bumblemee's Reviews (258)

This has been a fun read! For people who love anything marine, this is definitely a good choice. I didn't love "20.000 leagues under the sea", but I liked how it was handled in this book, as well as the sci-fi elements. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but I feel like a lot of the time it's about space related innovation. Meanwhile the oceans of our planet offer a lot of mystery as well, so I think it's cool that this is what this book deals with. 

Oh, little thing: Do not read the foreword or introduction if you want to avoid a minor spoiler - it's not thaaaaat big of a deal, but I would've liked to discover that fact while reading instead of in the beginning of the book while reading things that by their name are supposed to be read before starting the story -.- 

Tbh I hoped I would love this book more than I did, since I very much enjoyed both "I kissed Shara Wheeler" and "Red, White & Royal Blue". And there were a lot of things I liked about this one, too. I still like McQuistons writing style, it was funny, I loved the friendships they created in this story - and I totally get August, I would've fallen for Jane too, she is so charming omg. 
Maybe the set-up of this one just wasn't really my thing. I was a little sceptical before starting the book bc I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of one of the protagonists being stuck in the same place throughout the story. Turns out it was part of my problems with it, since it made Jane ... kind of passive. I mean yes, she does things; mainly, she is an important aspect in Augusts character developement and I love how supportive she is of August. But I would've liked to see her be more active in the plot part of the book, which is trying to get her out of the subway. Instead it feels like she just goes along with whatever August does to figure it out. Sure, August is the one who has the skillset for this and she should be able to do something with these skills in a story focussing on her, but still: Since it's the only plot point Jane can actively have a part in, I would've liked to see that happen more. (Following sentences aren't spoilers per se, but might turn into spoilers when you start reading, bc you might piece together what I mean - maybe skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read it.) Oh and on that mystery solving note: I know this book isn't mainly about solving mysteries, but I got a little frustrated bc the moment specific little things were mentioned, I knew why they were important to mention. And then they just sit there. It makes sense for August why she realistically would've only cared for it when she did, but I couldn't help but be frustrated by knowing that they could've figured a very important part out way earlier on in the story. 

There was also a little very subjective thing I didn't enjoy, which was the "need to save a small business" aspect. I know it's a well-liked trope and that's totally fine, I also got tropes I enjoy despite them being the same thing over and over again, but this one just isn't one of them for me. 

Lastly a quick question: Where did Noodle go? I'm genuinely not sure whether I missed his apperances or an explanation as to why he just wasn't mentioned at some point?

All in all I think I get why this book is so well-loved and I guess I'm a little sad that I didn't share it to the same degree. I think it just came down to there being tropes and general storytelling aspect I just personally don't like, so people who don't care about the same aspects will probably have even more fun with this book than I did.

What I liked about this book is that it shows the strength in patience, mercy and healing as opposed to violence.
However, I didn't really connect with this book, probably for the following reasons: It's clear early on that this story is told by Avala in retrospect, she even uses phrases like "[...]even though I didn't know it then" ord "I should learn later on [...]". That isn't a problem in itself, in this case it just disconnected me from the story, because I felt like looking at situations that are highly emotional, while not feeling any of these emotions, because of the way Avala was telling the story. It never felt like she was experiencing anything that the reader could experience with her. Something that also played into this effect is the way she used filter words quite often, for example "I saw that it was my grandmother" instead of "It was my grandmother". I think this is why there are sooo many things happening in this book, but it still feels very slow.
I also felt like things weren't easy to achieve and there was a lot Avala had to go through to reach her goals, but we never see her struggle in a relatable way, she just seems to learn something new (really cool magic stuff that isn't explained at all) and everything is fine and then they make a plan and the plan works out and ... Idk, to me it felt like it was very clear where everything was going and the book didn't even try to catch you offguard; the biggest plot twist for me was that there wasn't a plot twist.
 

Also: Why the fuck do they talk about this big bad emperor all the time that then gets defeated within like one or two chapters? I didn't get how he was so unprepared for everything. Earlier on we learn that he is the one of two people with the most impressive mind powers - which means he can create illusions, he can walk in peoples memories, he can travel with his mind to observe people far away from him. Why didn't he see the plan in the memories of people who tried to arrest him? Why didn't he know about their plan by observing Embry from afar? Idk, either I there's something that I didn't understand about the way the magic works (which I would not be surprised by since there isn't much of an explanation fpr anything) or it was underdeveloped.

 

Yeah Idk, I can see how you can like this book and I can imagine that it was very intentionally written the way it was written, it just didn't do it for me at all. - Liked the message though and also enjoyed the romance subplot. 

A somewhat whimsical, yet tense story told through beautiful words with a quiet kind of humor sprinkled in. As with every book by Maggie Stiefvater I am delighted by her writing, the way she writes descriptions, but also finds the right words that feel so distinct for her characters and what she wants to say. .. Idk if this review makes sense, but I can't really say it differently.

This ist the third time I started reading this - the first two times I didn't make it past the first chapter. I didn't immediately connect with the characters and mixed with the violence, sexual content and a lot of swearing it just was too much for me (I knew these things would be included, but I have to be in the right mood to read something like this, which I wasn't apparently). This time around I made it past the first chapter and started really liking it. The conflicts have a lot of potential in the longrun, the characters started growing on me and the art it really stunning. I am very interested to see how the story evolves because I think it can explore the consequences of violence and war in a meaningful way.

Irgendwie hat Elanus mich erst spät wirklich gekriegt. Es gab einige wirksame Momente, aber insgesamt fand ich, dass lange Zeit Spannung aufgebaut wurde, während schwer zuzuordnen war, was eigentlich das Mysterium in der Mitte ist. Es kann tatsächlich auch sein, dass ich einfach so verwirt war, weil ich die Hinweise nicht richtig gelesen habe (hab den Plottwist nicht kommen sehen), aber meine Verwirrung bezüglich der potentiellen Lösung hat dazu geführt, dass ich den Großteil des Buches dachte "Hm, irgendwie passieren einfach Dinge und ich soll das spannend finden, aber ich tue es nur so semi". Die letzten 80 Seiten oder so haben mich allerdings echt abgeholt, fand ich sehr gut. (Und es haben endlich die paar Sachen, die mir im Verlauf des Buchs komisch vorkamen, Sinn ergeben.)

Jona fand ich als Charakter interessant, er war definitiv jemand, mit dem man warm werden musste - ich habe ihn irgendwann doch zumindest irgendwie gemocht, aber ich kann verstehen, wenn andere Leute ihn durchweg anstrengend finden. Marlene war cool, Pascal auch. (Wobei ich bei Letzterem  manchmal dachte, dass seine Moralvorstellungen ein bisschen .. interessant sind. Jonas allerdings auch.) 
Der recht "plumpe" Schreibstil, wenn es um Emotionen ging, passte irgendwie zum Genre und auch zu Jona, trotzdem wurden manchmal emotionale Vorgänge in so offensichtlichen Sätzen verpackt, dass das nicht so meins war. Auch den wenig ausgearbeiteten und dadurch wenig wirksamen Romance Subplot hätte ich nicht gebraucht.

Letzter kleiner Punkt, der mich etwas genervt hat: Es ist einfach unrealistisch, dass Jona bei fast all seinen Ausflügen mit Elanus tatsächlich etwas Relevantes bemerkt. Mir ist klar, dass das im Zuge eines Buches schon gehäuft auftreten muss, damit es interessant bleibt, aber ein kleiner eingestreuter Satz wie "Enttäuschenderweise war der Ausflug mit Elanus heute Abend ohne irgendwelche Erkenntnisse verlaufen." hätte mir persönlich schon gereicht. So habe ich mich gefragt, ob irgendjemand in diesem Buch mal so normale Sachen tut wie essen oder schlafen oder lesen oder fernsehen oder sonst irgendwas, was die meisten Leute so in ihrer Freizeit tun (wahrscheinlich auch dann, wenn sie in zwielichtige Dinge verwickelt sind).

Süß, magisch und kinderseelenstärkend wie immer bei Cornelia Funke. Hat außerdem, wie viele ihrer anderen Geschichten, einen sehr eigenwilligen, sturen weiblichen Charakter (immer wieder eine Freude :) ) und die unterliegende Message, dass Menschen letztlich die gefährlichsten Lebewesen unserer Welt sind/Menschen nicht umsichtig genug mit unserer Welt umgehen. 

This book had me hooked, I listened to it within three days. It manages to be fun and lighthearted while also dealing with quite heavy themes - especially how conservative christianity can do a lot of harm to young (queer) people. 
I loved the characters and the friend group, especially Smith grew on me a lot (but Georgia, Rory etc. did as well). It was hilarious to listen to Chloe "I hate Shara Wheeler" Green being obsessed with said Shara, completely stuck in her vision of Shara while knowing that her hatred was anything but actual hatred. (Same thing the other way around.) I also think that the discussions around identity and learning to see people for who they really are were done well and in an accessible way. Reading this as an adult had me thinking "Well yeah, Chloe, surprise! Some people don't fit into that tiny little box you put them into", but I think if I read this as a teenager, her revelations would've been pretty impactful to me; learning how complex humans actually are is a big lesson to learn after all. It was nice to see Chloe grow in that regard. On that note: Chloe Green and Shara Wheeler are some of the smartest dumbasses I ever read about and I love them for it! <3

 I'm happy I finally read this, it was fun! While I think that a lot of people probably had even more fun with it, I do see how it became such a classic. It's delightfully absurd and even though it is full of nonsense, I feel like it makes some amazingly accurate observations about humans. And something I took from it was how unimportant humans are if you see them in relation to rest of the universe, which was nice to read, because humans tend to think they're the most important thing that ever existed. 
I also have a lot of respect for people who can think in these absurd ways and construct a story around these thought processes. I would like to know how one finishes a story that includes this many random anecdotes and sentences. And how one can develop this sense of humor; I feel like it is very rare and inimitable.