gossamer_lens's Reviews (1.48k)

It was fun and I enjoyed how reminiscent of the 2010s "blogging is a big deal" the whole book was. Overall the zombies were a bit whatever as the book was more obsessed with the blogging and politics of it all then with the zombie survival. I liked how lighthearted the politics felt during this second Trump Era. It felt very "polite" even given the plot twists in the book. 

I think I would have liked this book more if it wasn't trying so hard to explain the zombies every step of the way. But that is personal preference. I would have also liked if the logic of the politics and main characters thought process seemed more consistent/grounded. But overall, it was just a fun read that felt nostalgic of when I was a blogger teen. But with zombies. 

When this info says the author believes myths were told for the lowest common denominator, he truly means that is all he can write. With the 2013 publication date I was expecting something tounge in cheek, a little crude but in the name of being modern and feminist. But no, this author just hates women. He thinks he doesn't, but he takes every opportunity to misconstrue every woman as a slut, whore... Etc. just eew and his capitalizing things to make them "funny" serves nothing but cringe. 

The way this books I written is just bugging me. There are spots where concepts or phrases are repeated in just a slightly altered way. Nobody feels real or tangible in any way... And the beginning was just so much more intriguing than anything else has been and the plot has completely lost any intrigue for me at 20% of the way in. All this I could push through...

What I cannot push through is that the writing is done to prove that the author thought of sci-fi things. So many sentences are a humble of made up things with no context clues. Tangents are gone into just to name fake organizations and their history or to wake on about made up concepts that appear so far to have no plot tie in. There are so many tangents you could never remember which ones matter once they do/if they do tie in. It feels a lot like Axioms end in the "see, my world is made up of things, I thought about stuff." This could all work if it was written in an emersive way.... But instead of feeling like world building it just feels like info dumps all the time with no point emotionally, thematically, or plot wise. It drags the whole thing and muddies up what there is of a plot so much I cannot enjoy it when we get to it. 

I put this on my TBR because I was interested in the saphic romance aspect. 

Having made it 15% of the way in I'm finding the two POVs to be too similar to each other. There is zero chemistry of romance and one of the main characters was clearly enamared with a male character who seemed very whatever. I cannot trust, given how that relationship and set of interactions worked, that anything between the two identical sounding female leads would be more gripping. 

I also feel in general the writing feels a bit too forced and amature. There are phrases that are common but clearly rewritten/workshoped to not feel trite but instead it just makes the sentences feel stilted or double the length they needed to be. 

This book felt like reading a dark folktale dream... I had a hard time connecting with the characters and the twists didn't feel like twists. But that was almost a good thing? It lent to the overall vibes of the book and the folky feel it evoked. If you are into dark folk tales, if you grew up on Grimms... this feels like a good book to recommend.

Fun cute little vignettes. I enjoyed the little peaks in between main Heartstopper moments. 

This wasn't what I expected it to be. A fun peak behind the scenes of Heartstopper. I enjoy knowing how it came about.

I didn't expect this to be what it was. I usually love Android inspired stuff, but something about the mashing together of the concepts here didn't quite do it for me. Still an enjoyable fun read! 

Really enjoyed what this book had to give. I don't know how interesting I would have found it if I didn't have familiarity with the Mormon/LDS/Latter Day Saints religion. But given my awareness of that it was a very interesting book. I do think even if you weren't aware of that religion though and you have interest in reading about cults, the characters and premise can stand on its own. 

This book was a great think piece... all of the characters had nuance, the pacing was great, the writing was excellent and engaging. This being my second Le Guin book... I definitely feel the need to read more! Such interesting ideas played with in this book. Truly a visionary book even now. Are there some baked in flaws of the times? Yes, but given the way it is written it feels like a questioning of those things if not a critic. Just really stands up to the test of time.