reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

Impeccable. 

I LOVE this world, especially the plant architecture. 
 
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen swearing used so well and intentionally in a book - it adds so much to Ana's character in particular. Never seemed gratuitous or out of place, and thank the fucking lord Jackson Bennett uses real swearwords, and not fantasy ones that always ruin the effect (I’m looking at you Sanderson).
 

And lol, not the title of the book being the answer to one of the biggest red herrings of the story.

Bloody IMPECCABLE I tell ya.

This novel enchanted me from start to end. Maybe Nettle and Bone was a dud? Or maybe Kingfisher just doesn’t work for me via audio 

The singular issue I have with it is that Hester seems REALLY old for 51? Fucked knees and balding? If Kingfisher had gone with 61, I'd believe it more, but it seems a bit of a reach for early 50s. 

This read definitely gave me all the expected vibes/atmosphere, but I don’t know how much of that is from the BBC tv series/film (one of which, or maybe both, use mostly the exact dialogue and plot beats of the book - dialogue and beats I’d completely forgotten until reading this, so it felt a bit odd lol), and how much from Lewis' writing. I guess I’ll only know when I read an instalment I haven’t read/watched in another format.  

The writing style was really fun, and the book was much faster paced and less preachy than I was expecting. But, there were definitely some outdated takes on gender e.g. Lucy and Susan's royal titles (Gentle and Valiant) were because men wanted to marry them, whereas the boys’ were for their bravery, knowledge etc. 

This read also definitely brought up some questions, namely about the characters eating meat in Narnia... if all the animals are sentient/talk to each other, who are they eating and how are they farming it?? I know it’s just a kid’s book, but I couldn’t get the question out of my head every time they ate bacon or something.  

Also, bull with a man's head?? Wtf is that?? 

Having said that, overall this was a fun time, and I’m excited to read on in the series and get to stories I’m less familiar with. 

This book started off ok, but as the more ‘serious’ topics became the focus, my anger towards it grew and grew. 

One of the red flags from the beginning should have been Maddy. She is so INCREDIBLY toxic, yet it seems we’re meant to route for her friendship with Emma and take her fucked up behaviours as completely normal? Her stalking Justin was a stark reminder of why I keep everything private on social media and barely post anything. (Justin got over/accepted the stalking WAY too easily btw.) 

Another think that annoyed me was the lack of research into the medical field. Medical personal should NEVER leave a medical facility in used scrubs, especially if they’ve been worn during surgery??? But no, Emma just strolls home from work in them, and then proceeds to have a full date wearing them. Cross-contamination who? Also, you wear clothes under scrubs, so why couldn't she just take the fucking things them off?? 

I really didn’t like some (most) of Emma's 'advice' bordering on therapy she gives Justin about his mum. Striving to ‘choose empathy over anger’ is one thing, but downplaying Justin's shitty situation because his mum 'had is worse' is absolute bullshit. He was BARELY into his TWENTIES and now is having to be a PARENT because of her shitty actions, whatever their cause. That’s a horrible way for his life to turn around. It’s basically over. If Justin was instead his mum’s peer in any way (husband/brother etc.), then fair enough he should have been expected to support her more, but she’s his MUM. And once again, he was practically still a KID when his dad died. She shouldn't have expected him to support all of her emotions, or ‘man up’. 

 I’m also pretty sure that Emma's arc will end up with her being converted into liking kids, which pisses me right off. She’s the only child-reluctant woman I’ve read about so far, and it was really refreshing to see, but it’s completely giving convert vibes. 
 
And Jimenez’s idea of what male conversation is is incredibly juvenile. Not every conversation contains reference to sex or dicks... How fucking rude. 

This book is purely about a fuck tonne of characters who desperately need therapy. Not in any way something I can be bothered to waste any more time on. 

Once again, a ridiculously popular book that I despise. I think it’s time I learned my lesson and avoid (recently published) popular books completely. 

Until Mary came into the picture I was enjoying this read, apart from the few racist comments (which were especially weird coming from someone in another ostracised group seeking acceptance - a warning of use of the n word in Chapter 36 Part 2. Caught me completely unawares) and Stephen's occasionally overwhelming elitism and out of touch-ness. 

 

I also think it’s actually SO fucking rude that this is labelled as a 'lesbian classic'. Stephen goes through SO much gender questioning, and I’m half convinced she was actually a trans man. 

 

Martin's flip from friend to lover towards Stephen, and Stephen’s feelings about it, was the most seen I’ve ever felt reading a book. None of my trans experiences have ever been reflected so accurately. 

And I know it’s just a result of developing word usage over time, but I loved that strange-‘queer' was used to describe Stephen's LGBT-queer emotions. Gave me a few chuckles here and there. 

 

Then, unfortunately, Stephen’s relationship with Mary ruined the book for me. Right from the offset, she thought of Mary exclusively as a ‘child’ and a ‘young creature’, yet I just knew their relationship was going to turn ‘romantic’.  

When Stephen takes Mary home to Paris (and has so much fucking power over her and splashes her considerably larger wealth and intelligence/knowledge/experience about), she literally has an argument with Mary because she says Mary is tired, but Mary refuses saying she isn’t. Such a parent/child interaction - and Stephen says OUT LOUD to Mary 'Come on, there's a good child...'.  

Stephen even calls herself Mary's 'father, mother, friend and lover' and Mary 'the child, the friend, the beloved' in her head while they’re actively together. Pretty impossible to route for a love story when it’s so fucked up. 

I know the book is almost 100 years old, but was the concept of a relationship between two mature equals really so difficult to grasp??
 
I just can’t read any more of this. The relationship is gross, and looks like the rest of the book centres on it. What a disappointment. 

Ooo, this book is GOOD.

The wild Meryl Streep reference so far into the book shocked me. I thought it was set in an alternate Hollywood, clearly not, lol. And his speech nearly had me in tears.

Also, a fucking beautiful last line. Best one I’ve read in a long while. 

This book is written in SUCH an interesting way. I’m not sure how I would’ve got on reading it physically, or if I would’ve got on with it as well, but listening to the audiobook was a great experience. I loved the insights into random character’s thoughts, and how we jumped between viewpoints. 

There were so many powerful moments in this. I had full on chills when

the boys entered the theatre

. I don’t often care when the book title is mentioned in the text, but this time it was incredibly powerful. And of course, a sign of any good book, I shed some tears. 

What a unique work, Jimenez is something special. 

Loverly.

I’m struggling with how to rate this one. 

One on hand it’s an amazingly powerful book, looking into the dark depths of humanity’s past, present, and future. And Asha's PoV added great dimension to the story.

On the other, I struggled to connect with or feel much of anything for the characters, and the involvement of the ‘sharers’ once again felt pointless. 

I also can’t ignore the complete lack of Native American characters; there’s never even a single mention of them. In a book that parallels so much of recent Native American history (land being stolen, people being ‘re-educated’ to become ‘good’ Christians, children taken away from their ‘heathen’ families etc.), I find it completely baffling that Butler completely omitted them from this novel. Even if everything else about the book made me want to give it 5 stars, this blatant omission alone would stop me from doing so. 

Bloody fucking hell Hobb is a marvel.

Her exploration of the philosophies of mankind is so nuanced and interesting. It makes her books SO much more nuanced than kingdoms battling each other, and it's amazing.