Take a photo of a barcode or cover
handove's Reviews (147)
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, Pregnancy
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this felt like a fucking fever dream.
This was how it always went. Museums overlooked colonialism, conquest, a history of blood, until it was laid in front of them, until violence was met with violence.
the best part of this book was, by far, the explorations of the mcs' relationships with china and chinese culture. i thought they were all handled really well, esp w varying levels of connection. the little snippets of chinese texts and the descriptions of beijing were also really pleasant.
the discussion of colonialism and the cultural implications of art theft were definitely a highlight - i related heavily to a lot of the culture stuff, actually, so kudos for that.
unfortunately, that's about everything positive i can say about this book.
it started off great. it never really dragged per se, but about 30% in i'd already lost some interest. it doesn't rly live up to the thriller promise - the heists were over far too fast and weren't really written in a style that made me anticipate them.
another thing was the constant pov changes. we had 5 pov characters and 69 chapters - as you can guess, they switched around really fast. we never really got the opportunity to be in a character's head for more than a few minutes irl, and this also made some of the relationships confusing to sift through and remember.
i can see why people have issues with the ending, but overall i thought it was quite poignant.
tldr? interesting themes but somehow still boring. rip.
shoutout for the anki mention (loml <333) and the halsey lyric tho!
"We’re children of the diaspora,” Will said. He had grown up in the US, knew that no matter how much he wanted it to be, China would never be home to him. “All we’ve ever known is loss."
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
i'm almost as confused on my feelings about this book as i was about the book itself.
i read this to satiate the growing brainrot from the tv show and it's very different, but i can see the base inspiration. as a whole, it was beautifully written and had some really poignant passages. unfortunately, it was boring as shit.
it was incredibly confusing at some points, notably a bit after louis arrives in europe (the long paragraphs of angsting did make it a bit hard to decipher. whiny as FUCK i tell you) what the fuck happened with madeleine. claudia is great as usual because it is impossible for my girl to not serve
other gripes:
i read this to satiate the growing brainrot from the tv show and it's very different, but i can see the base inspiration. as a whole, it was beautifully written and had some really poignant passages. unfortunately, it was boring as shit.
it was incredibly confusing at some points, notably a bit after louis arrives in europe (the long paragraphs of angsting did make it a bit hard to decipher. whiny as FUCK i tell you) what the fuck happened with madeleine. claudia is great as usual because it is impossible for my girl to not serve
other gripes:
- anne rice really dug herself a hole by making feeding so erotic and a literal allegory for sex while also having her characters feed on children all the while
- was there a purpose to that? no
- louis and claudia are.. well he refers to her as his lover and wonders what it would be like if she was his paramour (pls keep in mind she's like physically five years old) which is as we all know the epitome of a halfway decent parent-child relationship
- i felt rather detached at some point due to everything quite literally being dialogue told to the interviewer, which made it hard to get through
- lestat :( miss you problematic babygirl
- i say i miss him but idgaf about him in this book he's a lot of nothing
- wish they explored his daddy issues more
- not really a gripe with the book per se but i cannot tell you how much it threw me off whenever louis or armand were described as white, which was. a LOT.
- there were so many white people like they'd ban me off this app if i said what i really thought
- introducing anne rice to the concept of melanin like a child to a chew toy
- i know this was part of the effect, but the ending was just really unsatisfying imo. actually the whole book was unsatisfying
wait let me say something positive
you could tell anne rice had issues with catholicism bc that scene in the church? gold, actually
back to the show bc this ldpdl is #notmylouis
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Blood
Moderate: Slavery
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Death of parent
a whole 0.25 stars was for rhy and alucard please give them back to me in book 3