mars2k's Reviews (226)

The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion has so much wasted potential. The writing isn’t great, with clunky wording and comma-saturated sentences making it difficult to read at some points. The indifferent narration makes even scenes intended to be shocking feel boring.

The POV character, Danielle, really isn’t likeable. She is dismissive and patronising towards anyone optimistic or passionate about what they do. There was an excellent quote from another character about anarchism, power, and trust which I found quite evocative, but Danielle responds by (in her head) scoffing at his immaturity and his overenthusiastic tone. Though she claims to be an anarchist, all she does deride those she supposedly agrees with. Somebody eventually calls her out on this (“You act like a revolutionary, but you’re a fucking poser”) and the way Danielle reacts makes it sound as though she thinks “poser” is some kind of slur – the gravest insult imaginable – but the person calling her that is absolutely right.

Pacing was another major issue. The story is incredibly quick, with everything happening one thing after another. There’s no time for tension to build or for characters to process what they experience, which is a big let-down in a story that’s supposed to be dark and mysterious. Uliksi is revealed far too early – I think the story would have worked better if he had been kept secret by the townspeople, driving Danielle to grow suspicious as she tries to figure out what they’re hiding and why before a big reveal when she finally discovers the truth. Dwelling on what she’s witnessed and trying to come to terms with it would serve not only to break up the action, but also to inject some emotion into this otherwise very apathetic main character.

Without delving into spoiler territory, the ending is anticlimactic. I finished the book feeling kind of cheated.

There isn’t much to praise besides the compelling concept and the diverse cast of (albeit rather flat) characters, though I still think that’s enough to earn it three stars. I didn’t dislike the book, but I am frustrated because it could have been exceptional with a little reworking.

While I’ve seen other reviewers praise Capitalist Realism for its accessibility, I found it kind of impenetrable. Maybe that’s just because a lot of the pop culture references went over my head.

There were some compelling ideas put forward in this book. “Capitalist realism” itself is a very useful term, though it’s not properly defined and explained until the third chapter, “Capitalism and the Real.” This is the book’s strongest chapter. It goes on to discuss the “privatisation of stress” and the way we approach mental health issues from an individualist perspective rather than looking at the bigger picture and dealing with the underlying cause – as Fisher later states, “considering mental illness an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism.” There’s also an interesting note about “depressive hedonia” in the following chapter (“Reflexive impotence”)

Beyond these few points, however, the book is mostly made up of nonsensical ramblings and wild assertions. Some are just baffling, like students listening to music being indicative of some kind of Oedipus complex. At other times, Fisher’s assertions are much more serious and potentially harmful. For example, he insists that ADHD is “a pathology of late capitalism – a consequence of being wired into the entertainment-control circuits of hypermediated consumer culture” and that dyslexia is caused by neoliberalism and/or postmodernism... somehow.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I have to give credit where credit’s due and acknowledge that there are some really good ideas in there, but to get to them you have to wade through so much nonsense. I can’t say it’s is worth reading, unfortunately.

Man Alive is a fantastic book. McBee’s prose is casual and down-to-earth yet poetic at the same time, and I really like the recurring use of ghosts as a metaphor. The author has an excellent feel for pacing, recognising that some chapters should be short and quick while others can be allowed to linger and build tension. The subject matter can be pretty heavy and emotional so I couldn’t read it all in one go despite its low page count. Discussions of child sexual abuse are frequent and candid – just a heads-up.

My only major issue with the book is some of the phrasing. I can’t really say that the way McBee describes himself is inherently problematic or incorrect – he’s writing from his own experiences as a trans man and describing his own identity, after all. I must admit, however, that I did wince when he stated he was “born female,” and later in the book there are some implications that pre-T trans men aren’t really men, they’re just “passing” as men. These concepts have used to deride me and undermine my own identity as a trans person, so I found it quite upsetting to see them presented in such a matter-of-fact way here.

Again, I can’t really fault McBee for describing his own identity in a way that doesn’t sit right with me, but I have my own sensitivities, and this aspect of the book really struck a nerve and somewhat soured my experience reading it.

I still think Man Alive is excellent overall, though, which is why I’m giving it four and a half stars. It’s definitely something I’d recommend.

Got a third of the way into the book and I'm just not interested. I don't really care for the characters, the world, or the plot, and the writing is dense and tough to get through.

I may return to it at some point but for now I'm moving on to something else.

I don’t think The Creativity Code is bad per se, but it’s just not for me. I suppose I’m more interested in “creativity” than “code,” so I’m not really the target audience for this heavily mathematical book.

It certainly has its moments – I quite enjoyed the chapters “Painting By Numbers” and “Language Games” – but I felt as though much of the content could have been cut and the book’s length easily could have been halved. I hate to say it, but I’ve seen videos on the topic which are more engaging and more concise, and at times I found myself wishing I was watching one of those instead of reading this book.

I don’t regret reading it, but I’m glad I’m done so I can move on to something more to my liking.

In Real Life is a book which tries to be too many things at once. It wants to be a book about feminism and a book about workers’ rights at the same time, but neither concept is nearly as fleshed-out as it ought to be. The message is muddled and, at times, contradictory. Its tone is confused as well – the “gamer girl” gimmick is too patronising for older audiences, but the swearing and the heavy themes it alludes to make it unsuitable for young readers.

Before I go on to discuss the writing further, I’d like to mention that Jen Wang's artwork is wonderful throughout. The colour palettes and the line weight make this graphic novel a pleasure to read, even if I found the story itself a little disappointing.

The book begins with an introduction. There are some really good ideas in there so it’s a shame they weren’t handled as well as they could have been; the story is too fast-paced, meaning there’s no time to dwell on the “sticky, tough questions” the writer, Cory Doctorow, wants us to consider. Everything just kind of happens. Ideas are thrown together but not given space to be properly explored, resulting in a flat story with a lot of wasted potential.

Every problem is approached with a detached and somewhat dismissive attitude. Girls always choose male avatars in their games? Clearly it just hasn’t occurred to them to play as girls. Factory workers in China are being exploited? Clearly they’ve never heard of unions. It’s a naive approach to say the least. The reasons why someone might play as a man (eg: to avoid online harassment) or work in poor conditions (eg: because they desperately need the money) just aren’t considered. The story does play into the white saviour trope.

In Real Life is ambitious and well-intentioned, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. It's not a bad book but it certainly could have been better. For that reason, I’m giving it three stars.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race serves as a good introduction to anti-racist activism and ideas like white privilege and intersectionality. It’s accessible and it’s a surprisingly quick read. The first chapter (“Histories”) is long and tough, but the pace does pick up after that.

I appreciated that the book focused on British history, not just American. I also quite liked the use of the term “structural” rather than “institutional” to more clearly explain the way racism permeates society. I found that helpful.

I do, however, have some questions regarding the interview with Nick Griffin, namely “why did Eddo-Lodge not mention the antisemitic dog-whistles he was using?” and “why was the source he gave re: demographic change taken at face value and not fact-checked?”

Still, I did find this book incredibly useful. I would recommend it to other white people looking to better understand race and racism.

Dinosaurs Rediscovered is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It’s accessible without being patronising, and each chapter is broken down into easily digestible chunks and rounded off with a summary. There are lots of images, too – not just paleoart illustrations, but also diagrams, graphs, and maps. The book concludes with a neat afterword, a fun list of K-Pg extinction hypotheses, a further reading section, and an index.

Despite the title, dinosaurs themselves are not the main focus of this book. Benton chooses instead to explore the ways in which palaeontology has developed from speculation to science over the past few decades, chronicling how advances in technology and methodology have improved our understanding of Mesozoic life.

I adored this book from the very beginning, and I expect it’s one I’ll revisit fairly frequently. It introduced me to ideas I had never come across before, and it offered some fascinating insights I hadn't considered. I did find some chapters more interesting than others, but I think that’s mostly down to personal preference so I can’t really fault the author for that. Five stars.

I really didn’t like this book. The Atlantropa Articles is incredibly shallow, with a very "wow cool robot" approach to storytelling. It isn't particularly well written. It's repetitive, the pacing isn't well thought out, there are a few SPAG mistakes here and there, and the author relies heavily on telling instead of showing. He spends the majority of the book engaged in a strange fetishisation of vehicles and weaponry, and he has no time for emotional depth or philosophy.
A key trait of this alternate history world is that "Nazism never disappears" but, in reality, it never did disappear. Franklin doesn't seem to understand fascism well at all, and yet he chose to write a story with Nazis in the starring roles – it's written from the perspective of Ansel, a captain of the Eternal Reich. And I have to wonder why he chose to use this character as the POV. I don't know how else to say this but it kinda felt like a power fantasy? I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from this.

Also Muslims are brought up, painted as barbaric warlords whose "caliphate" is just as bad if not worse than the Reich, then forgotten about. Very cool.

I find the Atlantropa concept interesting (which is why I picked up this book), but Franklin didn't come up with it so I can't give him too much credit. I feel like two stars is generous. It must be said that almost all the positive reviews I've seen were written by self-professed fans of the author. I saw one which said "[Ansel's] worldview is very understandable" which is... worrying.

An Inspector Calls offers some interesting social commentary and a message of accepting responsibility and considering consequences of your actions, not only for yourself but for others too. The characters are well-developed with distinct personalities, which is quite impressive for such a short book.

That said, I re-read this book earlier this year and it wasn't as good as I remember. That's not to say it's bad – I did still enjoy it – I just didn't have the same reaction I had the first time round. I've seen the play performed on stage as well, which in my opinion was better than just reading the script.