pineconek's Reviews (816)

(czytane po Polsku ale opinia pisana po angielsku)

Read in Polish, reviewing in English. This was the first book I read in Polish in close to 15 years, and I cannot overstate how challenging that was. While it got easier as the book went on, I'm sure that that coloured my experience of it. 

I'm a fan of "no plot just vibes" books, and this one hit the mark. The language choices were beautiful and I was awed by the haphazard descriptions of snowy fields by a forest, illegal border crossings, the night sky... This entire book felt like a meditation on our smallness and interconnectedness and inspired the same feeling of awe one gets when looking at the ocean or the night sky. It was also seeped in sorrow about powerlessness and the search of agency, with vignettes about teenage girls in small towns, young women traveling abroad, and refugees scrambling through an inhospitable forest towards a better life. 

As a side note, this boom is what I expected from Olga Tokarczuk's Flights (Bieguni), a book I ended up DNFing. I'll try to find a Polish copy. I'd also like to return to Dom Oriona in a few years, as I continue reading in my native language - I have a feeling that I'll like this book even more when I'm older. 

It feels weird to recommend this, as I'm not even sure if an English translation exists or is easily findable, and most of you don't speak Polish. But it's a great book it you're looking to lose yourself in sorrowful, meditative nostalgia. 3.75 stars on SG rounded up to 4 on GR.

 think I expected too much from this little manga that I got from the library just because it had a pretty cover. The art was nice but the plot... What?

The first half had a lot of potential, but it fell apart in the end and I jhst ended up frustrated. Several characters in this book deserved better (Sayuri especially), and others deserved much, much worse.

Recommended only if you're looking for something that's essentially the Grudge but like...not as compelling. 1.5 stars on SG rounded up to 2 on GR.

I can't deal with the narration or the voice acting, oof

Me as a child: idk the Ilead is kinda boring, the Odyssey is where it's at

Me as an adult: wow I can't stop reading all these Iliad retellings

Recommended if you too are into women with agency, righteous anger, and Opinions. Solid four star read

This is a super strong collection with little to no skips. There are plenty of horrifying moments, from the first story that requires a type of murderous (but righteously so) doppelganger through to tales of humans-as-monsters, cursed roads, and the horror of colonization. It's also a great who's who showcase of modern indigenous authors and an excellent reference for further reading. 

Since these stories are rooted in oral tradition, I highly recommend the beautifully produced audiobook. Highly recommended if you're into folklore, ghost stories, and great writing. 4.5 on SG rounded up to 5 for GR.

This is a review for volumes 1 through 19 (so the whole series, save the prequel).

By about volume 8, I considered giving up. I'd jotted down that "one day, I'll be free of you". The players in Liar Game likely feel the same. This is a series about greed, debt, kindness, and betrayal. I picked it up to fill the hole that Alice in Borderland had left in my heart, but the games and characters from Liar Game barely scratched that itch. I did however learn a lot more about poker (and 17 card poker) than I cared to know.

While I enjoyed some of the volumes (the initial one, the musical chairs game, and the pandemic game specifically), I wouldn't recommend committing to reading this one in its totality. 2.5 stars on SG rounded down to 2 on GR.

This was possibly better than Chloe Brown!?

I don't consider myself a romance reader, but I'll try most things once. As a recovering academic, reading about a PhD candidate fills me with familiar feelings (both good and bad). Reading about a PhD candidate who meets an emotionally intelligent but anxious man who encourages her academic achievements and respects her professional career while also encouraging her to take care of herself? Listen, I -

I read a lot of sad books, so this was a good change of pace. This book is ridiculous and fully leans into it. It features a fake dating trope while explicitly mocking the fake dating trope. It features someone accidentally playing the spicy part of a romance audiobook out loud in public while also being a book that includes spicy parts. It's funny, it's breezy, and it's a ridiculous but enjoyable ride.

Let's wrap this up with an excerpt from my notes app from when I was listening to the audiobook:

"Lmao at first I thought him donating to a charity was a joke but no he's legit into NGOs

Can't wear a top that fits his wrists lmao
Guy so jacked he needs a tailor
He's so strong he breaks the door!!"

Anyway, I unironically kinda loved this. I may even give the other romance authors a shot (recommendations welcome). Solid four stars!

I have mixed feelings about fictional biographies. Given how many fascinating "real" biographies exist, it feels like a waste to devote times to made up ones. But I could make the same argument about fiction. ;)

This is a fake biography of a performance artist named X. Part writer, part photographer, part actress, part painter, all Charlatan. X dies suddenly and leaves her wife to pick up the pieces of her secret life: from her childhood and early adulthood in a fictional oppressive regime (a faction of the fundamentalist Christian southern US), through her escape to the north and her cornucopia of aliases.

The first portion of the book was more interesting than the latter, simply because my curiosity about the alternate history of the US far overtook my curiosity about X. X also becomes increasingly difficult to like or root for as the book goes on, even though our narrator loves her (but may not like her. Or truly know her). The people our narrator interview - X's parents, associates, and ex-lovers - are well fleshed out and provide delightfully contradictory accounts that add to the tapestry of the book.

Recommended if you're looking for a fragmented portrait of an elhsivefictional character and how she exists in the eyes of people who once loved her. 3.5 stars on SG rounded down to 3 on GR.

I've accepted that I'm officially on a "gotta read everything that Junji Ito has created" mission and it's going very, very well. That said, Lovesickness may unironically be the scariest, or among, that I've read of his work.

The main story, told over a few short comics, focuses on an urban legend around "street fortunes". The premise is simple: people approach an intersection, hide their face, and ask the first passerby for advice about a difficult life situation. Tradition dictates that the passerby must answer...and the plot unfolds.

This collection had it all - an eerie, memorable plot and creepy-oft-terrifying art. Highly recommended, whether it's your first or tenth Junji Ito. 4.75 on SG rounded to 5 on GR.

Had to return this one early - finished part 1, not sure I vibed with it