dlrosebyh's Reviews (773)

I was always the person who had different opinions from everyone. But, even I, surprised myself for giving this novel just three stars. But, to be fair, it was fairly mid. (Or do I just really not like men authors?) 

 

This felt like those AO3 character study fanfics that have 700 pages, because why was this over 500 pages long? Listen, I’m not Russian, but at least I know that Russians don’t talk dialogues that is one whole paragraph = one whole page??? Do not even get me started when the main character compared himself to Napoleon… like… that’s kinda embarrassing, my dude. 

 

Crime and Punishment follows a young guy in despair plots the ideal crime: the murder of a vile pawnbroker, an elderly woman who no one would ever love or regret. One of the best books ever written starts here. It's a riveting detective thriller, a chilling murder mystery, and a profound psychological study that's laced with social, religious, and philosophical allegory. After carrying out his ludicrous plan, Raskolnikov—a poor student living in a garret in the dismal depths of St. Petersburg—begins to spiral into a terrifying, insane, and persecuting hell. Crime and Punishment reveals the spirit of a man obsessed by both good and evil while taking the reader on a voyage into the most sinister corners of the criminal and twisted mind. A guy unable to avoid his own moral obligations. 

 

Other than using an axe to bash in the brains of two ladies, Raskolnikov's only accomplishment to fame seems to have been an article he authored. Did it really need 500 pages? 

It’s only January, and it will be most likely impossible to find a better book than Alone With You in the Ether for the whole year. And that says a lot. 

 

I refused to read this book for so long as I kept hearing mixed reviews. Some said that the romance was horrible, some said that the realism made them feel things. I also heard that it was insta-lovey, and I was like ‘no, thank you’. 

 

Alone With You in the Ether is about two people who meet in the armory of the Art Institute by fate. Aldo is a PhD student who, before they met, uses compulsive time travel calculations to control his negative impulses. Regan, on the other side, is a bipolar counterfeit artist receiving treatment under court order. Those things remain the same following their meeting. But everything else is a little bit different. From the time they first meet, Aldo and Regan, who have both eccentric and obsessive personalities, finding it difficult to stay apart. Because of the facts—that she is a crafty liar with a history of self-sabotage, and he is a severely depressed, anti-social theorist—their dependence on one another grows more alarming as their love grows. 

 

Now, if you have known me for a long time, you know that I love a good cry. And as someone who relates to Aldo in a deep and personal level, I definitely did. Truth is, if someone expects this to be a romance novel, then they’re expecting really different things. This love story was definitely not rainbows and sunshine, yet it was so raw and so mesmerizing. And I guess that’s because it’s literary fiction. 

 

This is not my first encounter with Olivia Blake, and as someone who always heard how good the prose in this book is, I was DYING to see how godly it is, and oh. my. god. I felt every word injected to my veins. Every word was crafted perfectly. Literally no misses. Pardon, my beloved philosophers, but THIS is how you understand the human condition. If I was not busy with school, I, for real, would have never put this book down from beginning to end. 

 

If you haven’t read this book yet, I really recommend it to you, and just give it a try. It’s definitely not for everyone, but there is beauty in it. 

Listen, before you all come at me, I love Atwood, but this was such a miss for me. It was just so dull. I like a lot of her books, so I expected to like this one, but I really didn’t. 

 

Margaret Atwood  blends romance, science fiction, and gothic tension into one story in The Blind Assassin. The novel opens with the unexplained death of Laura Chase, a young lady who may have committed herself in 1945. Many years thereafter, Iris, Laura's sister, narrates her recollections of their early years and the noteworthy demises that had interspersed their affluent and colorful family's past. Chapters from the scandalous novel that made Laura famous, in which two illegal lovers entertain themselves with a story about a blind killer on a far-off planet, are woven into Iris's story. The mysteries that have plagued the Chase family for a long time are progressively revealed by these intricately detailed stories inside stories, culminating in an incredible and thought-provoking conclusion. 

 

I just found the characters too dull to even care about. Not even the forbidden love aspect was entertaining (and I love forbidden romance). 

 

I don’t know. Her writing style here just felt so childish compared to her previous novels, and that put me off so bad. It had a brilliant premise, but a horrible execution. Still love her though. 

Read for school.

Read for school.

My mission is to read every Shakespeare play before I turn eighteen, and that means going to thrift shops and finding plays or sonnets I have never heard before. 

 

I picked The Winter’s Tale as: 

(But mostly the second one.)

If you know me, I’m not a huge fan of infidelity or anything that has something to do with that, but I had to give it a try. And it was amazing. The first three acts were my absolute favorite because I love an action punch. The last two acts were also good, but not as good.

(Exit, pursued by a bear.)

As a Filipino, I can understand why Filipinos praise this book. Yes, it’s relatable. Yes, it’s written beautifully. But for me, I don’t think it’s the perfect short story collection.

Short stories for me, personally, are a 50/50. I either love or hate it. In The Country consists of nine short stories about different Filipino dynamics such as families with members who are suffering from drug addiction, OFWs, etc. The thing about this collection is that if I don’t find the story relatable or interesting, I just simply don’t care. I have a natural instinct of wanting to move on because it’s ‘only short’. And I do admit that I am a red flag for that.

What I did love about this book, though, is the fact that the voices are so distinct from each other. You can feel the joy, the sorrow, the angst, of the characters you’re following. In short story collections, there’s a tendency that characters are too similar to each other because short story collections (normally) follow one theme. But that was not the case for Alvar. And I absolutely loved the way she wrote her characters.

Well, there’s always a first in everything. 

 

The Court of Broken Knives is unfortunately my first 1-star-read of the year. Which is so disappointing as the premise looked so promising. I love an assassin main character, but this novel was just not for me. 

 

My first issue is the writing style. If you know me, you know that I love a good writing style. It’s like the main connection between the novel and I. The Court of Broken Knives felt like a twelve-year-old wrote this and uploaded it to Wattpad thinking it has some sort of angst. I know the author wanted it to be grippy and fast-paced, but honestly the periods every word was just killing me. And honestly, I was even shocked that Anna Smith Spark has a PhD in English literature because this felt like the first draft. You don’t need to end every chapter with “Death! Death! Death”. This isn’t 2014 Tumblr. (Her poems were ass, too.) 

 

Secondly, I didn’t really like the characters. Honestly, all of them were annoying to me. If this novel wasn’t my cousin’s favorite book, I would’ve DNF’ed it already. 

 

Thirdly, the world building was horrible. I appreciated the map and everything, but I was just confused throughout the entire book. Some sections of the book really did not make sense, as the world building was so weak that you feel like you’re just reading a combination of every European countries ever. 

Firstly, I’d like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me a free e-ARC of Samson and Domingo.

One thing I love about queer novels is when the queer characters are openly queer and they live in a world without homophobia. For a retelling of Samson and Delilah, I didn’t really expect that to be an element in the book. However, it was. Not only that, but Samson and Domingo were both so sweet and loving too.

I don’t really read books in verses, so this is rather a new thing for me. And I think I kind of like it. If there’s something that I’d like to change in this book, I’d want to know how Samson and Domingo first met each other and the development of their relationship. Stable relationships are so comforting to read about, but I want a background, too. 

Other than that, I don’t have anything else to say. If you’re looking for something cute and short to read, I highly recommend this.

Firstly, I’d like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me a free e-ARC of The Rain Artist.

If there’s something, this novel proves that maybe you do have to judge a book by its cover.

I have never read something as gruesome, yet beautiful perception of our future up until now. This novel was almost borderline horror, because it is scary to think about how we need to buy absolutely everything for our future only for corrupt people to take advantage of our money… Well, to be fair, it does happen already, but the novel tackles it in an even more gut wrenching way. 

Honestly, I don’t really like books set in the future, but this really did it for me. The Rain Artist critics capitalism in a way where it’s easy to break down yet so detailed while also being metaphorical.

However, I do think that the novel is too short to cover such heavy topics, so I do wonder if there are going to be following novels after this to build a series.