shona_reads_in_devon's Reviews (529)

'𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒚 '

'𝑵𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒆'𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆'𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑾𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓, 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚.'

'𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝜤𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆.'

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Gathering my thoughts on this novel is challenging, and I am trying to do it while it is fresh in my mind.

I adored this novel. It follows Robin from his plague stricken home in Canton to the heady academic idyll of Oxford. Plucked from his home to enter the hallowed halls of the Royal Institute of Translation, Robin begins to realise that he is being exploited, his motherland being literally bled dry to uphold the economic might of the British empire. How can Robin straddle the two worlds and live with himself? 

The themes of this book are heavy. The violence of colonialism, racism, the nature and effectiveness of resistance. And threaded through this is the unique magic system relating to Silver-work and the power of language and translation.

I've read books about colonialism and racism and resistance and struggle. But this was such a unique lens through which to explore it, both from an economic perspective and to appreciate the power of words, the power of naming things, the energy, creation and exploitative potential of slippages between meaning and understanding. 

It felt over explained at times but I have a history background so that's probably just me. The characters were beautiful, their journeys heartbreaking and hopeless. The prose was simply glorious and I had some tears at the end of this.

A wonderful story, and ripe for further exploration of some of the historical issues that it deals with, if you're not familiar with some of the many ignoble, bloody and shameful things the British did in their era of empire building.

'𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓.'

'𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒉𝒐𝒘, 𝒘𝒆'𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆.'

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That's it, I finally found a fantasy book that made me cry ugly tears.

The third and final installment of the Mistborn era one series is a dark and hopeless read. The end of the world is coming and Vin, Elend and co are working damn hard to try and prevent it.

These characters have my heart in their hands. I don't want to discuss the plot too much because this entire trilogy is a mystery of sorts and I think the plotting and foreshadowing is just perfect. Any give away just spoils the carefully mapped out story.

I want to talk about Vin and Elend being the ultimate relationship goals. The journey the two go on together is beautiful and heartbreaking. I want to talk about Sazed and that man's spiritual journey. I'm not a religious person but my heart broke to see him losing his way and struggling to find his path in the aftermath of loss. The levels of sacrifice carried out in this book are biblical in scale and, while the writing style occasionally gets in until way of the storytelling here, I loved every single second of this book.

'𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒂𝒋𝒊𝒊'𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏'𝒔 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏?'

'𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆'

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I have a fundamental issue with this book which means it's probably not fair of me to take into account. I don't really care about food. I don't really want to read about it.

Butter focuses on a female journalist's relationship with a convicted serial killer: a woman who, dedicating her life to satisfying the culinary needs of her male lovers, came to notoriety when three of them died in suspicious circumstances. The relationship between the two takes many twists and turns and forms the basis to explore many issues of contemporary Japanese life.

Given this novel is concerned largely with cooking, tasting and thinking about food, I found a lot of this kind of dull to my tastes.

But. It is really, really thought-provoking. I don't know much about Japanese culture or life. Many of the issues talked about in this book feel extreme from my Western sensibilities - I'd guess from this book that Japan still has quite traditional gender roles and family structures. Placing food at the centre of this story gives rise to the opportunity to explore so many ideas relating to women's position in society - around friendship, the fetishisation of food, the power that making and serving food gives, and how this relates to the concept of domesticity and relationships between men and women. It tackles consumption - both relating to food and people in the public eye. 

At the start of this novel everyone feels very lonely. Food is quick, convenient and eaten in isolation. Food is explored as a communal activity, as a way to bring people together and to stave off isolation.

Overall I found the book fair to middling - the ideas it brought up for me were really interesting, and there was a middle section to the plot that kept me interested, but overall the actual story dragged out for me and it wasn't super entertaining.

I listened to this on Audible.

This book is astonishingly well researched and highly readable, with a strong narrative drive.

Beginning with the humble roots of the three Sackler brothers Arthur, Raymond and Mortimer, doctors who appeared initially to want to improve the health outcomes for patients they worked with, Empire of Pain charts the steady rise and ultimately the corruption of the Sackler dynasty, first through the creation of Valium and later through the sale of the highly addictive Oxycontin.

Nothing in this book surprised me, having recently watched a documentary about the same subject, told from the perspective of some of the victims.

The book carefully and cleverly demonstrates the relationship that Arthur forged between the world of science and medicine and the world of aggressive marketing practices. It outlines Arthur's predilection for secrecy and operating under layers of obfuscation which paved the way for his family to distance themselves from their own company, Purdue Pharma, which engaged in immoral marketing tactics, bribery of government officials, fabrication of medical studies and concealment of suspicious prescribing practices which largely contributed to the opiod crisis in the US. This distancing allowed the Sacklers and future generations to distance themselves from these practices and they were widely known as philanthropists whose names have graced some of the worlds most revered cultural institutions.

If you don't know anything about this subject, I implore you to read this. It's shocking, enlightening and highly readable

First, thank you so much to Scott for the opportunity to read this. I haven't read anything like this I don't think, so it was a fun diversion.

Nekonikon Punk is set in a future where mega corporations have broken away from the US and formed their own territory. Allegiance to the megacorp gives a certain level of privilege while remaining 'unaligned' with a corporation leaves you persona non-gratia and scraping a living at the edges of society.

We follow military grunt with a heart, Juan. He's kind of a meathead, not too bright. Sucked in to the corporate world and the motto 'Dominate. Control. Prosper.' Until, he isn't anymore, and being thrust into the world of underground hacking has him questioning everything he took for granted.

As others have said, this novel is fast-paced and it tackles some really interesting themes like the use of AI, corporate greed and the dangers of massive corporate power and encouragement of aggressive and competitive individualism.

The writing style is a little pared back for my tastes, but it suits the kind of cyber brutalist settings and themes well. Juan was a little stereotypical. But the found family element was really great, and Juan's doubts about his life were convincingly portrayed. I am a complete dolt about anything remotely tech based but it all sounded convincing to me!

If dystopian anti - capitalism is your thing, you could really vibe with this one!

'𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕, 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒊𝒕? 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒏, 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔. 𝑾𝒆'𝒍𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒅'

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I'd heard some mixed reviews of the second book in this trilogy but i have to say it worked mostly well for me.

Following defeat of the Lord Ruler at the end of The Final Empire, WoA sees Kelsier's crew, led by Elend, trying to form a new kind of government and keep hold of Luthadel in the face of mounting threats from exiled nobles. Meanwhile Vin is seeing strange things, and figuring out how to come into her power.

Reports that this novel is low on action and high on political intrigue didn't feel completely unfair - compared to The Final Empire at least - but I wouldn't say the book suffered for it. 

The characters are going through some real developments in this novel, the crew feel less cohesive, unsure of their place or purpose without Kelsier and being led by Elend. It felt ostracising at points because we had come to love the found family and they all felt a little stretched and unsure of themselves here. But it worked within the overall plot arc.

Vin did my head in for a fair bit of this, but I loved that. I'm so invested in her life, and her relationship with Elend that she frustrates me when she doesn't do what I want her to.

This was another stellar installment from Sanderson and thank goodness I have Hero of Ages ready and waiting because that ending was a complete shitshow.

Firstly, thank you to Booktasters and Inspirus for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Argh. I really wanted to like this, and there were things about it that I really liked but overall it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

The biggest barrier I had was the style of writing. I can't tell if the language was possibly due to a translation issue. At times, the choice of language, the descriptions of things were beautiful. And fighting and battle scenes were described really brilliantly. But there was a real disconnect between the characters language when they were narrating the story and their dialogue and banter with other characters. Nick talks to others like a 17 yo boy but narrates the story like a 16th century poet. This created a strange detachment for me and consequently I found it tricky to connect to any of the characters.

I really enjoy a theological and religious perspective to my reading, and so this Angel based fantasy was right up my street. I enjoyed the Greek and Hebrew language references a lot and thought this was well used (though it is a little overwhelming at the start and maybe a glossary would help!). And the Rhema, and dotting little passages from it throughout worked well. But I do like my theology a little more tortured. Maybe this develops in the next book - but I prefer more exploration of the concept of good Vs evil and this story felt quite cut and dry. I thought Aquarius ' backstory and the idea that Aella et al not being all they said they were would have been an interesting avenue.

Nick. He's basically being led around by his genitals, which is at least accurate for a 17 year old boy. But lots of the panegyrics and odes to Aella's beauty could have been cut so that we spent more time developing their relationship. The pacing of this felt a little lopsided and sometimes characters didn't react consistently to situations which again made it tricky to connect to them. Nick's journey to the dark side was sudden and poorly explored and explained.

This isn't a 2★ read, I didn't dislike this book. There are the bones of a really great story here. But for me, I struggled to get into the language and the theological aspects need to be more complex for my enjoyment levels.

*Also, as a history buff - there were barely any deaths during the Great Fire of London. Like 3 people died in it, so as a plot device for the dramaticus, it doesn't work.

‘𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝜤 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝜤’𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆?’

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This novella, a pinch under 100 pages long, does what it says on the tin.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich starts with the aftermath. With the rites and routines of those left behind. It moves backwards in time, to chart the life of Ivan Ilyich, to portray how he lived among those left behind. And then, the last third follows his steady decline to death as a still youngish man.

The portrayal of living with illness, with pain, is a masterstroke. How it must play with the mind, with the resilience of someone. The up and down of despair and hope. The interactions with others, the resentment. That feeling of separateness from the world. It's a similar feeling to acute episodes of anxiety.

The very last section, the final days and hours, had me enthralled. Ivan Ilyich battling with his very soul and an almost transcendental letting go of his earthly concerns. 

I knocked a star off because his life was kind of dull to read about. I get that's sort of the point but it didn't make it super enjoyable to read about. 

But you should read this. A truly epic exploration of living and dying.

'𝜤’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉.'

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This is the first Emily St. John Mandel book I have read. I understand that each of her books bleed into one another and this one has whetted my appetite to try more. I'm interested to see how she weaves these across stories.

I don't want to give too much away as this speculative fiction plot gently unravels across time and space. To do so wouldn't necessarily spoil the message or the themes but I think it would take away plenty of what makes this book interesting.

The characters felt bland to me. For a short book, even taking a day away from reading would have me casting my mind back for some of the lesser characters. I could probably wangle some theory about there being a point to that - but it did take away some enjoyment. No one really expressed anything particularly passionately.

But there are lots of meaty subjects to consider and mull over - time and space, colonising other planets, pandemics obviously. And big life questions. What do we need to live? What does it mean to 'live'? 

I've seen these kinds of questions posed in better novels, but I think this one still worth the read.

'𝜤𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓.'

'𝜤𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒊𝒆. 𝑵𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅.'

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Bloodydamn that was a ride. If Pierce Brown does anything well, it's giving me whiplash. I still cannot predict where these books are gonna go.

I was warned going into this that I was going to cry. I have a heart of stone, there were no tears. But I had to have a little pause at certain points here.

This book wasn't perfect to me, and I think trying to read it while suffering with flu was a bad idea - this book is pretty dark and hopeless in places and it may not be the best read for a January either.

But I did love it, while there were some minor issues for me again (mostly the writing style, sometimes I find it flows other times not), the plot and the character development was spot on. I don't want to say too much because this is one book that would be totally ruined by spoilers. But it's really, really worth checking this series out. I'm going to have a break now before I start the next set of books but I can't wait to come back to this world and see where Brown takes it next.