shona_reads_in_devon's Reviews (529)

𝜤’𝒎 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝜤’𝒎 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔.

𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏?

𝑌𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑, 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 

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I know there is a lot of love for Project Hail Mary, and I am joining the ranks of those who liked it a lot.

First and foremost for me, this was a sci-fi adventure novel. With Disney elements. Now I like Disney, so that's not a critique from me, but I think it accurately portrays the level of this novel.

Dr Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma in space. He can't remember why he is there but he sure has a lot of knowledge about space. The novel develops through flashbacks and present first person POV to unfold his involvement in mission to save planet earth from a galactic amoeba which is slowly consuming the sun's energy.

I might be classed as a complete science dunce, so I can't comment on the quality, accuracy or believability of the sci aspects. What I will say is that I probably would have found it all quite dry in book form and the audio did it really well. I feel like understood a good portion of it so it was explained well but at times, I wanted it to draw back and focus on people and action and feeling and I got frustrated by the level of detail during particular moments.

Which leads me to characters. I felt the character depth here was somewhat lacking. It relied (very successfully I might add) on Rocky as the heart of the novel. I didn't feel a huge connection to Grace for much of this, his 'emotional' responses to a lot of stuff didn't feel fleshed out. But Rocky as a character and Grace's relationship with him was utterly captivating and was main emotional drive and  the real strength of the novel for me. Like I say, it's Disneyfied. Rocky is highly infantilised I feel and made very cutsey, even as Grace extols his virtues and his brilliance. But if you like that kind of anthropomorphised side kick kind of deal (I do!) then it's going to work very well for you.

The plot carried along nicely, the flashbacks kept it from moving too slowly and helped keep things feeling fresh. It had a satisfying ending and gave me opportunities to mull on humanity and bravery, and space travel and life on other planets and all that good stuff.

𝜤 𝒂𝒎 𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒅. 𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅. 𝜤 𝒂𝒎 𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝜤 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒙. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐.

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This was a reread of The Night Circus. I remembered absolutely nothing about this novel except that I loved it when I last read it.

I don't think it's hit in quite the same way this time. Not that I didn't enjoy it, because I did. But it definitely felt a more *vibes* than I remember.

I didn't feel particularly connected to anyone during this reading. I can see why I probably loved the love story in this when I read it all those years ago but it didn't hit quite as strongly as I imagine it did then.

The vibes are still immaculate. The imagery and the style is still captivating. The ideas and their execution in language are still magical and entrancing. I want to experience this place and I also want to learn tarot reading!

But I think that's probably all I carried away from it this time. Am entertaining, aesthetic read with a little love story that I enjoyed but I did feel less of a connection than I remember from the last read.

𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆? 𝑌𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔.

𝑵𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚. 𝑵𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.

𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝜤 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍.

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This book was INCREDIBLE. I am going to come back to it again and again and I am going to take away different things every time I read it.

40 women, locked in a bunker. Given everything they need to survive but nothing more. No privacy, no culture, no freedom, no men. 

This book is full of layers. There's a plot, but there's no explanation. There are no conclusions, no reasons, no easy answers. We don't know where these women are, why they are. 

During my reading I've thought about feminism and misogyny, capitalism, fascism. I've thought about the prison system, about space travel. I've considered notions of time and identity, of culture. The nature of womenhood and masculinity. I've mulled over morality and assisted suicide. Religions and systems of ritual. Social hierarchies and constructions of social conditioning. The THEMES in this book are all over the place in the best way possible. 

And it isn't delivering you any answers, both literally and metaphorically. You're not going to walk away from the book with answers to anything relating to the plot or how you see the world. But it's going to make you think about all of this and more. 

This isn't a must read by any means. But if you like to think about how you move through the world, how you gain meaning from life and how you relate to others, this one will have you thinking.

Ah. This one was not for me I am afraid.

An 'Untelling' of Romeo and Juliet this novel places Rosaline centre-stage, beginning a short while before Romeo meets Juliet and attempting to undo the history of misinterpretation that remarketed R+J as a romance by presenting to us a loaded and significant past for Romeo.

Starting with the bits I liked. I really enjoyed seeing characters from a different perspective. Rosaline's friendship with Tybalt was a highlight of the book and I really loved seeing a different side to Tybalt. I also didn't hate the general premise of the book that posited Romeo as a predator. Do I think it worked here? Absolutely not. Could it? Possibly.

And that's about everything I liked. 

The characters were really one-dimensional. Rosaline was supposed to be this spunky heroine but in fact she was totally empty aside from being sad her mum died and furious to go to a nunnery. Instead of making the most of her last days of freedom she falls instantly in love and then the rest of the book is her mooning. 

The plot was boring. I know we don't know how old Romeo is but it felt a stretch that he was 25 (it's suggested he may even be 30). To my mind, the characters are all of a similar age. It didn't feel convincing at all in this. I get the idea of a SA ring in the catholic church is topical but it didn't feel convincing and it didn't do the work to convince me.

The writing tripped along well enough but it was anachronistic, the narration and internal monologues didn't match. The random Latin words were unnecessary and distracting and didn't add anything and the borrowed lines from Romeo and Juliet were cheesy and poorly executed.

Rosaline running around in the dead of night scaling walls was farcical and the end had turned into a thriller of sorts which just felt ludicrous.

All told, it was a complete failure for me.

𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒕.

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The Devils is my first Abercrombie and it definitely won't be my last. I've become very attached to this little ensemble cast of morally dubious misfits.

I had no idea what to expect, not being a usual consumer of Grimdark (as far as I know?!) What I got was copious amounts of violence, non-stop action, hilarious banter and grudging cameraderie.

I found a collection of characters who delighted me in every way possible - and they carried a great balance of Pratchettesque wit and wisdom (though more gratuitously violent than Pratchett's suggestions of violence.

The pace of this carried me half way through without much stopping for breath, and my swapping between book and audio (and the incomparable Steven Pacey) kept it all feeling very vibrant and fresh for a good portion. I felt it a smidge too long. I don't dislike an episodic sort of narrative, but it did feel a little repetitive in places. The last quarter lost a pace a little. One of the twists was so very obvious I can only assume it was deliberate so I am not marking it down there.

So overall, excellent. I think this is a great intro to Abercrombie (though I feel some of his superfans might come at me for that 🤣) 

𝑵𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏, 𝒄𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆, 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒚.

𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕.

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The Illiad is one of those pieces of literature that is on my list of things I'm really intrigued by but that I have enough knowledge of to know I'm going to struggle to stick with it. I despair of extended similes okay. Even though I love Milton.

So, imagine my delight in hearing feedback about the approachability of this translation by Emily Wilson. And they weren't wrong. This is such a readable translation. If you're having doubts about understanding or sticking with this, I recommend this edition.

The action here is, unsurprisingly, epic. The battle scenes were some of my favourite. It was insanely graphic and anatomically specific. It was described in cinematic detail and was so evocative.

The moments of grief and mourning were beautiful. I found it really effective having scenes of complete slaughter and crazy male violence rubbing up against moments of male tenderness and care.

Achilles was a whiny bitch and he didn't save himself in my view. I found it quite challenging to get into the headspace of the values of this age and just because it is typical of the time doesn't make it feel any less annoying to my modern ears. 

Anyway. I'm so glad I read this. I didn't enjoy it as much as The Odyssey but I did enjoy it a whole lot more than I was anticipating.

𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔.

𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓? 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉.
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I'm in two minds about this book.

On the one hand - it has a lot of stuff I'm really a fan of. It's Asian history, it's using fantasy elements to explore a darker side of history. It's shining a light on an important and oft ignored part of Asian history. It's dealing with some big moral questions and grappling with uncomfortable and seriously large topics. I love fantasy that does all that. It's got a strong and bloodthirsty FMC, it's got found family (as far as grimdark goes!) It's got morally grey choices and uncontrollable dark powers.

All really great. So why am I struggling with my rating?

I've said about Kuang before, I think I suffer in my reading of these novels of hers because I do have a solid grounding in a lot of areas of history. I feel like I'm frequently being spoon fed stuff. None of this felt remotely subtle to me. The parallels with real life events (Nanjing, Hiroshima) are really quite explicit. Now I don't have a problem with this from a moral or ethical standpoint and the arguments that you wouldn't get away with it for Western atrocities doesn't hold weight for me. Rather it's more a question of imagination. I like to have to work a bit at making the parallels and there was none of that here. I also found it tricky to connect to any of the characters really. I'm not sure if this was a pacing problem, or whether I just didn't feel they were particularly well drawn. For its length, we don't get a lot of character development aside from our two main characters.

Having said all of that, I still enjoyed the story and I'll continue with the trilogy, I'm interested in what happens to Rin and I'm hoping for more connection as the novel progresses.

ok okay this one is much better than the first one. 

Celaena is still the most annoying character. She's frequently stupid, always selfish and thoughtless and does whatever she wants without thinking about the consequences or whether it's the greatest idea (spoiler alert, it's usually not). 

Chaol is fine, Dorian is fine, they grow on me, they were less boring than in the first book. I really don't love a triangle but I'll cope with it here.

The plot is more interesting. The last book was so boring, this has more going for it in terms of page turning - I got to a point and I wanted to keep going. 

But, and it's something I said about the first CC, the last few chapters are like an end at the end of every chapter, I was turning the pages and rolling my eyes at yet another chapter. There are only so many dramatic endings you can write before they become silly.

The big reveal at the end... kind of spoiled for me - it's hard to go into this series without spoilers and I had already guessed this ending though it wasn't exactly subtly spelled out. And I find that it feels like a clumsy reveal. If she knows, we should know, we're too much in her thoughts for this to be kept from the reader for two whole books and it felt dishonest.

𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅: 𝒊𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍, 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔.

𝑾𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓, 𝜤 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕; 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑲, 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕

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Brotherless Night was a highly anticipated read for me and it didn't disappoint. I didn't know much about the Tamil Tigers and the history of Sri Lanka but it's not surprising to see the British empire at the beginning of a story about a country's descent into civil war. 

I am struggling to make my thoughts about this fantastic novel coherent. It explores so many important ideas relating to civil war, to genocide, to women's roles within those things. It considers ideas of medicine and the moral imperative of medical professionals to do no harm. 

The book focuses on Sashi, a teen studying to be a doctor and growing up in a house full of brothers. They are all embarking on life, studying, making plans and growing up in Sri Lanka as a family who are an ethnic minority suffering oppression from the Sri Lankan government. 

And it's important writing - bringing to attention the atrocities committed against the Tamil people and by the Tamil people. But what is striking about this novel, for me, is the intimacy. The exploration of how large scale events are lived, privately. That life continues, that moral decisions must be made and consequences lived with. That families are ripped apart and never reconciled.

And an elemental that I find comes back again and again in novels centred around colonial violence, civil war and oppression - connection to the land, connections to traditions, and the violent severing of peoples from their homes, their land and the heritage that runs through their veins. An image from this novel of civilians trapped on piece of land with the Tigers behind them and the government in front, both using and discarding Tamil bodies for their own designs is one that will never leave me. 

This was a truly brilliant book, and we should all be reading stories like this.

Found a contemporary romance I didn't hate! 

After my failure to launch with Em Hen, I decided that my romance quite simply needs dragons and elves for it to capture me.

Enter Jacob Maddox and Abby Jimenez!

Now, there were some problematic third act issues here that threatened to reduce my star rating. I cannot abide a miscommunication trope stretched that far. This could have been much shorter. But then it wouldn't have had dear Zachery Webber choking out 'I think she's gonna leave me, mum' so wth do I know?

Jacob is a perfect book boyfriend and I'll hear no slander. Him and Brianna were cute and witty and sweet. Thankfully the third act issues weren't too long and the first ⅔ of this book more than made up for it. Loved the letter writing concept, loved the exploration of anxiety and LOVED Jacob Maddox. He definitely scratched the itch I have for gentle, introverted, introspective and sensitive MMCs.