Laura

More of a 3.5 than a 3 for me.

Freshwater is an incredibly creative debut novel with beautiful prose. We follow Ada's life from the womb to adulthood, a vessel for gods who are unable to leave her body and immerge as new personalities after Ada undergoes traumatic experiences.

I enjoyed the overall themes of the book, but what I found difficult was the storytelling and how the reader learns about Ada. There was a lot of jumping around and new context to past versions of Ada that we don't find out until much later, which feels kind of bad as a reader. Why is the author withholding important character progression from Ada's childhood until the last few chapters? There's no payoff in doing that, and it just feels like new information comes out of nowhere without any warning.

We also don't really learn much about Ada herself, only how she lives through others (mostly men) and how her alters/gods within her (Asughara and Saint Vincent) push her to self harm and pursue sexual opportunities. It became difficult to keep up with all the characters she was interacting with and really could have focused more on the few more impactful characters in Ada's story to drive more character development. There are only so many sexcapades you can read about until they all start blending together into a depressing blob of sweat and shame (for Ada at least).

It felt a lot more shallow than I was hoping, I guess. I was expecting some more mysticism, more about Ada's “real mother” (the snake), more ways the gods effected her than just causing her to harm herself or sleep with people. We don't learn much about Ada's studies, career, friendships, detailed world-travels, or daily interactions and how they're affected by her condition.

There were some really outstanding moments in the book and a lot of very confusing, bland, or unresolved moments too. What shines in this book is the prose and the themes.

Structure: ★★★ Prose: ★★★ Pacing: ★★ Intrigue: ★★ Logic: ★★ Enjoyment: ★★Overall Rating: ★★A strange and vague guide on green witchcraft that feels unsatisfying to the end.I'll preface that I'm not a witch, nor am I very familiar with practices or origins of witchcraft of any kind, which is why I was interested in this book. Therefore, my opinions may be uninformed, so take this review with a grain of salt.I found that Murphy-Hiscock explained the ideals and general practices of green witchcraft fairly well, although I've seen many reviews from witches stating otherwise. I did find that the concessions to make witchcraft accessible for everyone were a little hokey. That one should make shrines to each element, but you don't actually need an object like a candle or a jar of water, that a photo of fire or a waterfall will work just fine? I can't imagine communing with a postcard of Niagara Falls. Secondly, the author tends to give information with a high level of conviction but no information or citations to back it up. I understand this is a craft that is carried down more in person than through cited sources, but she included plenty of sources in the back of the book without citing to them. The sources also don't leave the reader with much confidence, with books like “Witchcraft for Dummies” included in her research.I also found that there was a lot of general knowledge that is sure to leave a lot of newcomers a bit directionless after reading. Things like telling readers to find their local plants and use them in their spells is just like saying, “Find local vegetables and make a meal with them.” It's kind of an obvious thing to suggest and yet doesn't give any specifics on what kind of things to look for and what specific spells to use them with.I was really hoping to learn about the origins of green witchcraft and the role of green witches in their heyday, but there wasn't much in the way of historical learning. It really felt like a white-centric point of view on witchcraft without delving into various cultural impacts on modern witchcraft, so I think there are probably much better books to learn about witches and wiccan practices.The last section was what I had most looked forward to before even reading the book. That is, the recipe and ingredient guide. This was probably the most useful and informative section, although there were also a lot of generalizations there too without any regard for botany or geology. Even in the recipe section there we recipes like the one for an “Herbal Milk Bath” that just called for water, milk and “herbs”. Why even write that recipe if it doesn't call for something specific? Why not create a few “milk bath” recipes with different herbal blends for different uses? In conclusion, this kind of felt more like a cash-grab than a well-informed guide.

This story was just wholly enjoyable from cover to cover, and I found myself smiling in every chapter. Towles makes the mundane delightful to read, giving colour to every minor character and bringing every nook and cranny of the hotel to life. Towles sets the story in some of Russia's darkest and formative years and tells us only what a Count stuck in a hotel would experience during those times. We see the state of his country, not only through his experiences under house arrest, but through the many friends he meets in the hotel. We see that as the world changes around the hotel, he and the building remain the same. Because of that, The Count works as a positive force to all who meet him, regardless of faction, age, or gender. A wonderful story where the journey is internal.

This book is praised as one of the best introductory readings for new ad people, and I understand why. The book is packed with tricks, tips, and life lessons from the ad world. That being said...

The book is packed with tangents and redundant quotes that remind me of a college student trying to reach a word count and show that they “read the material” in an essay. Sullivan fills a good quarter of the book with pretentious quotes from various friends or ad people that just reiterate what Sullivan said in the paragraph above it. It's a slog to read through when every other paragraph starts with “[Author] of [Book you'll never read] said [quote that adds little value to the reading]”. It makes the pacing odd and the reading feel repetitive.

The book could easily be half as long and convey the same amount of information. There are sections of this book that that go on for paragraphs to express the importance of being concise in your writing (ironic). Where one to two sentences suffice, Sullivan writes two to three paragraphs, peppering in obscure and dated references that younger readers likely wouldn't understand or relate to (I know some went over my head).

This book is good if you skim it. Most of the idea is communicated in the subtitle for each section.

Characters: ★★★★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★★★ Plot: ★★★★★ Intrigue: ★★★★★ Relationships: ★★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★Overall Rating: ★★★★★A brilliant tale following expert con artist Locke Lamora and his crew as they venture out of out of their depth.First of all, I'm a sucker for a good heist story, especially in a medieval setting. Secondly, Lynch has a gift for crafting imperfect characters that you want to root for. His prose is so pleasant to read, and he somehow has a way of making crude language blend in flawlessly with the rest of his writing. It's astonishing that this is Lynch's debut.I loved the flashback chapters where we learned more about Locke and Jean's transformative upbringing and relationship growth. It really sets up a lot for the latter half of the story, and I'm sure will deeply play into the following books. The twists and turns, revelations and surprises within the plot made for an immersive and gripping story that you never wanted to end.In conclusion, this is one of the best bromances I've read in a while (but not quite on the level of Royce and Hadrian in Riyria) and I'm excited to read the rest in the series!

Nearly 300 pages of vigorous ego stroking.

Are you interested in reading paragraphs of excruciating Tolkien-esque detail about MJK's next-level dog food organization? Maybe you want to hear the authors describe themselves as a super hot couple, small and slender and tall and chiselled, in their early days. Or purhaps you love poetic prose about how laaame every other local band's posters were and how truly inspiring and aesthetic MJK's poster design was for early Tool shows. If so, this book is for you!

2 stars because at least it told his story, even if it made me like him a lot less.

Structure: ★★ Prose: ★★★★ Pacing: ★★ Intrigue: ★★★ Logic: ★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★Overall Rating: ★★★A food-focused history of one of the world's most infamous minerals.I love the idea of looking at history through the lens of a particular subject or commodity, but with specific subject matter comes the risk of becoming repetitive or dull. Salt: A World History unfortunately suffers from this. While Kurlansky offers fascinating historical data surrounding salt and its uses around the globe, there's only so many ways you can make preserving food (particularly several types of fish) interesting.The book does provide some intriguing information on cultural uses of salt, like the preservation of bodies in Egypt and the currency of salarium for Roman soldiers. I was, however, hoping to see more of that type of information. Why is salt part of so many superstitions for instance?The structure of the book was a little all over the place, literally. We jump through time and venture different regions of the world somewhat randomly, only to learn how they also used salt to preserve various food. Kurlansky also provides several recipes throughout the book, which is another thing that is interesting until you've read a few, and then they tend to blend into each other.In conclusion, there were some grains of interesting information in a mine of mundane.

This seems to be a controversial book, and I get why. Who do I recommend this to without seeming like a weirdo? There are very disturbing character monologues and scenes in this book, which is off-putting to a lot of people.

So why do I think it's a 5-star? This book hits differently. It shows the reader how mental illness, specifically in Asian cultures, is sometimes ignored, shamed, and misunderstood. The story follows Yeong-hye, not through her own perspective, but from the perspectives of her husband, brother-in-law, and sister. Each perspective tells a very different story about Yeong-hye, and everyone has their own interpretations of the level of her illness. We see her, not as a woman with her own thoughts, desires, or dreams; we see her as the “other”. We watch her decline on the inside from an outside view.

The story is haunting, confusing and grotesque because that's what developing and coming to terms with severe mental illness is.

Characters: ★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★ Plot: ★★★ Intrigue: ★★★ Relationships: ★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★Rating: ★★★The Dark Forest struggles with the same issues as its predecessor but ends on a high note.We continue our story throughout the next few hundred years with humanity trying desperately to come up with a plan to defend themselves against the ominous Trisolarans. In this second book, I found the plot lagging along and suffered from a distinct lack of dehydration. We primarily follow Luo Ji, a sexist astronomer who has never felt true love. It's fine to have an unlikable character, but nearly all of the characters in The Dark Forest are hard to read about. We spend far too long learning about Luo Ji's creation of his dream woman and his visions of her throughout the story. He even goes so far as to use government funding to find a real version of her, a woman who somehow is okay with all this and is happy to marry and have a child with him.It's not just Luo Ji who is unlikable. All of the Wallfacers are stiff, self-involved, and apparently unable to come up with even an inkling of a plan to save humanity without mass murdering the very people they're aiming to protect. I found this a little unimaginative and lazy. I also found the use of time-jumping with cryostasis a bit convenient to move the plot along. We enter the future where everything has been progressing along, but no further progress was attempted towards the Wallfacer project. No new Wallfacers of later generations were assigned, and humanity has mostly become overconfident that they'll beat the Trisolarans when they arrive. We really believe no other attempts would be made? The ETO just dissolved?It was hard to read the droplet scene. Not because it was horrific and graphic, but because I cannot believe that humanity as a whole anticipated this droplet for 200 years and once it arrived they assumed that it was friendly? It was sent 200 years ago, when humanity was even less of a threat. I would have thought humanity got smarter and more aware of extra-terrestrial dangers following the Trisolaran contact. Nope!The last quarter of the book becomes a lot more compelling, with the reveal of Luo Ji's plan and the final conversations with the Trisolarans. Is Luo Ji's plan also just a fuck humanity to fuck the Trisolarans plan like all the other Wallfacers? Yes! But at least he's not DIRECTLY doing it. It is one of the better plans, and it created a really compelling cliffhanger into the next book, which I will probably end up begrudgingly reading.In conclusion, I hope I don't have to read about imaginary dream girls for the rest of the year.

Characters: ★★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★ Plot: ★★★ Intrigue: ★★★★ Relationships: ★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★Overall Rating: ★★★A vampire horror in which the scariest part is having to babysit three insatiably hungry children.We follow unreliable narrator, Joey Peacock who is a forever-teen vampire who's been roaming New York City for the better part of 60 years. He lives underground with his small found family of vamps in the forgotten corners of NYC's subway systems. He spends his nights charming people into letting him eat them, assaulting unwitting women, and getting kicked out of nightclubs. Classic vampire stuff. It's when he comes upon a group of child vampires that things really start to unravel.This story had some predictable twists and turns, and some unpredictable that didn't feel like they made much sense. None of the characters were very likeable, but hey, they're vampires. Should they be likeable? This was the first of Buehlman's books I've read and in the two I've finished, they both included child or childlike characters in graphically sexual situations. I don't care to read more to see if this is a trend in all his works, but having two in a row with this subject matter was enough for me to retire this author.The plot moved along at a good pace and it was an easy read but I found the inner thoughts of the main character to feel odd considering it's supposed to be a 60 year old vampire who was transformed as a teen in the turn of the century, yet sounds like a teen from the 1970's and beyond. Even then, it's not even his voice; just meant to sound like his he's been telling the story all along. Some of the key plot points felt lazy (it was right in front of us the whole time! forehead slap) and the character choices seemed unrealistic at times in order to drive the story forward. In conclusion, even vampire kids are annoying.

Characters: ★★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★ Plot: ★★★★ Intrigue: ★★★ Relationships: ★★ Enjoyment: ★★★The Three-Body Problem brings forth some interesting scientific theories to a classic alien invasion story that overall left me apathetic.Three-Body really shines in an academic sense, with well-researched historical fiction elements and scientific theory dumbed down for layman understanding. The plot is engaging, the mystery is compelling and the ending leaves you wanting more.However, there are a few problems I have in this book.It's incredibly bleak. Don't get me wrong, some of my favourite books torture the characters through seemingly unwinnable scenarios, but Three-Body takes this to another level. Earth is a cesspool of corruption, deceit and disregard for life, and every character you meet proves this through victimhood, betrayal, or both.There are two characters you hold any stake in—Ye Wenjie and Shi Qiang (Da Shi)—and the rest are expendable characters lacking personality or growth, that just serve to drive the plot forward. Some characters, like Mike Evans, seem to come into the plot as a convenient tool to drive the ETO forward. It's a glaring problem for me in a book where I am (maybe) supposed to root for humanity and I don't care about, let alone like, almost every single character.Building on convenient plots and overall lazy writing, I found the Sophons to be a strange plot convenience. I'll admit, I'm just a dumb regular sci-fi reader with no science background, but I find it hard to suspend my disbelief of tiny proton-sized computers programmed not only to disrupt particle colliders (I could work with that), but also project communication at faster-than-light speeds to target humans?Not only that, but the Three-Body VR game seemed like a strange vehicle to spread awareness of the Trisolarin problem. The ETO may want to recruit the top minds based on their ability to solve the Three-Body game, but the actual solution is an existing theory called the Three-Body Problem. Could a layman not Google the name of the game and figure out the answer to the mystery fairly easily? Are there no game guides in this universe where one nerd completes the game and shares the solve for everyone else? Why would the ETO only want to recruit people who can truly understand the science behind the Trisolarins' planetary problem if they would benefit from the masses being empathetic to the aliens? The VR game felt like a convoluted approach to express the same information in a more ‘sci-fi' way.In conclusion, the best takeaway from this novel is that I can find so many circumstances to exclaim, “Dehydrate!” in everyday life now.

Characters: ★★★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★★ Plot: ★★★ Intrigue: ★★★ Relationships: ★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★Overall Rating: ★★★½He's Farouking with everyone's mind! Only Xavier is a match for the Shadow King.I haven't read much X-Men and I definitely haven't read any Shadow King stories until now, but I did watch and love Legion as my first foray into the X-Men universe (other than the blockbuster movies). Because of my existing love for the Shadow King character, I found this story more enjoyable than if I was going in with no previous knowledge. The plot was fairly simple but the heroes' struggles were exciting to read and I was just waiting to see how Xavier's secret plans might unfold. In conclusion, it was a fun one-night read that made me want to watch Legion again but it isn't making my top comics list.

This is an extremely long book that spends so much time developing characters that you inevitably don't care all that much about when something happens to them. Many of the characters were boring or straight up unlikable, so listening to their struggles for 50 pages at a time gets to be monotonous, and the explicit scenes felt a bit gratuitous and unnecessary in parts. I found they didn't really add much to the story and seemed like they were added for a horror or shock element in an otherwise slow and uneventful novel.

The premise was really exciting and the looming threat of the Dark Man really made me hope for more mystical/fantastical moments. I also hoped for more from Abigail, since I really loved her character and place in the overall story. In the end we're left questioning who these two really are and what place they really have in the overall world. Are they really the embodiments of Good and Evil? Have they always been “the chosen ones”? Did they somehow have a part in the plague? No questions are really answered... Which is very on-brand for a religious themed plot, but I found it left me unsatisfied.

In 1000 pages of build-up you really hope for some sort of battle for Good vs. Evil, sabotage, enlightenment... Anything. But we're really just left with a confusing turn of events and a lackluster end thought.

I loved the prose, but it wasn't enough to read 1000+ pages of people walking, eating, and talking a whole lot.

Structure: ★★★★★ Prose: ★★★★ Pacing: ★★★★★ Intrigue: ★★★★★ Logic: ★★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★Overall Rating: ★★★★★A selection of adventures from Caitlin Doughty's optimistically death-filled life.I've been a longtime fan of Doughty's online videos and I really enjoyed her “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” memoire I read a couple of years ago. Caitlin is a trailblazer in death-positive education, creating informative and hilarious videos on her YouTube channel about the funeral industry, cultural death practices and macabre stories like her series on “Famous Corpses”. From Here to Eternity deep dives into Doughty's experiences with people around the world who practice ancient and modern death rituals that challenge social norms. I love her prose, and she has such an authentic voice in her memoires.In conclusion, I will eat up anything Caitlin Doughty writes. She is singlehandedly teaching the world that death doesn't have to mean caskets or cremation, and is fighting to give people the power to choose their version of ‘the good death'.