mysteriousmre's Reviews (1.22k)

I was super disappointed re-reading this book, especially since I remember enjoying the first 3 books as a kid. I re-read the first one in anticipation for the movie and it just doesn't hold up. There is some cool stuff here. Meg is not your standard female protagonist, there's some interesting sci-fi elements, and the synopsis is pretty compelling. But the dialogue doesn't sound natural, the characters don't really grow/develop, and the book ends VERY abruptly. I think WiT has the potential to be a fun story, it just needs a lot of work. Hopefully the movie fixes some of these things.

Knocked it down to a 3.5 after thinking about it more. From what I understand Gaiman was in a bit of a rush to finish this for his daughter before she grew too old to enjoy it. I think that's why Coraline is a bit rough around the edges. The writing is a little lazy at times and it seems Gaiman wanted to use this story to challenge how we perceive ourselves as humans and the norms/roles we've established for ourselves, but didn't take the time to flesh those ideas out in any meaningful way. It might not satisfy adults, but I think there's a lot here for younger audiences to enjoy. I'm not a huge horror fan, but I thought this was a delightfully dark little fairy tale.

Re-read this very recently as part of my British Literature class. It was...fine. It was cool to read a Sherlock Holmes story that wasn't set in London and didn't feature Holmes very much. The mystery and setting are very Gothic and fantastical, which made a nice contrast to the science based approaches of Holmes and Watson. The ending was a huge disappointment though, the explanation of the fantastical elements being completely bogus and the mysterious antagonist being defeated off-screen. Great build up, but a bum ending which is why I give this a 2.5. Setting is cool, but I feel like other Sherlock stories pull off the same thing in significantly fewer pages.

Eh, knocked this down to a 2.5 the more I thought about it. Love the commentary on the importance of language and how it is necessary for a culture to exist, but it's really short. I feel like the play ended right as it was getting started.

Not gonna be everyone's cup of tea since takes a little bit of every religion to help explain its ideas and principles, but there is some sound advice here for those struggling with anxiety. "Take what works, and leave the rest".

A fun book about an ex-con trying to get his life back on track and do right by his daughter. Say what you will about Spencer's Secret Empire, but his Ant-Man is fantastic and I laughed so much while reading this book. I knew almost nothing about Ant-Man's continuity going in, but the book does a great job getting you up to speed on who the main characters are and what their relationships to each other look like without getting too bogged down explaining continuity. If you enjoyed the recent Ant-Man movies and want more insect related shenanigans, pick this up.