natreviews's Reviews (445)

I went into this book not knoiwng a whole lot about it, other than that it was a retelling of Greek mythology. What I didn’t expect was a beautiful poetry book, retelling the stories. The only negative thing I have about this book is that some of the lesser known myths aren’t super explained. This creates an issue with how this retelling is more of a re-writing of the mythology from the womens perspective. That is the only real issue, other than that, it’s an amazing read.

Honestly... I didn’t finish this book (although I’m marking it as done so that my page numbers even out with other books I’ve abandoned/frogged). It wasn’t what I hoped it ended up being. I think it would be good for people who are just getting into true crime, but it doesn’t hit the mark. It’s too much true crime to not attract your average reader, but it doesn’t dive too much into the psychology of each narrative to really make it worth reading. I got through the majority of this book (maybe like 70%?), but it read like a true crime podcast (which others have also noted). If I wanted to have a true crime podcast format, I would just listen to a true crime podcast, not read this book.

If you are looking for a podcast recommendation: And That’s Why We Drink is pretty good. Half paranormal and half true crime.

I’m not one to read many classics. That being said, this book is a classic for a reason. I think if I had to read this for school, I would have disliked this book. Being able to read it of my own volition, it was really enjoyable. Well... maybe enjoyable is the wrong word. I couldn’t put it down though. I think the over-arching theme is really easy to pinpoint, but there is a lot of philisophical talk that it seems a lot of people may not see, as well as the theme of how far can man sin before he commits himself to death?

Also, this book is extremly gay. Not modern, here is a gay character gay, but if you know the authors history, you can tell this was written by a gay man gay. It’s interesting from a queer history standpoint reading this book as well. The Picture of Dorian Gray has also been described as a sort of autobiography and look into the mind of Oscar Wilde. Maybe he worked his own sins into the book and some internalized homophobia? Or maybe I’m reading too much into the text.

This is 100% a book everyone should read. I won't even talk about it, since I think it's important to go into this knowing nothing, and feeling your feelings, not someone elses.

I have mixed feelings towards this book. When I started reading it, it of course mentioned heavily the famous novel Lolita. I thought cool, establish that this drew inspiration and move on... but it didn’t. At least not fully. I don’t think the title is misleading, but I was expecting more about Sally Horner’s case. In fact, that’s what drew me into the book. It turned out to bounce around between both Horner and Nakabov’s stories. Which is fine, just wasn’t expected. I think I would’ve minded less if Sally’s story was written in full, and then Nakabov’s was written afterwards instead of bouncing back and forth.

Now, is there connections to the real life story and Lolita? Yes. Does this book make leaps at times to those connections, also yes. I probably would’ve given the book 3 stars, but the research and writing are quite good.

Overall, if you liked reading Lolita, or want to know about it’s history this book is one you should read. If your just in it for Sally Horner’s story... I would say read just her parts.

Okay. To be honest, this book should’ve been released about 3-4 years before it was actually released (2018). The main plus for this book is its multiple story telling versions (journal entry, text/chat, voice recordings, reddit posts, police recordings, newspaper articles). That was what actually drew me into the book and made me want to buy it.

In saying that, there’s a lot of downsides to this novel. Firstly, it’s written like an adult trying to write like a teen. I though the main character was initially 15 (mainly from writing style), but turns out he’s around 17-18. There was also glaring plot mistakes (characters being introduced out of nowhere, mistakes on time like saying six months in a headline, but then it actually being a year, etc.). I also found that since the big Slender Man craze died out 4 years ago, it didn’t pack as much of a punch as it could’ve. There was some really good story moments (the whole passage about the snow for instance), but overall this isn’t a book that will keep you up at night.

I also don’t know if this is supposed to be YA Horror or just horror in general. The bookshop that I bought it from placed it under Horror, although I believe it should go under YA Horror.

This was my first Junji Ito story that I have read. It’s been easily a year or more since I’ve picked up and read a manga. I don’t think it’s anything new when I say that Junji Ito is amazing at telling the story he wants to tell. His images are frightening (I’d say way more than the story). Was the ending to my taste? No. I found it kind of an what... that’s the end? There’s nothing more? Kind of ending. I’ve read scarier things in the past, but I think any fan of horror should read this. The illustrations are far scarier than the story (as well as a stronger narrative tool), but still a great read for the Halloween season!

First before I go into my review, I have to say major trigger warning of self harm, rape, murder.

Holy shit. This book was a lot better than what I expected. I won’t go too much into detail, but wow that ending.
Don’t go into Sharp Objects thinking it will be written like Gone Girl. It won’t. But, unlike many authors who I’ve found try to branch into a different writing style and fail, Gillian Flynn succeeds. It it a story both more and less intense than Gone Girl, and just as good of a story.

Gillian Flynn seems to like about women with mental disorders (yes, being a murdering psychopath is a mental disorder believe it or not) and she is amazing doing it. So happy to read another book (whether that be Dark Places, or any future works).

To be honest, I found this story to be more of a collection of shorts rather than a full story (like Spiral was). It wasn’t as strong as Spiral, but that makes ense considering this was one of his first works. In the end, I don’t even super know what Tomie was, or what caused her to happen. Part of the story I guess is that we don’t need to know that sort of thing.