reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

The most interesting part of this book is that it made me realise that the four horsemen are angelic beings sent by God, not things from hell sent by the Devil... have thought they were 'baddies' my whole life, I’m now realising that ‘God’ is actually just a petty man who actually hates everyone, lol. 

The book started off relatively interesting, but went downhill pretty quickly, and it started to piss me off way more than I was enjoying it. One of the biggest culprits of this is that so much of the world building and timeline makes absolutely zero sense. At one point it seemed to me like they had been together at least for a couple of weeks, but Sara said it had barely been a week… 

Also, at around 20% I noticed more and more things in the writing that made no fucking sense - did the editor just give up? 

For example: 

1. Slices of bread aren’t called fucking loaves. 
2. Sara’s never even heard of a jam sandwich?? Do PB&Js not exist in this world?? 

Then literally a page later she turns a light switch on, the light works for a second, then blows. IT’S PROBABLY JUST THE FUSE THEN? But instead of trying to find the fuse box to fix it, she just gives up? 

This book is not good enough for me to be able to tolerate this level of bullshite. Farewell. 

This book (and series) is incredible. What an amazing end to such a wonderful trilogy. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly capture in words the things it did to me. 

I was in floods of tears throughout the last 10% of it, and was brought to tears many times before that as well. 

The world is so richly complex, and the character work so deeply realistic. 

I was left feeling both completely satisfied (something I find increasingly rare when finishing series), and with a deep longing to go back and read it all over again knowing what I know now 

A marvel. 

This was a fab book! 

The switch from a light hearted, satirical piece on America’s culty workplace loyalty and capitalistic mindset to disturbing horror was so well done. 

I actually almost vomed at the séance, if you know you know. Never been that close to voming from a book before. 
 
There were a few things that meant this wasn’t a 5-star read for me. Firstly, it was SO annoying that some of the images weren't accurate to the text - especially when they’re such a big part of the reading experience. The very first example being the ‘Brooka’ sofa that the text clearly describes as having a tall back and neck support, but the image on the front cover and the Ikea-ish image of it depict a very low-backed sofa. I’d say every other Ikea-ish image didn’t match with the in-text description. It always infuriates me when artists/publishers blatantly ignore what the author writes. 

Also, what were the 'help' texts even about?? We weren’t given any explanation, and I don’t even feel I was given enough information to ruminate on a possibility. The only ideas I can come up with don’t make sense, because previously taken people wouldn’t have the workers’ numbers (they never say that other workers are missing), and time travel/reverse time doesn’t align with the parameters Hendrix sets out.   
 
I also wish it had gone deeper into the punishments; I felt like it went by too fast. And I think Matt and Trinity could have been fleshed out a little more. 

But overall, a great read, and I’m happy to have enjoyed it so much after having it sitting on my shelves for so long. 

Issue number 1 – It’s absolutely wild that Victoria is in love with Wil in .5 seconds flat?? Yeah, she's 17, but come on! Don’t think I’ve ever seen instalove as bad. 
 
Issue number 2 - 20 pages in and its already feeling like 'savage and mythical/magical' Native American fetishisation and stereotyping. And from reading own voice reviews on Goodreads, it looks like my instincts were correct, and it in fact gets even worse as the book progresses. 
 
No. Thank. You. 

This book feels like it’s trivialising the serious subjects it contains. There’s definitely a place for humour in murder mystery/thriller books (Thursday Murder Club is a great example), but not when the 'humour' reads as if it’s making light of terrible circumstances.
 
I also didn’t find it funny, and there were WAAY too many ‘sticky kid’ descriptions. I already know I don’t want kids, no need to labour the point. 

This just isn’t sparking joy for me. I’ve been dreading going back to it, rather than being excited to continue. I just realised I don’t really care about the story…  

I’ll keep my copy, and maybe go back to it at some point. 

This was a great collection. All the stories have really distinct voices, which is refreshing. So often anthologies feel pretty one note in terms of voice, but Butler is great at creating individual vibes in each. I also loved seeing the progression of her talent as the anthology went on, the last two stories are absolute stunners.
 
 Bloodchild - 4.5 stars

Interesting ideas and freaky-deaky.
I was rather confused by Butler's afterword which stated this isn’t a story about slavery... They literally sell the humans to be unwilling hosts for impregnation, and in the past kept them drugged up in pens waiting for them to shag to breed the next generation of hosts. Sounds a lot like a form of slavery to me... even if it’s a kind of trade to keep them safe from the other aliens, it's still very much slavery.

  The Evening and the Morning and the Night - 4.5 stars

Really interesting ideas - but I wish it had gone further! I wanted more darkness and discussions around eugenics. This would actually make a great novel, I'm sad Butler didn't think so herself.

  Near of Kin - 3.5 stars

Well written as always, but seemed pretty pointless and tame. Especially with no sci-fi element to spruce it up.

  Speech Sounds - 5 stars
 
Really interesting and kinda spooky.
 
 Crossover - 4.25 stars

Good. Nothing special, but solid.

  Positive Obsession - 5 stars

A fab essay, which gave an amazing overview of Butler's writing career and made me like her even more than I already did.

  Furor Scribendi - 4 stars

Would definitely be more useful for a budding writer than me. But I completely agree with the 'persist' sentiment.
Interesting that she contributed to an L. Ron Hubbard project. I didn’t realise he was held in such high regard as a fantasy writer.
 
 Amnesty - 5 stars

Obviously a very rushed editing/proof reading job, but absolutely superb story.

  Book of Martha - 5 stars
 
Impeccable. Perfect for a short story. Truly made me question my own ethics in a way not much art can.

I’m actually fascinated by the fact I didn’t hate this book… I read the first in the series via audio a couple of years ago and absolutely despised it. Was the audiobook really so bad that it made me hate a good series? Is the first book just poor quality compared to the rest? Did I not pay proper attention to the first book? 

But holy shit am I glad I picked this up (thanks to BooksWithEmilyFox).

Actually being in the abandoned world?? Divine. I was a little disappointed when I figured out those sections were set in the past, rather than present, but it was still amazingly done.

 

Also loved that my predication while reading the first book about Fetch being

immortal

was proven right. 

There were a couple of things about this that mean I can’t give it a full 5-star rating, and I think both are to some extent products of the time these books were written (not that that’s an excuse). 

One is that Brenna was almost always referred to as ‘the albino’. The way it was written was very much othering just because of her albinism, whereas any number of other descriptions could have been used in place which would have been much more effective and less damaging to anyone reading the book with albinism. 

I also thought Kelsea’s physical changes often verged on fatphobia. Every time it was mentioned, Kelsea essentially equated being fat with not being beautiful. E.g. “yards of extra material in the small of Kelsea's back now, where the fabric had always stretched tight for her entire life. She had transformed, become something more than herself, become extraordinary”. This definitely all could have been written with a little more tact. 

But, overall, a very surprisingly enjoyable and original read. 

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I tend to stay away from YA these days, but this one felt substantial enough for me to take it seriously and for it to be a solid read. 

There were some things that annoyed me though: 

- Stiefvater’s seemingly made-up lore about Owain Glyndwr’s body being brought to America just to be able to exploit the myth for the book. It’s actually wild how obsessed American authors are with Owain Glyndwr – just because you have none of your own legends, doesn’t mean to get to steal and bastardise ours. It’s kinda gross. 

- It also pissed me off that Stiefvater (once again, an AMERICAN) wrote that the NHS had 'failed' one of the character’s mothers by not curing her cancer?? Absolutely wild coming from an American, and so unnecessary. Take a look at your own pathetic state of healthcare affairs before attacking ours for no reason. 

- In the boy's chapters it could be pretty difficult to tell whose thoughts were who's - it jumps around all over the place without giving names. 

- Noah. I know his involvement was all part of the big reveal, but the wishy-washy way Stiefvater wrote him really got on my nerves until it made sense at the reveal. 

- The last line was also really weird. It didn't feel like a cool intrigue as author (I assume) intended, it just felt like I’d missed something. And I’d never clocked the raven was called Chainsaw lol. 

But in saying all of this, I do still stand by my 4-star rating – so it must be a pretty solid book! 

Holy crap this was amazing. Very probably my favourite horror of all time. 

I cried NON-STOP through the first 40 pages. I love Muriel. She might be the closest I've ever seen myself portrayed in a book. And she was basically living my nightmare in those first five chapters. 

Then I became entranced. 

Then completely fucking horrified. 

What an incredible book. Tender, traumatic, and terrifying. 

My first Sodergren, but definitely not my last.