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pineconek's Reviews (816)
To think that I wasn't going to pick up this book. To think I could've missed out on a family saga about grief with some light magic realism. To think I could've missed out on meditations about identity, cultural relationships, immigration, and intergenerational trauma (spoken and unspoken)??
Unthinkable, truly.
Anyway that's essentially my review tbh. I was absolutely enamoured of this book and read it in essentially two sittings. The prose was lyrical, the nonlinear narrative delightful, and the characters were absolutely tragic. It made me feel things and reminded me most of Ruth Ozeki's the Book of Form and Emptiness, which I loved for very similar reasons.
I got an ebook from the library and the true tragedy is that I'll be losing my highlights. This book made me want to look into the goodreads quote feature again, so I could revel in the good passages until I reread a physical copy and enjoy the prose all over again.
Recommended if you're the child of political immigrants (hits home bro, I highlighted many a thing), enjoy the tension between love and sadness (what does that say about me), and don't mind a slow, lyrical, character-focused family tale.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/sS8eromz-Ko
Unthinkable, truly.
Anyway that's essentially my review tbh. I was absolutely enamoured of this book and read it in essentially two sittings. The prose was lyrical, the nonlinear narrative delightful, and the characters were absolutely tragic. It made me feel things and reminded me most of Ruth Ozeki's the Book of Form and Emptiness, which I loved for very similar reasons.
I got an ebook from the library and the true tragedy is that I'll be losing my highlights. This book made me want to look into the goodreads quote feature again, so I could revel in the good passages until I reread a physical copy and enjoy the prose all over again.
Recommended if you're the child of political immigrants (hits home bro, I highlighted many a thing), enjoy the tension between love and sadness (what does that say about me), and don't mind a slow, lyrical, character-focused family tale.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/sS8eromz-Ko
I typed a long review and the Goodreads app ate it and I'm really sad.
Anyway, let's summarize the gist of it: I like my thrillers full of impossible decisions, no-win situations, and literary allusions. This had it all and I want more of whatever the heck this is. Loved it.
Recommended if you like the trolley problem more than a normal person should.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Anyway, let's summarize the gist of it: I like my thrillers full of impossible decisions, no-win situations, and literary allusions. This had it all and I want more of whatever the heck this is. Loved it.
Recommended if you like the trolley problem more than a normal person should.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Excuse me??? A thriller sequel better than the original??? I love this for me.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the audio production. Like the first book, this one includes a lot of spoken content - podcast excerpts, recorded interviews, extensive dialogue, and our protagonists inner thoughts.
This sequel starts with what seems like a mundane disappearance of a 24 year old guy who can likely fend for himself. While the police have no reason to suspect foul play, our protagonist digs. And she finds a mess of instagram catfishing gone really wrong (a plot device I reaaaaally enjoyed) and tales of strange behaviour from our missing person.
Lots of red herrings, lots of twists, lots of aftershocks from the last book bleeding into this one. That said, it's not worth trying to solve the murder or speculate theories as you read - much like in the first book, crucial clues are not revealed early on. But if you go in with the expectation of just enjoying the ride and watching our teenage detective sieve through the clues as they come, you'll have a blast.
Recommended only if you've read the first book (this doesn't quite stand alone - the context from the past book is important), if you liked it at least a little (because this one's better), and especially if you can get your hands on an audio production.
Excited for book 3!!
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Do yourself a favor and listen to the audio production. Like the first book, this one includes a lot of spoken content - podcast excerpts, recorded interviews, extensive dialogue, and our protagonists inner thoughts.
This sequel starts with what seems like a mundane disappearance of a 24 year old guy who can likely fend for himself. While the police have no reason to suspect foul play, our protagonist digs. And she finds a mess of instagram catfishing gone really wrong (a plot device I reaaaaally enjoyed) and tales of strange behaviour from our missing person.
Lots of red herrings, lots of twists, lots of aftershocks from the last book bleeding into this one. That said, it's not worth trying to solve the murder or speculate theories as you read - much like in the first book, crucial clues are not revealed early on. But if you go in with the expectation of just enjoying the ride and watching our teenage detective sieve through the clues as they come, you'll have a blast.
Recommended only if you've read the first book (this doesn't quite stand alone - the context from the past book is important), if you liked it at least a little (because this one's better), and especially if you can get your hands on an audio production.
Excited for book 3!!
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Ok, so no one is more disappointed than me about the fact that I didn't like this.
The writing was objectively quite good, and the book held my attention. This was great because I read a bulk of it on a plane and it helped time go by faster.
However.
I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I think I expected more of the commentary usually seen in climate fiction. I expected more grit. I expected more thrills, higher stakes, more breaths held. I expected to be reading as fast as I could because I couldn't look away, not because I wanted to move on to a different book.
The Fifth Season is the setup for a sci Fi/fantasy trilogy where some of our characters can control inorganic matter, such as bedrock and tectonic plates, and the world is plagued by frequent seismic disasters. These individuals are, in turn, regulated by a governing body that trains them in strict schools and meticulously controls their every move - seeing them as tools and weapons, not people. An uprising is therefore inevitable.
All in all, I just wasn't compelled in the way I was hoping to be. But I don't think I'm the right audience for this book, and I do think the right audience would love it. Recommended if you're into high fantasy with world building (and don't mind not fully knowing what's going on), if you enjoy stories of misfits being trained in a guild, and if you like rocks.
And while I don't plan on continuing the series, I want to give the author another go and feel like I would enjoy a film/tv adaptation.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/sS8eromz-Ko
The writing was objectively quite good, and the book held my attention. This was great because I read a bulk of it on a plane and it helped time go by faster.
However.
I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I think I expected more of the commentary usually seen in climate fiction. I expected more grit. I expected more thrills, higher stakes, more breaths held. I expected to be reading as fast as I could because I couldn't look away, not because I wanted to move on to a different book.
The Fifth Season is the setup for a sci Fi/fantasy trilogy where some of our characters can control inorganic matter, such as bedrock and tectonic plates, and the world is plagued by frequent seismic disasters. These individuals are, in turn, regulated by a governing body that trains them in strict schools and meticulously controls their every move - seeing them as tools and weapons, not people. An uprising is therefore inevitable.
All in all, I just wasn't compelled in the way I was hoping to be. But I don't think I'm the right audience for this book, and I do think the right audience would love it. Recommended if you're into high fantasy with world building (and don't mind not fully knowing what's going on), if you enjoy stories of misfits being trained in a guild, and if you like rocks.
And while I don't plan on continuing the series, I want to give the author another go and feel like I would enjoy a film/tv adaptation.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/sS8eromz-Ko
I might strive to be cozycore in real life, but I don't think that's the fiction genre for me.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built follows a tea-monk (essentially a traveling tea-bartender who will be your therapist while serving you the tea you want) in a post-industrial eco-utopia where humans don't use robots and live in harmony with nature. This tea monk meets a robot, and this is noteworthy because contact between humans and robots has been severed for generation. The robot seeks to understand the human, and humans as a whole, and find out what they need.
And... that's about it. This novella is very slow paced and had a lot of exposition. I'm not one to enjoy extensive worldbuilding (a big reason why I don't read high fantasy) so this didn't grip me in the least. I usually love stories of humanoid creatures discovering the weird quirks of humans, but that barely featured here and largely not in a way I haven't seen before. I finished the book and thought ".... that's it?". And yes, dear reader, that was it.
While this is not a book for me, I do recommend this if you think it will soothe your heart. Specifically, if you want the book version of the sentiment "humans were meant to lie in the sun and eat fruit and are part of the earth", this is the book for you. That said, as some of the other lower-end goodreads reviews point out, this perspective is not presented with much nuance so...
A Psalm for the Wild-Built follows a tea-monk (essentially a traveling tea-bartender who will be your therapist while serving you the tea you want) in a post-industrial eco-utopia where humans don't use robots and live in harmony with nature. This tea monk meets a robot, and this is noteworthy because contact between humans and robots has been severed for generation. The robot seeks to understand the human, and humans as a whole, and find out what they need.
And... that's about it. This novella is very slow paced and had a lot of exposition. I'm not one to enjoy extensive worldbuilding (a big reason why I don't read high fantasy) so this didn't grip me in the least. I usually love stories of humanoid creatures discovering the weird quirks of humans, but that barely featured here and largely not in a way I haven't seen before. I finished the book and thought ".... that's it?". And yes, dear reader, that was it.
While this is not a book for me, I do recommend this if you think it will soothe your heart. Specifically, if you want the book version of the sentiment "humans were meant to lie in the sun and eat fruit and are part of the earth", this is the book for you. That said, as some of the other lower-end goodreads reviews point out, this perspective is not presented with much nuance so...
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love when horror explores grief. I love hauntings as metaphors for trauma. And when all that serves as a backdrop for a difficult family dynamic? Sign me up.
And if you're putting that in a satirical campy context? I'm here for it.
I knew very little about this book going into it, and I recommend that you do the same. Grady Hendrix delivers the usual, including lots of amusing banter and Chekhov's guns that go off when you least expect them.
If you need more of a selling point: the novel follows Louise who, after the sudden death of her parents, needs to navigate:
- her turbulent relationship with her younger brother
- her responsibilities towards her five year old daughter who she had to leave across the country when dealing with funeral stuff
- a cast of kooky aunts
- a very frustrating will
- So. Many. Creepy. Puppets.
(Fun fact: this book came out on my birthday, which was another sign that I would enjoy it.)
Recommended if you're creeped out by dolls and/or puppets, have a dysfunctional relationship with an adult sibling, and love family secrets.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
And if you're putting that in a satirical campy context? I'm here for it.
I knew very little about this book going into it, and I recommend that you do the same. Grady Hendrix delivers the usual, including lots of amusing banter and Chekhov's guns that go off when you least expect them.
If you need more of a selling point: the novel follows Louise who, after the sudden death of her parents, needs to navigate:
- her turbulent relationship with her younger brother
- her responsibilities towards her five year old daughter who she had to leave across the country when dealing with funeral stuff
- a cast of kooky aunts
- a very frustrating will
- So. Many. Creepy. Puppets.
(Fun fact: this book came out on my birthday, which was another sign that I would enjoy it.)
Recommended if you're creeped out by dolls and/or puppets, have a dysfunctional relationship with an adult sibling, and love family secrets.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
This is a "what the heck did I just read" kind of book that explores......something. Madness, I suppose, but also a family's response to that madness. The lines between human, animal, and plant. The nature of reality, the significance of an individual life, the transience and insignificance of our little lives. There's something disturbingly nihilistic about this book, which presents some gruesome and truly bizarre but memorable scenes one after another.
I'm not quite sure what the point of the book was, and I despised several characters. And yet I was captivated by it and a few things have stayed in my mind. This book feels like a sore tooth that I can't ignore.
Recommended if you're into being profoundly confused and uncomfortable, are emotionally prepared for truly weird sexual scenes, and once had a dream that you were a tree.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
I'm not quite sure what the point of the book was, and I despised several characters. And yet I was captivated by it and a few things have stayed in my mind. This book feels like a sore tooth that I can't ignore.
Recommended if you're into being profoundly confused and uncomfortable, are emotionally prepared for truly weird sexual scenes, and once had a dream that you were a tree.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Memorable stories ranging from truly unhinged horror to folktales with body horror and weird energy. It feels like someone wrote down all their drug-fueled nightmares and presented them to you, distressing dream logic and all. And it's glorious.
Recommended if you love thinking "what in the everloving heck am I reading" over and over again.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Recommended if you love thinking "what in the everloving heck am I reading" over and over again.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/7rhiwvWp9YY
Fredrik Backman, especially on audiobook, is a glorious writer.
Backman tells us what will happen before he tells us how it happens. Then he tells it to us again, from another perspective, with different information. Then again. Again. Again.
The author's gift for writing realistic and flawed characters astounds me. Beartown is no different. This town lives and breathes. Our omniscient narrator weaves us through the turbulent and tumultuous life of several dozen characters, all of which have successes, failures, heartaches, traumas, selfish interests, love, and more and more and more.
This book deals with the incredibly painful topic of character assassination of a survivor of sexual assault. It covers motivations people may have that lead to this lack of compassion, it shows why even those who do feel compassionate won't always say anything, and it presents that isolating hellish desperate existence with rawness and sensitivity. In other words: I had a couple of good cries.
Recommended if you don't think you'll ever enjoy a book about hockey but are interested in the interests of the collective vs interests in the individual, love character-driven plots, and want to spend time in a small frozen town in the woods that puts all its hopes on a handful of teenagers.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/AiaZh8Bpmyw
Backman tells us what will happen before he tells us how it happens. Then he tells it to us again, from another perspective, with different information. Then again. Again. Again.
The author's gift for writing realistic and flawed characters astounds me. Beartown is no different. This town lives and breathes. Our omniscient narrator weaves us through the turbulent and tumultuous life of several dozen characters, all of which have successes, failures, heartaches, traumas, selfish interests, love, and more and more and more.
This book deals with the incredibly painful topic of character assassination of a survivor of sexual assault. It covers motivations people may have that lead to this lack of compassion, it shows why even those who do feel compassionate won't always say anything, and it presents that isolating hellish desperate existence with rawness and sensitivity. In other words: I had a couple of good cries.
Recommended if you don't think you'll ever enjoy a book about hockey but are interested in the interests of the collective vs interests in the individual, love character-driven plots, and want to spend time in a small frozen town in the woods that puts all its hopes on a handful of teenagers.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/AiaZh8Bpmyw
This book made me sad in a delicate and beautiful way.
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/vni9kSfxaf0
More thoughts here: https://youtu.be/vni9kSfxaf0