bennysbooks's Reviews (668)

This is the literary equivalent of a warm hug. I fell in love with so many of the characters, and cared deeply about what happened to them (especially Nana and Zareena - I loved her before we even met her). I laughed out loud many times at the quips and the family antics (and MASOOD!) and was totally drawn in by the drama. I did feel that Sheila's character and her place within the story could have been a bit more nuanced, but overall I appreciated the portrayal of how white women can weaponize the rhetoric of white feminism against others, and the counter balance of Clara that provided a great example of how to be an ally in those situations.

Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, romantic read!

This was so much fun! Not without its problems (some strange and needless girl hate at the beginning, some comments about George that stepped too far beyond friendly ribbing for me) but the world-building was great, and the plot had me enthralled. I had figured out the plot as soon as I had most of the information, but that didn't hurt my experience. I still wanted to know how it would play out. Highly recommend for kids and adults yearning for something terrifying!

DNF at 87 pages. This felt like the outline of a book rather than an actual novel. A book proposal. I thought it would be cute but it was totally unsatisfying. The author threw in so many elements to try to make her reader feel something, without actually putting in the effort to create the feeling. They are banking on the cute and sad to evoke emotions rather than developing emotions gradually.

DNF just over 100 pages. This is a horrifying topic that deserves attention, but this was not a great book. The author failed - in my opinion - to convey the horror, the humanity, and instead mostly presented facts. And so many facts that didn't serve the underlying story. I will look for the information online and will likely feel just as satisfied as if I had finished this.

Not as successful as Ware's latest, The Turn of the Key. That book scared me and I LOVED reading it. This one had moments, but mostly felt like a slog. The big secret was not well-concealed and I guessed it very early on, which meant the rest of the book was just the main character dithering and talking about how it was "all right there in front of her", leaving me shouting "YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS" in my head (and sometimes, to my husband's chagrin, out loud).

If what you're looking for is something gothic and mildly spooky, this might work for you. But I didn't find it particularly exciting.

Every bit as good as I remembered. It is dark, funny, riveting, and believable. One of my favourite books.

I'm glad I finally read this, but wouldn't say I enjoyed it. It is both groundbreaking and boring. The Monster is sympathetic, but everyone else was so underdeveloped or unbearably perfect that I found it impossible to care about them, which meant I couldn't get invested in much of the plot. The structure is fantastic, and the philosophical explorations were interesting. But, while I was ready to suspend my belief for a book such as this, it required much more suspension than I was prepared for. I went in ready to believe that Frankenstein discovered the secrets of life without explanation, but I wasn't ready to have to believe that the monster just happened to figure out how to speak like a scholar the way he did, or to navigate his way to Geneva, or to stumble upon a random boy who happened to be a member of the Frankenstein family...

I can totally see why this book is legendary, and I don't begrudge it its place in the literary cannon. But I don't think it's a perfect masterpiece as many seem to. There exist classics that hold up much better today than this one (in my opinion).

Slow start, but picked up after about 170 pages (I would have given up, but I read a review that said the same and I'm glad I stuck with it because of their review). It is a first novel, and reads like it, but I enjoyed my time with it and can't wait to keep reading Waters' works!