(Time is fake and there are no rules to review blogs, so here is my April review, which was written late and is now being post even later)
I've decided to do two separate wrap-ups for March and April, even though I'm working on them simultaneously due to how severely I've been neglecting this blog. It's fine! This way will be better for future organization...probably?
April and March were both slow reading months for me. April is a very busy month for me at work, and I just haven't been making time for reading lately. It is what it is.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Publication Date: July 19th, 2001
Read: March 31st - April 4th
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
This was April's book club book. I regret to say I disliked it enormously. Apparently the second book is actually the one everyone likes and/or the point where the series gets good. I just found this book very odd and cynical and...offputting? In my goodreads review I called it quirky-yet-joyless, which I think sums it up well. It's also a good example of a book that is spoiled by its own synopsis and arguably even its own title. I spent the entire book waiting for Jane Eyre to get kidnapped, and then when it happened I still didn't have any fun. And the women characters were not great.
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Expected Publication Date: September 10th, 2024
Read: April 24th
Rating: 2/5 stars
If this is the best that Lucy Westenra retellings have to offer, we seriously need to go back to the drawing board. This is a shallow, self-congratulatory take on Dracula that unnecessarily vilifies every character but Lucy. Lucy, on the other hand, is so perfect that her whole character arc is actually about realizing that she should have been loving herself more this entire time. She doesn't even eat any babies (outrageous).
This book is also about the heir to a Utah-based vampire MLM trying to escape and/or take it down from the inside. That part of the story is kind of silly, but a lot more interesting than what this book has to say about Dracula (nothing worthwhile). I mildly enjoyed the vampire MLM parts and rolled my eyes through everything else.
The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
Publication Date: March 23rd, 2021
Read: April 5th - 25th
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Alas, it took me so long to finish reading this book that I had to resort to the old trick of putting my kindle in airplane mode so that it wouldn't boot me out of my borrowed library e-book copy. I wish I had read it a bit faster, because I tend to like books better when I read them faster, and I didn't like this one quite as much as I hoped to.
I've written out some thoughts about The Unbroken in a goodreads review already, but basically this book just crammed a LOT of plot into the second half in a way that left me feeling a bit discombobulated. I like slow pacing and taking the time to dig deep into the consequences and mess of our actions, and I felt like I didn't get that here, despite and also because of the sheer amount of STUFF that happened. And the end of this book was really surprising, but not necessarily in a good way, more in a..."What? Why is this happening?" way. Sigh, shrug, et cetera. I think I'm going to give the next book a try and let that determine whether I'll finish the trilogy when the third book comes out.
No comments:
Post a Comment