I like the idea of this book, but find the content very simplified, and I sensed a bit of arrogance from the author. Still, it’s great to make anthropology so accessible for readers.

Not interested in the subject

Great on audio, with multiple narrators. Left me wanting more! 3.5 stars

To sum it up: so many great ideas, with a few flaws. I’ve read R.F. Kuang’s other works, including The Poppy War trilogy and Yellowface, and I think that her ideas overshadow the characters in all of her books. I agree with some reviewers that Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty are one-note, but that doesn’t mean they’re not complex characters. They inhabit the ideas of racism, classicism, tokenism, imperialism, colonialism; they’re just too small for such big ideas.

Then of course there’s the whole language/translation aspect. I really liked the concept of two words and their shades of meaning that create power. Of course, you could nitpick this to death and the idea falls apart easily. But the concept is great, so if you can suspend your disbelief, the book will read more easily, and it does read a lot like The Secret History. The fraternity, secrets, and things left unsaid all lead to tragedy. The book doesn’t pull any punches. It does read a bit high-minded, but honestly I didn’t mind that part. I liked it’s self-aggrandizing, it’s puffed up importance. R.F. Kuang wants us to grapple with these ideas. I think she wouldn’t mind all the discourse. After all, that’s the whole point of language - to share, to debate, to grow, to expand.

4 stars.

Cute premise, but poorly executed. I didn’t mind the Hallmarkian city that our main characters just happened to be waylaid in, which just happened to be filming the sequel to a favorite Christmas movie. But the silliness of their decisions, the tantrums out of nowhere, and way they don’t recognize what’s going on around them was ridiculous and more characteristic of a children’s movie. It’s disappointing, because I have really enjoyed Uzma Jalaluddin’s books in the past.

2.5 stars

Picked up at an indie bookstore solely because of the cover, illustrations inside, one interesting chart, and different fonts. Switched to audio when I saw it was narrated by Simon Vance and Neil Patrick Harris. A silly romp of a murder mystery, but a bit complicated on audio, so I switched back to print. Was I rooting for any of our deletists? Not really, but the book was just charming enough to keep me reading until the end. 

3.5 stars

William Kent Krueger’s writing evokes nostalgia, a strong sense of place for the Midwest small town, and the bittersweet feeling of crossing a threshold - whether that of youth to adulthood, the choice to know or not know, and the moment you allow yourself to be changed for the better or not.

Despite these rather weighty topics, the book reads with a fast pace, as we gradually build up to the incriminating event, and understand how it all came to be. I have a few minor quibbles with the coincidental timing of things: Frank and Jake are often in just the right place at the right time to overhear secrets. But the message of the book is clear and beautifully summed up in Frank’s father’s sermon: that after a loss, we are only left with “three profound blessings… faith, hope, and love.”

4.5 stars.