Really enjoyed this book for many reasons, one big one being it examined how our culture connects with death and the grieving process. 
It was also… hilarious. 

Love love love love love this book. Beautifully written, amazing characters, amazing plot. Love love love it.

I watched the movie before I read the book and still prefer the book. It went into detail more and some of the characters relationships seemed more realistic to me in the book version. I love Gaiman and would recommend this to anyone who wants a quick adventure/fantasy read.

Loved loved loved this. Would highly recommend to anyone. Fun setting, great characters, and Neil Gaiman tells a fantastic story!

4/5 
Hanya Yanahigara is a wonderful poetic writer and their world building is top notch.
That said, I hated Norton from the very beginning 😡 so if the intention was to have some contrast between the beautiful island world and history of Ivu’ivu and the mysognist, racist, colonizing, selfish opinions of Norton Perina- then Yanahigara nailed it.
Trigger warning: sexual assault against children.
Interested in reading more of their work, but I think I’ll need something a little lighter after this.

I felt like T. Pratchett was rolling his eyes with me at his own writing with the hilarity of gender norms within witchcraft and wizardry. 
This book was a great intro to the witchy part of the Discworld series 

I ship Professor Cutangle and Granny Weatherwax

This is the first Dostoevsky that I’ve read. I found it hard to speed through, and had to pace myself with two chapters a pet sitting. 
I also found reading the forward VERY helpful to glean some context about Dostoevsky’s background and life before hard labor camp. 

The pace definitely started slow and ramped up towards the middle/end which I enjoyed. The topics in this book are very uncomfortably accurate  which made it feel all the more closer to realistic fiction. 
The white fright, the corrupt police, the blatant acts of gentrification and pushing marginalized groups out of their homes. 
I thought the dialogue was excellent, and I personally love Theo as a character and his relationship to Sydney. 

I really enjoy Chavisa Woods penmanship. Her dialogue is always amazing. I come from a super rural place, and the kind of ignorant conversations that some characters had in this book had were almost too accurate lol. So definitely not PC but it is accurate to how perspectives actually are in more rural areas. Love the poetic style Chavisa Woods writes with. I’d read anything by her.

The only “locked room mystery” I’ve read, so that makes it the best one?? The truth surely blind sided me, but I was hanging on page by page. I loved the culture and history surrounding the author and story as well.