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howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)
That was absolutely fantastic, delightfully creepy, and most of all, SO MUCH FUN. Wow, Grady Hendrix is a genius. ♥ RTC!
So many people love this series that I feel like I should give it another try someday, but honestly, I read the first 30% and it was so boring and cringe-y that it made me never want to try another Jenny Han book ever again in my life... sigh
I read this a few years ago, so I'm just putting this mini review up because I already know some of you will be stunned to see that I 1-starred it. I DNFed it about halfway through because I absolutely hated the writing and, to be honest, thought it was kind of gross. I had forgotten how gross it made me feel until this year, when some of my friends sent me screenshots/photo excerpts while they were reading it, and I was like, "Oh, wow, yeah... never picking that one back up." No judgment AT ALL if you love this book (I know most people do!), but I don't have any desire to read anything else by Ernest Cline, honestly.
If you would like examples, you can actually view some of them here. Please be respectful of my opinion, as I promise to always be respectful of yours. <3
If you would like examples, you can actually view some of them here. Please be respectful of my opinion, as I promise to always be respectful of yours. <3
Assigned reading for MLIS 7421: Multicultural Youth Literature.
Wow, this is, like... literally one of the worst things I have ever seen win an award in my life. I am completely baffled as to how this book won the 2016 Stonewall YA Award, for a lot of reasons:
1. The protagonist isn't even queer. His friend is a lesbian. His friend who we watch the narrator hypersexualize and objectify every five pages.
2. The narrator cannot seem to go a single chapter without talking about his dick, and how everything his friend does gives him a boner. If I'd had to sit through one more mention of it or one more dick joke, I was going to chuck this book across my living room.
3. The writing is horrible. It's meant to be funny and the protagonist is supposed to be this super witty improv genius, but he's not funny, literally nothing he says or does is charming or amusing in the slightest, and whenever he's not thinking about his dick or how hot his new friend is, he's literally thinking to himself, "What can I say that's funny?" over and over. No joke, in one chapter, there are three different occasions where he gets upset because he isn't part of a conversation and he literally narrates that he's desperately trying to think of something hilarious so he can be the center of attention. It's awful. Awful. Literally one of the worst narrators I've ever read.
I can't even form a proper review for this. I refuse to try. I made it through about 150 pages before I slammed it shut and typed this up. I can most assuredly say that I will not be picking up anything else by this author, nor would I ever recommend this book to anyone.
Wow, this is, like... literally one of the worst things I have ever seen win an award in my life. I am completely baffled as to how this book won the 2016 Stonewall YA Award, for a lot of reasons:
1. The protagonist isn't even queer. His friend is a lesbian. His friend who we watch the narrator hypersexualize and objectify every five pages.
2. The narrator cannot seem to go a single chapter without talking about his dick, and how everything his friend does gives him a boner. If I'd had to sit through one more mention of it or one more dick joke, I was going to chuck this book across my living room.
3. The writing is horrible. It's meant to be funny and the protagonist is supposed to be this super witty improv genius, but he's not funny, literally nothing he says or does is charming or amusing in the slightest, and whenever he's not thinking about his dick or how hot his new friend is, he's literally thinking to himself, "What can I say that's funny?" over and over. No joke, in one chapter, there are three different occasions where he gets upset because he isn't part of a conversation and he literally narrates that he's desperately trying to think of something hilarious so he can be the center of attention. It's awful. Awful. Literally one of the worst narrators I've ever read.
I can't even form a proper review for this. I refuse to try. I made it through about 150 pages before I slammed it shut and typed this up. I can most assuredly say that I will not be picking up anything else by this author, nor would I ever recommend this book to anyone.
Assigned reading for MLIS 7421: Multicultural Youth Literature.
I'm calling it quits on this one early. This is not even remotely enjoyable for me. It starts out with a bad tone as one of the Wills keeps fat-shaming Tiny (who, according to JG's website, is the *actual* main character), and then it just goes downhill so fast. The only thing I liked about the pages that I read was the Neutral Milk Hotel referencing, but even that is slightly ruined by how Manic Pixie John's writing manages to make them sound. Neutral Milk Hotel deserves better, okay?
There's also the immediate issue of one of the Wills' way of speaking about Jane, with the whole, "She's not the kind of girl I usually go for because her hair is too curly and she hangs out with boys..." Like, what? Is that seriously a reason not to like a girl? (This is probably a good time to mention that I have now read six of JG's works, and only liked his portrayal of one female character, and that was Hazel Grace. I staunchly believe John Green had some sort of demonic bargain in place when he wrote TFIOS because it is of such a higher caliber than everything he wrote before it, in my opinion.)
Buddy read with Lacy! ♥
I'm calling it quits on this one early. This is not even remotely enjoyable for me. It starts out with a bad tone as one of the Wills keeps fat-shaming Tiny (who, according to JG's website, is the *actual* main character), and then it just goes downhill so fast. The only thing I liked about the pages that I read was the Neutral Milk Hotel referencing, but even that is slightly ruined by how Manic Pixie John's writing manages to make them sound. Neutral Milk Hotel deserves better, okay?
There's also the immediate issue of one of the Wills' way of speaking about Jane, with the whole, "She's not the kind of girl I usually go for because her hair is too curly and she hangs out with boys..." Like, what? Is that seriously a reason not to like a girl? (This is probably a good time to mention that I have now read six of JG's works, and only liked his portrayal of one female character, and that was Hazel Grace. I staunchly believe John Green had some sort of demonic bargain in place when he wrote TFIOS because it is of such a higher caliber than everything he wrote before it, in my opinion.)
Buddy read with Lacy! ♥
DNF @ 54%
You might notice that you don't see many 3-star DNFs from me; I typically either don't give them a rating (because I didn't read enough to form a fair opinion), or give them 1-2 stars (because they were so harmful or terrible that I couldn't stand another page). That said, Gerald's Game is like the definition of my 3-star DNF review: it wasn't for me, but it wasn't bad.
This is definitely one of King's less popular novels, I think for many reasons, but I truly didn't think it was a case of bad writing or a bad plot. I was legitimately interested in what was happening to poor Jessie for the first 30%, and I liked the idea of this incredibly plausible scenario: a woman being left chained up, alone, and beginning to suffer visions and intrusive thoughts that it's impossible to know whether to blame on dehydration, panic, mental instability, trauma, or something supernatural.
That said, once it gets close to the halfway mark, things begin to feel slow, and repetitive, and I just couldn't seem to find any interest left for the story. Once I realized that, in 10 days, I had only read maybe 5% (split up between two sittings, at that), and that every time I picked it up, I felt at risk of going into a reading slump, I decided it was time to call it quits.
Normally in a case like this, I might put it on my "finish-me-soon" shelf to try again later, but honestly, I just don't think this is a book I'm missing out on much by leaving alone. That said, if the plot interests you, I absolutely think it's worth picking up and giving a try.
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CONTENT WARNINGS BELOW INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST 54%
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Content warnings for sexual assault, child abuse, pedophilia, death, grief, hallucinations, imprisonment, dehydration, PTSD, mutilation of a corpse, animal neglect/abuse, misogyny, fat-shaming
You might notice that you don't see many 3-star DNFs from me; I typically either don't give them a rating (because I didn't read enough to form a fair opinion), or give them 1-2 stars (because they were so harmful or terrible that I couldn't stand another page). That said, Gerald's Game is like the definition of my 3-star DNF review: it wasn't for me, but it wasn't bad.
This is definitely one of King's less popular novels, I think for many reasons, but I truly didn't think it was a case of bad writing or a bad plot. I was legitimately interested in what was happening to poor Jessie for the first 30%, and I liked the idea of this incredibly plausible scenario: a woman being left chained up, alone, and beginning to suffer visions and intrusive thoughts that it's impossible to know whether to blame on dehydration, panic, mental instability, trauma, or something supernatural.
That said, once it gets close to the halfway mark, things begin to feel slow, and repetitive, and I just couldn't seem to find any interest left for the story. Once I realized that, in 10 days, I had only read maybe 5% (split up between two sittings, at that), and that every time I picked it up, I felt at risk of going into a reading slump, I decided it was time to call it quits.
Normally in a case like this, I might put it on my "finish-me-soon" shelf to try again later, but honestly, I just don't think this is a book I'm missing out on much by leaving alone. That said, if the plot interests you, I absolutely think it's worth picking up and giving a try.
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CONTENT WARNINGS BELOW INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST 54%
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Content warnings for sexual assault, child abuse, pedophilia, death, grief, hallucinations, imprisonment, dehydration, PTSD, mutilation of a corpse, animal neglect/abuse, misogyny, fat-shaming
While I was reading It, it was hard to determine my thoughts on the book objectively—as in, how I felt about the writing and storyline as a whole—because I was too focused on the negative feelings I was taking on from the content. After giving myself a chance to take a little emotional rest and to move past those issues, though, I was able to really look back on the 400-ish pages I read, and realized something:
I genuinely feel that this book has no place in being half the length that it is.
In the 400-ish pages I read, honestly, 150+ of them felt superfluous and could have been cut. I know a lot of people will disagree with this on kneejerk reaction because "it's setting the stage!", and if that's how you truly feel, that fine, but I think it's no coincidence that almost everyone I've spoken to who has read It, regardless of what their feelings on it were, felt that it was about twice as long as it should've been.
There's so much extraneous stuff that it felt like I was barely getting started by the time I put It down, hence my hesitation to give it a star rating and review, but let's be honest: 400 pages is typically an entire book, or close to it! If I dedicated this much time and effort to the story, I have a right to exercise my opinion, and there it is. The story simply isn't entertaining enough to be worth nearly 1,200 pages, and at risk of being stoned to death for heresy, the recent film adaptation of "chapter 1" was excellent, and I'm really looking forward to "chapter 2" next year.
I genuinely feel that this book has no place in being half the length that it is.
In the 400-ish pages I read, honestly, 150+ of them felt superfluous and could have been cut. I know a lot of people will disagree with this on kneejerk reaction because "it's setting the stage!", and if that's how you truly feel, that fine, but I think it's no coincidence that almost everyone I've spoken to who has read It, regardless of what their feelings on it were, felt that it was about twice as long as it should've been.
There's so much extraneous stuff that it felt like I was barely getting started by the time I put It down, hence my hesitation to give it a star rating and review, but let's be honest: 400 pages is typically an entire book, or close to it! If I dedicated this much time and effort to the story, I have a right to exercise my opinion, and there it is. The story simply isn't entertaining enough to be worth nearly 1,200 pages, and at risk of being stoned to death for heresy, the recent film adaptation of "chapter 1" was excellent, and I'm really looking forward to "chapter 2" next year.
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Vol. 1: ★★★★★
Vol. 2: ★★★★☆
I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as Volume 1, only because this volume felt tamer and a little less interesting to me. It focused more heavily on back story, which I think will actually cause a lot of readers to prefer this installment, but for me, I found myself missing the non-stop action and gore (no shame!). That said, volume 2 is still pretty graphic at points, including some child-related violence/murder that I figure readers might want a heads-up for ahead of time. I probably won't rush to get the next volume, but I definitely plan on continuing the series at some point.
Vol. 1: ★★★★★
Vol. 2: ★★★★☆
This was so bizarre and uniquely its own, and graphic, but I honestly loved it a lot. I can safely say I've never read anything quite like MPD Psycho and I can't wait to continue the series. Fair warning, when I say this manga is graphic, I mean it is graphic; there's a ton of nudity, violence, and body horror that even made me shudder once or twice (which is pretty hard to do!). The storyline is super intriguing, though if you're a reader who isn't fond of stories revolving around DID/"multiple personality disorder", you'll want to steer clear as that's the bulk of the story's theme here.
The artwork is also beautifully done, and truly, I can't say anything else besides that this is easily my new favorite horror manga and I highly encourage picking it up!