crusoe's Reviews (239)

Positives. I am not in the target audience for this book and haven't been for years but I can imagine that it's very impactful for someone in highschool. Especially in 2007 when this book was released as mental health wasn't discussed as much back then. I think this book strikes a nice balance between sending the message that small negative actions can snowball into much worse things for the people around you while also not blaming the people on the tapes for the decision Hannah took.

I love the stylistic choice of having the story be told through tapes. Clay reacting to them in real time -especially during his own tape- makes the story conversational. It highlights different perspectives on the same events that happen in Hannah's life.

Negatives. One thing that I miss that the Netflix series does better, (even though it sensationalizes suicide far more than this book,) is that this book does not show the fallout of the tapes among those on it. (Think of Jessica and the night at the party or the harassment Tyler endures because of the tapes). Ignoring 'the snowball effect' of the tapes on the people on them while making this snowball effect central to Hannah's argument feels misguided. Then again, Hannah is not a perfect character and was never meant to be interpreted as such. 

Quote. I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push all the same. 

Positives. The concept for "Lore" is fantastic; the continued ever repeating cycle of rulers dethroned by subjects and houses that hold onto cruel traditions to have a shot at killing a god... But in practice, it was a bit of a mess. I liked some of the twists, such as spoiler 

Gill being revealed to be the original Hermes (even if his motivation for taking Lore and Miles in was very unclear and he should have been reinstated as a god for his actions).

Unfortunately, this novel was too ambitious, leaving a lot of plotholes to be filled. 

Negatives. In spite of the intriguing worldbuilding, New York feels empty. If you're going to set your story in New York, write about New York! If your character has fallen in love with this city, make us fall in love with it too! 

Rather than telling a cohesive story, it felt like the characters went from side quest to side quest which made this (500+ pages!!) book loose its tension. Relevant information was also only brought up as soon as it was relevant for the plot which took away all the fun of trying to guess where the story would go next.  

Positives. I have both read this book and "the love hypothesis" and it's true what they say: these books are extremely similar. But that's why I love them! You can see the plottwist coming from miles away. I adore the Marie Curie references and that Ali Hazelwood books have surprisingly good queer representation despite 'technically' being straight romances. It's the perfect no-brain book. 

Negatives. I'm not a big fan of the antagonist. Obviously he's supposed to be a twist-villain but he's so similar to the antagonist in "the love hypothesis" that all his interactions with Bee and Levi seem malicious from the start. His bad-guy-arc was uninteresting and poorly set up. 

Quote. Levi cups my face, forehead touching mine. His hands- they are my home. 'Bee, don't take this from us,' he murmurs. Ragged. Careful. Hopeful. 'please.' 

I've never wanted anything more than to say yes. I've never wished to reach for some thing as I do now. And I've never been so utterly, petrifyingly scared to lose something. 

Positives. I couldn't put down this book. How could I when this retelling was so fresh, so compellingly written? I love when retellings bring something new to the table and this novel for that both in style (by alternating between POV's until they had each reached their conclusion or by alternating the form in which the story was told, such as through the letters of Penelope) and perspective. The prose had a brutal beauty to it and did not sugarcoat the effects of war. 

This book, in a sense, is not what you might expect from a feministic retelling; these women are critical and jealous of each other, are absorbed with centering the loss of men in their lives. They have very little agency simply because they are an opressed group in a society where they are very rarely seen as more than property. But, with the little agency that they have, they do everything they can to survive- or die when that is the more tolerable option. They are not more dishonourable -not more honourable either- than the men  who the stories usually focus on. They are resilient, they will survive, and so will their stories. 

Negatives. This book is very bleak, war always is, which may or may not be a negative aspect depending on who you are asking. There are very few moments of hope to be found, especially near the end, which can make it a tough read. 

Quote. When a war was ended, men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else. 

Positives. Although Bryson is probably not 'the world's funniest travel writer' as the cover suggests, (granted, I don't know many travel writers,) he has a pleasant way of storytelling. You meander along with Bryson's scenic descriptions as he weaves facts about the Appalachian trail with his own experiences. I likely won't remember much of the story after a few days but sometimes getting lost in the pages of a book is all you need.

Negatives. The way Bryson talks about deaths on the AT -especially sensationalized murders- was a little hard to swallow. It abstracts from the real tragedy of the deaths. This juxtaposition between the tragic deaths and the lighthearted way Bryson writes about them becomes especially grating at the end of the book when Spoilers for the ending 

his friend Katz gets very close to becoming a statistic himself when he almost loses the trail. This was a thematically satisfying end but it clashes heavily with the lightheartedness that characterizes the book. This section also goes by so fast that you don't have time to process the shock of what happened before the book ends.

Quote. "'Anyway, we did it,' Katz said at last, looking up. He noticed my quizzical expression. 'Hiked Maine, I mean.'

I looked at him. 'Stephen, we didn't even see Mount Katahdin.' 

He dismissed this as a petty quibble: 'Another mountain,' he said. 'How many do you need to see, Bryson?'

I gave a small laugh. 'Well that's one way of looking at it.' 

'It's the only way of looking at it,' Katz went on and quite earnestly. 'As far as I'm concerned, I hiked the Appalachian trail. I hiked in snow and I hiked in heat. I hiked it in the south and I hiked it in the north. I hiked it till my feet bled. I hiked the Appalachian trail, Bryson.' 

Positives. The artstyle suits the story wonderfully and mixes elements of western and arab illustrative styles which visually translates the identity conflict within Marjane. The story is told with so much nuance, acknowledging Marjane's (in comparison to many of her peers) privileged position, while leaving enough room for other people in her life to express their lived experience and subsequent opinions in the story. The graphic novel thrives on astute observations, such as how war can so quickly become a taken-for-granted fact or how signs of 'modern' womanhood can become signs of protest. 

Negatives. Because this graphic novel is a chronological life story which compiles important events from the author's life, it does not have a traditional story structure. The eclectic storytelling suits the life Marjane has lived but the lack of structure makes some sections drag on. 

Positives. I can understand why so many people are touched by this book. It is written with children in mind (as the narrator often mentions) but it also takes a very abstract and philosophical approach to storytelling that jabs at the core of what makes life worth living. The ending is also heart wrenching, and surprisingly dark. 

Negatives: I did not care much for the framing of the narrator as an active character in the book as it distracts from the travels of the little prince. The book is also so vaguely abstract at times that I can't possibly see what a child may stand to gain from it. But what do I know, I'm just a stupid grown-up anyway. 

Quote. "'At night, when you look up at the sky, since I shall be living on a star, and since I shall be laughing on a star, for you it will be as if all the stars are laughing. You alone will have stars that can laugh.' He laughed again. 'And when you have got over your loss (for we always do), you'll be happy to have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And sometimes you will open your window- just like that, for the sake of opening it- and your friends will be amazed to see you laughing as you look up at the sky.'" 

Positives. This book deserves to be a classic. It is brilliantly written. Nothing that happens makes any sense but that is quite alright; in a world where nothing makes sense, everything does. This story is probably an English major's dream: it has songs, rhymes and reason, drawing on traditional literary forms and playing with language any chance it gets. Alice is a very funny main character who runs on her own logic which made this a pleasant read. 

Negatives. Because the songs and language are rather old-timey, a lot of the jokes and wordplay flew right over my head. That is a shame because a lot of the strange situations Alice finds herself in are rooted in wordplay and linguistic confusion. I would recommend investing in a copy with explanations in the footnotes so you can fully appreciate the world Carroll has built. 

Quote. "'But it's no use now,' thought poor Alice, 'to pretend to be two people! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!'" 

Positives. I knew before starting this book that the worldbuilding would be top-notch but it defied my expectations. The worldbuilding (as it should be) is not only done at the societal level, such as the way 'city Darwinism' functions and the divide between the 'tractionists' and 'anti-tractionists', but it is also pushed through in the minute details of everyday life; from the way letter paper has been recycled so much that it has gained a rough texture to the commodification of artefacts as status symbols. It is brilliant! 

I also enjoy how this novel flipped the script on the relationship between Tom and Katherine, who you feel might get together in the end as a hero/heroine couple. Instead, they don't interact after the first murder attempt on Valentine, and they grow closer to other main characters. 

Lastly, I must warn you about how horrifically dark this novel gets. Because it is YA sci-fi, you might get lured into a false sense that this will be a fun, lighthearted, sci-fi adventure.  But don't be fooled, you'll be met with a harrowing tale of war in which no side (not the good, nor the bad) has a clean slate, and in which life-saving decisions may take away more than is gained. 

Negatives. I think the book could have benefitted from some more vibrant descriptions and colourful word usage. The scenes and worldbuilding were fantastic- the language didn't measure up. I highly suspect this is a translation issue so I will not judge the book to harshly for that. 

Positives. I adore how these novellas give context to developments in the novels and graphic novels. In volume 5 of Heartstopper, Nick is nervous about leaving Charlie behind and this novella shows Charlie's side: Charlie is terrified of being left behind. Alice Oseman always manages to rip my heart into pieces and then glues it back together a few pages later. That's a guarantee whether you're reading a 400+ page novel or a 150-page novella. Nick and Charlie are also adorable as ever. Brilliant stuff. 

Negatives. Maybe I'm too aro/ace for this but the idea of not contacting your partner for two full weeks after a massive fight is wild to me. Obviously, both of them care a lot for each other but neither of them was brave enough to contact the other after realising their fight may have been over a miscommunication. Tori was right to call Charlie out for that bs. 

Quote. "'You're Nick and Charlie.' (Aled) I laugh. 'What does that mean?' 'It's...' Aled laughs too, a nervous expulsion of air. 'You're... It's hard to explain. It's like, if you had to provide evidence for soulmates, everyone would pick you two.'"