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ellemnope's Reviews (2.4k)
3.5 stars.
The writing in this book is beautiful and wonderful and poetic. The premise is interesting and weird and I really like weird books. There is a merging of reality with a not quite fully explained magical realism element as the protagonist slowly becomes merged with the mythological harpy. It was an intriguing book and I did like the read, but the execution just left me a little lacking and I wasn't able to be gripped by the movement of the story. I didn't connect well enough with the characters to really care what happened in the end.
The Harpy is a short novel with a fairly well-moving plot. Written from Lucy's point of view, the narration is fairly unreliable...a tactic that can either work wonderfully or fail miserably for me depending on the way it is executed. For me, I thought this actually worked well. She's a strange bird (pun slightly intended) from the beginning and boy does it just go downhill from there. Once Jake's affair is revealed, there is a fairly rapid progression of Lucy's mental decline and the book quickly began to feel primarily like something highly psychopathic. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but in Lucy's case...it just didn't sit right for me.
Lucy was, in fact, probably my primary obstacle to REALLY enjoying this book. Her unreliability and, really unlikability, played fine for me, but she also didn't feel fully cohesive. This was a disorienting issue that pulled me out of the book a bit. It was like having two completely separate protagonists merged into one being. And while merging the original Lucy with the character of the harpy IS done, that is not what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about two completely separate characters, as if the book was written using two different (and somewhat oppositional) identities and then, rather than selecting one, the author just combined them.
One of these personalities was a sympathetic character going through a difficult life situation, infidelity. I could identify with this part of Lucy, and these portions of the plot flew by and pulled me in. There was some promise that there could be a progression through the issues and character development (or at least an interesting journey) along the way. The other half of Lucy was just fantastically unhappy in all ways and didn't seem to have a smidge of hope. Lucy appears to be overly unfulfilled and resentful from the beginning, which made it a little harder for me to connect with her emotions and her attempt to grapple with her husband's infidelity. Basically, she just felt like an unsavable trainwreck from the start. I didn't care about this part of her character as I didn't see her going anywhere and it ultimately removed my ability to be fully immersed in the plot. Had this portion of her been removed as an additional conflict, I think she would have been much more believable and relatable.
All that being said, this STILL was a decent read with fantastic writing. I wouldn't mind checking out more of Hunter's work in the future.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
The writing in this book is beautiful and wonderful and poetic. The premise is interesting and weird and I really like weird books. There is a merging of reality with a not quite fully explained magical realism element as the protagonist slowly becomes merged with the mythological harpy. It was an intriguing book and I did like the read, but the execution just left me a little lacking and I wasn't able to be gripped by the movement of the story. I didn't connect well enough with the characters to really care what happened in the end.
The Harpy is a short novel with a fairly well-moving plot. Written from Lucy's point of view, the narration is fairly unreliable...a tactic that can either work wonderfully or fail miserably for me depending on the way it is executed. For me, I thought this actually worked well. She's a strange bird (pun slightly intended) from the beginning and boy does it just go downhill from there. Once Jake's affair is revealed, there is a fairly rapid progression of Lucy's mental decline and the book quickly began to feel primarily like something highly psychopathic. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but in Lucy's case...it just didn't sit right for me.
Lucy was, in fact, probably my primary obstacle to REALLY enjoying this book. Her unreliability and, really unlikability, played fine for me, but she also didn't feel fully cohesive. This was a disorienting issue that pulled me out of the book a bit. It was like having two completely separate protagonists merged into one being. And while merging the original Lucy with the character of the harpy IS done, that is not what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about two completely separate characters, as if the book was written using two different (and somewhat oppositional) identities and then, rather than selecting one, the author just combined them.
One of these personalities was a sympathetic character going through a difficult life situation, infidelity. I could identify with this part of Lucy, and these portions of the plot flew by and pulled me in. There was some promise that there could be a progression through the issues and character development (or at least an interesting journey) along the way. The other half of Lucy was just fantastically unhappy in all ways and didn't seem to have a smidge of hope. Lucy appears to be overly unfulfilled and resentful from the beginning, which made it a little harder for me to connect with her emotions and her attempt to grapple with her husband's infidelity. Basically, she just felt like an unsavable trainwreck from the start. I didn't care about this part of her character as I didn't see her going anywhere and it ultimately removed my ability to be fully immersed in the plot. Had this portion of her been removed as an additional conflict, I think she would have been much more believable and relatable.
All that being said, this STILL was a decent read with fantastic writing. I wouldn't mind checking out more of Hunter's work in the future.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
4.5 stars.
This was my second Riley Sager read and I'm definitely a fan. This is a fantastically gothic novel with a well executed premise and the additional fun of being a book within a book type setup. I was hooked pretty early on with this one simply because of this premise and trope combination, but the writing absolutely did not disappoint.
Things move at a good and comfortable pace with just enough supernatural feel to keep the reader on edge. There is excellent creation of a dark and mysterious atmosphere. It was not necessarily a freezer book for me, but there were moments that definitely sketched me out a little. There's a mild scare factor and pieces of the book will generate nightmare fodder for some readers.
There are some bits that do (admittedly) feel a little tropey, but that didn't cause me much pause. Supporting characters are a bit flat, but the protagonist is well-written and does well as the focus of the novel. Keeping the other characters a bit in shadow worked for me and just seemed to add a little bit of that unknown factor to the plot. I had a lot of speculations along the way. Some were right, some were wrong, and some were on the right track. The "twist" wasn't overly shocking, but wasn't one that I really saw coming. I just had a good time with this read. It was one of those books I couldn't wait to get back to and I definitely recommend it.
This was my second Riley Sager read and I'm definitely a fan. This is a fantastically gothic novel with a well executed premise and the additional fun of being a book within a book type setup. I was hooked pretty early on with this one simply because of this premise and trope combination, but the writing absolutely did not disappoint.
Things move at a good and comfortable pace with just enough supernatural feel to keep the reader on edge. There is excellent creation of a dark and mysterious atmosphere. It was not necessarily a freezer book for me, but there were moments that definitely sketched me out a little. There's a mild scare factor and pieces of the book will generate nightmare fodder for some readers.
There are some bits that do (admittedly) feel a little tropey, but that didn't cause me much pause. Supporting characters are a bit flat, but the protagonist is well-written and does well as the focus of the novel. Keeping the other characters a bit in shadow worked for me and just seemed to add a little bit of that unknown factor to the plot. I had a lot of speculations along the way. Some were right, some were wrong, and some were on the right track. The "twist" wasn't overly shocking, but wasn't one that I really saw coming. I just had a good time with this read. It was one of those books I couldn't wait to get back to and I definitely recommend it.
I tend to read a lot of synopses and then choose my books far ahead of reading them, resulting in my forgetting most of what they were supposed to be about before I read them. Thus, I went into my read of The Lost Queen without knowing the connection to history/myth/legend. This may have worked both to my advantage and disadvantage in this case. Pro: I had no preconceived notions of where I expected the book to go or how it should turn out. Con: I had nothing to propel me forward in moments where the pacing was slow, adding some frustration to some pieces of my reading. Spoiler: I think the pro outweighed the con this time around.
This is a good historical fiction that both felt comfortable in the familiarity of its construction and new in its endeavors. I very much enjoyed the historical setting of the novel. 6th century Scotland still has the castles and warring factions of later history, but is rare to find a book of historical fiction from the British Isles that does not encompass the Renaissance or Plantagenet/Tudor England. This was refreshing. However, I will admit that I am a frequent reader of the latter, being a fan of the Philippa Gregory novels about that time period. Because of that, I was happy to have the same sort of focus in this novel. Told from a female point of view, encompassing some true historical fact, and still managing to balance war/politics with normal life and maybe a touch of a romantic side. The addition of the magical/natural healing element also made things interesting, though I definitely wanted more of this content than was provided.
The writing style is comfortable, both presenting historical detail and keeping things lyrical. There is fantastic description of the surroundings and some good background on the political and religious state of the region at the time of the story. I don't have the ability to judge the historical accuracy in full, but there seems to be good attention to different pieces of life during the time, so I would like to assume that the majority of the detail is correct.
The characters are interesting with a mix of both dynamic and static character builds. The primary characters are well described and seem to have unique and identifiable personalities. The secondary characters are a bit more cardboard in their feel, so this could have been improved. There were a few instances where having them better developed could have enhanced the richness of the prose and the overall story, but this didn't pose a big problem for me.
Pacing was my biggest issue with this novel. Though I very much enjoyed the writing style, there were some moments that slogged along a bit. That's quite difficult to brush aside when you've got a 500+ page book staring you in the face. But, the slow start eventually built up speed and there was still enough along the way to keep me intrigued. Once things got moving consistently, I became more wrapped up in the political intrigue of the story and the characters began to gain a little more footing. At that point the pages began to fly by pretty steadily.
There was a bit of cringy instalove, but at the same time the characters involved were both teenagers...so I give it a little latitude because of the whole irrationality of the teenage heart. Don't say you weren't prone to the same type of thing when you were a teen...we all know you were. Crushes happen...this one just had a little more tenacity.
I was really finding myself wrapped up in the story and turning the pages with ferocity when the ending came upon me. Dang it! Because of this, I was a little frustrated with where the book ended. The epilogue in particular made it feel both like a quick wrap up and a cliffhanger. However, I will admit that it does set up the second novel nicely and the approach worked...because I am antsy to get to the sequel.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This is a good historical fiction that both felt comfortable in the familiarity of its construction and new in its endeavors. I very much enjoyed the historical setting of the novel. 6th century Scotland still has the castles and warring factions of later history, but is rare to find a book of historical fiction from the British Isles that does not encompass the Renaissance or Plantagenet/Tudor England. This was refreshing. However, I will admit that I am a frequent reader of the latter, being a fan of the Philippa Gregory novels about that time period. Because of that, I was happy to have the same sort of focus in this novel. Told from a female point of view, encompassing some true historical fact, and still managing to balance war/politics with normal life and maybe a touch of a romantic side. The addition of the magical/natural healing element also made things interesting, though I definitely wanted more of this content than was provided.
The writing style is comfortable, both presenting historical detail and keeping things lyrical. There is fantastic description of the surroundings and some good background on the political and religious state of the region at the time of the story. I don't have the ability to judge the historical accuracy in full, but there seems to be good attention to different pieces of life during the time, so I would like to assume that the majority of the detail is correct.
The characters are interesting with a mix of both dynamic and static character builds. The primary characters are well described and seem to have unique and identifiable personalities. The secondary characters are a bit more cardboard in their feel, so this could have been improved. There were a few instances where having them better developed could have enhanced the richness of the prose and the overall story, but this didn't pose a big problem for me.
Pacing was my biggest issue with this novel. Though I very much enjoyed the writing style, there were some moments that slogged along a bit. That's quite difficult to brush aside when you've got a 500+ page book staring you in the face. But, the slow start eventually built up speed and there was still enough along the way to keep me intrigued. Once things got moving consistently, I became more wrapped up in the political intrigue of the story and the characters began to gain a little more footing. At that point the pages began to fly by pretty steadily.
There was a bit of cringy instalove, but at the same time the characters involved were both teenagers...so I give it a little latitude because of the whole irrationality of the teenage heart. Don't say you weren't prone to the same type of thing when you were a teen...we all know you were. Crushes happen...this one just had a little more tenacity.
I was really finding myself wrapped up in the story and turning the pages with ferocity when the ending came upon me. Dang it! Because of this, I was a little frustrated with where the book ended. The epilogue in particular made it feel both like a quick wrap up and a cliffhanger. However, I will admit that it does set up the second novel nicely and the approach worked...because I am antsy to get to the sequel.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This sequel to The Book of Koli amps up the action and really gives the trilogy some solid movement. In this installment it moves from an okay dystopian to one that really grows some legs and has some clout.
The dual POV was an excellent choice and really adds a lot of complexity, depth, and interest to the story. Spinner's sections were much easier to read and flowed very well. This was a good balance to the chapters from Koli, which continue to be a little more work to get through due to the broken English style. This makes his pieces of the story feel much more choppy, but does fittingly give each character a distinct storytelling style.
The movement in this novel is much faster paced than the first. There is a lot going on and this makes the narrative much more engaging. I am loving the progression of the two stories and I'm excited to see how things round out in the third book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
The dual POV was an excellent choice and really adds a lot of complexity, depth, and interest to the story. Spinner's sections were much easier to read and flowed very well. This was a good balance to the chapters from Koli, which continue to be a little more work to get through due to the broken English style. This makes his pieces of the story feel much more choppy, but does fittingly give each character a distinct storytelling style.
The movement in this novel is much faster paced than the first. There is a lot going on and this makes the narrative much more engaging. I am loving the progression of the two stories and I'm excited to see how things round out in the third book.
* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
This is a very powerful book with great historical information and good social commentary that is still relevant in present day. Toni Morrison's writing is beautiful and flows incredibly nicely. However, I struggled with the organization and construction of the narrative. It seemed very jarring, moving this way and that and focusing on character after character and their individual storylines rather than slowly weaving everything together. That left me confused a few times as I wondered where things were going and why certain pieces were significant. The construction of Pecola as a character was very well done however, and some of this disjointed story organization was effective in adding to the general feeling that Pecola was someone easy to overlook and who wasn't all that important to those around her. I found some impact in this story and will definitely read more of Toni Morrison's works, I just found this read a little more challenging than it needed to be.
This was a fantastic sequel to The Lost Queen and I actually liked it better than the first book in the trilogy. Signe Pike's writing continues to be wonderful to read. Her prose is easy to fall into, yet presents so much information. The constant feed of historical content was nearly effortless to absorb and it was all given in a way that felt interesting and compelling.
The pace is really fast in this installment and there is a lot of action that kept me on the edge of my seat for a good majority of the novel. The multiple POV approach again worked wonderfully for this story and allowed for so much more of the picture to be painted. I particularly enjoyed the Angharad storyline, though she is mostly a fictionalized character. I loved how Pike was able to weave in so much historical content and introduce so many of the players during this tumultuous time in Scottish history. It is incredibly clear that a lot of research went into the construction of the novel and that a lot of care was taken to piece all of it together. I am not able to verify its accuracy as my knowledge of this location and time period is very minimal, but others with greater knowledge than mine have stated that the contents do largely ring true.
The characters continued to improve in this installment. They grew quite a bit of depth, becoming even more rounded and complicated as individuals. The introduction of new characters created an additional level of complexity to the story that worked quite well. The actions and interactions of the characters felt more natural in this than the original novel and the overall feel of the book was one of greater writing maturity. I enjoyed being able to witness this progression.
I have really enjoyed this series so far and I am itching to read the final book in the trilogy. This is a section of historical fiction that I am not well versed in, but reading Pike's work has definitely inspired me to look for more works written during this time period.
** Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. **
The pace is really fast in this installment and there is a lot of action that kept me on the edge of my seat for a good majority of the novel. The multiple POV approach again worked wonderfully for this story and allowed for so much more of the picture to be painted. I particularly enjoyed the Angharad storyline, though she is mostly a fictionalized character. I loved how Pike was able to weave in so much historical content and introduce so many of the players during this tumultuous time in Scottish history. It is incredibly clear that a lot of research went into the construction of the novel and that a lot of care was taken to piece all of it together. I am not able to verify its accuracy as my knowledge of this location and time period is very minimal, but others with greater knowledge than mine have stated that the contents do largely ring true.
The characters continued to improve in this installment. They grew quite a bit of depth, becoming even more rounded and complicated as individuals. The introduction of new characters created an additional level of complexity to the story that worked quite well. The actions and interactions of the characters felt more natural in this than the original novel and the overall feel of the book was one of greater writing maturity. I enjoyed being able to witness this progression.
I have really enjoyed this series so far and I am itching to read the final book in the trilogy. This is a section of historical fiction that I am not well versed in, but reading Pike's work has definitely inspired me to look for more works written during this time period.
** Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. **
Dark, brooding, and quite violent given the time in which it was written. I didn't like any of the characters--finding them to have highly disagreeable personalities. However, there is a lot of talent in their creation...they have to be written well to make me dislike them. The POV for the book is interesting and uncommon, but it worked. The whole read was just okay for me. Overall I found it too tragic, without much to redeem it as enjoyable in terms of plot. Apparently it was just too much of a downer.
4.5 stars. Why had I not read this one before?? A fantastically written novel with good examples of racial injustice presented in a way that the middle grade set can process and understand. This is an incredibly important piece of literature and I'm both glad I read it and extremely sad that I hadn't been presented with it before. The writing is beautiful, but presented in a voice that is age appropriate, allowing the young Cassie Logan to tell her own story. I think that approach is the key to this book's success, as an external narrator would have certainly taken away from some of the impact. This one needs to be a must read. It will certainly be on the shelf for my kids when it is age appropriate.
I remember my best friend raving about this one when we were younger. I don't know why her enthusiasm about it didn't prompt me to read it. She even had a copy that I could have easily borrowed. Let's just say that it is a classic for a reason. I didn't love it as much as I probably would have at the middle school age, but I still saw value in it despite being old and worn. It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking with great narrative style. I'm going to start sounding like a broken record with my middle school reviews, but I think it is SO important for the middle grade protagonists to tell their own story rather than having an outside narrator. It makes the emotions and events so much more powerful and honest. This is pulled off wonderfully with this one. I also listened to the author interview that was a tandem interview with her son. It was additionally impactful to learn that this story was loosely based on her son's personal experience as a young child. Got me right in the feels.