sarahxify's Reviews (703)

I read about a third of this, it's a series of different perspectives, all on one day in Scotland. It felt pretty similar to other books I have read recently and didn't grab my attention in any special way. The writing is certainly evocative, but the overall atmosphere was kind of dreary in a way I found repellant rather rather than appealing. 

This was interesting enough - kind of an adult coming-of-age novel with the protagonist being an Irish woman in her early twenties who has gone to live in Hong Kong. The characters were well-done and believable, as were their dynamics. The ending was ambiguous, but I am not confident that it was so because Dolan wanted it to be ambigous, or because the novel kind of fizzled out. I didn't feel that there was a lot of strong-willed intention in this novel, or that there was a definite 'thing' that the author was trying to achieve. 

I appreciated reading an adult novel with a bi MC though that actually had relationships with men and women throughout. 

This was fine. It was a quick and easy read about a man, Micah, who is trapped in the tedium of his everyday life. He can't really see his own faults or how his careful behaviours are limiting him in actuality. 

I read this really quickly and yes, enjoyed, but definitely won't remember anything about it in a few months. It's fairly forgettable. 

This is a historical fiction, written in 1930s and set around the year 1800. It features a young woman, Mary, who goes to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother passes away. She quickly works out that her uncle is hiding a lot of things at his inn, the titular Jamaica Inn. 

I really really enjoyed this; it was pretty suspenseful, and I was racing through the pages in my eagerness to discover what happens. In the age of thrillers and things being designed to grab our attention, I find this to be a very impressive achievement of du Maurier's. She really proves herself as a master storyteller in this book. I found Mary to be a wonderful character, really well-realised and consistent the whole way through. 

I felt the same way about this book as I do with 99% of dystopians; I was continually frustrated at the lack of explanation or exposition in this novel. The state of the world becoming drastically different without explanation reads as pseudo-philosophical to me. 

 I enjoyed this, although I can't say that I found it to be as much an exploration of grief as reviews have said. This book is obviously about the death of Hamnet, but I was suprised that he only dies about two thirds of the way through the book. The majority of this book is actually building up to this point, which is fine in and of itself, but it meant that there wasn't that much room left for the exploration of grief that this book is so lauded for. In this respect, I actually found it a little shallow, and that it was mostly about the sadness of someone dying than the months and years of grief that follow after someone has actually died. 

I will absolutely reread it at some point though and it got me back into reading after struggling to pick up a book for a while, so thank you Maggie O'Farrell for that! 

Really don't like the way this is written; too point-and-click, this happened, then this then this then this then this for me.