63%
26.04.26This was well researched and compelling with a great two-word hook - Jesus's wife! - but I wondered at the choice of exiling her while he was doing all the messiah stuff. Then I realised that it was really about the first-century female experience and the biblical Easter eggs (ha!) were just for decoration.
63%
13.04.25
Four books comprising:
A fun, feisty, feminist fantasy series that I read n about 5 days. A pretty biting political commentary too, marred only by a few jarring typos.
This was a fun premise, mostly well executed. The observational humour is the real highlight (the author clearly notes down funny real-life encounters) but the concept and implications of having random husbands is examined from every possible angle - and, pleasingly, never explained. It almost makes up for the lack of real plot and character development.
(Why were references to the pandemic needed when this was hardly gritty realism?)
14.07.24
I met Andy a couple of times when he was a highly paid and highly visible copywriter teaching others how to be as rich and famous as him. Then he decided to be even richer and famouser as an author and, of course, his boundless confidence paid off. And, perhaps not surprisingly given his background, it was really rather good - well written, well paced and with reasonably strong characters. It still plodded (ha!) at times as police procedurals do, but it was skilfully executed.
02.03.24
Another distraction from the slog of Ordinary Monsters, this was deceptively engaging - it was only afterwards that I realised what a dark story it was. But then it wasn't particularly realistic or subtle - Oliver was such a pantomime villain and most of the other narrators were so 'nice' that their behaviour wasn't very convincing and 'what happened and why' wasn't very satisfying. But it was a good read.
The title isn't a question but I'll answer it anyway. It defines itself as cosmic horror, which is partially accurate, but it's also a surreal and madcap supernatural adventure, the protagonists/narrators all so unreliable that it's not clear whether or not the story has been resolved at the end. It's also a deceptively clever, funny and well-structured novel, despite its pretentions of randomness.
(The protagonist's girlfriend was a manic pixie dream girl, who would never be the protagonist's girlfriend in real life, which was annoying but did fit into the narrative style.)
(My library book has the narrator David Wang as the author on the cover, with a rather concerning note from actual author Jason Pargin at the back explaining that it is entirely fiction and to seek help if you think it isn't.)
Points for cleverness and attention to detail. Time travel mysteries need careful planning and plotting, and this clearly had plenty of that - even if some other aspects were slightly off (who picks up their 18-year-old kids from school?). Also points for only mentioning the pandemic in passing.
22.02.23
This is the eighth book by Novik I've read, and it's exactly what I've come to expect - a prettily written dark fairytale with strong female characters and not enough editing. It started off well - evocative and engaging - but it just went on and on. All the headhopping soon became tedious. We only needed two, maybe three, viewpoints. And surely <spoiler!> the two brave and independent women wouldn't really choose to stay with their awful husbands at the end?
63%
The first third or so of this was pitch-perfect - a balance of humour and pathos, with quirky characters to carry you through. But then it started to meander a bit, some points of view fell flat, the multiple story lines got slightly wearisome, many of the topics were a little problematic - but to its credit, not all the ends were tied by the last page.
63%
A delightful story, pleasingly written with nice characters - all of which sounds like a criticism but it's not at all. It does, however, read like a trial run for the more complex and satisfying The Kingdoms. And it's always nice to see the unjustly unfashionable Gilbert & Sullivan featured in a story.
63%
23.09.21
I really didn't want to read this month's book club choice. Why would I, when <title>? Not that such an ending is unusual, but it is unusual for the whole book to be about that ending. And indeed it was brutal - but also intriguing to explore the idea of whether it's about the journey or the (final) destination.
19.04.21
Confident and very clever, this engaging story can be read on a number of levels. Is it political satire, crime, farce, romance, memoir, allegory or comedy? Well, yes. It's a vivid peek into the lives of those not often remembered these days, though it does lack the emotional depth needed for you to actually care about them.
63%
20.11.20
This was my first J Trollope and actually it was quite good, in a rather dated, middle-class, tropes of little England sort of way.
