Another one that just wasn't jiving with me. Very Magonia vibes to it, which I also didn't like. Another one that just wasn't jiving with me. Very Magonia vibes to it, which I also didn't like. ...more
What started off as promising and enticing just fell flatter each chapter on. The prose became repetitive and mundane with sedated imagery and charactWhat started off as promising and enticing just fell flatter each chapter on. The prose became repetitive and mundane with sedated imagery and characters. Anything of interest was soon squashed in favor of something for shock factor. My first, and last, King book. Just not for me. ...more
I wanted to like this but it's just so green, first draft, chock full of grammar and editing errors; in addition to a weak plot (I stiDNF at page 66.
I wanted to like this but it's just so green, first draft, chock full of grammar and editing errors; in addition to a weak plot (I still haven't found it, there have been hints a plot might happen later, but still just patches), very weak characterization, and sadly juvenile writing with beginner mistakes.
Mistakes I blame on this being an early manuscript. If it went through the editing and rewriting wringer it was most definitely on soft cycle.
No character description beside burly arms and beards and tattoos and scars; no characterization beyond horse riding or being so-and-so's child.
By page 66 I expect to have an idea of what you want to achieve with your story and have been fed a hook to make me keep reading.
Every chapter reads like a short day-to-day scene of a different character, none of them very interesting or connected.
Lazy writing or bad editing is to blame I fear, but I don't have to keep reading this when other writers set out to tell an epic fantasy and do it well. ...more
Just could not give a single care about anyone. Which is a shame.
The world promised to be fascinating and rich in details that were new and interestiJust could not give a single care about anyone. Which is a shame.
The world promised to be fascinating and rich in details that were new and interesting. Ultimately it fell flat thanks to very frequent tangent chapters that either (a) revealed too much with no tie back to the actual plot (b) introduced one shot characters who were completely irrelevant.
Full of instant-love, weakly formed characters, and muddled goals/ambitions BSR shall be relegated to my lowest shelf of DNF titles.
Sadness.
Perhaps a better editor would have helped, but I think also a more seasoned writer would have had a more engaging plot and characters. ...more
I gave up at about 20%. The MC just didn't interest me at all. I found the language too modern for the setting, and the endleReceived from NetGalley.
I gave up at about 20%. The MC just didn't interest me at all. I found the language too modern for the setting, and the endless confusion just extremely off-putting.
My high school Japanese teacher told me to read this, never mind that I graduated in 2003, what he says, I do.
Alas, while I see the merit in reading My high school Japanese teacher told me to read this, never mind that I graduated in 2003, what he says, I do.
Alas, while I see the merit in reading this book, especially during current events in the US I just struggled to read half of it. It put me off reading for a month. That's a feat!
Maybe it's just too much for an empath to handle?
It'll go back on the shelf for now, to be finished someday. Maybe when it doesn't seem like the book was written this year. ...more
Oh boy. I didn't like this one bit. (An aside, I am a handicapped girl with an abusive mother whose situation growing up is similar to that oDNF at 30%
Oh boy. I didn't like this one bit. (An aside, I am a handicapped girl with an abusive mother whose situation growing up is similar to that of the MC and this has definitely colored my review. The first 30% set me off on 5 panic attacks and I had to stop reading because I was sobbing and having traumatic memory flashbacks)
I found Mor to be pretentious and narrate like a 60 year old woman in a 10 year old's body. The pedophilia/incest was vile. The constant title dropping obnoxious and befuddling if you've not read EVERY single one.
The ONLY, and I mean only, thing I liked was the representation of fairies. That's all.
This was terrible and honestly, I highly doubt I'll ever touch anything else by this author for my whole life. ...more
Whoever it was who recommended this book to me was so very wrong. In the first 20 pages I'd already become bored with the narrative style.
The writingWhoever it was who recommended this book to me was so very wrong. In the first 20 pages I'd already become bored with the narrative style.
The writing was hard an unnatural, especially the "interview".
"And then what happened?" "I did this completely amazing thing no one would do in this situation!" "And then what happened?" "I said something snarky. Cause I'm a teenager!!!"
Oh, Majo no Takkyuubin. Why didn't I love you? I love your animated film adaptation, which lead me to believe I would loDid not finish (186/241 pages)
Oh, Majo no Takkyuubin. Why didn't I love you? I love your animated film adaptation, which lead me to believe I would love to delve deeper into the world of Kiki's Delivery Service. But, no, not this time. In this instance the movie is much better than the book. (I still remain optimistic as this is the first book of six)
First, what did I like? Jiji, the black cat, held my interest the most; occasionally Kiki, too, was interesting, but never for very long. Witch and cat/ witch and broom relations were the most interesting thing for me, but they were so glossed over that I had hardly any time to enjoy it. The magic system was lacking, which was plot-related, but never expanded. Sadly, I do not have much to praise.
So, where does Kiki crash?
The writing is awful. Not just bad, mind you, but awful. I am sorry, Kadono san, but verb tenses are everywhere; constant flipping back and forth between using kanji (Chinese characters adopted for use in Japan) and regular hiragana (Japanese writing) made reading very jerky. Every character is introduced by epithet, every one of them; this goes on until one to two chapters later when we finally learn their name. It just made reading uninteresting, cluttered, and repetitive.
The story itself is less novel and more eleven short stories arranged in chronological order (not that you can tell). Each chapter has no relation to the next and it really is not a narrative as a whole. Each chapter is amusing enough, but you never get a real sense of story or motion for Kiki, just a sort of "this is her customer/ problem of the day". Kiki is a static heroine, and even if this is for elementary and junior high children it just isn't interesting.
I still have volumes 2 through 6 on my shelf, and I'll read them someday. I'm just not in any hurry to find out what happens to Kiki and her world. ...more
I just found the tone, the writing, and really the themes and characters to be entirely too preachy about conservation. Of course we a(did not finish)
I just found the tone, the writing, and really the themes and characters to be entirely too preachy about conservation. Of course we all know how important it is, but the book really managed to make me feel like I was listening to someone begin a 'save the whales' speech rather than a fiction work aimed at children.
Not to mention the whole drugging and kidnapping of children just didn't hit a chord with me....more
Those two words best describe my abandoned reading for The Last Librarian.
Which is a shame because the premise was genuinely intElitist and preachy.
Those two words best describe my abandoned reading for The Last Librarian.
Which is a shame because the premise was genuinely interesting. But it just became so redundant and tepid characterization stagnated the whole thing.
Women were reduced to arm/eye/desk candy (I think 3 females got names?)
E-books are bad and not "real" books. Medicine companies are taking over. And how many times do we need to read about how our current era is doomed, dumb, and working toward extinction?
For book dystopia I'll stick with Ink and Bone.
Did not finish @ 42% But I read it on a Kindle, so "it lost its soul".
*Massive eye roll from the absurd levels of pretentiousness*...more
Congratulations. It isn't often I break my own reading rules, but Air Awakens was very convincing.
Typically, books that I don't enjoy have until 50% Congratulations. It isn't often I break my own reading rules, but Air Awakens was very convincing.
Typically, books that I don't enjoy have until 50% to make me interested in the setting, history, characters, stakes, anything really.
I stopped reading at 8%. I can't take any more.
The MC... I've already forgotten her name.... *has to check* Vhalla, is such a passive, whiny pissbaby that I actively hated every thing she said or thought.
She's in lust with someone she has seen/met once, oh, but tragedy: he could never love her because she is too plain. Her words. Even her love of books, a trait I usually love in characters, came off as superficial and elitist.
The fear and hatred of magic-users not even reasonably hinted at, just fear them, they wear black and are bad (can we please stop color-coding black as scary/ bad. It's tiresome.)
The other few characters I recall (there were SO many names dropped in the first chapter I can't keep anyone straight) were flat, flimsy, and utterly dull. The world setting similarly sickly.
And the diction, so many words that were mistaken, poor punctuation errors. The writing itself was lifeless, exposition after exposition, dialogue that was stiff and unnatural.
I cannot with this book.
It feels like a cheap gimmick, like the author had no idea what they were even trying to do.
That'll teach me to buy books with pretty covers and intriguing titles.
Absolute trite. I will actively advise my fellow readers to not purchase this book in any form....more
My review reflects only on the composition of this biography and not at all upon RBG, who has my utmost respect and adoration. Alas, this book does noMy review reflects only on the composition of this biography and not at all upon RBG, who has my utmost respect and adoration. Alas, this book does no justice to the Justice.
I preface by saying I only made it through 58% of this. I promised myself I wasn't going to force myself to read things I wasn't enjoying after 50%, and I had to be honest with myself I was not enjoying this one.
The only positive I have really was that the subject is RBG.
But even she can only carry poor writing and composition so far.
The way in which her life is told was lackluster to say the least. There is little sense of time and readers will find themselves being pulled this way and that back and forth through time without any proper framing. One moment we're reading about her time at Harvard, the next page her husband's death already 10 years in the past. It's just very incoherent and jarring.
The time traveling aside, it just isn't interesting. I was expecting this to be in the voice of someone in my generation with commentary about why and how RBG appeals to us so much. Instead what I read was textbook chapter after courtroom briefing with tiny photographs of illegible handwriting that were blurry and did nothing to add to the experience.
Save yourself the time and money, read the Wikipedia or another biography of this fabulous woman. ...more
Updated review: I just do not get on well with Le Guin's style. I tried. Three times now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just really don't get on with Le GuinUpdated review: I just do not get on well with Le Guin's style. I tried. Three times now. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just really don't get on with Le Guin, I think. This is the second book I've attempted to read, and I just don't like them.
If it's the writing, the themes, or something else, who knows.
What I DID like in tLHoD was the folk tales spread out between the chapters. Those were lovely, flowing and intriguing.
The main narrative however I found dry, confusing, dull, sexist, and transphobic. We're given so many new terms right away for this alien world and I never really figured out what half of them meant. The narrators seem to equate male-ness with: rapists, violence, dominance, lack of emotions; and female-ness with: victimhood, whining, weeping, screaming. I don't know if it's supposed to piss me off on purpose, but it just wasn't fun to read. Perhaps it was more of a satire to point out the ridiculousness of these trite ideas, but a 1969-reader I am not.
Using "he" to describe neither male nor female humans, who once a month are randomly assigned sexual organs for the purpose of reproduction, just seemed so out of place. If your whole gimmick is this "on/off sexual organ" then why use "he" which locks everyone into one mindset. This was the ONE word I felt Le Guin could have invented a new pronoun and it be a much more effective story.
Just not for me. I had no fun reading this and spent most of my time angry....more
I made it 4/5 through this audiobook, and then not even Stephen Fry's lovely voice could get me to continue. Diary entry after diary entry of the mostI made it 4/5 through this audiobook, and then not even Stephen Fry's lovely voice could get me to continue. Diary entry after diary entry of the most substance-less nature.
I enjoyed precisely 6 short bits in 7 and a half hours of listening. Thankfully, I was knitting most of the time, but it just didn't carry the wit or charm that drips off of him on screen or, really in any other book he's penned.
The purple prose I could forgive (just barely, so many adjectives), the yuppiness of it all, the drugs, the mild misogyny, but really about 5 hours in (roughly 50%) it just got painfully dull. The first 50% is just rehashing of his first two autobiographical installments.
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