Tag: 2025 52 book club challenge

Book Review | In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Posted February 28, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

I’d heard a lot about it and been curious for a long time. There was a buddy read so I decided to join.

The Quotes

“Those fellows, they’re always crying over killers. Never a thought for the victims.”

“As long as you live, there’s always something waiting; and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.”

“I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.”

“Nancy Clutter is always in a hurry, but she always has time. And that’s one definition of a lady.”

My Thoughts

It was difficult to get into in the beginning but it got better towards the end. This book is true crime, nonfiction, but there are some questions as to the veracity of Capote’s version of events. As for me, I’m not a fan of how much focus there is on Dick and Perry, the perpetrators, and how much effort was put into making them seem sympathetic and relatable.

I realize that this book was written a long time ago and there was probably a lot more fascination towards the criminals than the victims, but reading it now, I can help but notice how much focus there is on Dick’s and Perry’s backgrounds and stories and how little on the victims and the victims’ friends and family left behind. The two elder daughters of the Clutter family are most noticeably absent from the story.

The way the story was written also somewhat downplays the true villainy of the perps. I get the feeling that they were a lot worse than how they were portrayed. They had no remorse, didn’t feel sorry for what they did, only that they were caught. It’s very offputting. I’m still glad I read it and know a little more about this horrific incident.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

Posted February 28, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #32: Includes a diary entry)

The Reason

Full disclosure, I judged this book by its cover and just really wanted to read it. Up until I started reading it, I had no idea it was based on real people and events.

The Quotes

“The act of mothering is not limited to the bearing of children.”

“Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without partiality. That, I believe, is why so few women are taught to read and write. God only knows what they would do with the power of pen and ink at their disposal.”

“It’s an unimaginative accusation and one that I am frankly tired of hearing. Witchcraft. As though there is no other explanation for a woman who excels at her work.”

“Though you never think it possible, you can celebrate and grieve in the same breath. It is a holy abomination.”

The Narrator(s)

Jane Oppenheimer. I loved listening to the audio narration, it was perfect.

My Thoughts

I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. When I realized it was historical biographical fiction, I expected it to be a slow and meandering, but pleasant, read. I started listening before going to bed and ended up not being able to sleep because it was just so gripping! I had to switch to a different audiobook to get to sleep!

A lot of it was really emotional and infuriating; it’s unfortunate that so many of the issues women faced in the 1700s are still issues we face now. Not much has changed. Not enough has changed.

The author does take some liberties with the story, changed some details and timelines, and of course adds imagined dialogue and encounters towards the story. From what I’ve gathered, the true events aren’t as satisfying as what happens in this book. That doesn’t surprise me. However, this book is such a great read and I highly recommend it!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Posted February 21, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.

Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.

Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn’t know where to find it.

Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.

When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question:

What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #TBD)

The Reason

Because I loved the first two books in the Wayfarer series; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and A Closed and Common Orbit and I want to continue the series.

The Quotes

“Our species doesn’t operate by reality. It operates by stories.”

“We are a longstanding species with a very short memory. If we don’t keep record, we’ll make the same mistakes over and over again.”

“The only way to really appreciate your way is to compare it to somebody else’s way. Figure out what you love, specifically. In detail. Figure out what you want to keep. Figure out what you want to change. Otherwise, it’s not love. It’s clinging to the familiar–to the comfortable–and that’s a dangerous thing for us short-term thinkers to do.”

“Knowledge should always be free. What people do with it is up to them.”

The Narrator(s)

Patricia Rodriguez. Same narrator as with the first two books and still as enjoyable.

My Thoughts

This book is a little different from the first two books, but while I was surprised and a little blindsided with the way it went, after I took the time to process my feelings, I think I love it for precisely that reason.

There are a few different main characters in this book, and the one I resonated with the most is Sawyer. I really like him as a person, and I felt like his story was the most interesting even though it didn’t end up where I expected it to. I also really like Eyas’ story. It was really interesting to see her perspective about the work she does and the respect she shows towards rituals and beliefs.

The worldbuilding is one of the best things about this series. I love how diverse and different everyone is. I love the way the author is so good at showing us the differences and similarities we all have, no matter where we come from, who we are, what we believe. There’s one more book in the series and I’m excited to read it, but I hope that the author will continue to write more books in the series.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Posted February 21, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #41: Cover font is a primary color)

The Reason

I’ve enjoyed the author before and there was a buddy read for this book.

The Quotes

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”

“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence.”

“He wanted to care, he wanted to care so badly, but there was this gap between what he felt and what he wanted to feel, a space where something important had been carved out.”

“There are no good men in this game.”

My Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book! I had no expectations going in, I didn’t even know what it was going to be about, but I just got sucked into the story and the rest is history. I loved the format of the story, the way the story unfolded. It was interesting to see Victor’s POV at the beginning, to see himself with all his flaws, and to see Eli through his emotions.

Mitch and Sydney were also very interesting characters. I loved seeing Victor with them, as opposed to Victor with Eli. I think the thing I love most about the book is all the complexities of the different relationship dynamics between every single character. There’s so much I can’t talk about because of spoilers, but suffice to say this book is worth reading just to explore the different ways the characters are with each other and why they like/dislike/trust/distrust each other.

I will be reading the next book in the series and I cannot wait to see more of the characters and how the story unfolds!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

Posted February 21, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family–and a new love–changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules…with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn’t the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for….

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #18: A character who can fly)

The Reason

I can’t resist stories about witches!

The Quotes

“Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”

“It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong. Sometimes we need to make that place.”

“It’s a leap of faith to love people and let yourself be loved.”

“Maybe some kinds of trauma can’t be revisited — and some need to be.”

The Narrator(s)

Samara MacLaren. She was great!

My Thoughts

I had high hopes for this book and ended up a little disappointed. I love found family stories, I love witchy stories, and this one felt like it could be right up my alley. The first part of the book was very promising, but the further we got into the book, the more I started getting annoyed with the characters, and after everything, I didn’t like where the story and characters ended up.

One of the things that resonated most with me was the conversation about being kind vs. being nice, and I really did love the initial idea of the story and the anticipation of found family. However, there were things that happened in the story that I can’t talk about without giving away spoilers, but I didn’t like what happened, and I didn’t like that the characters did that, and I didn’t like that it was brushed away like it didn’t matter.

I wish it was a better story with better characters, but giving credit where credit is due, it was well written and a very easy read. I’ll check out the author’s other books because I think she’s a good writer, I hope I’ll find some better stories amongst her works.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

Posted February 2, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #26: More than a million copies sold)

The Reason

It’s been on my TBR a while, I’d heard so much about it and was curious.

My Thoughts

I didn’t expect it to be so because it’s a graphic novel of mice, but I feel like this is one of the most important books about WW2 that I’ve read. One, because it’s a true story from Art’s father who actually lived through it and not the many WW2 fiction that’s available, and two, because the MC, Vladek, isn’t the most likeable person.

There’s a reminder here that it really didn’t matter if you were a good or bad person, rich or poor, strong or weak, male or female, young or old… if you were a Jew, you could die at the whims of a Nazi, or you could be one of the “lucky” ones who survived. It chills me to think about it. As I’ve said, I really don’t like Vladek very much. He’s stingy, difficult, and a racist, and yet, I respect his survival instincts and his resourcefulness. I still don’t like him, but no matter what, no one deserves what the Nazis did to the Jews. I love that Art told his father’s story while also showing the process of being told the story; I think it brought a whole new element to the story to show that someone can go through something as vile as the Holocaust and yet still hold racist beliefs, and it also helps to show that Art doesn’t agree with his father’s beliefs.

In fact, one of the things I find most interesting is the relationship dynamics between Art and his father. He shows that Vladek is a difficult person to be around, to reason with, to change, and even from the beginning we see that he doesn’t spend a lot of time with his father and doesn’t want to spend a lot of time with him. It’s so relatable to both want to honor your father’s history and tell his story but not want to subject yourself to his idiosyncrasies.

I really respect the vulnerability and authenticity that Art puts into this story, and also the comic that he wrote about his mother that he included in the book. I don’t know if I could ever do that but I’m inspired by his demonstration.

In regards to the art, I think it was amazing – so detailed and very obviously thoughtful. One of the common questions asked is why use animals instead of humans to depict the characters, and I can’t say why for sure, but the deeper I got into the book, the more I wonder if using the mice to represent Jews is because of how resourceful mice are. People see mice as pests and often want to exterminate them, but they persist and they thrive despite hardships. They are incredibly smart, solving puzzles and looking for loopholes, they are survivors. I don’t know if this was Art’s intent, but it was my takeaway. This book has been on my radar for a long time, I’m so glad I finally read it!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson

Posted February 2, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson

The Menu meets Ready of Not in this dark tale of opulent luxury and shocking violence from the New York Times bestselling author of Bloom.

Thrift fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When he invites her to his family’s big Easter reunion at their lake retreat, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship someone with her pedigree could never nab through the regular submission route.

When they arrive at the enormous mansion on an island in the center of a Georgia lake, Dez is floored―she’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed, shit gets real. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts that are basically indentured servitude, and with nothing to lose, the servants have decided their only route to freedom is to get rid of the Ruskins for good…

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #23: Title is ten characters or less)

The Reason

It was a buddy read and I heard good things about a previous buddy read by the same author.

My Thoughts

If this book was to be made into a movie, it would be the kind of fun comedy-horror that I would be all over. I’m not a fan of most horror movies in general, but I love comedy-horror and I think this would be a really good one.

This book is brutal, gory, sadistic, but so campy and ridiculous that I can’t take it too seriously. I loved that it was fast-paced and that you get so much satisfaction out of most everything that happens. It’s a little psychotic to think that way once you read the book and realize what I’m talking about, but as I’ve said, I don’t think this book is meant to be taken very seriously so I’m perfectly fine enjoying all the psychotic things that happen.

Is this the greatest novel ever written? Of course not, but it was a fun read, and a short one, and very much worth reading if you like comedy horror set on page.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Joyland by Stephen King

Posted January 31, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Joyland by Stephen King

College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life – and what comes after – that would change his world forever.

A riveting story about love and loss, about growing up and growing old – and about those who don’t get to do either because death comes for them before their time. It is at once a mystery, a horror story, and a bittersweet coming-of-age novel, one that will leave even the most hard-boiled reader profoundly moved.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #45: Author releases more than one book a year)
The Stephen King Constant Reader Challenge

The Reason

People say this is a good one (but they’re all good!).

The Quotes

“When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.”

“When you’re twenty-one, life is a roadmap. It’s only when you get to be twenty-five or so that you begin to suspect that you’ve been looking at the map upside down, and not until you’re forty are you entirely sure. By the time you’re sixty, take it from me, you’re fucking lost.”

“It’s hard to let go. Even when what you’re holding onto is full of thorns, it’s hard to let go. Maybe especially then.”

“My father had taught me – mostly by example – that if a man wanted to be in charge of his life, he had to be in charge of his problems.”

The Narrator(s)

Michael Kelly. No complaints, I enjoyed it.

My Thoughts

This one was interesting because I had such a feeling of nostalgia while reading it even though it’s my first time reading it. There’s just this feel to the story and the writing, and maybe it’s because the setting is in an amusement park and that always brings back memories of when you were a child.

I don’t necessarily like Devin’s character – he seemed a little too girl-crazy, but at the same time that’s pretty on point for a young 21-year-old and I’d be a hypocrite if I said I wasn’t affected by hormones at that age too. He was relatable though, and honestly, all the things that annoy me about him are probably things about myself in my 20s that I cringe to remember. Perhaps that’s the reason why this book feels so familiar and nostalgic even though I’m reading it for the first time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, SK has a real knack for storytelling and pulling you into the story. I don’t consider him a horror writer, he transcends genres and can write anything. I love this one because it gives so much even though it’s one of his shorter novels. The angst of a teenager, the mystery of a serial killer, the found family aspect (and you know I love found family stories!), the friendships and connections, all of it and more.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

Posted January 31, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis: He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.

At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #19: Has short chapters)

The Reason

We’ve talked about this book before and it made me curious, but more so recently when my friend said it was one of her top books of 2024.

The Quotes

“In their innocence, they failed to grasp the labor of losing a partner, how the tasks of simple existence would become logistical feats and one person’s burden.”

“In the rare hopeful hour, I tell myself this darkness has a purpose: to help me recognize light if I ever find it again.”

“Plants were probably the most sentient of all living things: rational, bloodless bystanders, witnessing the great horror of it all.”

“Lewis’s mutation was like the weather; they could prepare, but they could not control a thing.”

The Narrator(s)

Karissa Vacker, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Soneela Nankani. They were all great! I wholly enjoyed the listening experience, and it probably made me not even notice the purple prose.

My Thoughts

I mentioned purple prose, and just from the quotes included above, you get a glimpse of the language of the book. Normally I don’t like too much purple prose, but I didn’t feel like its use here was excessive. I felt it was more heartfelt and poetic and I enjoyed it very much. I must admit that perhaps one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is because I keep underestimating it. I thought it was going to be a light-hearted book with magical realism, but it turned out to be deeper than that, and more emotional.

Ultimately, it’s a story about loss and grieving, and how to be the person left behind. It hits hard, but in such a gentle way. It was not what I expected at all from this book. There are other hard-hitting topics covered as well, but I can’t talk about them without giving away spoilers. I might do a discussion post for this soon because there’s much to talk about.

This was a buddy read, and I also discussed it with my friend (and other friends) who read it and said it was one of her top books. A few of us have also read Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and discussed the similarities, and differences, between the two books. There were a lot of great takeaways and the discussions really made me enjoy the book even more. As good as it is, it doesn’t quite hit the 5 star mark for me, but it’s a good solid 4 stars.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Posted January 17, 2025 by Haze in Book Reviews / 6 Comments

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets–an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #50: Set in the 1940s)

The Reason

It was a buddy read and a reread, and I remember loving it before.

The Quotes

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”

“People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough.”

“I could tell you it’s the heart, but what is really killing him is loneliness. Memories are worse than bullets.”

The Narrator(s)

Jonathan Davis. I have no complaints about the narrator. He was very good and I loved the listening experience. I do have a bone to pick about the production though! Throughout the whole book at certain points at the end of chapters, there were music playing that made it very difficult to hear the narration. At the end of the book in the credits, we learn that they were original music composed by the author. Which is great, the music sounds good! It just really made the narration difficult to hear, and I want to iterate that this is an issue with the sound engineering and not the music itself. The audiobook I listened to is produced by Penguin Audio.

My Thoughts

Okay, this book. It’s very meta, it’s very drama, it’s very thrilling, and I’m here for it! However, I have to admit that I find it a little melodramatic at times, and I find it really hard to relate to the characters. This is also a reread, and I remember loving it the first time and rating it 5 stars. This time I feel like I’m only going to give it 4 stars.

To be fair, it is a very good book, written very well with an incredible plot. I love how meta it is; the story within the story, the parallel lives of the characters. There’s a lot of excitement and thrill of trying to figure out the mystery and wanting to know what happens next, and although I didn’t like the characters, I found them very interesting. I also think the intricate plot was done masterfully and the way everything ties together was very satisfying.

It’s just, the characters and the drama feels very “reality-tv-ish”. They are childish and toxic and make a big deal out of everything, holding grudges and getting offended over every little thing instead of just talking things out, ffs. It makes for good tv, lots of drama, and let’s be honest, we hate the villains on reality tv but we also know they bring the most drama, which brings the viewers in!

The stakes in the book are much higher than in reality tv, and the atrocities that happen are a lot more serious, but it still feels like it could all have been prevented if they only talked to each other, find better solutions, and didn’t immediately go scorched earth on everything! They essentially brought it on themselves and blamed everyone else for their misfortunes.

I can appreciate the mastery of the author’s plotting and storytelling. And I can even appreciate the character-building because of how interesting and vibrant they are, but I can’t relate, so it’s 4 stars for me this time. Still a very good book, and well worth reading!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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