galacticvampire's Reviews (366)

If the first book kept itself afloat from the shitshow that was the main character by surrounding her with an endearing cast, this one was left to cruelly drown on Belly's self-absorption.

I like messy characters. Really. But they require either a good dose of charm or a deep development to explain where their terrible choices are coming from, added to the self-awareness that they were terrible choices to make. Belly doesn't meet a single one of these criteria.

At best she's wallowing in self pity, feeling guilty for her mistakes mostly by how they affect her. She's upset she blew up at to Conrad on his mother's funeral because he's not talking to her anymore, not because it was a cruel thing to do. She's depressed about a break-up because she feels naive, not because she was the cause of it. I don't think I've met a character so insufferable before.

As for the plot, I actually really like both brothers and the flashbacks in particular worked very nice. None of them deserved to be used and strung along by Belly as if they were interchangable.

(yes, I did factor in the fact she is sixteen and making grief-driven immature decisions. Still awful.)

Before anything, I HAVE to warn people off the audiobook. The narrator sounds emotionless and constantly mispronounces both bengali and portuguese, which is very roundabout considering the context. If you want to read this, get a written copy. 

The story itself was... weird. I really enjoyed the family plot, and dreaded the actual romance. The book also had a hard time balancing the several social issues it wanted to bring up: 

Henna wars touches on cultural appropriation, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, bullying, outing, sisterly relationships, imposter syndrome... and most of these don't get the proper weight they should. (Yes, even considering the 13-years-old audience) 

Flavia, the love interest, is an obvious example of that. The book tried to argue that her appropriating of henna for profit (after being asked not to! And while doing it wrong!) is a result of ignorance.

Which would be a valid argument if halfway through there wasn't a whole conversation about the issues she faces for being mixed and Brazilian. So which is it? Is she unaware of how that could be hurtful or does she relate to the problem? The fact that there isn't even a proper apology was also baffling.

The family dynamics, though, were really well done. The sister's relationship in particular was authentic and heartfelt, showing the cultural background for academic excellence and sexuality. 

All in all, this easily could've done without the romance plot (it would work just fine as a side characterization), focusing on Nishat's struggles about being accepted as a lesbian and navigating racism, it would be a beautiful story.

(It also felt like the author didn't understand what year this was set in. At the same time they're fighting for instagram followers there is a 90's style of generalized homophobia happening and the mc is baffled that another teen might like Harry Potter... The most famous ya franchise out of the uk)

With how much I loved the fifth season, I wouldn't have guessed the second book would win me so easily. This is everything that made me devour the first book times 3.

The prose remains beautiful, both playing with words to invoke the magical and keeping it real so to not brush off the violent. It romanticises the world, and believes in humanity, but never pretends we're anything but flawed and ugly. It believes in us anyway.

I really like the new characters and setting, specially the parallels with seeing both Nassun and Essun evolve in such different ways. It's very pleasurable watching all the lore built up on the previous book slowly clicking into place and forming a full picture.

This was a better experience than when I read the script, but I still find the setup to get Ventress to read his diaries way too silly.

I really appreciate what this book did as a sequel. Our Violent Ends kept developing the characters, and the secondary ones in particular got their chance to shine and be fleshed out.

While it falls into a more cliché narrative, in contrast to the very unique setting of the first one, the pacing was well developed and I enjoyed how we had povs of multiple sides of the revolution.

There were several moments when the characters were plain stupid just to further the plot or to force a Romeo and Juliet reference, and some villains were bad... just because, I guess?

Still, this is a thoroughly entertaining read, and I'll definitely read more books by Chloe Gong.

Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars movie, so I really appreciate the insight the novelization brought, showing internal thoughts and explaining better the inworking of the Rebellion. The ending in particular was really well done, translating the dramatic sad scenes from screen to page beautifully.

That being said, for the most part it's pretty much a perfect retelling of the movie, and I feel it doesn't add as much as other novelizations.

Belly is probably one of the worst teen protagonists of all time. She's extremely self-centred, whiny, and completely passive about everything.

Some of it is the "the biggest worry on my life is if my crush likes me" teen drama you're expected to let it slide because, well, this is a teen book. But the biggest part is that her selfishness is never acknowledged by the narrative. She's frequently wrong and awful to everyone around her, refusing to taking initiative about anything and blaming those who do when it isn't to her liking. I can't seem to phantom what was the goal with making her so unlikable (and yet, a bunch of boys like her because... she's pretty i guess?)

Nevertheless,I read this in one day. The rest of the cast is complex and interesting and I was devouring the story just to get the next glimpse of them in-between Belly's nonsense.

There're also several moments when she ignores everyone's pain but her own in the worst way possible? Like a boy just found out his mother is sick and she decides the best way to comfort him is a kiss? When she didn't even know if he liked her? And later chides another for asking first because then she'd have to admit she wanted it so he should've just gone for it?????

Bridge to Terabithia was a really important movie to me. I vividly remember watching it for the first time and I'd go back to it frequently. So it might be nostalgia telling me the movie version is definitely better.

This does a really good job at being simple and direct. It's a great book for ten-ish year-olds to have their first contact with several issues, it's fun and engaging but also really showcases the process of grief and the importance of compassion.

All that being said, because the book stays so much inside Jess's head I don't think it reaches the emotional potential it had. The whimsical touch on Terabithia is great, but because he doesn't really understand or care about the complexities regarding other people in his life you're left wanting more development in other parts.

Then ending after the climax is also way too abrupt, there's barely any time to process the sadness and understand the hopeful and bittersweet tone that the book was meant to leave the reader at.

This is a really heartbreaking/warming read, but tbh I'd be satisfied enough with the movie by itself.

Between the Shanghai setting, the mafia background, and just a hint of magic, These Violent Delights really sets itself apart from other YA romances.

I really enjoyed reading this book, specially because the plot was so rich. Yes, the focus is on the romance, but more so on Roma and Julliete's story than their relationship per-se.

Would I call this a Romeo and Juliet retelling? Eh... I'd lean more towards a work inspired by. Besides some nods to the original play, it doesn't really go beyond their names and family rivalry. But this isn't a flaw: Chloe Gong does way more with this book than she could if she had binded herself to the source material.

I also really appreciate that she allowed the entire cast to shine and feel alive, giving their points of view and exploring their own paths. 

Most of them (specially Juliette) are quite stupid sometimes and the narrative really had no subtlety introducing its feminist themes (I lost count how many times we stop for an entire paragraph where Juliette explains that she is required to look pretty and calm because she's a girl and her authority is questioned), but it didn't bother me that much since this is intended for teenagers.

The mistery itself was compelling, the relationship delivered good tension between them trying to act as enemies while not really hating one another, and I was engrossed the entire time.

Sapiens' primary goal was to narrate in an accessible way the history of humankind. My rating is made from 4★ for actually making it an entertaining read, and 2★ for whatever was going on with the content.

The author nails the narrative part. So much that its verging from history to story. And that's very dangerous to people looking for it because it's easier to understand, because they're more likely to not notice it. 

Sapiens is incredibly written, but the meaning behind its words is often questionable. 

This book is filled with oversimplifications, assumptions, and known false theories, all for the sake of making it more narratively appealing. And yet the author rarely mentions that what he's saying is speculation. 

To get from point A to point B in history there's obviously a complex chain of events, many of which are still unknown. In Sapiens, the author sews the two together with a single and simple thread, making, yes a tight and coherent storyline for the reader, but incorrect. 

His arguments are based in things like saying pre-agricultural people were happier (impossible to prove), that colonialism might not be cool but it was the only (!!!) thing that allowed scientific progress, that destruction of habitat and exploration was intended (no, the mega fauna died because of the end of the ice age), and that thanks to capitalism resources are now infinite because they're immaterial (????). There's also many other assumptions based on social/ideological stances presented as universal truths. (what is religion, why did we develop gender roles, scientific progress, etc). 

Overall, Yuval seemed to be trying to prove that cruelty is inherent to the human kind, and therefore the ultimate terrible fate looming over us isn't really our fault. Which is a valid philosophical point of view but has no place in a book aiming for historical accuracy. 

A title I'd be happy with: "Sapiens: historical musings about the humankind".