coralinejones's Reviews (556)

This book isn't bad by any means, I've just read too many Asian-lit books that read exactly like this. I feel like last year I read so many that have these same tropes and themes that I was bored. Several times during the book I found myself saying "This is a lot like 'X' book." or "These characters remind me of 'X' from this other novel." 

This cover is stunning, the writing is very strong, I was just bored due to personal reasons.

Okay. I don't mind politics in literature (R.F. Kuang is one of my favorite authors, after all) but I didn't care about the constant Covid references within this novel. Covid being apart of the plot isn't an issue, not to me, but when every other page is "she was wearing a mask. Btw there's Covid in the air. Did I mention Covid? Did I mention I'm wearing a mask?" and then the tone-deaf mentions of BLM and black issues... Give me a break. Again, don't care if it's in a book, but I don't care to read about how Stephen King, of all people, frames these issues.

I'm black and I really despised the way King wrote about our issues and how he wrote the black characters. I'll give it to him, he tired, but God, I rolled my eyes hard. Just the names of the characters alone made me roll my eyes, lmao. The rest was just alright. Entertaining enough. I enjoy a story about cannibalism, weird old people, and a cool investigator uncovering crimes. 

important book that i just couldn't bring myself to finish. i don't mind a slow-paced book but... this is too slow and drawn out. i don't care enough about our main character to read paragraphs of conversation that have little meaning to me.

I didn't realize this book would be broken up into three different stories. I didn't see anywhere in the summary, or within the genres, that this is especially short stories. I only liked the first one and thought the other two were boring in comparison. This completely ruined the book for me.

This book isn't listed as a young adult or middle grade read, but it's written so juvenile. King dedicated this book to his daughter in the beginning, so I guess I should've expected it? But I wanted a well-rounded, adult fantasy book with the same amount of detail he usually puts into his horror collections but this wasn't that at all. It's narrated as if someone is telling you a bedtime fairy-tale. I think if I had known this novel was like this ahead of time I would've engaged better with it, however this isn't what I wanted to read so I will move onto TLOTR series. Yippie!

you have to read this via audiobook. the experience was so immersive and crazy

womp womp... boring. mediocre. adolescent.