Kiwiria's May Madness
May. 31st, 2016 09:01 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderIt's that time of the month again... :-)
To Have and to Code - Debora Geary*, 4/5, Audiobook ~8hrs
Not her best, but I still like this insight into Nell and Daniel's background :)
I'd Know You Anywhere - Laura Lippman, 2.5/5, 386 pages
This book could have been awesome, but unfortunately it just fell flat. It was told from multiple POVs, but all four were utterly unsympathetic, which made it really difficult to actually care about what happened. Also, the asides about the children seemed pointless, and never actually went anywhere, so I wonder why Laura Lippman put them in there in the first place.
I almost gave up several times, but the writing was good, and kept pulling me back - I got curious, and wanted to see where it ended.
Fortunately the book did improve, as Eliza lost some of her doormat tendencies and started acting rather than just reacting to things, and the end was satisfactory - although less suspenseful than I had expected.
Thyme Out - Katie Fforde, 2.5/5, 384 pages
(also published as "Second Thyme Around")
It's difficult for me to give this a fair rating, as the different parts of the book were of so very, VERY varied quality.
The first 100 pages infuriated me, and I felt like tossing it across the room. If it hadn't come very highly recommended by people whose opinions I trust, I wouldn't have gotten any further. But I stuck with it, and fortunately it improved, until the last 100 pages, where I had a very had time putting the book down. So with the first 100 pages deserving just 1 star, and the last 100 pages deserving 4 stars, I decided to average it out.
My problems with the book can be boiled down to just one thing - lack of boundaries. In those first 100 pages, Perdita decides she knows better than Lucas how to run his restaurant ("Oh, but she did it for a good cause!" Grrr. So what if she did? That doesn't give her the right! Lucas would have had every right to fire Janey because of it), and Lucas stomps all over Perditia's boundaries not one, not two, but three times. But because he turns around and helps her with Kitty, we're supposed to just forget all of that? In any real-life relationship where somebody behaved like this, I'd call red flags all over the place. Seriously, the "jerk with a heart of gold" trope is getting old. The good things he does later, don't cancel out his jerk'ish behaviour earlier.
*Sigh*
Fortunately after the first 100 pages both Perditia's and Lucas' behaviour improved, and the plot turned a lot more enjoyable, so I no longer considered giving it up as a DNF. I was still slightly disappointed in it, as I'd had it recommended to me as a "foodie novel" which wasn't the case at all - it was a romance, plain and simple. Sure, one of the characters worked in a restaurant, but that part took up a LOT less page-space than I had expected. I also wish we'd have gotten to see Roger's reaction to getting his comeuppance, but that's a minor detail.
All in all, not a book I'd recommend. But if you do end up reading it, try to just ignore the first 100 pages, and the rest of the book will be a lot better for it.
Seeds of Discovery - Breeana Puttroff, 4/5, Audiobook ~7hrs
A bit slow to start, but that may have been because I 'read' it as an audiobook rather than a physical book. Once it did take off I really enjoyed it. It's a different take on the normal YA fantasy, and I liked the mix.
I loved seeing Quinn's growing friendship with William and Thomas, and was pleased that at least in this book, no romantic tangles were included.
A charming book, and with enough of a plot of its own to not just feel like a "setting the scene" novel. It didn't make me feel like I have to rush out and read the next one immediately (mostly because I'm afraid Quinn will get into some annoying situations due to her secret - there were signs of this already in this book), but I may eventually. It was sweet.
The Fun Family - Benjamin Frisch, 1/5, 240 pages
I received this book as an ARC in return for an honest review.
Let's get the good stuff out of the way first - I liked the style of the drawings in this, even if it did get difficult to tell Mike and Robby apart at times, and the mother's face had a weird shape.
There. That was it.
There was literally nothing I enjoyed about this comic. I kept reading it, under the assumption that it just HAD to get better eventually... but it never did. Instead it ended on an extreme low, that just made me push the book away in disgust.
Full disclosure - I don't know Benjamin Frisch, and have no clue if the Fun family is based on a newspaper comic strip of some kind. If that's the case, I can see Benjamin Frisch getting so tired of his own story, that he felt the need to write a book about their life going to hell in a hand basket, in order to get some sort of therapeutic release. That would make sense, and that would make the book make sense. It wouldn't make it any more enjoyable, but at least I'd understand what he was trying to do.
Instead what I got was a book full of dysfunctional adults and only marginally less dysfunctional kids. Until the very end, I'd sort of expected that the grandmother's ghost would help the family get back on their feet again, but instead she just introduced a whole new level of weirdness into their lives.
The parents were the worst though. They kept making bad decision after bad decision, leaving the kids to bear the brunt of it and pick up the pieces. I wanted to kick some sense into both the mother and father, for them to wake up and take responsibility already!
A deeply unpleasant book that I wouldn't recommend to anybody.
I Hate Fairyland: Madly Ever After - Skottie Young, 3/5, 128 pages
This was... extraordinarily weird! Not necessarily bad-weird, but totally unexpected. I read most of it with my eyebrows up and my jaw down, wondering how on earth I had entered this surreal universe.
The drawings were great - although perhaps slightly too detailed at times, which could get slightly gross. The plot pretty unique, and the main character unusually unpleasant. This is definitely not a comic I'd hand to a girl who likes princesses - but very possibly to a boy who likes the unconventional.
Really not what I had expected, and as such, I have a bit of a hard time figuring out what I think of it, but at the end of the day - I think I like it.
Fellside - M.R. Carey, 3.5/5, 496 pages
I read and loved "The Girl With All the Gifts" earlier this year, so when I discovered "Fellside" on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. And I'm very happy to have read it. While it couldn't quite live up to my expectations, I had a hard time putting it down, and could never figure out what would happen next.
The writing style is just as good as in his earlier book, although perhaps not quite as tight. I did feel some of the chapters were superfluous, and that it would have benefitted from being cut down just a bit. Mostly, it frustrated me that other than Jess, there were no real sympathetic characters - not even Alex, whom I'd expected to be supposed to like.
It started out strong, the middle fell a bit flat, and then it ended on a strong - albeit unexpected - note as well. I don't think it's a book I'm likely to reread, but that's mostly because the surprises along the way is what makes this book so fascinating the first time around.
Camp Midnight - Steven T. Seagle, 3/5, 248 pages
A fun, quick comic. I was slightly disturbed by the utter disinterest shown by the parents (well, mostly the step-monster I guess, but I also didn't like that a) camp was sprung on Skye as a surprise, and that they couldn't even remember the name of the camp).
Many of the twists I'd guessed ahead of time, but that really didn't matter here, as I don't think it was ever supposed to be suspenseful in that way. I had some questions left by the end of it (mostly concerning Mia), but all in all, I found it very enjoyable.
Grower's Omen - Audrey Faye, 4/5, 162 pages
A bit slower to take off than the first book in the series, but once it did, I enjoyed it just as much. Especially the ethical dilemma Tyra faced, and her absolute dedication to staying on the right side of the equations, even if she did have to cross certain lines along the way.
After reading the first one, I was glad to see that there didn't seem to be any romantic interest for Tyra in this one. While I loved the story of Kish and Devan, I still appreciate that the focus is on the Fixers' jobs, rather than on getting them all paired up ;)
Paper Towns - John Green, 3.5/5, 305 pages
I watched the movie before reading the book, and don't know if that had any influence of my enjoyment of the book. It's ridiculously readable, just like John Green's other books, but I don't think it packed the same punch that "Looking for Alaska" and "The Fault in Our Stars" did.
I didn't care much for neither 'Q' or Margo (one too insecure, the other too self-centered), but I absolutely loved the road-trip Q, Ben, Radar and Lacey went on to find Margo. Those chapters made the book, with its depiction of the easy friendship between the four of them.
I think I liked this ending better than the one in the movie though. There seemed to be more closure for all of them.
Spun by Sorcery - Barbara Bretton, 2.5/5, 324 pages
Definitely the weakest of the lot, unfortunately. I liked the general plot well enough, but a lot of the details made me want to roll my eyes - which is annoying enough when it's obviously the intention, but even worse when it's involuntary.
I still like Chloe and Luke, and would like to know what happens to them next, but as the books have been slowly declining in quality, I may just pretend it's a trilogy (as the ending was relatively free from loose threads) and end my visit to Sugar Maple here.
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis*, 5/5, 158 pages
I first read this one as a teenager, and have been fascinated with the idea of not only life on other planets, but religion on other planets ever since. But then, why should the Earth be the only planet God ever revealed Himself to? If indeed there is life on other planets, wouldn't it make more sense that God revealed Himself there too, rather than that he didn't? It's a brilliant book, and the descriptions of Malechandra wonderfully other-worldly.
Book of the Month: Grower's Omen, although none really stood out this month.
Biggest disappointment: Thyme Out. While certainly not the book I rated the lowest, it was the one I'd had the highest expectations of ahead of time, and thus the biggest disappointment. The Fun Family was the worst book I read this month though.
To Have and to Code - Debora Geary*, 4/5, Audiobook ~8hrs
Not her best, but I still like this insight into Nell and Daniel's background :)
I'd Know You Anywhere - Laura Lippman, 2.5/5, 386 pages
This book could have been awesome, but unfortunately it just fell flat. It was told from multiple POVs, but all four were utterly unsympathetic, which made it really difficult to actually care about what happened. Also, the asides about the children seemed pointless, and never actually went anywhere, so I wonder why Laura Lippman put them in there in the first place.
I almost gave up several times, but the writing was good, and kept pulling me back - I got curious, and wanted to see where it ended.
Fortunately the book did improve, as Eliza lost some of her doormat tendencies and started acting rather than just reacting to things, and the end was satisfactory - although less suspenseful than I had expected.
Thyme Out - Katie Fforde, 2.5/5, 384 pages
(also published as "Second Thyme Around")
It's difficult for me to give this a fair rating, as the different parts of the book were of so very, VERY varied quality.
The first 100 pages infuriated me, and I felt like tossing it across the room. If it hadn't come very highly recommended by people whose opinions I trust, I wouldn't have gotten any further. But I stuck with it, and fortunately it improved, until the last 100 pages, where I had a very had time putting the book down. So with the first 100 pages deserving just 1 star, and the last 100 pages deserving 4 stars, I decided to average it out.
My problems with the book can be boiled down to just one thing - lack of boundaries. In those first 100 pages, Perdita decides she knows better than Lucas how to run his restaurant ("Oh, but she did it for a good cause!" Grrr. So what if she did? That doesn't give her the right! Lucas would have had every right to fire Janey because of it), and Lucas stomps all over Perditia's boundaries not one, not two, but three times. But because he turns around and helps her with Kitty, we're supposed to just forget all of that? In any real-life relationship where somebody behaved like this, I'd call red flags all over the place. Seriously, the "jerk with a heart of gold" trope is getting old. The good things he does later, don't cancel out his jerk'ish behaviour earlier.
*Sigh*
Fortunately after the first 100 pages both Perditia's and Lucas' behaviour improved, and the plot turned a lot more enjoyable, so I no longer considered giving it up as a DNF. I was still slightly disappointed in it, as I'd had it recommended to me as a "foodie novel" which wasn't the case at all - it was a romance, plain and simple. Sure, one of the characters worked in a restaurant, but that part took up a LOT less page-space than I had expected. I also wish we'd have gotten to see Roger's reaction to getting his comeuppance, but that's a minor detail.
All in all, not a book I'd recommend. But if you do end up reading it, try to just ignore the first 100 pages, and the rest of the book will be a lot better for it.
Seeds of Discovery - Breeana Puttroff, 4/5, Audiobook ~7hrs
A bit slow to start, but that may have been because I 'read' it as an audiobook rather than a physical book. Once it did take off I really enjoyed it. It's a different take on the normal YA fantasy, and I liked the mix.
I loved seeing Quinn's growing friendship with William and Thomas, and was pleased that at least in this book, no romantic tangles were included.
A charming book, and with enough of a plot of its own to not just feel like a "setting the scene" novel. It didn't make me feel like I have to rush out and read the next one immediately (mostly because I'm afraid Quinn will get into some annoying situations due to her secret - there were signs of this already in this book), but I may eventually. It was sweet.
The Fun Family - Benjamin Frisch, 1/5, 240 pages
I received this book as an ARC in return for an honest review.
Let's get the good stuff out of the way first - I liked the style of the drawings in this, even if it did get difficult to tell Mike and Robby apart at times, and the mother's face had a weird shape.
There. That was it.
There was literally nothing I enjoyed about this comic. I kept reading it, under the assumption that it just HAD to get better eventually... but it never did. Instead it ended on an extreme low, that just made me push the book away in disgust.
Full disclosure - I don't know Benjamin Frisch, and have no clue if the Fun family is based on a newspaper comic strip of some kind. If that's the case, I can see Benjamin Frisch getting so tired of his own story, that he felt the need to write a book about their life going to hell in a hand basket, in order to get some sort of therapeutic release. That would make sense, and that would make the book make sense. It wouldn't make it any more enjoyable, but at least I'd understand what he was trying to do.
Instead what I got was a book full of dysfunctional adults and only marginally less dysfunctional kids. Until the very end, I'd sort of expected that the grandmother's ghost would help the family get back on their feet again, but instead she just introduced a whole new level of weirdness into their lives.
The parents were the worst though. They kept making bad decision after bad decision, leaving the kids to bear the brunt of it and pick up the pieces. I wanted to kick some sense into both the mother and father, for them to wake up and take responsibility already!
A deeply unpleasant book that I wouldn't recommend to anybody.
I Hate Fairyland: Madly Ever After - Skottie Young, 3/5, 128 pages
This was... extraordinarily weird! Not necessarily bad-weird, but totally unexpected. I read most of it with my eyebrows up and my jaw down, wondering how on earth I had entered this surreal universe.
The drawings were great - although perhaps slightly too detailed at times, which could get slightly gross. The plot pretty unique, and the main character unusually unpleasant. This is definitely not a comic I'd hand to a girl who likes princesses - but very possibly to a boy who likes the unconventional.
Really not what I had expected, and as such, I have a bit of a hard time figuring out what I think of it, but at the end of the day - I think I like it.
Fellside - M.R. Carey, 3.5/5, 496 pages
I read and loved "The Girl With All the Gifts" earlier this year, so when I discovered "Fellside" on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. And I'm very happy to have read it. While it couldn't quite live up to my expectations, I had a hard time putting it down, and could never figure out what would happen next.
The writing style is just as good as in his earlier book, although perhaps not quite as tight. I did feel some of the chapters were superfluous, and that it would have benefitted from being cut down just a bit. Mostly, it frustrated me that other than Jess, there were no real sympathetic characters - not even Alex, whom I'd expected to be supposed to like.
It started out strong, the middle fell a bit flat, and then it ended on a strong - albeit unexpected - note as well. I don't think it's a book I'm likely to reread, but that's mostly because the surprises along the way is what makes this book so fascinating the first time around.
Camp Midnight - Steven T. Seagle, 3/5, 248 pages
A fun, quick comic. I was slightly disturbed by the utter disinterest shown by the parents (well, mostly the step-monster I guess, but I also didn't like that a) camp was sprung on Skye as a surprise, and that they couldn't even remember the name of the camp).
Many of the twists I'd guessed ahead of time, but that really didn't matter here, as I don't think it was ever supposed to be suspenseful in that way. I had some questions left by the end of it (mostly concerning Mia), but all in all, I found it very enjoyable.
Grower's Omen - Audrey Faye, 4/5, 162 pages
A bit slower to take off than the first book in the series, but once it did, I enjoyed it just as much. Especially the ethical dilemma Tyra faced, and her absolute dedication to staying on the right side of the equations, even if she did have to cross certain lines along the way.
After reading the first one, I was glad to see that there didn't seem to be any romantic interest for Tyra in this one. While I loved the story of Kish and Devan, I still appreciate that the focus is on the Fixers' jobs, rather than on getting them all paired up ;)
Paper Towns - John Green, 3.5/5, 305 pages
I watched the movie before reading the book, and don't know if that had any influence of my enjoyment of the book. It's ridiculously readable, just like John Green's other books, but I don't think it packed the same punch that "Looking for Alaska" and "The Fault in Our Stars" did.
I didn't care much for neither 'Q' or Margo (one too insecure, the other too self-centered), but I absolutely loved the road-trip Q, Ben, Radar and Lacey went on to find Margo. Those chapters made the book, with its depiction of the easy friendship between the four of them.
I think I liked this ending better than the one in the movie though. There seemed to be more closure for all of them.
Spun by Sorcery - Barbara Bretton, 2.5/5, 324 pages
Definitely the weakest of the lot, unfortunately. I liked the general plot well enough, but a lot of the details made me want to roll my eyes - which is annoying enough when it's obviously the intention, but even worse when it's involuntary.
I still like Chloe and Luke, and would like to know what happens to them next, but as the books have been slowly declining in quality, I may just pretend it's a trilogy (as the ending was relatively free from loose threads) and end my visit to Sugar Maple here.
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S. Lewis*, 5/5, 158 pages
I first read this one as a teenager, and have been fascinated with the idea of not only life on other planets, but religion on other planets ever since. But then, why should the Earth be the only planet God ever revealed Himself to? If indeed there is life on other planets, wouldn't it make more sense that God revealed Himself there too, rather than that he didn't? It's a brilliant book, and the descriptions of Malechandra wonderfully other-worldly.
Book of the Month: Grower's Omen, although none really stood out this month.
Biggest disappointment: Thyme Out. While certainly not the book I rated the lowest, it was the one I'd had the highest expectations of ahead of time, and thus the biggest disappointment. The Fun Family was the worst book I read this month though.
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