this book was really promising. I think if I was reading it, instead of listening to it I would have finished it. It is about a girl, who was 5 years old when a fantasy world grew from under Central Park new York. the fantasy world took over, most adults died, and the children were taken by the queen. Not it is 10 or so years later. There is no emotion in this fantasy kingdom, and our girl is now part of the night watch. She goes after the Queens son, when he is discovered around the city. She follows him to Ohio, where she is quarantined, (held Prison) so she can clear herself of the spell and feel again.

It was the quarantine that lost me. It was slow and lacked the charm of the rest of the book. I found my mind wondering and not caring what was happening. I DNFed. if I was reading and could have skimmed through this, i probably would have. But that was not really possible with the audiobook. I set it aside and never picked it back up. 

 

I really wanted to like this, but I am DNFing at 25%. I imagine this book was going to be a modern retelling of Dan Quixote but in the first quarter of the book we have a young woman and her grandfather telling her stories about being a knight. Everybody considers him crazy both in his family and around his neighborhood. Eight years later, Lucia is still into the ideas of knights in shining armor and grand adventures. This that gets her into trouble. Her age is hard to guess probably between 13 and 15 considering the story starts out eight years ago. I think the reason that the first quarter of this book annoys me is that Lucia is always in trouble. She’s in trouble for being an imaginative child. She’s in trouble for being rambunctious. And then the adults around here are just so annoying. There’s one scene where Lucy it goes to do her knightly business and help somebody who’s being bullied, she runs into a water tower and causes it to fall over. This gets her in trouble with the mayor, which gets her in trouble with her parents, and her parents have to do time volunteering to help pay for the mayors car that was hurt destroyed by the falling water tower. At the same time they also have to hide Lucia’s grandmother, who is undocumented. What annoys me about this book is there is no way one child running into a water tower lake can cause the water tower to fall. If it did, they would be a much bigger problem and the mayor wouldn’t be mad at the parents. Parents will be suing the mayor. I went into this book expecting an out of this world, crazy adventure tale, but this book is already unbelievable and far-fetched in the most annoying way. I have no desire to finish this tail. The world is coded as evil and cruel and nothing good.  If that is the case, why would it be worth saving. 

It was boring and confusing.

 

If you have ever watched Hulu’s the Handmaid‘s Tale, then you have the exact feeling of this book. This book reads as if it’s a continuation or companion to that series. Women are supposed to be subservient. Teen girls are not allowed to be around men and they are always to have a chaperone at all times. The book pulls you in from the beginning knowing that one of the chaperones has died. It could cause problems for her charge and the family for which she works. Unfortunately, for the first half of the book nothing really comes of it. It’s about our main character getting a new chaperone and the new chaperone, almost being an emancipator, trying to teach her that the world has taught her to be afraid of men and that she really shouldn’t be. It felt like Offred (from Handmaids tale show) didn’t get what she wanted, went back to Gilead. To give the children the freedom she didn’t have.  Overall, this book was boring. I DNFed it at 40%. The audiobook was dull and lifeless. It didn’t seem to be new, or have a unique spin, or anything to keep the reader’s interest. 

 

I really wanted to like this book, but it was very confusing. Part of it seems new, modern and futuristic.  At the same time you have a group of engineers working on clockworks. I got about halfway through this book and ended up with a DNF. I wanted to like it, but found myself not caring because I was having a hard time following the story. 

 

This was a sad DNF. I really thought I would love this book. I do like the art and it’s a supernatural tale. That part I liked, however, one of our main characters makes himself a girl. Very much Weird Science movie vibes. When they made this girl, he made her mindless. She can harm and do battle, but has no thoughts or knowledge of her own. She is an empty vessel for them to do with as they please. I don’t like that. Tt just turned me off, and I do not care to ever finish this book, let alone read any sequels. 

 

This is a DNF for this reader. I get that this book is supposed to be the dark side of the police force, particularly homicide in 1988 in Baltimore. This book is just darker than I am interested in reading. It starts with a dead guy in the street and all the homicide cops talking above him and it’s very reminiscent of an 80s style cop show or movie. It’s just dark and every other word is F this, F that, calling people hoes, making fun of trans street walkers.  While I know this is realistic to 1988, I don’t have to read it or enjoy it. 

 

This was an almost automatic DNF. I did read the description telling me it was about a man writing about his life trying to become a film Director. The illustrations have a 70s feel to them which is when I believe this takes place, but right off the bat in the margins of the page you have porn illustrations. Then you have the characters in the bathroom having this conversation and just it was an immediate turn off for me. I have no desire to turn any more pages to read anything more of this book than the first page. Somebody will like it, just not me. 

 

This book is a DNF. I am listening to an audiobook from the publisher, and it just cannot keep my attention. It’s a sci-fi set in Japan, but at the same time involves castle and train travel and modern society, and it just is not working together well enough to keep my attention. I am 15% of the way in and have no idea what is going on and so for me this story ends 

 

I was told this was a thrilling tale of horror.  Where?  I didn’t see it in the 34% of the audiobook I listened to.  Laurel Early grew up in a small tobacco growing town.  She escaped town to attend a university in the big city of Ohio but dropped out for bad grades.  In her free times she likes to taxidermy.  This book took so much time in the set up.  We had to find out about her friends, her hobby, her uncle, and her bones.  It finally got interesting when she finds her old taxidermy castoff bones in a pool of fresh blood, but that interesting point was followed by more dullness.  Then there is the car accident and chase by the weird blood and bone creature that even a gun will not stop, but now everyone thinks she is crazy and making it up.  The DNF point for me was on the next meeting with the creature.  The “I want to be in you, eat you, devour you from the inside.”  I had to listen twice.  And I was done.  I love the Nine Inch Nail song, where these lyrics feel like they were taken from, but I was not enjoying this story.  It wasn’t horror or thriller enough.  It was boring, then it was just “Nope”.