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pineconek's Reviews (816)
I don't know what I expected from this book but it certainly wasn't this. And this was so much better.
All my favourite themes were here: alienation, character development, unreliable narrators, and coping with long-buried trauma. I'm at a loss of words for how much this resonated with me. I recommend it to anyone who has internalized someone else's highly critical voice, who feels alien to the world, and who believes life is about more than just survival.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
All my favourite themes were here: alienation, character development, unreliable narrators, and coping with long-buried trauma. I'm at a loss of words for how much this resonated with me. I recommend it to anyone who has internalized someone else's highly critical voice, who feels alien to the world, and who believes life is about more than just survival.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
I really enjoyed listening to this. The audiobook is really well narrated and an excellent alternative to the modern writing style that takes creative liberties with punctuation (which is not my thing).
This book is structured similarly to There, There which I also loved. It's not an unfamiliar structure, but it's one I love: taking turns exploring the inner lives of a loosely connected cast of characters who eventually gather together at the end. It feels so intimate to find out secrets from one character's life life and then to follow up with explorations of the inner life of a side character in that first story (mother, friend, lover, etc...).
Recommended to anyone who enjoys character explorations that touch at nuances of identity, belonging, and sexuality.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
This book is structured similarly to There, There which I also loved. It's not an unfamiliar structure, but it's one I love: taking turns exploring the inner lives of a loosely connected cast of characters who eventually gather together at the end. It feels so intimate to find out secrets from one character's life life and then to follow up with explorations of the inner life of a side character in that first story (mother, friend, lover, etc...).
Recommended to anyone who enjoys character explorations that touch at nuances of identity, belonging, and sexuality.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
This was great and extremely bleak. A deep dive into gender and sex-based blind spots of decision makers, medical professionals, researchers, road workers, politicians, relief workers, etc... I really enjoyed the audiobook and recommend it to anyone interested in data driven nonfiction on these topics.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/nmjUwPk8f04
I'm glad Jennette wrote this book.
A lot has been said about this book, so I largely just want to echo it: it's great, it's moving, it's horrific, it's informative, it's thought provoking, it's moving, and it's vulnerable. Content warning for parentification, emotional abuse, childhood neglect, and disordered eating (lots of it). I really appreciated having the simultaneous perspectives of both past and present Jennette relaying her experiences, one chilling detail at a time.
Recommended for people with complicated relationships with family members, people who feel the best years of their lives were lost to things beyond their control, and people who aren't quite sure where they should go from here.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
A lot has been said about this book, so I largely just want to echo it: it's great, it's moving, it's horrific, it's informative, it's thought provoking, it's moving, and it's vulnerable. Content warning for parentification, emotional abuse, childhood neglect, and disordered eating (lots of it). I really appreciated having the simultaneous perspectives of both past and present Jennette relaying her experiences, one chilling detail at a time.
Recommended for people with complicated relationships with family members, people who feel the best years of their lives were lost to things beyond their control, and people who aren't quite sure where they should go from here.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
A Faustian look at what makes life worth living (yes, it's cats).
Recommended if you like funny portrayals of the devil, enjoy reading themes of grief, and think a story is better if there's a talking cat in it.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Recommended if you like funny portrayals of the devil, enjoy reading themes of grief, and think a story is better if there's a talking cat in it.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
The Happy Valley is an artfully written debut novel with somewhat of an identity crisis. At its core, it’s a coming of age novel where one character observes, befriends, and idolizes an older girl who harbours secrets. These secrets are shared baby their small town and, in a speculative near-future, by wider society. This society has also seen a fall of democracy/capitalism as we know it, although this part is almost a footnote relative to the main character’s own journey.
I spent most of my time reading feeling very intrigued. Our narrator is largely in the dark to what’s happening around him and I shared his confusion. Around the 70% mark this started to get irritating (think: “no one is telling me anything! Why won’t you tell me anything” “because you already know, wink wink”) and I found the final payoff anticlimactic. This however reminded me of both Wolf in White Van as well as I’m Thinking of Ending Things - both didn’t resonate with me for similar reasons, but I think fans of these will find a lot in Happy Valley.
On a positive note: the writing is exquisite and evoked the 80s-90s nostalgia so perfectly. Most chapters have 1-2 accompanying gorgeous illustrations that further set a nostalgic and eerie scene.
Recommended for readers who lean politically left, are a bit geeky, and have strong nostalgia for the late 20th century.
Thank you to Books Sirens, through whom I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving a voluntary and honest review.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
I spent most of my time reading feeling very intrigued. Our narrator is largely in the dark to what’s happening around him and I shared his confusion. Around the 70% mark this started to get irritating (think: “no one is telling me anything! Why won’t you tell me anything” “because you already know, wink wink”) and I found the final payoff anticlimactic. This however reminded me of both Wolf in White Van as well as I’m Thinking of Ending Things - both didn’t resonate with me for similar reasons, but I think fans of these will find a lot in Happy Valley.
On a positive note: the writing is exquisite and evoked the 80s-90s nostalgia so perfectly. Most chapters have 1-2 accompanying gorgeous illustrations that further set a nostalgic and eerie scene.
Recommended for readers who lean politically left, are a bit geeky, and have strong nostalgia for the late 20th century.
Thank you to Books Sirens, through whom I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving a voluntary and honest review.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Jennifer Saint has done it again!! I thoroughly enjoyed Ariadne and Elektra was an equally masterful retelling.
The book alternates between three perspectives: Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. The strength of the book lies in exploring each characters inner world and perspective on major events. This is particularly striking when two of these characters are at odds with one another and we see "both sides", each one becoming us to sympathise with and root for them. In the end, I'm not sure there are any winners but, hey, that's the nature of Greek tragedy.
My knowledge of the Trojan war / the Iliad was pretty elementary, so the plot held a lot of surprises for me. I really enjoyed the audiobook performance (3 different narrators for the 3 different voices!). Highly recommended if you've enjoyed other feminist/female-centered retellings of Greek myths and enjoy morally ambiguous characters.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
The book alternates between three perspectives: Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. The strength of the book lies in exploring each characters inner world and perspective on major events. This is particularly striking when two of these characters are at odds with one another and we see "both sides", each one becoming us to sympathise with and root for them. In the end, I'm not sure there are any winners but, hey, that's the nature of Greek tragedy.
My knowledge of the Trojan war / the Iliad was pretty elementary, so the plot held a lot of surprises for me. I really enjoyed the audiobook performance (3 different narrators for the 3 different voices!). Highly recommended if you've enjoyed other feminist/female-centered retellings of Greek myths and enjoy morally ambiguous characters.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
I read this in one day as part of a 24 readathon (a few words on that: I feel like I haven't read much so far, but the night is youngish?). It was a really fun mystery to mull over the course of the day.
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is written as a very classic mystery novel - we go through the clues, through false theories, and the waters gets very very murky before they get clear. The author inserts himself in the story twice to encourage you to solve the mystery yourself. I didn't do this because I'm pretty terrible at it, but I appreciated the clever ways in which the narrative was broken up with these or other "intermissions". The ending was also satisfying, which is pretty important in a pure mystery novel.
Recommended if you like classic detective stories aka Sherlock Holmes, want to try solving the mystery yourself, and think math and astrology are both pretty neat.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders is written as a very classic mystery novel - we go through the clues, through false theories, and the waters gets very very murky before they get clear. The author inserts himself in the story twice to encourage you to solve the mystery yourself. I didn't do this because I'm pretty terrible at it, but I appreciated the clever ways in which the narrative was broken up with these or other "intermissions". The ending was also satisfying, which is pretty important in a pure mystery novel.
Recommended if you like classic detective stories aka Sherlock Holmes, want to try solving the mystery yourself, and think math and astrology are both pretty neat.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
This is sitting somewhere between three and four stars for me. I'm definitely glad I read it and enjoyed it overall, but oh boy did I want more out of it.
The balance of this book was completely off. A lot of it was bloat and had one character explaining to another what the reader already knew. And then again. And again. And again. The prose is excellent and very readable so it was easy to turn the pages and wait for something to happen. And I remember being very happy when something did happen... Only for there to be another 100 pages of bloat that followed it.
Overall though, I loved the millenium trilogy. It was so readable, engrossing, and lived up to the hype. I just wish this book had explored some new things rather than spending most of its time rehashing what we already learned from book two. I have many unanswered questions (Camilla!!).
(On that note, if anyone has an opinion as to whether to read the other-authored sequels or just their wikipedia summaries, I'm all ears).
Recommended if you want to complete the trilogy, are ok with being somewhat underwhelmed, and have enjoyed the prose of the previous books (especially long stretches where nothing happens).
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
The balance of this book was completely off. A lot of it was bloat and had one character explaining to another what the reader already knew. And then again. And again. And again. The prose is excellent and very readable so it was easy to turn the pages and wait for something to happen. And I remember being very happy when something did happen... Only for there to be another 100 pages of bloat that followed it.
Overall though, I loved the millenium trilogy. It was so readable, engrossing, and lived up to the hype. I just wish this book had explored some new things rather than spending most of its time rehashing what we already learned from book two. I have many unanswered questions (Camilla!!).
(On that note, if anyone has an opinion as to whether to read the other-authored sequels or just their wikipedia summaries, I'm all ears).
Recommended if you want to complete the trilogy, are ok with being somewhat underwhelmed, and have enjoyed the prose of the previous books (especially long stretches where nothing happens).
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Read this book if you want to marvel at trees on your next walk. If you want to crave being in the forest. If you want to learn more about how trees grow and how they understand the world around them. Trees can sense each other, predators, time, and light. Trees interact with other living things. Trees move, only on a different timescale than us. These are my main takeaways from this awe-inspiring book.
Sidenote: I highly highly highly recommend the audiobook. The narration is absolutely gorgeous and exquisitely relaxing.
Recommended broadly if you're looking for a relaxing non fiction read, are into the mysteries of nature, and think plants are neat.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ
Sidenote: I highly highly highly recommend the audiobook. The narration is absolutely gorgeous and exquisitely relaxing.
Recommended broadly if you're looking for a relaxing non fiction read, are into the mysteries of nature, and think plants are neat.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/N3d0uvty-uQ