reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

Unfortunately, I have to say that so far this is my least favourite Discworld book. It was by no means a bad book, I just didn't click with it as well as I have with those before it.
I really enjoyed the book before they got to Genua. I thought the parodies on various fairytales were hilarious, and loved seeing the witches navigate new places.
However, once they got to Genua I really lost interest in the story, and I really didn't understand or care about the last 70 pages or so. I felt like I was missing important elements of the story, and I didn't really find anything funny.
For the most part I thought the satirical portrayal of casual racism was handled really well, especially for being written in the 90s. But there was one thing that was out of order, and that was one of the witches calling a servant a 'charlie chan'. From what I can tell this has been used in the past as a derogatory name for Asian people, which obviously I'm not a fan of. What makes it worse is that Discworld doesn't even have an Asia, so it doesn't even make any sense to use it?? Just unnecessary.
All in all, not an awful book by any means, but definitely my least favourite so far. 

This book is so deranged and I loved it - disturbing body horror, edge of your seat 'reveals', and I was truly disgusted and flinched or had other physical reactions to so much of it. 
 
However, I did feel the relationship between Isaac and Lauren was kinda gross (and not in a good way). Isaac read WAY older to me than 22/23, most of the time I thought of him as middle aged, so the relationship felt weird. Also, throughout the book there are multiple mentions of Lauren still being in high school (even if she is a year older than everyone else, which somehow almost feels weirder? - just have her as one of the Uni students?) and how barely legal she is. It gives fetishy and cradle snatcher vibes. I'm pretty convinced that Isaac was a self-insert for the author in this relationship.   
 
I also thought the ending was pretty lacklustre compared to the drama of the rest of the book. 
 
However, still a great book, and I will definitely continue reading Payne's work. 

As soon as I started reading this, I was already getting the vibe that it was going to be racially insensitive towards Native Americans. Unfortunately, I was correct. 
 
The first red flag was that the main character states that being 'the only white boys in a school for Indians' was one of the worst things he has ever been through. Not the circumstances that led to them being orphaned, not the horrible treatment in the school, but the fact that they were the only two white kids there. 
 
At one point he also says that one of the teachers at the school 'had always been kind' to him and his brother. He doesn't acknowledge why this may be, and doesn't seem aware of the racial prejudices every other kid at the school had to live with and why they were treated so much worse than the WHITE KIDS. 
 
He also at one point states that Native American traditional dress is 'shabby'.
 
Because this was a child narrator I held out some hope that the above insensitivity could be part of his character development, and that through the book the kid would recognise the error of his ways. However, having read some reviews, I have discovered that this does not happen at all, and that racial insensitivity and micro aggressions are a mainstay of the book. 
 
It is also crazy that a white author chose to write a book about two white characters set in a Native American Boarding School purely as a vessel for white misery. From what I can tell from reviews, and even in the short passage I read, Native American experiences are hardly ever mentioned, let alone explored in detail. The author is taking advantage of and exploiting real Native history to tell a white story, ew. 
 
Also, the main Native American character is mute?? Literally has no voice? Not a good look…
 
Besides all that, the writing isn't very good. It feels clunky and doesn't flow at all, even in the same paragraph. The descriptions aren't emotive and the characters are all very flat.
 
All in all, not something I want to waste my time on. Goodbye!  

I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with these stories, they just aren't for me.

We're obviously meant to think fondly of the family, but as someone who strongly believes in animal rights I just couldn't warm to them with so much mention of animal butchery and glorification of hunting/'The Hunt'.

This is such a disappointing DNF because the book started off well. Learning about the world in the first 100 pages or so was pretty interesting, but then it just went to shit. I really wish I could finish it to count towards my books read for the year, but I just can't face it. 
 
Exactly like 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue', I think this book has a really interesting concept, but the writing doesn't do ANYTHING for me. It's so 2D and feels completely flat. There's no real intrigue, everything is so predictable, and the storytelling is so basic and un-nuanced. I hardly felt a single twinge of emotion during it - I felt pretty much no humour, worry, shock, suspense etc.
 
Also, the book isn't classified/marketed as YA, but it is written very much in a YA style which I have definitely outgrown in most cases.
 
Something I found quite jarring was that the book is set in London, with all London born and raised characters, but Americanisms are used frequently. E.g. using 'periods' instead of 'full stop'. Schwab also clumsily includes some British sayings/culture, again in a very jarring manner. E.g. taking about Lila drinking a pint and using the phrase 'she lifted the pint to her lips' - I can guarantee no British person would use that phrasing, most likely it would be 'drink to her lips' instead of pint. Conversely, 'Grey London' is spelled in the English way, chose a lane please!
 
The horribly cheesy and obvious romance plotline was infuriating and unnecessary for the characters, and wasn't needed in such an interesting world. Not everything needs to be romance!! 

‘K bye 

Just ugh...
 
This had a promising start, but it totally lost me around the halfway point. With 10% left I was so bored I was aching to DNF, but I persevered as I was so close to the end. 
 
Boredom was really the main theme while reading this book for me. It talks about heavy topics (domestic abuse, paedophilia, heavy violence etc.), but manages to make them feel very bland and uninteresting. I know this is YA, so maybe Sharpe was trying to 'protect' younger readers to an certain extent, but it just created a bland, boring read. 
 
The narrative also got pretty confusing at times, and not in a good way. Sharpe tried to incorporate sneaky subverts/misdirects and reveals in the plot, but a lot of the time the 'reveals' just confused things and made me lose track of the real story. For example, it’s implied for chapters that someone was beaten with a belt, but then there's a 'sudden, shocking reveal' that they were actually beaten with a poker instead. 1. Unnecessary 2. Confusing 3. Just why?
 
Also, Nora's supposed 'best friends' were SO horribly judgemental about her life when she told them the truth. They were written as if they were amazing friends, but if they actually had ANY respect or trust in Nora, they would know it wasn't personal that she didn't tell them everything before she was ready. Her LIFE was on the line, and they were just so selfish and made it all about themselves, never once thinking about how difficult it must have been for her. They act as if Nora is completely in the wrong, without even thinking that she'd been abused and didn't have any control over her childhood or how she needed to stay safe after it. Bad BAD, horrible HORRIBLE friends. Iris clearly handles it better than Wes, but would she have done so in a normal situation?? 
 
A lot of plot points were really predictable e.g. a lighter is mentioned so you know there's going to be fire involved at some point, wow what a shocker. But on the other hand, Sharpe dances around some elements of the story that she seems to think we as the reader already know about, but we don't. OR there are elements where she doesn't mention whatever the thing is, presumably because it’s ‘so awful’, but there is nothing it could conceivably be. E.g. talking about Lee's past and at one point it’s said that it isn’t 'criminal' - well then what that fuck could it be to be so awful?? There's some suggestion of it being something to do with prostitution, but we never actually get told so are just left in bafflement about what on EARTH she could possibly mean.
 
The conversations between Lee and the authorities are written out as transcripts. In theory I have no issue with this. However, most of the conversations being 'transcribed' are just between two characters who are standing/sitting next to each other. There would be ZERO reason for an official transcript to be written up of that, and also no way to transcribe those conversations because I'm sure they wouldn't have been recorded in any way. So unrealistic. On the reverse, towards the end it’s suggested that there are no cameras in a bank vault?? Insane, of course there are. 
 
In conclusion a surprisingly boring, confusing and unrealistic book. It’s a no from me. 

He's done it again! What an absolute gem of a book.
 
I laughed (violently), I cried, I got scared to turn over the page, it filled my cynical heart with warmth... everything you could ever want. 
 
Bloody loved it.  

This could possibly be, dare I say it, a perfect horror novel. 
 
It's insanely readable and compelling. The pacing is immaculate. Loved the camp vibes. 
 
It's so completely believable - both in the setting/events and in the way the characters reacted throughout the book. This just made it even more terrifying as I could really see it happening in this reality (though reading other reviews I may be alone in this!).
 
It's got great LGBT representation. 
 
It’s got hard emotional hits AND really gory body horror. 
 
And the ending was really strong! It felt so genuine and not cheesy at all, which seems to be a struggle a lot of authors have with this kind of ending. 
 
Just wow. This is my first T. J. Payne, but definitely won't be my last! 

This book has such unique concepts; it really felt like a breath of fresh air. I appreciated its depravity and darkness, as well as the unconventional fantasy elements. 

Having said this, in all honesty I was really confused during most of the book. I felt like I could never quite grasp the full picture because the concepts were so new and complex. 

I think on a re-read this would be a 5-star book, but as it stands I was too confused while reading to fully appreciate the story. 

This is a book about a horrribly insecure, self-centered and childish woman who needs to grow up and get some self respect. 

Every single relationship in the book is toxic without seeming to be aware of this fact, which I think is a dangerous game to play. I'm sick of women having 'best friends' in books who treat them horribly. 

It's written well, but I didn't care AT ALL about the annoying main character or 'plot'.

When I saw I still had another 3 hours to go of the audiobook, I knew I wouldn't be able to get through it. 

Bye bye.