Nikki D'Aloia

An enthralling tale from start-to-finish. There were quite a few plot-points that I didn't see coming. Although sometimes the narrator, Daniel, had the voice of a thirty-year-old man than a child, even when he was a child, but since the story was told in retrospect, that came to make a lot more sense. One of the few books I've read that has an almost mosaic, spellbinding prose and just enough details to entice without feeling bare-boned. This was the first full-length Spanish-language novel that I read when I was about sixteen, and I thoroughly was enamoured with it. That feeling hasn't changed one bit in reading the English. This is one I would recommend both in Spanish and English to a lot of my fellow readers.

A luxurious start, and luscious middle, and a less-than-satisfying end. Whilst it did tie in loose ends in accordance to ‘Shadow with the Wind,' I found myself not quite comprehending what had just happened overall in relation to the particular plot-line. Certain characters, as in the main ‘antagonist', should have received more ‘read-time', in my opinion. But still, well-crafted, and very much visually stimulating; and the ‘mystery' part of it delivered quite well.

I took Professor Miller's class on the optative back in 2013-2014. I was pleased to see the analysis of several texts and conversations that I recognised make it into this novel, as well as some expansion on points that we didn't have time to reach in the class. Back then, it was one of the most life-changing experiences I ever had. Still I remember how reading Thomas Hardy's “The Going” aloud shifted something in my brain. This novel was no different. It was difficult to get through in the sense that I kept having to put it down to think; this is not a mindless read. I read it during the month that I needed it the most, sitting closely with my grief, the same that was affecting me back then. Though I don't remember the exact conversation, I do remember Prof. Miller finding me after that class where I read the poem and us discussing things more thoroughly. This novel felt like a conversation. I will be re-reading it again. It has once again adjusted how I wish to write my own novels moving forward.

If you are looking for life and text analysis that will unsettle you and make you consider your POVs, this is the novel for you. If you're not, you will dislike it. And perhaps that makes a difference too. I am simply glad that this is not one of the books that will be left un-read for me in this life.

An intense character study about the unravelling of the self for the sake of others. Morrison took this by the reins and forces you to stare different versions of corruption in the face. Not for the faint of heart; potentially triggering content in the latter one-third of the book. Speculative, intrinsic. In some places, it felt as though it was too slow and speculative, but these places paid off through how she wove all of the threads together. Beware of a non-too-happy ending, but sometimes, that's life.

One of the biggest sucker-punches to the stomach that I have read in a long time.

Erdrich's prose, stunning to me. Descriptive, tugs you in, real, blunt without being crude. A new, major inspiration to my own. The lack of quotations around dialogue threw me off in the start, but it came to help draw me into the story even better by the end. Demonstrating the complex feelings of family, the consequences of actions, emotional and physical and intangible. This is definitely not a novel that you read in one fell swoop; after each chapter, I had to pause and let it sink its teeth into me a little deeper. It affected me in a personal manner, as well. Unveiled some wounds.

This is one of those novels that if you read it at the right time in your life, it'll linger with you. And even if you don't, it'll linger anyway, against your will. Maybe there were things I was dissatisfied with, but they feel unimportant and didn't chase me away because I can't remember them.

I also recommend this to anybody who wants to understand even a little the struggles of tribal law.

My first foray into reading Toni Morrison; this is a wild scream of a book. Intellectual and casual prose, mingled with character development and relationships and madness, mingled with the real-time decay of an ages-old friendship. It was like watching a karma wheel go around and around, and the ending was satisfying in a strange way. It has definitely piqued my interest into reading more of Toni Morrison's books. More deep-dives into the inner workings of what makes a soul? Please. With this splash of magical realism and that suspension of disbelief, there really wasn't a single disinteresting part to me.

I was expecting the sort of thrill and fill that I received reading her other Gothic potboiler, but alas. The ghost here was little to ghostly at all, and barely made an appearance. There were sometimes, I wasn't too sure of what was going on, and I found myself confused more often than not about who was speaking and who was who. Although always somewhat of a joy to read Alcott, this didn't give me anything that I was looking for and I can see why this is a lesser-known work.

A laborious, thoroughly-explained explanation of what it means to be Russian & how that manifests in the lives of the well-off and the not-so-well. I give it three stars, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. In fact, I very much did. Although I would've preferred for it to be titled something else, or at least for the title character to have more of something to do with it, you realise in the last three-quarters that everything had to do with her. It's not necessarily a book about anything except the sheer magnitude of human energy & that influence on others. The explanations might drag onward into small history lessons, but as someone who likes them, I found the majority of them to be interesting ( although, of course, there were many that weren't. ) Three stars means that I probably won't be giving this a re-read, now that I've finally finished it, but it's something that I will recall & be able to discuss thoroughly. In my opinion, the prose reads a bit like a discussion; whilst things are not left “open-ended”, there are many places where you could easily drift off into conversation with whomever is reading it with you, much like the characters & the narrators drift off. I think Tolstoy does a very good job in reflecting just how stream-of-consciousness human beings are, and how all of us have moments of intense self-introspection. Realistic, lengthy, and arduous.