Take a photo of a barcode or cover
coralinejones's Reviews (556)
The lowest 3 stars imaginable. I know what you're thinking, "StoryGraph user Coralinejones, why not just give this one or two stars, why round this to three if you're bitter over it?" Well, let me tell you.
Am I a fan of Mona Awad's work? Yes! I loved Bunny. I adore how weird and flowery and poetic her writing is. I enjoy her take on the "unlikeable" woman trope that seems to be more and more prevalent as the years go on. There was something overwhelmingly captivating about Bunny. I remember staying up late to finish the book, straining my eyes as I made to the last page to see how that poetic fever dream ended. But All's Well... Good grief.
I have to admit, I throughly enjoyed the way this novel started. I empathized with Miranda like there was no tomorrow. As someone with Endometriosis I COMPLETELY understand chronic pain. I understand being so scared, so pained; feeling so alone that you want to take your misery out on anything and anyone just to feel some semblance of humanity, just to get some kind of pity. But Miranda is over-the-top.
I could get with her insufferable misery at first. I enjoyed the lengthy descriptions of her pain, I felt inspired by Awad's water color-like prose as Miranda went in and out of her goddamn mind, basically. However, where this all gets rocky is HOW Miranda treated her students. How fucking uncomfortable and unnecessary all of that was.
I won't give any spoilers as I believe you must dive into this as blind as possible but Miranda's constant, out of pocket, fueled by insecurity, mean-spirited, sexual-in-nature comments about her students, Briana in particular, angered me so much I constantly had to put the book down to take a breather. Every time Miranda "won" I couldn't and wouldn't cheer for her. I wanted to see her demise so bad. It wasn't fair how she treated anybody, despite understanding where she was coming from.
The stream of Miranda's thoughts with her overbearing unlikeable personality made this exhausting. The repetitive "Am I right?" and "Shall we?" was grating. Despite loving everything else, these small points pissed me off to no return. Like seriously.
Lastly, I didn't like the ending. Well, I did. I don't mind how it ended. I just wish there was solid understanding of what the fuck was going on. But I guess that's what we get with a book so abstract. I will never read this again!
Am I a fan of Mona Awad's work? Yes! I loved Bunny. I adore how weird and flowery and poetic her writing is. I enjoy her take on the "unlikeable" woman trope that seems to be more and more prevalent as the years go on. There was something overwhelmingly captivating about Bunny. I remember staying up late to finish the book, straining my eyes as I made to the last page to see how that poetic fever dream ended. But All's Well... Good grief.
I have to admit, I throughly enjoyed the way this novel started. I empathized with Miranda like there was no tomorrow. As someone with Endometriosis I COMPLETELY understand chronic pain. I understand being so scared, so pained; feeling so alone that you want to take your misery out on anything and anyone just to feel some semblance of humanity, just to get some kind of pity. But Miranda is over-the-top.
I could get with her insufferable misery at first. I enjoyed the lengthy descriptions of her pain, I felt inspired by Awad's water color-like prose as Miranda went in and out of her goddamn mind, basically. However, where this all gets rocky is HOW Miranda treated her students. How fucking uncomfortable and unnecessary all of that was.
I won't give any spoilers as I believe you must dive into this as blind as possible but Miranda's constant, out of pocket, fueled by insecurity, mean-spirited, sexual-in-nature comments about her students, Briana in particular, angered me so much I constantly had to put the book down to take a breather. Every time Miranda "won" I couldn't and wouldn't cheer for her. I wanted to see her demise so bad. It wasn't fair how she treated anybody, despite understanding where she was coming from.
The stream of Miranda's thoughts with her overbearing unlikeable personality made this exhausting. The repetitive "Am I right?" and "Shall we?" was grating. Despite loving everything else, these small points pissed me off to no return. Like seriously.
Lastly, I didn't like the ending. Well, I did. I don't mind how it ended. I just wish there was solid understanding of what the fuck was going on. But I guess that's what we get with a book so abstract. I will never read this again!
Gave off "being gay and mentally ill is linked to the devil." rhetoric. I'll assume the author simply wrote a story about this and doesn't believe in it himself; but even then this has been done so many times over that I can't be bothered to finish the novel. I would love to truly find out why the main character did what he did but I'm not motivated to get there.
Not to mention I honestly thought this would all play out differently when I read the description of this book. I didn't hate this, per say, but I assumed it would have been written differently.
Not to mention I honestly thought this would all play out differently when I read the description of this book. I didn't hate this, per say, but I assumed it would have been written differently.
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My thoughts are conflicted.
I, by no means, hate or dislike this novel. In fact, I would like to purchase my own personal copy for my collection. I acknowledge Octavia E. Butler's brilliance and I fully agree that the idea of this novel is just a shining example of her intelligence. I totally understand why, and how, this became a beloved classic in the first place. Even as hard of a read as this is (not through text, but through content; more on this later) I wouldn't mind reading it again. However, I thought I was going to absolutely love this more than I actually did given it's place in literature's history. It's perhaps my expectation that ruined my read than anything else.
I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't enjoy about Kindred... I was going back and forth between giving this a 4 star or a 3 star rating, and my rating is by no means a hateful 3.75 either.
As stated, this is an easy read. Butler's writing style is very tell not show, which is another reason why I have this at 3 stars but I digress. It's easy to get immersed and pulled into the story being told. It's gruesome, it's hard to get through, it makes you angry, sad, confused, and overall feel alllll the overwhelming emotions whilst Dana goes through these rotten events but it still didn't feel like enough?
I don't know, something about Kindred was way more engaging during the beginning of this novel than in the end. Like the "what if" factor kept me interested. But then... It kind of got uninteresting? I think if I had read this while I was in high school I would've gotten waaaay more out of this.
And to be fair, as a black person who is not shy of the tragedies my ancestors have gone though; someone not ignorant of the bitter realities my people, past and present, have had to go through... I really couldn't stand the constant racism (Hard R racism) back to back. I know that's the point! And I absolutely expected it going into this, but man... Man :/
On page 208 Dana declares, “I wanted so much for it to be over.”
Same girl.
I, by no means, hate or dislike this novel. In fact, I would like to purchase my own personal copy for my collection. I acknowledge Octavia E. Butler's brilliance and I fully agree that the idea of this novel is just a shining example of her intelligence. I totally understand why, and how, this became a beloved classic in the first place. Even as hard of a read as this is (not through text, but through content; more on this later) I wouldn't mind reading it again. However, I thought I was going to absolutely love this more than I actually did given it's place in literature's history. It's perhaps my expectation that ruined my read than anything else.
I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't enjoy about Kindred... I was going back and forth between giving this a 4 star or a 3 star rating, and my rating is by no means a hateful 3.75 either.
As stated, this is an easy read. Butler's writing style is very tell not show, which is another reason why I have this at 3 stars but I digress. It's easy to get immersed and pulled into the story being told. It's gruesome, it's hard to get through, it makes you angry, sad, confused, and overall feel alllll the overwhelming emotions whilst Dana goes through these rotten events but it still didn't feel like enough?
I don't know, something about Kindred was way more engaging during the beginning of this novel than in the end. Like the "what if" factor kept me interested. But then... It kind of got uninteresting? I think if I had read this while I was in high school I would've gotten waaaay more out of this.
And to be fair, as a black person who is not shy of the tragedies my ancestors have gone though; someone not ignorant of the bitter realities my people, past and present, have had to go through... I really couldn't stand the constant racism (Hard R racism) back to back. I know that's the point! And I absolutely expected it going into this, but man... Man :/
On page 208 Dana declares, “I wanted so much for it to be over.”
Same girl.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery
Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse
Unfortunately I can only explain my thoughts through a pros / cons list. So alas:
Pros:
Pros:
- Beautiful prose.
- The author has a very poetic writing style that keeps you engaged and wanting more.
- The way she writes about Magnolia's environment keeps you hooked and feeling like you're standing right there with her as the story unfolds. You can literally state the American South on these pages.
- Some scenes are written so well it keeps you turning the page until it ends.
Cons:
- The story felt all over the place. On one of the bad pages, one scene would happen just to unfold into a mess of sporadic thoughts and ideas.
- There's NO horror here. This reads more like a literary novel that deals with grief, racism, and capitalism more than anything else... And while those topics are horrific it didn't translate as a horror novel in any regard. I think this novel suffers from mischaracterization. Had this been properly listed I think my expectations would've been different and thus my rating would be different.
- The entire time the prose and the plot leaves you assuming something horror-esq would happen but it never comes.
- The book is too sexual for my taste. I get the point but the gratuitous sex and rape eventually tired me out and I skipped those scenes.
- Eventually this dragged on towards the end and I couldn't wait for it to end.
I would read what else this author has to offer in the future. I think if she tightens her ideas she can have something exceptional and solid.
wow. very enjoyable. does slightly suffer from typical YA fantasy nonsense but this was overall extremely atmospheric and fun to follow. loved the power system, felt a little off kilter about the romance plot, but it grew on me. would recommend!
I hate when authors pile on twist after twist towards the end of their novel. It feels cheap and makes the entire story convoluted. I liked the first half better than the second. I also didn't like Kit all that much, honestly.
Fun writing, though! Interesting premise!
Fun writing, though! Interesting premise!
I'm not kidding when I say this is the worse piece of literature I have ever come across in my entire life. This is 200+ pages of absolute nonsensical gibberish. I'm extremely disappointed because this is one of the few books I've been overwhelmingly excited to read. I constantly checked the "Libby" app to see if it was listed by any of my libraries; I finally caved and found an EPUB online so I can just dive in. I wish I kept this in my imagination instead.
As an on-off K-Pop fan throughout the entirety of my childhood, I'm VERY familiar with how off K-Pop fans can be. Extremely well-versed in sasaengs and other obsessive fans, especially as K-Pop has gotten more popular over the years; Twitter fans specifically taking this to the extreme being tyrants to "protect" their favorite group. I understand what Yi is going for but this is... Jesus.
Y/N is nothing but a skew of faux intellectual bullshit, which I think is supposed to be some kind of satire? A critique on stan / fandom culture? Y/N is pretentious as HELL and reads as "baby's first creative writing course" where the author put every "big" word she could find between every sentence imaginable to get brownie points from their teacher. And people had a problem with Bunny by Mona Awad??? Pleaseeee.
I love a bizarre book but this is truly over the top and unreadable. Everybody in this book is incredibly unrealistic and ridiculous, the verbiage is annoying... I'm actually infuriated by this
As an on-off K-Pop fan throughout the entirety of my childhood, I'm VERY familiar with how off K-Pop fans can be. Extremely well-versed in sasaengs and other obsessive fans, especially as K-Pop has gotten more popular over the years; Twitter fans specifically taking this to the extreme being tyrants to "protect" their favorite group. I understand what Yi is going for but this is... Jesus.
Y/N is nothing but a skew of faux intellectual bullshit, which I think is supposed to be some kind of satire? A critique on stan / fandom culture? Y/N is pretentious as HELL and reads as "baby's first creative writing course" where the author put every "big" word she could find between every sentence imaginable to get brownie points from their teacher. And people had a problem with Bunny by Mona Awad??? Pleaseeee.
I love a bizarre book but this is truly over the top and unreadable. Everybody in this book is incredibly unrealistic and ridiculous, the verbiage is annoying... I'm actually infuriated by this
I don't have much to say (How ironic given the nature of this novel, IYKYK). I wish I had more to say because that was completely insane, and I finished this novel in one sitting with butterflies in my stomach trying to piece everything together.
It's in my nature to Nancy Drew the hell out of mysteries before the twist reveals itself, so me figuring it out isn't really a negative here because it was just done so well. Dead Eleven is crazy entertaining, and while I'm not too impressed with the ending and how it all wrapped up, I can't say I didn't thoroughly enjoy this every chapter prior to the last few.
I imagine this book being even better on audio and I'm planning on re-reading it through that medium the second I get a chance. If it means anything, before this story concluded I already noted that I would give it 5 stars and it would enlist in my ever-growing pile of favorites; so congrats to Dead Eleven! You are now one of my elite employees!
It's in my nature to Nancy Drew the hell out of mysteries before the twist reveals itself, so me figuring it out isn't really a negative here because it was just done so well. Dead Eleven is crazy entertaining, and while I'm not too impressed with the ending and how it all wrapped up, I can't say I didn't thoroughly enjoy this every chapter prior to the last few.
I imagine this book being even better on audio and I'm planning on re-reading it through that medium the second I get a chance. If it means anything, before this story concluded I already noted that I would give it 5 stars and it would enlist in my ever-growing pile of favorites; so congrats to Dead Eleven! You are now one of my elite employees!
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's something about religion, body horror, cults, and being trans that just gets me. I did cry while reading this, I did come to understand parts of myself while reading this, but something was still missing for me?
Hm. I don't know. The writing style was just a little clunky, through, very flowery and poetic. Reminded me of the roleplay community that takes place on Tumblr. That is neither a complaint nor a compliment. I absolutely enjoyed every character in this book, including the villains; the representation is an understatement. I don't think I've read a book yet with as many characters that reflect people I actually know and talk to in real life in a long time. They were all well written and made complete sense. Not to mention, Nick being autistic like me?! And it wasn't gimmicky and poking fun at what we go through?! Loved it.
It's just the way the plot unfolded, the smaller details that really fell apart for me, especially as we got closer to the end of the novel. Some of the body horror descriptions got repetitive and tired me out and it was a bit hard to follow everything that was going on (Because A LOT was going on).
But I overall enjoyed this book. Read it in about 3 days on my e-reader. If you enjoy Silent Hill, Resident Evil, zombie media, The Troop by Nick Cutter, and Evil Dead I think this would be a great fit for you.
Hm. I don't know. The writing style was just a little clunky, through, very flowery and poetic. Reminded me of the roleplay community that takes place on Tumblr. That is neither a complaint nor a compliment. I absolutely enjoyed every character in this book, including the villains; the representation is an understatement. I don't think I've read a book yet with as many characters that reflect people I actually know and talk to in real life in a long time. They were all well written and made complete sense. Not to mention, Nick being autistic like me?! And it wasn't gimmicky and poking fun at what we go through?! Loved it.
It's just the way the plot unfolded, the smaller details that really fell apart for me, especially as we got closer to the end of the novel. Some of the body horror descriptions got repetitive and tired me out and it was a bit hard to follow everything that was going on (Because A LOT was going on).
But I overall enjoyed this book. Read it in about 3 days on my e-reader. If you enjoy Silent Hill, Resident Evil, zombie media, The Troop by Nick Cutter, and Evil Dead I think this would be a great fit for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry