nadia's Reviews (587)

I really enjoyed this collection of essays from Rose Lu!

What I loved was how each essay added to the reader's understanding of who Rose is as a person, but each had a different focus and a different style or structure. You really do feel as if Rose is sitting next to you and telling you these stories over coffee or a meal. It probably helps that I do know Rose, so I can imagine this with more accuracy. But I think anyone can open this book and immediately be drawn into learning more about the immigrant experience in New Zealand and the impact that has on growing up, education, relationships—both familial and non— and career.

Thank you, Rose, for writing such an original, open, and honest set of stories.

Short stories aren't really my thing. I'm often left wanting more, wondering if I got everything out of the story I was meant to, sometimes thinking: really, is that it?

And all of those things were each true at some point within Night Shift.

However, overall, I really enjoyed my first Stephen King short story collection. Some of these stories scared me and others kept me at the edge of my seat. One even made me feel really itchy!! 😬

Also,  the breadth of ideas in this collection was just incredible.

If you like short stories and horror that comes in such a wide variety of forms, then this is a collection I'd 100% recommend.

I'm not the biggest rereader. 

Before last year, I understood why people did it, but I chose getting through more of the books I would never get to read instead of the exploring the comforting, familiar experience rereading was likely to provide. 

After getting immersed in the bookish corner of Instagram last year, I was inspired to give it a try. I do very much appreciate rereading now, and am looking forward to more opportunities for it, but it's still not something I'm seeking to do that regularly. And I've only since reread books that I first read over 10 years ago...

So, you can hazard a guess at how much I loved this book, how special it felt, that I immediately wanted to turn to the front page and start it all over again, whilst the magic was still fresh. Maybe the magic could be even more enhanced?

This book was a masterpiece. I loved it from the very first pages, but I couldn't work out why I loved it so much initially. My first thought was: the writing: the gorgeous, lyrical, poetic, and yet incredibly accessible, writing. But was that it? That's unlike me.

Then I realised, in between reading sessions, that I missed the characters. I wanted to get back to them as soon as possible: to learn more about them, their lives, the connections between them. They were so real and realistic. So human.

There were many common themes in this book but the stories and the connections never once felt contrived.

What an absolutely brilliant book! I'm in love! 

What a fantastically-researched, heart-breaking book this was!

It was even more chilling for me because I was born in Whitechapel and recently spent a few years living in the areas where the stories in this book took place. These grisly events happened only 132 years ago — not long at all!

Once we get into the stories of the women, I was captivated. Hallie Rubenhold knows how to convey a lot of information, whilst still presenting the reader with a compelling narrative. I learnt so much about what life was like for those in poverty at this time and it was incredibly sad, especially to have been born a woman.

Why not 5 stars?  The Five was a little dense and slow to start. While fascinating, there is a lot information chucked at the reader from the get-go. And that pattern continued a little bit within each woman's story. On top of that, especially towards the latter chapters, I found it harder to distinguish each story in my mind, especially given some very similar themes in each woman's life. I also felt like a lot of the stories ended abruptly, though I understand that Rubenhold didn't want to dwell on the aftermath of each murder.

It's an incredible book. I highly recommended it to history fans, true crime enthusiasts, or those who think "oh yeah, he killed prostitutes" when they hear the name "Jack the Ripper". 

This book is a retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" and I wonder if I would have gotten more out of this book if I'd been familiar with that story.

Don't get me wrong — I really enjoyed it. On the whole, I was a big fan of the narrative style, the descriptions, especially of the horror elements, and the atmosphere. I did feel transported elsewhere, you can feel the tension building, and some scenes were very gripping. LaValle is skilled in describing the supernatural in a way that you can see the bizarre happenings so vividly in your mind's eye.

However, while I think I got the overall gist of the story, I was left at a loss at the why of key parts of it. I'd be thinking: wait, what just happened? Why did that just happen? Am I meant to understand why at this point? 

Maybe I was meant to go with the flow a little more. Maybe if I'd been familiar with Lovecraft's work I would have had fewer questions. Then again, maybe not!

Either way, 4 stars if I'd been just a little bit less unsure.

I'm so glad I've finally read this important book. I've been wanting to for years. 

Given my parents are from Nigeria, I'm disappointed at how few Nigerian authors I've read and I want to start rectifying that.

Achebe writes a fascinating story covering a range of themes including tradition, colonialism, masculinity, family, community, and religion. For such a short book, a lot of thought-provoking content was packed in. 

I think I had super high expectations for this one, but I was a little disappointed with the reading experience itself. I found the book hard work at times and didn't easily connect with the narrative style or any of the characters, especially the main character. I know that wasn't the point of the book — to fall in love with Okwonko — but it did make the book harder to get through.

Still, an incredibly worthwhile read.

This book was very moving. The beginning was magical. I was captivated.

However, it did start to sag about two-thirds of the way in. There were a lot of different narrative strands introduced, the pace slowed down, and a handful of the storylines weren't satisfactorily wrapped up to warrant the amount of time spent on them.

Still, a powerful story about family, love, and regret.

My favourite of the series so far!

The writing is beautiful, though I did sometimes find myself needing to reread passages to fully grasp all of the metaphors and similes.

We also jumped between a lot of different characters and I struggled to keep track of them all — not only within this book, but across the first two books as well.

My gosh — if this cast of characters aren't the most odious I've ever read about! And I shudder to think that people like this actually exist in the world. 😩

This book was sooo drama-filled. I was hooked. Who knew Twitter had such a crazy history! 👀

Reminded me of Bad Blood, one of my all-time non-fiction favourites, though the focus of this story is on the founder and investor relationships and power struggles, and a lot less about the product not actually working. 😅

Excuse me while I go and downgrade my 5⭐️ ratings for Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets — Book 3 is on another level!

I always remembered that I enjoyed the way Rowling shifts the books to the darker end of the spectrum in Prisoner of Azkaban, but wow: all the things that happen, the way the characters grow, the new people we're introduced to — especially certain ones 😩 — the action, the mystery, the intrigue — it's just everything!

All the emotions were stirred up at the end of this one and I thought: omg, am I gonna cry now? But...you know me (maybe you don't, haha!): no tears were shed. 😅

I've always said Half-Blood Prince was my favourite of the series, but so far, during this first ever reread, it's this one!