do you ever see a book and just assume against the odds you're going to love it?
yeah.
i didn't love this book but i did have that instinct and that coudo you ever see a book and just assume against the odds you're going to love it?
yeah.
i didn't love this book but i did have that instinct and that counts for something. in fact it counts for so much that i'm convinced my "this was pretty good" response was a fluke, and i should just go ahead and reread it.
is that normal?
i guess more of a review to come when i reread for almost no reason....more
shoutout to virginia woolf for doing the lord's work (writing short books that make you look smart).
this is a great interesting beautifully written coshoutout to virginia woolf for doing the lord's work (writing short books that make you look smart).
this is a great interesting beautifully written compelling makes-you-think type book that usually has a gorgeous cover and can be read over the course of one lazy afternoon.
Just got word - there's a new set of the coolest possible things you can be. 1) very into Shakespeare (can quote at length in casual conversation) 2) unJust got word - there's a new set of the coolest possible things you can be. 1) very into Shakespeare (can quote at length in casual conversation) 2) unbearably pretentious 3) complicit in a murder with your group of friends
You might think that the coolest things you can be might include traditional things, like "in possession of a motorcycle" or "a New York-based artist with family money" or "on some sort of high school athletic team / squad designated to cheer on said team."
But you'd be wrong.
Dark academia knocks all of those things out of the water.
I loved this book very much, as I love anything that even slightly reminds me of The Secret History, and anything that invests me insanely in a set of annoying (at best) or criminal (at worst) characters, and anything with a plot so twisty and intense that it makes my heart beat faster, and anything whose ending I dread (even as I found the book less and less interesting as it went on).
This is not a perfect book, but books with all of those traits are in short supply. And far be it from me to turn away any dark academia options.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Bottom line: Tell me any book that can help me relive the high of this one for even a second.
--------------- pre-review
my heartbeat has been elevated for like...3 straight hours.
and that is very unusual because i do not work out.
review to come / 4.5 stars
--------------- tbr review
WAY behind on my dark academia quotas. i'm going to lose my Allowed To Be Pretentious And Everyone Finds It Charming badge...more
This is a very short book, and yet it took me 4 days to read it.
I'm the level of book nerd where I try to finish a book per day every day that I can. This is a very short book, and yet it took me 4 days to read it.
I'm the level of book nerd where I try to finish a book per day every day that I can. It's the first item on every to-do list I've ever made. It is the biggest factor in my priorities being as screwed up and weird as they are.
And yet this teeny tiny book took me down.
This is due to the fact that it made me so viscerally uncomfortable I had to read it in approximately 42 separate sittings. I spent several days chugging glasses of water so I could grab a new one, suddenly being overcome by the urge to make cookies, reading different books - and so on and so forth. Just so I could get up and get away from this book.
That's pretty cool, in a lot of ways. It's what Ottessa Moshfegh is known for, certainly.
But it didn't make up for how unpleasant of a reading experience it was. No aspect of this was enough to make up for how much I disliked reading it.
Primarily, this is because I am very critical and cynical, which is a nice way of saying that I'm mean and nigI almost never give really high ratings.
Primarily, this is because I am very critical and cynical, which is a nice way of saying that I'm mean and nightmarish to be around.
But I think there is probably another reason, and that reason is that I f*cking hate writing positive reviews.
I was brought into this world to complain. My purpose in life is to drag others down ever so slightly. My goals include being the biggest hater I can and subsisting as close to off cookies alone as humanly possible. (The second one is unrelated, but equally important.)
And by definition, reviews of books I have found to be extremely good offer very little opportunity to do any of this.
But here we are. Another five star.
This book is very funny. It is also very sad. It sums up what it is to be Terminally Online, and it also sums up what it is to love and be loved, to find fulfillment and lose it, to grieve.
That's a lot to accomplish in barely 200 pages. Add to that the fact that I laughed (weird to do by yourself in semi-darkness while staring at words on paper), I kind of cried (previously weird to do, but now something I apparently do every time I like anything, which is fortunately for aforementioned reasons not that often), and I still think about it sometimes even though it's been a month since I read it (I put off reviews as much as possible), and it deserves 4.5 stars. At least.
Unfortunately for us all.
Bottom line: So good it may ruin my reputation. And also my enjoyment of review-writing.
---------------- pre-review
i laughed, i cried. how often can you say that seriously?
review to come / 4.5 at least maybe 5 probably 5
---------------- currently-reading updates
this book has been on my can't wait to read shelf for a year and yet i have let 3 separate library holds expire.
let's try this again.
---------------- tbr review
very funny title for a book people won't stop telling me to read.............more
Magical realism is the best genre on earth and it's been way too long since I last read it and I love it so much and I will never make this mistake agMagical realism is the best genre on earth and it's been way too long since I last read it and I love it so much and I will never make this mistake again, until probably immediately when I will once again forget, or be lazy because literary-adjacent magical realism with beautiful writing and stunning themes is hard to find and I don't like exerting energy.
File this under "hard to find," because it's beautifully written and magical and gave me that throat-hurting sad feeling when usually I feel very little at all, either in reading or in life.
The only reason, really, that this isn't an even higher rating is that I need to have that certain something for a five star and I'm not sure if I did.
Maybe will decide upon reread.
Either way, it's incredible stuff.
Bottom line: I'm in heaven! Except then I remember I read this already and therefore can't have the experience of reading it again and then I'm sad.
-------------- pre-review
i need to find the nearest ocean, stat.
and then also it needs to be 70 degrees warmer.
review to come / 4.5 stars
-------------- currently-reading updates
last year, i made a rule for myself that i can only buy myself books i've already read and liked.
this results in very normal things like seeing a book in a bookstore almost 2 years ago, adding it to my to-read list immediately based on cover alone, and then not even thinking about picking it up until i remember how pretty it is and immediately read it so i can justify buying it.
let's see how this goes
-------------- tbr review
received a Medal of Valor for my actions on this book (saw it in a bookstore, almost bought it immediately for the cover alone, then just added it to my tbr for the cover alone instead)...more
There are a lot of movies about boring white-straight-male aspiring writers in their 30s being taught how to LIVE WHIMSICALLY by a manic pixie dream girl. There are books about the beautiful wonder of a child’s perspective. There are millions and millions and millions of TV shows depicting the dramatic trials and tribulations of the high school experience (as lived by gorgeous twenty-three year olds).
But none of it feels true. Maybe only Neil Gaiman can remember what it’s like to be a child.
It is wondrous, and beautiful, and whimsical, and even dramatic. But it’s also dark and scary sometimes. Inexplicable things happen, and the world seems uncontrollable, which is magical and horrifying. That’s childhood.
That’s also this book.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is actually terrifying.
It’s magical, but probably not in the way typically associated with fantasy novels narrated by children. It’s magical in the way that I felt the world was when I was a child. As it turns out, that’s much more magical. And much more amazing to read about.
This book is so, so short, and so devastatingly lovely. It’s beautifully written and emotional. It made me scared and it made my heart hurt and it made me smile.
I want to quote more of it, but really I want to quote everything. Maybe I’ll just excerpt ever-longer passages until I trick you into reading it?
So, better idea, just read it yourself.
Bottom line: It’s 181 pages. What would it hurt to read it read it read it read it read it?
------------------------- pre-review
things this book has in common with the graveyard book:
a) by neil gaiman b) first 5 star rating of the year c) totally f*cking rad
you've heard of "it's not you, it's me," now get ready for "it's not you, shakespeare or othello or the thematic significance of honesty versus deceptyou've heard of "it's not you, it's me," now get ready for "it's not you, shakespeare or othello or the thematic significance of honesty versus deception, it's one horrible professor i declared my enemy 5 years ago."
it doesn't have as much of a ring to it, maybe, but it's true.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago. i will probably reread this one someday...more
I put reviews off for as long as humanly possible. Consistently.
It’s what I do! I procrastinate. And then I finally post a review and I’m adorably likI put reviews off for as long as humanly possible. Consistently.
It’s what I do! I procrastinate. And then I finally post a review and I’m adorably like “look at me post this three months after I read it lolol” and everyone loves it and we all hug and drink tea or whatever.
That’s a usual occurrence.
But I have now outdone even myself.
I am writing this review a year after I read the book.
Yes, you read that correctly. One calendar year after I read this book, I am attempting to share my thoughts on it with you.
All that I remember about this at this point is the circumstances in which I read it and the overall feeling it gave me. So let’s talk about those two scintillating things.
This is, in its simplest terms, a book about the Vietnam War. Its protagonist and most of its characters are Vietnamese, and portions of it take place in Vietnam.
I read the majority of this on the thirty-six hour plane voyage it takes to get to and from Vietnam. So honestly I don’t think I could’ve given this book a better chance to be totally goddamn awesome, other than if I had read it while I wasn’t getting up from my window seat every hour on the hour for the dual purpose of having cute, classy panic attacks while sitting on a plane toilet and escaping the guy next to me, who was actively having a mental breakdown and hadn’t stopped talking in three hours.
That is actually true. I know I love to exaggerate for the sake of humor, but some of the worst moments of my life took place while I was trapped in a tin can for eighteen hours with only the first five movies of the Fast and Furious franchise to keep me company. (Great film selection on that plane, too.)
Anyway.
We covered circumstances: let’s talk Overall Emotion.
This book made me feel Bad. Mainly uncomfortable. It’s incredibly violent, with moments of really strange humor. Despite being told from the perspective of a spy (what’s the name for a spy who’s pretending to be one side but is really on the other? DOUBLE AGENT. Nailed it) it’s not very thrilling or sneaky or spooky. There’s a lot of talk of alcohol.
But overall, I see the Literary Appeal (capital letters very important) of this book. It just wasn’t myyyy kind of literary appeal.
I spent a lot more time talking about a plane ride I took once than the actual book in this review. Seems about right.
Bottom line: Not for me!!! For you, maybe??? ...more
when i was younger, i loved to play the part of Cool Teenage Girl while babysitting, because it was the there are certain roles i relish in this life.
when i was younger, i loved to play the part of Cool Teenage Girl while babysitting, because it was the most effective and energy efficient way to get children to like me. answering "do you have a boyfriend" and "do you go to parties" 800 times is way easier than running around or doing crafts.
i am still a big fan of embodying Sympathetic Customer at any retail or service establishment i go to. thanks to years of retail/service work this is actually more a truth of myself than a persona, but i amp it up so much that it still applies.
but my ALL TIME FAVORITE character will always be English Student Who Is Devoted Enough And Sufficiently Respected To Get Away With Sh*t Talking The Assigned Reading In Class.
and boy oh boy did i go for the gold on that with this book.
when i was in high school, there was also a cult of white boys who refused to even make eye contact with any girl who wasn't Asian. there were probably six of them floating around the halls, actively fetishizing - seven if you count Hermann Hesse via the copies of Siddhartha that half the junior-year english classes had to read.
this book is just bizarre.
this is part of a series i am doing where i - i've said it before and i'll say it again - claim to be reviewing books i read a long time ago, but more actively reveal unasked for truths about my high school experience....more
among the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-pamong the better summer reading list books i've read. visual and deep-hitting. the characters and events of this book have stuck with me in the year-plus since i read it....more
this book is so integrally a part of my childhood that i basically did go to maine for summer vacation with my sisters rosalind, skye, jane, and battythis book is so integrally a part of my childhood that i basically did go to maine for summer vacation with my sisters rosalind, skye, jane, and batty.
don't try to tell me otherwise.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago...more
one time i was reading this in the hallway before high school started, and my AP english teacher (who we called "the business pirate" due to his overaone time i was reading this in the hallway before high school started, and my AP english teacher (who we called "the business pirate" due to his overall aesthetic) stopped me to ask what i was reading. he asked me what it was about and i said it was the collected stories of a very promising writer who had died tragically and unexpectedly in a car accident just after graduating from Yale, to which he replied that that must make a very interesting theme for the stories.
so it is thus that i have been cursed for the last six years to wonder whether my AP english teacher knows how and when he will die, and just assumes everyone else knows too.
besides the overall memorable quality that haunting interaction lended this story, this is very memorable in and of itself. it's an excellent collection and i want to reread it and it's a huge loss for us all that marina keegan will not have a prolific literary career.
this is part of a project i am doing where i review books i read a long time ago, and also spend a lot of time reflecting on high school....more
there was a phase of my life when all i would read was YA contemporaries i bought from target with my babysitting money and obscure library books my mthere was a phase of my life when all i would read was YA contemporaries i bought from target with my babysitting money and obscure library books my mom found in women's magazine book recommendations.
this is a relic from that era.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago...more
i didn't enjoy this book as much as i've liked fitzgerald in the past. unfortunately racism, sexism, etc. is something one often has to deal with as ai didn't enjoy this book as much as i've liked fitzgerald in the past. unfortunately racism, sexism, etc. is something one often has to deal with as an occupational hazard of reading american books from the twentieth century...but in this case that seems more true than usual. i am also almost repulsed by all the characters; rather than write so that the reader believes the characters are inherently good, fitzgerald simply reiterates it. dick especially is awful and rosemary's only defining feature is her childishness, which, with this plot-line, is disgusting. one scene was almost an exploration of what would have happened in the great gatsby if tom had unfeelingly gone into the hotel room, no longer caring about his hold on daisy. the whole thing was unpleasant and i'm glad to be done with it. i do love fitzgerald's style of writing, though, and for that reason i don't think i could ever give him one star....more
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