nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)

I don't know exactly what it was, but I had a blast listening to the audiobook. It's pretty predictable if you read a lot of thrillers (I do) and the "moral of the story"-type ending I really disliked (I really wanted these people to face some repercussions for their actions). But all that said - this was such a fun read, and even with all of the stuff I didn't love, I'd absolutely recommend it. 

This book is so good, and yet I found myself wanting desperately for it to be over. Every time the MC came back to the 1970s, I felt in my body the dread she did knowing she’d be sent back into the past soon. Her conflicting emotions over keeping her ancestor alive, knowing all the cruelty he was capable of, was so visceral to me. She was a Black woman from the 1970s, and was forced to work among slaves and be punished for nothing, just like she witnessed happening to the other enslaved people, while also having a special relationship with her ancestor and the plantation’s master, ultimately making her complicit in some of his evil acts. Her husband’s time in the past complicates things further, and both of them have the physical and emotional scars of existing in the past. The way they describe the softness of the present was haunting to me. I’d say this book is more lit fic than sci fi, the MC travels in time, but there’s really no discussion of how. This book was the epitome for me of the understanding that going to the past wouldn’t be some historical fiction romp - it would be a horror story. 

I really enjoyed this! Definitely a good spooky season read. It’s a retelling of an HG Wells story, and mixes a mad scientist and his daughter with some real armed conflicts in Mexican history.

A very funny book about a very serious topic. I saw a reviewer say if you like Vonnegut, you’ll like this, and (as a huge Vonnegut fan) I agree. I loved a lot about it, but I don’t think it quite stuck the landing tbh. 
Also I know it’s there to add to the satire, but the language everyone uses (and sort of the general characterization of the south) feels anachronistic, and when he mentioned the 🍊🤡 president I kept being reminded the book was set in the present. 

Okay, I really liked this book and I think it would be perfect for your fall TBR. Dark academia (but light on them actually going to any kind of class), dangerous religious obsession, cult/obsessive friendship situation (I got Holy Hell documentary vibes). Burton is very good at writing messed up characters with a cult of personality around them (also loved this in Social Creature). Also a little reminiscent of The Atmospherians, my favorite book from last year.

Hi, yes, I will buy whatever Ling Ma is selling. I loved Severance, and I was crossing my fingers that I would enjoy her short stories as well. And BOY DID I. They’re unsettling, a little taste of horror going on in some of them, while doing what all the best short stories do and making you think. Themes range from sexual relationships to immigrant families in a way that both felt very personal and like a broader examination. Being othered, for a variety of reasons, plays into most of the stories, and we get to experience how that feels from several different perspectives - do you want to hide, become defiant, beg for answers, do anything you can to assimilate to the extent of forgetting what’s happened to you. Short stories are their own art form, and I’m sure authors hate hearing it - but Ling Ma created such lush worlds that I’d love to read a much longer piece about what’s happening in the world of most of the stories here. Brava! Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audiobook! 

For me this was more an “I appreciate the cool things you can do with books” read than an “I enjoyed this novel” read. Most of the book is a series of fictional memoirs that, when taken together, have the truth in there somewhere. As good as the writing is, it’s still kind of reading a random memoir about an old-timey Wall Street guy for a lot of the book. One thing I appreciated and think people will really enjoy is that it’s historical fiction from the first half of the 1900s without being about a war.