I left quite a negative review on this when I decided to DNF this book (I left it down below if you are interested in reading it) and decided maybe toI left quite a negative review on this when I decided to DNF this book (I left it down below if you are interested in reading it) and decided maybe to expand why I DNF'd this book at 80%
I didn't enjoy this book quite frankly. Murakami has great writing and the reason I read 370 pages of this is because he has such great writing. I love the excessive detail and the mundane aspect to his writing and he writes great characters. But the plot of this book was horrible. Just horrible. To be quite honest I understood nothing I read in 370 pages of the plot because it was just ridiculously stupid. Couldn't even begin to explain it.
Spoilers will ensue but trust me they don't matter because you really shouldn't read this book.
So I DNF'd it for one specific reason. I intended to finish the book has I only had 97 pages left, but I got to a particular scene and decided not to. The 50yo sleeping with a 15yo who was MAYBE her son didn't stop me from reading it, no the thing that stopped me was the rape scene. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually don't mind rape in books when it serves a plot purpose of some sort because while rape is a vile disgusting thing, it does make very plots take interesting turns. But this rape scene was senseless and pointless and had 0 purpose. I DO NOT like rape scenes that have no purpose in a book. And while I don't believe in triggers and never will, this rape scene is very "calm" so it's not uncomfortable to read.
So I originally wanted to give this 2 stars for the writing causing me enough to finish the book, but nah because I wasted so much time reading 370 pages of this shitty book and I got nothing from it. And since I read 80% I'm counting this towards my Goodreads challenge and I dare you to stop me.
------------------------------------------------ ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Dnf at 80 damn percent.
I'm dnfing this for the rape scene. I'm not doing a rape scene. I already hated this stupid ass book so fuck it.
I'm rating it 1 star instead of my originally planned 2 because I didn't enjoy that this rape scene served no purpose in the plot and I read 370 pages of this shit and still hate it. ...more
I absolutely with my whole heart and soul vehemently hated every single moment I spent reading this book. And this will be the very last Helen Hoang boI absolutely with my whole heart and soul vehemently hated every single moment I spent reading this book. And this will be the very last Helen Hoang book I pick up....more
There’s a spoiler here hidden behind a spoiler tag but it’s not appearing on mobile and is openly spoiled. So just a warning
Congratulations to The LasThere’s a spoiler here hidden behind a spoiler tag but it’s not appearing on mobile and is openly spoiled. So just a warning
Congratulations to The Last House on Needless Street for being the worst book I've read in 2+ years.
This book was absolute garbage. Poor writing, confusing plot, awful underdeveloped characters. Absolutely no atmosphere and ambiance. This was not good.
The ONLY positive I give this book is there's one aspect of the end that I thought was well done. The rest was horrendous. I was spoiling this book to people because I genuinely did NOT realize the (view spoiler)[Disassociative Identity Disorder (hide spoiler)] aspect was a TWIST and not THE PLOT. It was so poorly done that I cannot fathom how this book got greenlit to publish. I don't understand how no one would have seen that coming from page TWO. PAGE TWO.
As harsh as this sounds, I don't think I'd ever trust the reading taste from anyone who thought this was a good book. I genuinely threw my copy of this book away (into the recycling bin at least) because I refuse to be the reason someone buys this book second hand and reads it.
This is my first 1 star book since October 2018. Wowza.
I think this is not necessarily a book I would have given 1 star to in the past, but I actuallThis is my first 1 star book since October 2018. Wowza.
I think this is not necessarily a book I would have given 1 star to in the past, but I actually think this book is terrible and honestly I feel like I truly wasted my time. Some lines made me super uncomfortable (for ex: the way kids called a girl with a physical disability 'clip-clop' because of the way she walked. And a scene where someone just starts shouting to someone calling him a "fucking Arab" but there's no context in this scene except to be racist.) These just straight up didn't sit well with me. Then you throw in like sexual violence and pregnancy when these kids are 14 and you have a recipe for disaster for me.
Then, we need to touch upon the actual book itself and the plot. Umm... plainly put what the fuck. So I realize this is a book by an Irish author and set in Ireland, but there's a lot of this book that just like DOESN'T make sense if you don't have knowledge on folktales and legends. I had to google half the shit in this book just to see what the hell was going on. It took like 200 pages for me to figure out this book was about FAIRIES. The pacing was atrocious. Sometimes it felt like 10 years passed, some times it felt like 2 days. A lot of weeks passed by but we got through like MAYBE 8 weeks of actual time in the book, which just didn't make a lot of sense. And don't look for world building. You ain't gonna find it in this book. Again, I had to google the world building.
Overall, I just found this book a mess. If you can look past the "clip-clop" stuff (which I couldn't), there were other plot holes and inconsistencies. Half the book is in love with our unlikable unremarkable main character. In fact, almost the entire plot and events are centred around someone liking her. It's all just... messy and I think so poorly developed. If the author had packed in another 200 pages of character development and world building I think this would have been a 3 star (still can't look past that writing).
I will be giving the sequel a huge pass, the plot sounds ridiculous, and I truly recommend giving this entire book a huge pass....more
This book is 149 pages and I can’t be bothered to finish it. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read. And Jordan Silver may quite honestly be one This book is 149 pages and I can’t be bothered to finish it. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read. And Jordan Silver may quite honestly be one of the worst authors I’ve ever read.
A plot about a gross nasty lonely man who kidnaps a girl to impregnate and become his slave, no thanks. He’s obsessed with himself and his own dick and the phrase “fuck meat” was used which says enough. Let’s not forget that he has her knocked out on horse tranquilizers but this virgin girl is still responding positively to him while he rapes her.
Just when a plot of rape and... well literally just rape wasn’t enough, this book is self published but is riddled with typos, to the point where some sentences didn’t make sense, and I’m not convinced the author read over their work before publishing it. I’m offended that I was charged money for this book....more
I have no idea how to even talk about this book. Anyone who knows anything about this book will know it's said to be messed up. I don't even think thaI have no idea how to even talk about this book. Anyone who knows anything about this book will know it's said to be messed up. I don't even think that's enough to describe this book. It makes Lolita seem tame. I will be unable to discuss this book without spoilers but I do not recommend reading this book at all, so that should not be an issue.
This book follows 5 kids, three are 10 (both of the girls are 10), one is 14, and the last is 15. These kid start fooling around sexually, exploring their bodies and sex, until one day one of the boys brings some BDSM magazines and their explorations take a turn.
This book really spared no punches. You have kids having sex with kids in graphic details, lurid depictions of a 10 year old girls' naked body. You have graphic details of child pornography and other various pornographic material. It's very graphic and detailed and is not for the feint hearted.
Obviously, that's 1 star material in its own right. But you add to that the fact that there's just no purpose to this book. It's graphic to be graphic. The horrid events have no consequences, no teaching moments. You don't learn anything about the kids or get invested in them but you are hearing about some of the most traumatizing moments of their life. I really am not sure what the point of this book was for, but I think it would have been better left unwritten.
I also did not like the Author's Note at the end that says something along the lines of "these events are not real, but they are possible." Like... sure, they are possible, but they are not really common occurrences and I don't know if I needed to read about it.
The one positive I have to say, is the writing was nice....more
I am not done, only about half, but I won't be changing my rating.
This series is unfortunately no longer my taste, and what's more has gone so downhilI am not done, only about half, but I won't be changing my rating.
This series is unfortunately no longer my taste, and what's more has gone so downhill I don't know where to start.
Marriage is supposed to be about compromise. WELL holy shit did Eva not get that message. Eva is 100% the only thing I liked about this series, and quite frankly she's a psycho raging bitch in this book. Her attitude, her "i'm going to do what I want fuck all y'all" attitude is atrocious and so out of character. I no longer believed in her love towards Gideon. And Gideon, who I didn't like, who's POV made me uncomfortable to read, was a calm, communicative, EQUAL member of the marriage. Which, while I appreciated, was also entirely out of character.
This series has a lot of stupid plots that kind of ended without any sort of conclusion, and I think due to that SD should have ended this after book 3 as she originally planned. The fights in this were actually so pointless to include, it actually made this even worse than it needed to be.
All around, glad to be done with this series so I can wipe my hands of it (I mean... in a few hours when I'm done skimming it)....more
There is no universe where I read a book about a girl who cheats on her boyfriend and strings another guy along while she figures out what she wants. There is no universe where I read a book about a girl who cheats on her boyfriend and strings another guy along while she figures out what she wants. Cheating is never okay, and she's a fucking bitch for thinking that she can have her cake and eat it too, all while trying to figure out what to do.
I regret wasting my time reading 116 pages. The blurb of this book made it sound like Kellan was a rebound, not that this book was about cheating, so I'm also pissed off I wasted money on this garbage, along with my time.
Kiera is a piece of shit, and this book is trash, but not in a good way....more
My first 1 star book of the year. It's more 1.5 but I round down.
Here's the thing, this has a really good synopsis. The world has gotten so bored of eMy first 1 star book of the year. It's more 1.5 but I round down.
Here's the thing, this has a really good synopsis. The world has gotten so bored of everything, that they start using the old Concentration camps in the same way they were used during the Holocaust, but it's broadcast on live television as a reality show. Anyone can be chosen, people are randomly arrested on the street, and you leave when you are dead. Guards are also randomly chosen off the street, and are paid.
So, this had promise. The things that this book could have touched upon. It could have talked about humanity, war, almost anything really, but it really has no purpose. The end kind of touches upon religion, which I wasn't a fan of because it's handled poorly and not really saying much of anything. And it does touch upon the hypocrisy of humans and that the more we talk about things that appall us, the better they do. Boycotting things just gets them more attention and in return they become more popular. That's about the only thing that's even remotely touched upon, when this premise honestly had the potential to have major philosophical discussions.
This book is only 127 pages, so you actually don't really care about anyone or anything. You aren't inspired to feel sorry for the prisoners, or inspired to hate the guards. It's all just a 'meh' feeling because you don't spend enough time with the characters to care about them even a little bit. It's also rushed, naturally, because of the short amount of pages. But in the end I was happy it's only 127 pages because it wasn't good.
Overall, not impressive. I would love to read some other 1-2 star reviews who agree with me, but the vast majority of them are not in English, as this book is translated from French....more
EDIT: Something was nagging me about my review, and I realized I forgot to talk about how disgusting this book talks about Androgynous people. I've adEDIT: Something was nagging me about my review, and I realized I forgot to talk about how disgusting this book talks about Androgynous people. I've added it in bold near the bottom.
Okay it's time to put on my big girl panties and review this book.
Firstly, I want to thank Atria books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book by sending me a review copy. They are my favourite publisher, and while I didn't enjoy this book, that still remains because I have never disliked one of their books before.
A brief synopsis: A female lawyer is going to be prosecuting a member of the parliament, high up in the government and friends with the Prime Minister, in court for raping a woman he was having an affair with.
This went from bad to worse for me sadly. It has everything going for it at first and that made me extremely skeptical. It seemed too good to be true to see a topic this important done well and actually including an important social commentary. However, there is a fine line between social commentary and preaching and sadly, for me, this book tipped way over into the preachy side of things.
I should probably mention now that every issue I am mentioning is caused by the writing. The book and topic isn't MEANT to be preachy, but the writing makes it so.
The plot is actually not horrible, but once again, the author made some choices for the book that I didn't really understand. Because the focal point of the book is the rape court case, she has very choppy time cuts. We go from the man being arrested, to the preliminary court case, to the actual court case, in 3 chapters. There is no in between, the time we would normally have to get the story about what happens, the time we could get character development, get growth and learn, but instead we leave the preliminary hearing at the end of 1 chapter and are dropped off in the court again at the beginning of another chapter. The flow was off, and therefore the pacing was off.
The characters sadly also suffered from the writing. There was no development and therefore I didn't care about anyone. I didn't care about the outcome of the court case. We never meet the victim, are never introduced to her, and everyone else is so underdeveloped that you are left with little emotion to the rest of the characters. (We meet her through the lawyer, so we don't actually get to know her) I will say, the book actually does show how charming the man could be, because I did actually find his chapters quite charming.
Now: the writing. I have issues with the writing to the point where I don't really know where to begin.
Issue 1: The perspectives. There are many different character perspectives in this, all of them in 3rd person, except the prosecuting lawyer, who was written in first person. In my opinion, this was a grave mistake. It felt EXTREMELY uncomfortable to read from this characters perspective. She spoke directly to the reader, and I mean directly. "Oh, I am in a bad mood. You can tell I am in a bad mood when I start talking like a high school politician." This is the narrator telling the reader something, and I did not like it, because it did not fit into this book. There is, straight up, and entire page later in the book where the narrator talks and talks about rape and how a woman never asks for rape. This is 100% true, and amazing social commentary, but it's being told to the audience by the narrator. She is not thinking it, or speaking it outloud, she is speaking to the audience. This is where I found the book got extremely preachy, it had great messages, but were just straight up told to us with really nothing else. It was kind of like if you watched a movie and it had really important messages and then all of a sudden the actor paused the movie and turned to the camera and looked directly into the camera and started telling you why what you were watching was important. It's not that it's wrong, it's just that it really messes with the flow of the movie. That's sort of what Kate's chapters were like to me when reading.
Issue 2: Diversity. Now, this is a story about women and really the only male character is the alleged rapist. But, Vaughan felt the need to be extra specific that there was some diversity. When learning about the jury members, which was done in passing and they are very unimportant and only mentioned like twice, she would always specifically state that the man was an "asian man" and that the man was a "black man" but never any other time. No "white man" in the audience, just man. Simply saying "the jury was filled with people with different races and genders" or something would have worked. There is an actual line, well I am quoting from an ARC so there may be changes in the final copy, that says "the jurors smile back at him and nod, these twelve good men, though seven of them were women." ................ I don't even know what to say to that? Like okay, there were 7 women and 5 men, but what's so hard about saying that. It's almost like she has to point out how it COULD have been all men, but she added diversity and put some women on the jury. I'm fairly certain it's against the law to have a jury of the same gender anyways. I just didn't mesh well to the way this book tried to include diversity.
Issue 3: Everything. This is a bit rough to say, but I didn't like any aspects of this story. Even the rape case itself was very poorly done in my opinion because the possibility of innocence is never offered to the readers. We HAVE to think he is guilty, because he IS guilty. But the reader would rather make that decision on their own when given all the information, than be told what to believe. That was a hard aspect for me to deal with, and is a lot of the criticism I had. I wrote in this book, my first time ever doing this. I wrote over and over again that there is little mention, while it's EXTREMELY rare, that men are sometimes wrongly accused of rape. I did understand as the book progressed why this decision was made on the authors part, but it didn't make me feel any better as a reader.
So I said up above I forgot to talk about this authors portrayal of Androgynous people, and god I can't believe I did. I actually had smoke coming out of my ears in this moment. I am going to use exact quotes, but I am reading an ARC copy so my quotes may be changed/removed in the final edition "She's sufficiently slim to pull off the androgynous, waif-like look, and it has desexualized her body." Another instance: "....her unnecessary sexiness fought until she became almost androgynous.." Umm... implying that androgynous people are not sexy is not really very body positive/female positive at all. Like what's the point of this entire sentence. My favourite model is Rain Dove and they are androgynous and they literally fight all the time for androgynous people to still be seen as sexy. The character literally uses this to tell us how her client, the victim, is appearing in court. This implies that the author thinks androgynous people won't be raped, and that they aren't sexy. I just can't with this.
I'm going to end this by saying that sometimes you can read a story and absolutely just not care about the way the book is written. I think, for many, this will be one of those cases. Unfortunately I found the book itself got way too much in the way for me to enjoy the story. I don't personally recommend it at all, but I also do respect others decisions to read this, and can respect people that ignored it's flaws and chose to look at just the things the book was trying to say....more
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