Fantastic! So good I read it in two days! The great thing about this series of books is how Aaronovich takes the genre of urban fantasy and the chiche of the occult detective, and he reshapes it, grounds it in reality, and then adds new and ingenious elements.
The detective story is brilliant, the characters are characterful, and the writing style is deliciously funny.

This is probably my second favourite Discworld novel so far (after Small Gods). It is wonderful to see Terry Pratchett's evolution both as a writer and a philosopher. The characters and world are becoming more complex and well-realized and real. Moving from his earlier books which exist mostly to poke fun at fantasy concepts to these books which are clearly allegories for the real world, it is difficult to compare them. The themes of this book centre around racism, sexism, civic duty, and the sanctity of life. Pratchett's exploration of these themes is sometimes problematic, however it is far beyond his earlier forays into these territories. A brilliant book.

This book totally blew me away. I'd been trying to read it for years, but I'd never made it past the introduction describing how the diary was found and edited. I knew it would be hugely depressing, but what I had no idea of was how beautiful it would be.

Anne Frank starts off writing like a thirteen year old tumblr blogger, albeit a very precocious thirteen year old tumblr blogger. She boasts of her many admirers at school, and complains about her parents and sister. When she goes into hiding, it's like an adventure for her. She acknowledges the Jews being taken away to camps, but at that point no one could foresee the scope of the tragedy that was just beginning to unfold.

As her writing begins to develop we begin to see that she had a rare and unique talent at describing human nature, her own and others. Her descriptions of the dynamics of the hiding families are at times comical and others tragic. Her writings on her innermost feelings give unparalleled insight into the emotional growth of a teenage girl. It is still an adventure for her, though, and it is a shock to read the notes that she made two years later, noting that she could no longer fathom how she was so happy and carefree.

I had no idea how busy she was in hiding. From the daily tasks of preparing and storing food (which had to be done when no one around them could hear) she studies shorthand in five different languages, Greek and Roman mythology, wrote a novel, and endeavored to keep up with maths so she would not be behind at school. Which nearly made me cry.

Her writing continued to develop: her description of the growing relationship between herself Peter van Daan is the most engrossing love story I've read. Megan she related each breakin and close shave with the neighbours my heart nearly beat out my chest. When she longed to be outside and wrote of sitting next to the window at night with Peter, watching nature outside, I felt I was there, yearning to go out that window with her.

The diary's sudden ending is excruciating. After following a life that is just beginning, knowing that it was snuffed out so early is devastating. Her development over those two years was so noticeable, from her writing, even toner political views (at the beginning she noted she had no interest in women's liberation. Two years later she wrote over a page of insightful views promoting feminism!) If she had survived and became a journalist and writer as she wished, she surely would have become world famous in both fields. Instead she is in a mass grave in Bergen-Belsen.

Nazism, white supremacy, racism and anti-Semitism stole a true talent from the world. But even if her writing had been awful it would not have mattered. They snuffed out a young life that was only beginning. We must never forget the devastation that racism brings.

This book was really awesome. It's everything I wanted from a novel about superheroes. Whenever people try to give more depth to the superhero genre, they try two things: first, make it really realistic and have the characters immediately realize that super heroics just doesn't work in the real world, they get severely injured, sad, and basically give up, a la Kick-Ass; and second they make it ridiculously dark and gritty with lots of "mature" content like rape and murder, a la The Boys.

This novel shows how it's difficult, but maybe not impossible, to make a difference with superpowers. The characters constantly debate the merits of using their powers to change the world for the better, and despite many, many setbacks, keep on trying. This novel doesn't shy away from trying to use powers to combat real world systematic injustices, and for that I give it so much credit.

Plus, the characters are all Indian and (Pakistani-British) and it's really a nice change to have a superhero group with no pasty white guys in it!

For most of the book I was pretty hooked and I kept wanting to read more. Even the huge passages of characters discussing philosophy and mathematics kept me interested and turning the pages. The theories they discussed were very thought provoking and I liked the way the mathematics was explained in a very accessible way.

The only thing I found didn't quite do it for me was the ending (spoilers): Suddenly some characters can phase between universes? They can change people's memories and/or the actual past? These bombshells were dropped and then glazed over without getting into the implications, leaving the end of the novel feeling a bit unfinished.