For Enjoyability: 5/5. For Genre: 4/5. For Writing: 4/5. Overall: 4.33/5 stars
Something about this book just really made me fall in love with it. I felFor Enjoyability: 5/5. For Genre: 4/5. For Writing: 4/5. Overall: 4.33/5 stars
Something about this book just really made me fall in love with it. I felt so emotionally invested in the characters and their journeys. Something about the writing just made you feel like you were there in the book observing everything. I think it did a great job of switching between timelines, generations, and characters to reveal things along the way, and think this is a perfect read if you're looking to learn more about the experience of Black women in America. This book was very emotionally charged, and the way it was written felt almost poetic, but I guess maybe that has to be due to the author also being a poet. I 100% would recommend this one, it's a short read with all the feels and will probably teach you some things....more
This book won't be for everyone. The writing itself is beautiful and has a certain descent into madness that takes you on a journey of human depravityThis book won't be for everyone. The writing itself is beautiful and has a certain descent into madness that takes you on a journey of human depravity that is both vividly grotesque and perverse. I think after reading some critics' reviews of it I can appreciate it more. This is my first book by this author, so I'm interested to see how the themes stretch into her other popular works. It felt somehow akin to dizzying down a spiral staircase, each floor with similar but increasingly worse horrors that morph into odd expected normalcy. Frankly, there's no real way to describe everything that goes on until you read it.
I really enjoyed this. It was romantic and tragic and I think probably a good depiction of the experience of middle-class gay men in 50s-60s England. I really enjoyed this. It was romantic and tragic and I think probably a good depiction of the experience of middle-class gay men in 50s-60s England. I also think in a way this is a very universal story of unrequited love, homophobia, and the lengths people will go to shield themselves from the truth. This is also one of the few books that has been written in a way that time jumps from paragraph to paragraph at times and is done really well so that it gives the reader a fuller understanding while dropping reveals at the right moment. I have high hopes for the screen adaptation with Harry Styles so hopefully, it does the book justice....more
I thought this was a really moving and beautifully written portrait of grief and the loss of a child. I was expecting the book to be more about HamnetI thought this was a really moving and beautifully written portrait of grief and the loss of a child. I was expecting the book to be more about Hamnet, but it ended up being a much more intimate look at his mother, Agnes, and her life up and through the death of her son. While this is highly fictionalized due to the available information on Shakespeare's family, I do think it was a really well-done portrait of deep emotion within his family, and mirrored the strong emotions he put into his work. It took me about halfway through to really get hooked into this, but once I did I enjoyed the depth of the story and poetic writing. I totally understand the hype....more
The audio performance of this was honestly really well done. It was short and entertaining. I'm interested to read the actual news story on it now TheThe audio performance of this was honestly really well done. It was short and entertaining. I'm interested to read the actual news story on it now The Miranda Obsession. As someone who lived in Baton Rouge for a while, I feel like I've heard of this story, so it was interesting to listen to it performed....more
This was a super enjoyable read. It definitely dug a little deeper than the typical chick-lit and it was really interesting to read about the everydayThis was a super enjoyable read. It definitely dug a little deeper than the typical chick-lit and it was really interesting to read about the everyday issues and biases women dealt with in the 50s-60s. It had some good humor and a lot of good commentary on sexism and feminism. Also, the dog stole the show for me....more
WOW this was sooooo good. I won't lie this was slow to start and took me a while to finish, but it really did live up to the hype. The prose was reallWOW this was sooooo good. I won't lie this was slow to start and took me a while to finish, but it really did live up to the hype. The prose was really beautiful, and I loved getting the perspective of each female character. I learned A LOT about both Congolese history as well as Africa as a whole. This touched on a lot of topics - economics, social norms, religion, colonialism, politics, sexism, and ecology to name a few. It's rare to find a book that really sucks you in with complex characters as well as informative commentary. Would recommend this to anyone!
Side note: I would've been reallyyyyy interested to have just one chapter written from the father's perspective, but at the same time I understand why the author chose not to include this....more
This was probably a book that went a little outside my comfort zone but although I thought it was a little gratuitous in parts I still thought it was This was probably a book that went a little outside my comfort zone but although I thought it was a little gratuitous in parts I still thought it was well written. There are a lot of mature feminist and lgbtqia+ themes that I thought gave the Marie Antoinette retelling an elevated twist. I think the fact that it was kind of perverse and opulent drove home the points it was trying to make. This was really interesting but I would not say it is for everyone. Content warning: rape, abuse, abortion, graphic sex scenes, sexualization of minors....more
Wow - this was so good and absolutely lives up to the acclaim. Sunja is probably one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and this generatWow - this was so good and absolutely lives up to the acclaim. Sunja is probably one of my favorite fictional characters of all time, and this generational tale blended decades together seamlessly. I was interested to read this before the tv adaptation comes out. This was a phenomenal read on Korean/Japanese history, racism, classism, sexism, love, lust, sex, the ramifications of war, and the bonds that tie families together. I'd recommend this to anyone....more
For Enjoyability: 1/5. For Genre: 5/5. For Writing: 5/5. For Audio Narration: 2/5. Overall: 3.25/5 stars
This is a hard review for me. The writing and rFor Enjoyability: 1/5. For Genre: 5/5. For Writing: 5/5. For Audio Narration: 2/5. Overall: 3.25/5 stars
This is a hard review for me. The writing and religious commentary are obviously phenomenal - Nobel Prize-winning good - and the author really builds out the entire world and each character's story. However, I had such a difficult time getting into this book for the sole reason that there are so many characters - whose names also change throughout the book - and I didn't feel that I had enough time with each character, in the beginning, to form a good map in my mind of who was who and their connections to one another. It really ruined it for me and made this extremely tough to get through. About 200 pages in I decided to switch to the audio narration because I thought maybe it would help with breaking down the characters a bit more, but I found that wasn't the case and I thought the audio could've been done a lot better even though there were two voice narrators. Overall, this got pretty dense, but if you're able to detangle the characters then I think it would probably be a really good read. I might have to revisit this one in a few years. Also - Jacob is a total dick.
TW: lots of rape, sexual slavery, religious trauma, abuse, human trafficking...more
I mean WOW, this is honestly one of the best and most moving historical fiction / based on true stories novel I’ve ever read. This gA true 5 star read
I mean WOW, this is honestly one of the best and most moving historical fiction / based on true stories novel I’ve ever read. This gave me a different view of WW2 and the harrowing journey of a Jewish Polish family. This will keep you flipping the pages from one chapter to the next and tug at your heart, I would recommend this to anyone....more
This was good, it had some pretty prose and was a good slow-burn adult fantasy. It took me a bit to get all the characters memorized because it is defThis was good, it had some pretty prose and was a good slow-burn adult fantasy. It took me a bit to get all the characters memorized because it is definitely an ensemble narrative, but the mystery aspect was good and I thought it did a good job with the magical realism....more