, but just that extremely few people would find themselves as fortunate as Pausch was. It's just not about a good attitude and hard work. Sometimes, you have to be born with a foot in the door, which Pausch was fortunate to have.
While I respect his optimism, it did seem overbearing? I've never been diagnosed with a terminal illness, so I don't know how I would handle the situation. But I was rubbed the wrong way by Pausch's declaration to choose to be an Tigger instead of an Eeyore. The world would suffer if everyone was a Tigger. Tigger is fun, but he's also manic and out of control, and the 100 acre woods needs the balance of all characters. It's not my fault the neurochemicals in my brain make me feel like more of an Eeyore most days. His over simplification of the world in order to stumble upon profundity was what made me frustrated during the snippets of "life lessons." They didn't go far enough or deep enough. Yes, Pausch didn't have time, and that's sad. It's hard for me to think negatively on this book when he tried to write this with so little time left.
All that said, this book isn't for me as the ending makes clear. It's for his children. They won't remember him, but they can carry him with them through life and get a bright and happy outlook from their father. He won't be able to tackle the difficulties they're going to face, so he tried to cram as much as he could into this book, and his lecture, for his kids. I cried a the end when he discussed his kids and his wife, mostly because that was what was real. These little lessons are just basically clips from the Farmer's Almanac, and not what was important. I hope he did make videos and write letters, and I hope his children watch and read them, and see how much they were loved by him.