Weadee

4.5
This book had everything I love about classic fantasy novels. Definitely not an epic but a soft tale filled with riddles & rhymes, talking cats, witty dialogue, a whimsical quest, a prince and of course, a unicorn!! The writing was so beautiful too and had a satisfying end :')

It's written just as you would expect any fairy tale to be written but never felt silly or childish. In a way it reminded me of the Little Prince. Nothing makes logical “sense” but I really like that. Peter Beagle essentially creates this world and plops us in it without explaining anything LOL.
We just start off with this unicorn who lives in a lilac wood. There's no world building, backstory or established rules. Even the magician doesn't understand his own magic The mythology is mixed up with all sorts of other fables and at one point Robin Hood even appears. Honestly anyone who likes The Princess Bride would enjoy this. I would read it again.

Not 5 stars but don't get me wrong! I really did enjoy this. I'm not sure why but something is stopping me from giving it a 5 so it's gonna sit here.

Final note: Also can I just say, I love when characters know they're in a fairy tale and give us great dialogue like this:
“They deserve their fate, they deserve worse. To leave a child out in the snow-“ “Well if they hadn't, he couldn't have grown up to be a prince. Haven't you been in a fairy tale before?”

“We are in a fairy tale, and must go where it goes.”

“Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.”

4.5
i enjoyed this one quite a bit. was a very clever book coupled with interestingly woven relationships and witty dialogue. the characters really hold everything together. once or twice the book is a little confusing (like the first few pages) but if you allow yourself to stop trying to “solve” it and sit through the discomfort, the puzzle starts to come together on its own. will have to revisit this one.

there are so many ways to take this book apart but i think this quote does it best:
“What I do when it distresses me that there's something I can't remember, is...I imagine that whatever it is I've forgotten is folded close to me, like a sleeping bird.What kind of bird? Elisabeth said.A wild bird, Daniel said. Any kind. You'll know what kind when it happens. Then, what I do is, I just hold it there, without holding it too tight, and I let it sleep. And that's that.”
:)

I don't have many thoughts to add to the book and I do not think anything I could say would do it justice so here are some of my favourite quotes instead. Hopefully they'll convince you to read it :)

(Narrator)
“To Paradise the happy seat of man,His journey's end and our beginning woe.”

(Satan)
“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” “So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;Evil be thou my good;”“Farewell happy fields,Where joy forever dwells: hail, horrors!”“Me miserable! Which way shall I flyInfinite wrath and infinite despair?Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;“The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”

(Adam)
“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me man? Did I solicit theeFrom darkness to promote me?” — also quoted in Frankenstein

(Raphael)
“Freely we serve,Because we freely love, as in our willTo love or not; in this we stand or fall.”“God made thee perfect, not immutable;”

✨And my favourite passage of all✨:

(God the Son)
“Behold me then, me for him, life for lifeI offer; on me let thine anger fall; Account me man: I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly dieWell pleased: on me let death wreak all his rage;”

(God the Father)
So man, as is most just,Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,And dying rise, and rising with him raiseHis brethren, ransomed with his own dear life.So Heavenly love shall outdo Hellish hate,Giving to death, and dying to redeem,So dearly to redeem what Hellish hateSo easily destroyed, and still destroysIn those who, when they may, accept not grace.

Random notes: This was difficult to get through but it's not impossible. The poetry can be read in several ways but I found the fastest and most enjoyable way was walking around reciting the poetry out loud to myself, the trees and anyone who would listen. Switching to the audiobook was also helpful for especially dense passages. Honestly, like 85% of the references went over my head and I got through it fine but if that really bothers you (or if you're a nerd or something) there are dozens of annotated versions out there. I was just here for the poetry ✌️. It's also very similar to a play and once you start really imagining it on stage, it flows quiet nicely.
-Book III was amazing.
-God the Son was my favourite character
-Abdiels insults to Satan should be taught in sunday school

3.5 - My rating is not based solely on how much I enjoyed the book because if it were, I would probably make it lower. I did not like it.

I love reading sad books and the idea of reading about her “decent into madness” intrigued me. I've heard so much about The Bell Jar and about how painfully accurate Plath's depiction of mental illness is, so I guess I was kind of hoping that I would find some parts of myself tucked away in the book and that it would be close to my heart. I was wrong. I felt disappointed at best, and at worst, like I finally aught to kill myself because that's supposedly the only thing that makes mental illness real. Disliking the book this much makes me feel like I have some sort of internalized phobia.

First of all, I just really did not like Esther :/ it feels awfully insensitive to say because I know this book is semi-autobiographical and Plath really did struggle, but Esther was insufferable. I mean, mann, I did not like her even before her breakdown but at least once she became depressed I felt a bit more empathy.

I get it. Being a women in the 1950s was hard and not everyone wants to get married or have a baby but why is that a reason to look down on those who do? In fact she looks down on nearly every single women/female companion in this book, it's ridiculous. In her eyes everyone is either boring, shallow, stupid or inferior. Even her mother! I could not understand for the life of me why she hated her mother so much. Even when she TRIED, nothing she did was ever good enough.

On top of that, I don't think having depression is an excuse to be racist or act like you are superior to other classes or ethnicities. I'm not even exaggerating, it made me feel like the book was set in the 30s. People continually defend the racist elements of this book as a product of the time blah blah blah and yes, I agree that those terms were common usage, but my annoyance came with her comparisons. Why is it every time she described herself as ugly, there just had to be a reference to some ethnicity. I do not think those descriptions were justified in the context or even good.

For example, there's a part where she writes

“I noticed a big smudgy-eyed Chinese women staring idiotically into my face. It was only me of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used-up I looked.”

or when Doreen mentions that a guy is from Peru, Esther says “they're ugly as Aztecs.”

Like??? It left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was literally no need for it either. Comments like those would come out of nowhere and irked me. You can write a book where the character calls someone a Nigger a million times for all I care but don't go and expect me to sympathize.

Of course, the poignancy of The Bell Jar comes from the fact that Sylvia Plath successfully commits suicide a decade later, but even Esther's view of depression frustrated me too. Countless times she undermines the plight of other women in the ward because no one else could possiblyyyyy be struggling. Of course we're all more privy to our own struggles, but at some point you have to realize other people are hiding their issues just as well as you. Should I stop taking medication so I'll finally descend into madness and kill myself to prove I'm as sick as you? Of course not, that's ridiculous, yet time after time the book could not seem to get away from this proverbial hierarchy where Esther was judge, jury and executioner.

And it frustrates me because Sylvia Plath is an excellent writer and I did enjoy her prose. There were parts of the book that were lovely to read like her visit to her father's grave or her walk along the beach. I just wish more of the book could have been like that but evidently I wouldn't have complained this much if it was.

Since I do not have it in me to read the same text 3 different times (sorry) I've decided to take the liberty of “marking as read” after going through the standard text. Maybe I'll read the additional poems later.

This edition is long but it's definitely worth it for the glossary, maps and time charts of Ancient Orient if you're into that. Regardless, the epic itself is short enough to read in one go if you have some time to spare and entertaining enough to keep you engaged. It's a great story!

Other than that, I don't really feel entitled to judge recovered poems by the same standards you would apply to any other epic work....but I feel like Andrew George's translation also played a role in how it read? You gotta hand it to him. This man took great pains to stay faithful to the original work (indicating all lacunae and ellipses etc.) but it made for a less fluent read. While I can appreciate having a good foundation, at times it became tasking; especially considering I'm not an academic!

wowow this book was really something else. I loved it :)) I even recommended it to my dad (who essentially only reads non-fiction,) so that should tell you enough. I just want to talk about this book with someone

set in 90s post-colonial Nigeria, the book portrays the massive tragedy of a family alongside the unraveling of a nation. all told from the perspective of the youngest brother, 9-year-old Benjamin. it scratched every itch in my body and is the perfect combination of west African storytelling, folklore, politics, and coming-of-age/boyhood. extremely well done on all fronts.

the narrative voice of this author. wow. it's immensely haunting and mythical and captured me from the start. not a single breath was wasted and Obioma pushed the story til the very end. it seriously did not even let up at the last sentence. what a thrilling finish. I cried.

the misfortune that befalls the boys and the disintegration of the lives around them was difficult to read but I think that's a testament to how well everything was crafted. the backdrop of Akure. the genuine family dynamics. the pacing. the deft lyrical prose. all brilliant. the biggest strength of this book was its characters and because so much hinges on our relationship with them as well as their distinct grief, Obioma wisely pours into them, then allows us to see what happens when they are broken and agony leaks out. there is much to be mulled over

a great read :)))) probably somewhere between 4.5 and 5 stars but giving it a 5 because I will support this man!!!!!

This book is a solid 3-3.5 for me. Maybe a 3.7 if you're rating the performances from the audiobook.

I was a little disappointed with how the book panned out. As far as the story goes, Sea of Tranquility didn't bring anything new or meaningful to the table for me to engage with :( And while that isn't a problem in and of itself, it lacked emotional and character depth to make up for it. It's a shame that we spend TEN chapters getting to know a character, only for him to be dropped for the rest of the book.

As simple as the book was, there were enough times I found myself confused. I'll admit that sometimes the questions I get stuck on are ones that are irrelevant, but its hard to suspend my disbelief when a book practically surrounds a decision that in my view, makes no sense if we know nothing about this character. Why does Gespery save Olive? Up until that point he's essentially asocial and there's no indication that he's a sensitive or emotional person. I'm not disagreeing with his decision, but there's not enough for me to buy it (especially considering his supposed dedication to his new line of work!!) We don't even see him wrestle. On top of that, the anomaly only exists because Gespery went back in time to investigate said anomaly. But why would he go back to investigate if the anomaly hadn't already existed? I'll let you get away with not explaining time travel, but I need you to explain that.

The book should've just been on Edwin.

Good Lord, I don't know when I'll stop crying. This book broke me in so many pieces. It was so awfully tragic yet enduringly sweet. Sue Bridehead has become my new favourite literary heroine even though I fear that I'll lead myself down the same path of suffering.

It was the the last half of the book that undid me