How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was quite hard to get into, and I'm not sure what to make of it. In the end, a plHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book was quite hard to get into, and I'm not sure what to make of it. In the end, a plot did exist, even if convoluted, and it did manage to draw me in, but at the same time, the book felt like a chore and I wished I could just find out what happens without slogging through the weird stuff that's in it for days on end.
It's all about grief, loss and anxiety and human relationships, but it's also just, I don't know, pretty pretentious. Like that super modernist play that everyone goes to just because of appearances, but only 3 people actually understand. A lot of the characters suffered from mental health issues as well, but I felt like the matters weren't treated with quite enough sensitivity.
Most of the characters are quite odd, aloof, and very hard to reconcile with images of real people. I couldn't figure out whether the author was trying to use magical realism or was that just what I'd call pretentiousness, because a lot of the characters were having some really odd problems with their lives. Everyone was complicated just for the sake of it, self-centered and so neck deep in their own significance, it got too much. I feel like maybe I could have vibed with this book in my early twenties when life felt like everything was about me and my problems, but now that I'm in my mid-thirties... I don't know. Not all things have to be this complicated.
It worthy to note that the book has A LOT of triggers too. Not sure I'll even list them all, but suicide, abortion/miscarriage, eating disorders - those are the few of the big ones. Family trouble, some addition trouble are less prominently mentioned, but still there. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. The book is not an easy read.
If this wasn't a review copy, I probably would have stopped reading. Hopefully, maybe this book is simply not for me and others will have liked it better. It wasn't badly written - it's just that the amount of weirdness in it is quite high, and it's not coupled with meaning I could find behind it all. If there's meaning, I can usually deal with the weirdness (and in certain cases, appreciate it all the more, even). But this was not the case.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
2.5 stars, rounded to 3
It's funny that Lemony Snicket's very praising review is the opener How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
2.5 stars, rounded to 3
It's funny that Lemony Snicket's very praising review is the opener of this book (at least my review copy, and I mean the praise page that often opens a book). Of course Lemony Snicket loved it! How could he not? Something about Rat Rule 79 is so much like his own books. I can't put my finger on it, but it feels like both the writing style, as well as the plot, has a lot of the same feel.
...Aaaand that's precisely why I didn't really vibe with this book. It was fine, and cute, but... There's just so much randomness. A lot of it barely made any sense, sometimes simply didn't. I don't enjoy that much randomness. (Or maybe I'm too adult and boring or something.)
I'm also sad to say that I didn't understand the point of the story or the ending. After finishing, I shrugged, backtracked and... Still didn't get it. What did I just read? I'm not sure what happened. I completely and utterly missed the whole idea :( (view spoiler)[What did happen to her mom? Where did she go and why? Was it because Fred was angry with her? But what did they resolve? Was it all a dream? What..? (hide spoiler)] Those are at least five or six questions after finishing the book, and I'm sure even more of them went unanswered.
But! Safe to say, if you loved Lemony Snicket's style, you will probably adore this book too. There are many people who did - so I'm assuming the rest of the reviews for Rat Rule 79 will be glowing! The book really is cute, the illustrations very unique and cool. The story was good too. And of course, the randomness - uniquely random. And - the author clearly has a lot of love for math, cause the story is sprinkled with a lot of very particular math facts, curiosities and details.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
This book is pretty messed up and I don't know what to make of it. I'm pretty sure I misHow I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
This book is pretty messed up and I don't know what to make of it. I'm pretty sure I missed some super deep insight, judging by the other reviews - but to me, it was just a book about a glorified abusive relationship and way too much sex that is given more meaning than it is due. The sex is portrayed as "the love". I understand the place of sex in a story, but I will never appreciate a story where that is all there is to love, especially when the relationship is clearly unhealthy. Ugh.
For starters, I thought it would be a romantic story. Instead, it turned out to be an emotionally manipulative, abusive "love" story that is almost entirely made up of sex (that was also pretty abusive in my opinion), where the woman abandons all her friends and her whole life to be with a man that is clearly harming her. Perhaps this was intended as a "break up and getting over it" story but then it feels mismarketed.
Let me tell you more about it, but I'll spoiler it. Beware, I do mostly outline the plot, but there is no other way for me to tell you what I couldn't stomach about the story. (view spoiler)[At first it's all pretty normal, apart from them going into a really irresponsible relationship, knowing that the man will die soon (or rather, is actually dead already and will cross over soon). However, soon the sex becomes borderline abusive because he is actually physically harming the woman - for her, having sex with his "ghostly" body is physically painful. Soon he stops caring and just has sex with her as if she's an object lying there for his release and to help him stay tethered to the world. It gets worse - after he completely "turns into a ghost", he just randomly fucks her whenever he wants (basically whenever he "floats" through her she can feel it.) I mean, when you don't have a body I guess consent doesn't exist anymore? (Disgusting. And yes, I was being sarcastic about the consent.) It still gets worse. He knows that he's basically giving her depression by just touching her - he's dead and he's sort of "giving her death". But that's alright because he wants to! More than that, he becomes jealous and wants to stop her even moving on... A third person gets dragged in, and... Yeah, I think you get where that's going. (hide spoiler)]
What I found the worst to stomach was that the man in this story has the most unhealthy relationship with the woman, he knows he is using her, he knows he will shatter her and this is okay somehow, for him. It's even kind of depicted as romantic?? (No! Dude!!) The worst part is that the woman knows this too and I guess she likes it? It's even sadder that a third person enters the picture in the end, and of course, he is being used too. The story turns more and more abusive and jealousy and manipulation fills it as it goes. It's pretty dark overall.
I don't know what to make of this book. I was pretty disgusted by it and I think I just didn't understand it, judging by the many high-star reviews. But if you're expecting romance, don't read it if you don't want to read about emotional manipulation and abuse. And I won't even bother listing the triggers separately because it's probably already clear from my review.
I thank the publisher and libro.fm for giving me a free copy of the audiobook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This is one strange book. Judging by the title, you'd think it's about both Edison and TeslHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This is one strange book. Judging by the title, you'd think it's about both Edison and Tesla. However... The first chunk of the book is just Edison, interspersed with info about one of his odder projects, a spirit phone to talk to the dead (I know, right?) Just about the time you're starting to give up on it, at around 40% there's finally a short bio on Tesla and a little bit about his work and his and Edison's rivalry. Except then it unexpectedly strays away from it again, and goes into the dangers of AI and how the Navy repeatedly blew up some commercial planes by accident. That stuff was pretty interesting, but I couldn't help stopping to think what this book I'm reading was actually about.
Then it comes back to Edison again for like 5 pages, and then finally goes into mediumship and how scientists are starting to believe in the paranormal, because this and that experiment has produced interesting results. All this, of course, because of the spirit phone again - or did you forget?
And then we cycle back to Edison. That's it. Tesla was talked about for like ten pages of the book, yet he's on the title. Huh.
Everything's somehow connected to the spirit phone, in the end. That was a little funny, to be honest. Because the whole book reads like a university essay about the spirit phone, with the author drawing links and conclusions all to the benefit of this, uh, enigmatic device.
So yeah. Odd book for sure. Completely mis-titled - it feels like someone who hasn't even read the manuscript sat down and got to pick the name of the book. But easy to read and it has interesting trivia - like the history of the spiritualist movement, or even the inspiration of The Force from Star Wars (those are related!) or why action movies are sometimes called 'action flicks' (those are not related..) Then again... There's also stuff on mediumship and the Roswell aliens. So...
So it's a curious, yet engaging read. That's if you're willing to accept that you're not sure what you just read, though. Cause I am indeed not sure. Not sure at all.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
This book is kind of killing me with boredom, and it's just too long to keep soldiering through it. 31% in, and I am still not sure where thiDNF @ 31%
This book is kind of killing me with boredom, and it's just too long to keep soldiering through it. 31% in, and I am still not sure where this is going. So either it's too smart for me, or just not my thing.
You could enjoy this is you like really tough literature, and I mean high brow, where you have to keep cracking at what things mean.
The Sea Beast Takes a Lover is a collection of slightly odd short stories which all share a similar vibe, however, not one I can just pinpoint likThe Sea Beast Takes a Lover is a collection of slightly odd short stories which all share a similar vibe, however, not one I can just pinpoint like that. They are easy to read, quite imaginative and all of them pretty shattering by the end.I am not a huge fan of short stories (as they almost always involve incomprehensible levels of oddity), and maybe that's why I feel like I could have enjoyed this book more. But if you're a fan of short stories, you will probably like The Sea Beast Takes a Lover.
Some Of The Stories Are Brilliant
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My favorite is probably the one with the sea beast - the one that gave the book its name. Yes, it's literally a sea beast who decided to mate with a ship. And its love and care is currently sinking it. The story is refreshingly witty, colorful and lively, and the ending is simply perfect. Mermaids who like to read Bronte sisters and Asimov. An amorous sea monster. A drowning library. A cannibal admiral (it even rhymes!) And all of that humor in death. The ship is almost an allegory of our current political and economical system, the world nothing more than a sinking wreck, the deck hands eating scraps, the officers still eating good food, and the captain eating... the officers."All sailors are Christians moonlighting as witch doctors." - had the rest of the stories been as strong as this one, I would have felt much differently about this collection!
But Some Of The Other Stories...
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As it is typical with short stories, they are decidedly odd - as I've already mentioned. Some of them are odder than others.And I feel like this was most of the stories in this collection. Roughly around the middle I just stopped trying and gave up wrapping my mind around some of them. And that's alright - maybe they're just not for me. Hence the 3 stars!
Other Books You Might Like
I have, however, read short story collections that I really liked.While they share the oddity, they also carry more significance, in my opinion. Things to do when You're Goth in the Country was truly refreshing, dark and just about weird enough to still be really cool. Meanwhile Rockets Versus Gravity was all interconnected and an absolute play on feels some of the time, and I truly enjoyed it.
I'm sorry, but what is this book about? This morning, I wanted something silly, but... not THIS silly.
Recipe for this book? Insert some scandalous bodI'm sorry, but what is this book about? This morning, I wanted something silly, but... not THIS silly.
Recipe for this book? Insert some scandalous body part (teehee) several times into every page (titty, boobie, penis, whatever you have it... Literally, in nearly every page, regardless of whether it's relevant or not), talk about basically anything and nothing, really, and use a lot of onomatopoeia. And you've got it.
I grabbed this on NetGalley (got a free copy in exchange for my honest review yada yada yada), but this is seriously a waste of my time....more
Even though you expect fiction, you are first faced with more than several pages on how governments should disclose the truth about UFO sightings, or Even though you expect fiction, you are first faced with more than several pages on how governments should disclose the truth about UFO sightings, or how probable it is that aliens to actually exist.
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The book is said to work as a standalone, but the story of the first book (that I didn't even know about...) is referenced. The tone is dry, everything is only tell, never show, and there's a lot of "science" talk which... does not seem to be relevant at all to advancing the story, and is quite gross, at that. I do not really want to be reading about how "abducted humans sexually thrust against the vats they're kept in", or how parts of their brain are removed, or the exact process of creating, breeding and extracting babies to be raised.
Man, do we have some deep literary shit here.Been reading this since September, and was it a tough cookie. Parts sparked my interest, and then... Man, do we have some deep literary shit here.Been reading this since September, and was it a tough cookie. Parts sparked my interest, and then... the stories would get so mixed up I wouldn't know what to make of them.
When I stumble upon books like that, I always wonder - is it me? Or..?
However, I'm not going to judge. Maybe it's just not for me. And I have to admit, as crazy and all over the place the stories are, they do paint quite strong impressions of the world the author wants to show us. Maybe the right way to read this is like looking at an impressionist painting - from far away, not trying to make sense of the details, but simply following the emotions it stirs up. The closest of a simile I can find for the storytelling in this book is... dreams. You get into the story, maybe start seeing through the metaphors... And then suddenly a giant pterodactyl sweeps by and the story changes and completely runs away from you.
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Well, okay. Not literally a pterodactyl, but the comparison is really quite close to the reality. It's just so... weird. And yet - there is a certain logic, certain laws. But they're so otherworldly - all I can compare it to are dreams.
I have the feeling though that the author wanted to put everything in code, use metaphors for literally everything she wanted to say. In a way it's interesting, but I can get only like 25% of all of those - the rest is too complicated. I wonder if someone else gets the rest - it would be interesting to try to see where she was going with it.
But I'm always like that. I'll always first assume IT'S ME. The other reviews though, point in the direction of me being in the majority. I do read literary, but man, was this too literary for me :D I'm glad it's received awards in Hong Kong, and maybe some things just get lost in translation? God only knows.
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To give you a taste of how weird this book is, have a quote. And if you think that's a good metaphor, well, it DOES sound good when it's on its own... but this book is MADE of these:
"We've arranged new housing for you. In addition to basic furnishings, the unit is equipped with a father, mother-in-law, a husband and a younger brother."
This is Gregor Samsa, in roach form, but on crack, with a glass of beer and a smokin' joint. In a burning spaceship. Closest I can get to what it felt like.
So needless to say, it missed me. It totally missed me.
Wow. Two things. First, The Hike is high as all hell on something. Second, its absolutely bloody brilliant.
The Hike isn't a book for everyone. ThWow. Two things. First, The Hike is high as all hell on something. Second, its absolutely bloody brilliant.
The Hike isn't a book for everyone. There will be a lot of people who will finish it with a "wtf did I just read", or DNF it for the same reason. But at the same time, it's got so much potential for 5 stars from a lot of you. Basically, I feel like you'll either love it or hate it.I wasn't sure about it myself for at least half of the book, but then it started going steadily up and up.
This is one hell of a book, but it's definitely not for everyone. At first it's hard to understand whether it's for or against "drug culture", but as This is one hell of a book, but it's definitely not for everyone. At first it's hard to understand whether it's for or against "drug culture", but as the story goes on, you get the picture. It unmasks the stark realities of a 'dope fiend', but at the same time laughs at the pathetic attempts of the authorities to even see what's under their eyes, much less fight it. You can expect blatant craziness from this book, but you can also expect some cold hard facts, stated in a cool journalistic tone, about the realities of drug abuse in the 1970's.
Evelina | AvalinahsBooks
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