pineconek's Reviews (816)

Ariadne tells the full story of Ariadne's life - while the Minotaur is there, he isn't the main feature. Instead, the story explores Ariadne's relationship with her other siblings such as her sister Phaedra as well as her life post-Minotaur. Lots of great feminist themes in a book that's ultimately about the bleakness of being a woman (especially in ancient Greece, but also in general).
I really enjoyed reading this and can't wait to pick up the author's next novel Elektra.

Recommended if you need to scratch that Circe-induced greek mythology itch and enjoy a good feminist retelling. A solid 4 stars.

I went into these really excited; after all, who doesn't love reading one of their favorite author's early, recently uncovered work! In short, these were fine. There was very little dramatic tension or anything to really hold my interest, so I ended up powering through them since they were short and I wanted to have read them. These read more like incomplete vignettes and largely skippable in favour of her other work. Recommended only to a completionist.

I don't read a lot of thrillers but I'm starting to think I should because heck, I love the feeling of needing to know what happens next. I also have a weakness for unreliable narrators, so this hit the spot. In short, the author had me in the palm of her hand once I got used to the second person narration as well as the time skips and settled in for the ride.

The push touches on darker sides of motherhood, family, and responsibility. A central theme is moving on after a child or parent's death so, for that read with caution. Recommended if you enjoy character studies that include segments where not much happens, find unreliable and morally ambiguous characters interesting, and want an uncomfortable "popcorn" read. 4 stars.

It's really hard to dislike this book.

Like even though the romance is cheesy, the lead is annoying and doesn't have a believable redemption arc, and many of the musings on death just aren't that deep.... This book is fundamentally fun to read. I'd classify it as a fairytale for adults in that sense - simple and absurd but endearing.

I stand by my earlier observations: Hugo could do so much better and spiritfarer was a great video game to play during the early covid days.

Recommended if you liked Cerulean Sea and want the same novel in another setting, if you're into fairytales for grown ups, and if you like sarcasm from your omniscient narrator. A solid 4 stars.

I'm really glad my bookclub read this. While I watch mini-series with these kinds of plots, they're not the kind of books I read.

This book is really tropey and my reading experience was most comparable to reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but that may also be the fact that I don't have other north European thrillers under my belt to compare it to. The writing itself was stunning and really conveyed the atmosphere. It was clear that the author writes for tv, and the book definitely felt like some of type of miniseries I enjoy.

The book itself is extremely brutal. Content warning for multiple and horrific instances of child abuse, gore (on the level of some of the bad bad criminal minds episodes), and blatant misogyny that's present in the characters and narration. These things are not danced around at all so exercise caution in picking up this book. That said, if you "enjoy" twisted stories of tracking a psychopath (again, a la criminal minds), this is a great and engrossing read I would readily recommend. 4 stars.

This is a "full disclosure, I've seen the movie twice" review, although it's been at least 5 years since I saw the movie and some details were fuzzy. That said, mild spoilers ahead.

Something about the book just didn't quite land for me. I usually enjoy rereading thrillers to spot clues and such and was really excited to do so here. But I mostly just found myself saying "...really?" at most parts. I guess what I'm getting is that I was expecting more payoff (more cleverness?).

I feel bad because I really wanted to like the book and, to give it credit, it's very readable. You'll turn pages quickly and most likely enjoy the ride. Recommended if you're into unreliable narrators, but you may want to skip this one if you're familiar with the plot.

2022 reread: I listened to the older audiobook and really enjoyed it. The joy of Pratchett's work is that you can read him in any order, you can have encountered spoilers, and you can be unfamiliar with the source material and still thoroughly enjoy yourself. Recommended for fans of satire, Phantom of the opera, and the powers of old women who can do a bit of magic.

W o w.
After spending two months with this chonk of a novel, I can only give it five stars. I've had the "staring off into space wondering who I am now that I've read this book" feeling for the past hour.

I'll likely update this review when I'm less speechless.

An excellent and extremely depressing look into medical misogyny and how women's symptoms are routinely dismissed in the medical profession. There was a lot of emphasis on how medicine is still building its knowledge base and the gap between where research is vs what doctors know.

While I appreciated the intersectionality in many parts of the book, something about how mental illness was discussed irked me. While I understand the author wanting to present a strong dichotomy between real illness and psychiatric illness to emphasize that symptoms aren't just 'in our heads', this manfiested as a routine dismissal of how, when, and why psychiatric and physical illnesses interact and why the line between them isn't so clear could.


All that said, this book still comes widely recommended if you've ever been dismissed by a doctor, are interested in women's health beyond reproductive health, and are interested in challenging what you may think about "fashionable" diseases.

This comic was like 6 weeks of good therapy tbh