This was a decent read. I liked the premise and the characters, but for me it failed to expand on some of the key themes of the book. The suspense built nicely but I just wanted more, and come the end I felt a bit disappointed.

Well this book certainly packs a punch! As a fan of epic fantasy I wasn’t sure a 100 page sci-fi novella would be for me. I was wrong! This book throws you into the action and smashed through a perfectly constructed story line. I loved the main character - sarcastic, irritable, grumpy, awesome. I’m very much looking forward to trying the second in the series!

Wow. This book is so raw and powerful, a true masterpiece. This was by no means an easy read, and I had to re-read several sections to let it sink in, but it was absolutely worth it. With so much historical fiction focused on WWII it was important to me to understand more about WWI. This book absolutely delivered on that in such a way that it left me in absolute awe of what soldiers went through. The way that men were pushed beyond any normal limits was portrayed with painful detail. Heartbreaking.

This was a snip of a book, and had me laughing and agreeing avidly in places. Some of the historical references seemed a bit cumbersome in places, but a nice homage to females bucking the trend across history.

This book had my hooked. I flew through it. The tension was brilliant, it kept me on tenterhooks the whole way through. But for me the ending let it down. I was so ready to give this book 4 stars, but alas it wasn’t to be.

This book was amazing! The best YA I have read in a very long time, in fact, one of the best I have ever read. This book took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting the lyrical prose, the emotional current running through the plot, the beautiful indigenous detailing, but I got all that and more. I can’t believe I haven’t seen this book being discussed and praised more. Stunning!!

This, the second in The Murderbot Diaries, is equally as good as the first. There was a little more detail on murderbot’s background, a little more insight into the world and lots more of the dry, pessimistic humour that I loved so much from the first book. I loved the character of ART and hope that we see it again in subsequent books.

Caveat to start with, I’m not a huge fan of non-fiction, and was trying to push out of my comfort zone with this book, so perhaps some of my dislike was purely due to not liking the genre.
I listened to this book on audio, and I had several issues. Firstly there were sections (large sections) that I found very dull. Secondly, the way it was read, in my opinion, trivialised the horrific events of the blitz and the death that resulted. Thirdly, every woman mentioned sounded like an utter moron. Whether that was due to the ridiculous voice that was used, or the actual content of what they said I am still undecided, but I was not impressed.
All that vented, there were some informative nuggets and pieces of information that I didn’t know, but for me it wasn’t worth the 20+ hours of audio for about half an hour of good information.

Heartbreaking, thought provoking - a punch in the guts. As a white person, I felt physically sick for much of this book.
For all of the horrific events that happened in this book, I was also awed by the strength and fortitude that was shown by the characters - a reflection of what many people of colour still have to manifest today.