toreadistovoyage's Reviews (1.58k)

Wow. An incredible book. Beautiful and haunting, a punch to the heart. A seriously impressive debut. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. 

The audiobook narrator was fantastic. 

Jenifer Lewis has led a life. That is for sure. She is honest and open, reflective and real. A great narrator (what a voice!). Some of the anecdotes/stories were superfluous but overall a solid memoir. 

This was...not for me.

I bought this after seeing it all over bookstagram. Premise sounded good, romantasy, humorous - what's not to like? Apparently a lot.

Here's what didn't work for me:

Everything was vague (motivations, what happens at The Villain's office; world building);
The 'humor' was not what I would call funny;
Evie acted like a teenager, despite being in her 20s and acting as head of household;
The story felt disjointed (which makes sense as this was a "viral TikTok series turned novel");
There wasn't any real character development;
There really wasn't any romance, just some characters who were into each other but never act on it;
The Villain is 'evil' but is definitely NOT evil; and
I could not take The Villain seriously after I learned his name is Trystan.

A fun story that explores important topics. 

This may be for you if you like reading books with:

Multiple narrators,
Diverse characters,
Fast, action-packed pacing,
Rival scavenger hunting teams,
Anonymous social justice groups (in this case The Order),
The impact of mega-corporations on local homes and businesses,
LGBTQ+ representation, and
Social commentary (racism, classism, and more).

My son was entertained. I liked how smart the nephew was and the plot. I really do not like Trap; he is a bully. I imagine we will be reading more about this mouse in the future.

Sci-fi with a bit of fantasy thrown in. Explores (and often mocks) the tropes found in fairy tales/sci-fi through a feminist lens. Despite the title, there wasn't much action. This book went heavy into the politics of the universe. There were some likeable characters, including Rory. I did feel that things were too easy for her (which was overwhelmingly due to the gifts given to her by the fairies). I guess I wanted her to struggle more. The world building was solid.

I think my biggest issue was the narrative voice. There was a certain level of detachment from the characters making it hard to feel attached to/emotional about any of them. It felt like reading a history book (and, indeed, the narrator mentioned historians and the process of recording history multiple times - so maybe that was the point). 

This was entertaining and an interesting take on Treasure Island. It resembled it enough to feel its influence, but different enough to feel fresh. The idea to include Zheng Yi Sao/Cheng Shih, maybe the most successful pirate in human history, was fantastic. 

The book struggled with pacing. The first part/half felt very slow, but it did allow for solid character development of Xiang. 

This is one of those slow, careful, quiet books. One that's impact is subtly delivered.

Read The Berry Pickers if you enjoy:
Character-driven stories,
stories that explore grief, guilt, and family, 
has multiple POVs, and
revolves around a mystery but is not a typical mystery.

Wow. I will be thinking about this for a long time. Chain-Gang All Stars is a powerful book. This is social commentary at its finest.

In a futuristic, dystopian society, "Chain-Gang All Stars" is a television show where 'links', members of different chain-gangs, fight to the death in hopes of earning their freedom. And, like any reality show, it is publicized, monetized, and glorified.

It is hard to imagine a world where this exists. And yet, it really isn't that hard to imagine.

The book has multiple POVs and jumps around almost every chapter. At times this took me out of the story a bit, since I was trying to figure out whose POV and what was happening. That being said, I do think that this ultimately added to the reading experience. Hearing from a variety of characters deepened the plot.

Chain-Gang All Stars is superbly written. Footnotes are expertly used in this book: some relate to the fictional characters, but many of the footnotes are actual statistics that make the story even more horrifying.

Continuing this series as my son adores it. I mostly just wonder logistical issues as I read. Like why Morgan is sending two CHILDREN on pretty dangerous missions. Why isn’t she the one going on these missions? And what is she really doing with all these books? And how can Jack and Annie understand anyone? Are the kids magically fluent in foreign languages? Or are the citizens fluent in English? The books they collect are in foreign languages, which the kids cannot read, so?

I guess I could just enjoy these books for what they are.