Allison

I felt kind of let down by this book. I'm not much of a Russell/Holmes ‘shipper and though it was obvious from the first novel that King was pushing them toward a romantic union, I felt it was unnecessary and a bit far-fetched. In this book, even after two years of marriage, their relationship seems virtually unchanged and it would have been nice to see a little development there.

Mostly I was disappointed by the mystery. Mary was off on a wild-goose chase for a good third of the novel for no other reason than, I suppose, to give her something to do and for an excuse for a few feminist rants. However correct they were, I didn't feel like they added anything of interest to the story. Then the mystery seemed to mostly solve itself. The “villain” was ridiculous and the motive was ridiculous. It was almost as if the author started out trying to make a mystery based on this mysterious letter and then decided that it was too much effort and settled for something very ho-hum.

I really enjoyed the first Mary Russell novel, and liked the second quite a bit – though somewhat less than the first. I'll give the fourth a go, but I really hope it doesn't continue this downward trend.

I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, ‘Oryx and Crake' or this book, but I definitely suggest that you read ‘Oryx and Crake' first and then follow it up with ‘The Year of the Flood.' They are both excellent dystopian novels.

I wasn't one of those that was disappointed by the way ‘Oryx and Crake' ended, but that may have been because unlike those who read it when it was first published, I knew that there was a companion novel. At any rate, I highly recommend both novels to anyone who is a fan of Atwood, or dystopian novels in general.

I really enjoyed Larsson's first book in the series and was happy to find out that my library had finally gotten Book #2. This time around, however, the “mystery” [such as it was:] didn't grab me and I found Lisbeth even more unlikable than before. I was more exhausted than titillated by the overwhelming dossiers on every character's sex life. I pushed on past the section that read like an IKEA catalog, but not much farther. Eventually I just couldn't summon any interest and my stack of books to read is too high to waste time slogging through one that I don't like.

I tore through the entire book in a day, but despite that I don't want to give it a full five-stars. I'm a fan of comedic footnotes [see Terry Pratchett:], but the self-promotional footnotes started wearing a little thin about halfway through the book. And for some reason Izzy irritated me a bit more than usual. I went through a similar thing with Janet Evanovich. I read through the first six or seven books in the Stephanie Plum series in no time, but just found myself getting more and more tired of the main character's behavior.

I know Izzy is supposed to be zany and kooky and I'm sure the books would not be as much fun if she only made sensible, adult decisions, but I think Lutz pushes it a bit too far sometimes.

Regardless, it was a fun little read and I'll definitely pick up the next in the series when that comes around.

I scanned over the little reviews on the inside pages of the book and got the impression that I was supposed to really connect with the two narrators and just be amazed by this book. I was amazed – that so many people enjoyed it. I found the narrators ridiculously stupid, particularly Renee. She's supposed to be brilliant, but pretends to be an idiot because... apparently a concierge is supposed to be an idiot and heaven forbid she fail to fulfill a stereotype that I'm not really sure exists. Paloma I found less irritating, but I can make a lot of concessions for a 12-year-old. The first part read like a philosophical wank-fest and the second part [which I admittedly only skimmed:] read like a bad Harlequin romance. On a more pleasant note, I like the cover design. Kudos to whoever did that.

I've read an awful lot of post-apocalypse, mass-extinction type novels. I'm a fan of the trope, I suppose. This novel takes that setup and tells a thoughtful story about how the world moves on and what is really necessary for humanity beyond simply survival. Definitely would recommend, particularly if you're a fan of Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy.

Interesting concept. A school of the arts that is also a ‘Truman Show' for the students who are watched and ranked by their viewers 12 hours a day. The other 12 hours are spent in a school-mandated, drug-induced sleep. Theoretically the required sleep is to stimulate creativity in the students, but one of the students suspects there are other reasons and decides to stop taking her sleeping pill to find out what really goes on at night.

I liked the idea of what happens to a person with no alone time. 12 hours on constant camera and 12 hours in a comatose state. How does it affect you if none of your time is your own? But, I think I was hoping for a different sort of story. It took a strange, not totally unwelcome turn, but it was too underdeveloped to really work. And then, abruptly, it was over. I'm not philosophically opposed to open endings, but this one fell flat.

Really captivating, well-written story that anthropomorphized the bees only so much that I could understand them, but never to the point that I forgot this was a story about bees. It really made me think about the effects of group-think and religious fervor and the power of one willing to forge her own course. Definitely recommended.

I was completely unspoiled by reviews, so I went into this book knowing next to nothing. The story starts out small; a boy, his sister, and the crumbling estate on which they live. Then we follow the boy, now a young man, to London as he struggles with his identity and his place in the world. And then, a totally different type of story takes over.
It was so well written, and the characters were well fleshed out, so I carried on. In the end, I was mostly satisfied, but still a little sad to lose the story in the first part.

I had some problems with the first two books, but it seemed like there was a serious drop-off in quality with this one. There were so many undeveloped or underdeveloped characters on the periphery that I had trouble keeping straight – and I'm a George R.R. Martin fan, so I don't have a problem with huge casts of characters if they're done well. My biggest issue with the book really was the relationship between the two main characters. Did I not notice the disturbing level of possessiveness in the first two books, or did it increase in this one? The entire book, I kept thinking, this is an abusive relationship, am I supposed to find this romantic? Ordinarily I wouldn't waste my time finishing, but I felt the need to finish the trilogy. Just disappointing.