#st: book reviews

[visiting3am]

x=x

[playlistbyjo]

*sobbing while reading a little life with this playlist in the bg*

[margielalalove]

“Forever," she said.

"Forever will never be enough," he said. "Not when I have lived half my life without you.”

Scarlett St. Clair, A Touch of Chaos (Hades x Persephone Saga, #4)

[sabahkahvaltisiyalnizligi]

[kitaylo]

A little life rant post (spoilers)

I read A Little Life last month, and I've never been this conflicted about a book. At first, I really loved how it depicted trauma and how repressing it led to Jude's infinite suffering. However, the moment I reached Willem’s accident, I realized how poorly written the book was, yet it didn't stop me from finishing it, and by the end, I started seeing how Hanya is an incredible writer: beautiful prose, creative metaphors and interesting characters, however, her intentions were wrong.

I looked up some of her interviews and articles, and I was completely disgusted when I found out that the book that i initially thought was promoting mental health issues and the importance of therapy was actually the opposite of that. Hanya doesn't believe that therapy is helpful, though she never personally tried it. She also claims that she hasn't researched any of the themes in her book, which is rich coming from an author who wrote a book about a mentally ill character.

She also thinks that once someone experiences an insurmountable level of trauma, they're beyond help, and we should help them die. This rhetoric is shown in the last part of the book when Jude finally seeks therapy and seems to get better, but in the end, it doesn't help him much. Now, i know that therapy doesn't work for everyone, but writing a book where your character suffers day and night just to push your anti-therapy ideas is so harmful. Especially when your book is marketed as a book that depicts mental health, the message you'll send people who are actually suffering is that they are beyond help, so just end your misery.

I truly believed that this book was great before listening to the author talk. And let's not talk about how the female characters were lackluster, non-existent even, and the nerve to say this book is about friendship just to avoid admitting that your characters are gay is laughable. Miss girl really said i don't think men could be vulnerable in friendships, so they have to be more than that for them to open up, and yeah, she is talking about Willem and Jude who are just close friends.

[bookhighlightss]

I live for these conversations

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 50 – Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

I read this book over the course of one day and two flights,, which on the one hand was probably not the best way to do it but on the other is kind of appropriate given the prominence of travel and dislocation to the narrative. Anyway, reading so quickly and then spending a week on vacation without time to work on this review does mean that my thoughts are all a bit vague and muddled, so apologies about that in advance. Anyways!

The only other work of St. John Mandel’s I’ve read was Station Eleven, which was easily one of the best things I read last year and good enough to put this on my TBR as well. I went in basically entirely blind, beyond the basics of ‘time travel’ and ‘COVID novel’. It might just be that my expectations were too high, but frankly I found it a fairly disappointing read, and pretty strictly inferior to Station Eleven in just about everything – the later even manages to be a better pandemic novel despite the handicap of being published in 2014. My main reaction to finishing it was something along the lines of ‘that’s it?’ and then going back to staring down at the clouds.

The book jumps POVs a fair bit, but the deuteragonists are an author on a global book tour in the days before a pandemic sweeps the world (and moon) in the 22nd century, and a bit of an aimless failson in the 23rd who gets a job investigating a temporal anomaly through the power of nepotism and goes back to interview her and a few others across the centuries who were touched by it. The detective is the one who drives essentially all of the plot and makes all the choices – none of the POVs are really filled with a surfeit of passion or drive, the author is the only one who seems to particularly like her life – but by wordcount and focus I very much got the sense that the author was far more of the book’s emotional heart than the 20th or 21st century POVs. (Which is something of a shame, because I found both of them rather more compelling in the screentime they did have, being honest).

The plot is, well, thin. Our 23rd century POV (a hotel detective) is repeatedly told that he will be tempted to do something (save the author from her scheduled pandemic death) and warned of consequences if he does, repeatedly promises that he will not, and then as soon as the chance presents itself does the thing with basically no warning or introspection, after which he faces almost exactly the consequences he was warned of. He is then saved through the power of a supergenius sister ex machina, and the whole anomaly is tied up in a neat time loop in a vague reality-as-narrative sort of way. As a work that’s more literary than genre the characters all felt kind of flat and static, no one ever really surprised or fascinated me.

And as far as it as a science fiction novel goes, I don’t know – there’s a decent chance it’s a much more impressive read if you haven’t zoned out scrolling past dozens of pages of earnest debate on the simulation hypothesis and read/watched however many different time loop stories before? It could have all fit pretty nicely in a mid-season Doctor Who episode, honestly, and I don’t really mean that as a compliment.

Emotionally, the experience of living through COVID is pretty clearly at the heart of the thing. Both the sense of pure terror at realizing your survival is a matter of luck and statistics, the isolation and alienation from the world that’s part and parcel of lockdown, the sort of awesome horror at looking back across history and realizing how totally unremarkable seeing such mass death around you is over the centuries, how in a generation it will be nothing but a bit of trivia. This stuff was definitely more compelling than the rest of the book, though it did fall prey to a rapidly growing pet peeve of mine and just kind of forgot all the ‘essential workers’ who weren’t doctors or nurses and just kind of write them out of the universal pandemic lockdown experience.

Anyway yeah, not in any sense a badly written book, but I found it a disappointment.

[legendl0re]

Finished this piece of Constanta, Magdelena, and Alexi from S.T. Gibson's polyamorous dracula-inspired vampire novel, "A Dowry of Blood".

Made this for my review of the book linked down below :)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.2 Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 282

Time Read: 5 hours and 52 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Death, war, violence, pregnancy, drug use, murder, injury, infertility, death of a parent, addiction, drug abuse, grief, colonization, genocide, adult/minor relationship, su*c*de, ableism, body horror, fire, incest, child death, psychosis, abortion, miscarriage, racism, slavery, cursing, cultural appropriation, classism, confinement, execution, religious fanaticism, religious bigotry

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: 12 years after the events of Dune; On Arrakis/Dune

First Line: What led you to take your particular approach to a history of Muad'Dib?

The book begins 12 years after the events of Dune with a historian named Bronso of Ix being interrogated by a member of the Qizarate, Paul Atreides' religious order. Bronso is to be executed for committing blasphemy, while he argues that Paul committed religious sham in order to bring the Empire under his control.

Princess Irulan, Paul's wife, conspires on Wallach IX with Edric, a mutated Steersman of the Spacing Guild, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and a Tleilaxu Face Dancer called Scytale. They plot to remove Paul as Emperor. The Bene Tleilax play a grand part in their plan, as they took the body of Duncan Idaho and made him into a ghola, a remade being that has the body of the deceased person but none of the memories. Irulan reveals that Chani hasn't been able to get pregnant because she has been putting contraceptives in her food.

When Irulan returns back from Wallach IX, she demands Paul give her a child. Paul refuses, but Chani tries to make a case for it.

Scytale shapeshifts into Duncan Idaho to go and see a former Fedaykin warrior who is part of the conspiracy against Paul. Him and his son have kidnapped the daughter of another Fedaykin at Scytale's request. Scytale kills them both and takes the girl.

Paul welcomes Edric into his household, and he brings with him the ghola of Duncan Idaho, who has been turned into a Mentat/Zensunni philosopher with metal eyes called Hayt by the Tleilaxu. Paul and Alia, now 15 years old and a priestess to the people, are shocked by his arrival. Edric insists Paul take Hayt as a gift. Hayt discloses to Paul that Edric intends him to destroy Paul, but he doesn't know how. While he shows mannerisms of Duncan Idaho, he refuses to hold any of his memories or be the man that they once knew. Paul permits him to stay. The Reverend Mother was found aboard the ship that carried Edric, Hayt, and Scytale (disguised as a servant). Paul had banished her from Arrakis so she is placed under immediate arrest. Irulan visits her in her cell, and she reveals that Chani has changed her diet so she can't be drugged with contraceptive anymore, and that Paul has repeatedly denied Irulan's requests to have a child. The Reverend Mother says that Paul and Alia must have a child then to preserve the Atreides bloodline, and that if Chani becomes pregnant Irulan must find a way to abort the baby or kill Chani. Irulan protests and almost refuses, but the Reverend Mother gives her no choice.

The body of the girl that Scytale took from the Fedaykin is found in the desert. Alia and Hayt investigate, but find no clues as to who she is. They head home, and Alia tries to figure out if any of Duncan Idaho remains in Hayt. When they land back in Arrakeen, Hayt kisses her.

Paul is haunted by his visions as he searches for a way to end the Jihad. The only path he sees is for him to disengage, but he can't figure out how to. He meets with the Reverend Mother and makes her an offer: they can have his genes, and he will allow Irulan to be artificially inseminated by him (which is an atrocity to the Bene Gesserit), in exchange for Chani and his children's safety, as she is pregnant. The Reverend Mother insists she must discuss this with the Bene Gesserit before she accepts.

Scytale shapeshifts once again and becomes Lichna, daughter of Otheym, the Feydakin's daughter he killed and left out in the desert. Paul immediately knows that "Lichna" is a Face Dancer, but he feels he must act out exactly what has happened in his visions, as it is fate. Scytale (as Lichna) tells Paul he must go to Otheym's house, as he has a list of names who are involved in a Fremen conspiracy against him. She insists that Chani go with him, but he refuses. He has her confined and put under guard, and then goes to Alia's temple to be met by his guide. A Fremen leads him to Otheym's house, and he is greeted at the door by a dwarf, which goes against his vision. Otheym is immensely sick, and him and his wife are now poor due to the cost of medics. Otheym explains that the dwarf, Bijaz, is a Tleilaxu creation that has imbedded in his memory the names and locations of the scheme against Paul. They urge him to take the clearly prescient dwarf, and Paul leaves, knowing what is about to happen. An atomic hits Otheym's house, and burns out Paul's eyes along with all of his soldier's and guard's eyes. Paul, however, uses his prescience to "see", and he is further deified by his followers.

Korba, a member of Paul's Qizarate, is brought before the other Fremen Naibs and Alia, and is accused of treachery against Paul. He denies it, but Paul appears and reveals that the conspirators stole the atomic weapon from him, which was illegal for him to possess. He is sent back to his cell, and Alia was able to determine which of the Naibs were on Korba's side, further weeding out conspirators.

Hayt goes to interrogate Bijaz, and Bijaz traps him using vocal cues. He reveals that him and Hayt were made by the Tleilaxu together, and puts a command in him that when Paul tells Hayt the words, "She is gone," Hayt is to attempt to kill him. He also reveals that this is intended to see if Duncan Idaho's memories return to him, which if they do, then it will be the first successful attempt to return former memories to a ghola, and they can then use this to try and bribe Paul by offering to bring Chani back to life if he gave up everything and lived in exile. Bijaz then forces Hayt to forget the conversation.

Alia overdoses on spice in an attempt to look into Paul's future but is unsuccessful and is saved by Hayt.

Chani, Paul, Bijaz, Hayt, Stilgar, Alia, Irulan, "Lichna", the Reverend Mother, Edric, and the rest of the court go to Sietch Tabr for Chani's birth. Paul knows what is about to happen, but he stands outside. Hayt discovers that Bijaz has put a command phrase in him and he goes to tell Paul. While they talk, a Fremen comes to tell Paul that Chani is dead but his twin children are alive. He is shocked by the fact that there are twins, even though Chani told him about them, as he only saw his daughter in his future visions. He tells Hayt, "She is gone," and Hayt begins to fight the urge to kill Paul. He tells him to run, but Paul refuses, knowing he will resist. Hayt then remembers everything and becomes Duncan Idaho once more. They go to see the babies and Chani's body, but Paul's prescience begins to fail and he starts to go truly blind. Alia, distraught, brings in "Lichna", who has now revealed herself to be Scytale. Scytale holds a knife to the babies as a threat to Paul, saying the Tleilaxu will restore Chani and he will let the babies live, but only if he gives up his throne and CHOAM holdings and lives in exile. Paul then is able to use the eyes of his infant son, who is fully conscious, to see Scytale, and he kills him with a throw of his knife. Paul tells them to take Chani's body away, and names his son Leto II (not to be confused with his eldest son that died in Dune who was also named Leto II). He names his daughter Ghanima, which Stilgar's wife Harah insists is a bad omen. He then goes to his room, where Bijaz confronts him and Duncan and makes Scytale's offer again. Paul tells Duncan to kill Bijaz before he succumbs, and he does. After this, Paul is fully blind and unable to use his abilities anymore. As is Fremen custom, he banishes himself to the desert. Stilgar executes Edric and the Reverend Mother, and Irulan renounces the Bene Gesserit and vows to raise Paul's children. Alia mourns the loss of Chani and her brother, and begs Duncan to love her, which he says he does.

Paul Muad'Dib Atreides (Mahdi, Lisan al-Gaib, Emperor of the Imperium, Usul, Kwisatz Haderach): I loved Dune Messiah because it used all of the foreshadowing of Paul's fate from Dune. Paul's story is not heroic, but tragic, and while his internal battle could be a struggle to understand at times, it still all came together in a beautiful, heart-wrenching ending.

Chani (Sayyadina, Sihaya): While her death was awful, I loved what Frank Herbert did with Chani in this book and with her relationship with Paul. While everyone says that Chani in Dune is madly in love and blindly follows Paul, I think this book definitely gave her more of her own personality. She is practical and headstrong, and, especially when she is described from Paul's perspective, you can see how much he truly loves and respects her and her opinion.

Duncan Idaho (Hayt): Duncan/Hayt was such a strange part of the book for me, especially as everyone including himself was confused on his identity. He spouted a lot of mysterious vague dialogue throughout, and his relationship with Alia definitely raises some eyebrows.

Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife, Abomination, virgin-harlot): Alia was also an odd character for me, as she is supposed to be an adult in a child's body and yet she acted like a child a lot of the time. I feel like the way she was described and the way she actually was were very conflicting, although I am sure that is part of the whole point.

Storyline: This book was largely dialogue, which could be tedious but I definitely did still enjoy it. While I wish we had gotten to see Paul's Jihad, getting a feel for how it went and how their worlds are now 12 years after the fact is almost like a puzzle. I definitely wish some things had been left out, like Paul and Stilgar walking in on Alia naked, the plotting of incest by Irulan and the Reverend Mother, and Duncan and Alia's adult/minor relationship.

Representation: Scytale is asked if he is a man or a woman, and he says that all Face Dancers are "Jadacha hermaphrodites", meaning that they can be whatever sex they wish to be. The term hermaphrodite is definitely outdated, but I was surprised that there was a gender fluid character who used he, she, and they pronouns throughout a book written in the 1960s.

Summary: I think that this book was essential in driving home Frank Herbert's intention with the original story of Paul Atreides. Dune and Dune Messiah were both broad critiques of capitalism, imperialism, climate change, genocide, colonialism, and, most obviously, religion as a means to control the masses.

Quotes: -"Have you considered what it meant for Alia to be born into this universe, fully cognitive, possessed of all her mother's memories and knowledge? No rape could be more terrifying."-Bronso of Ix (p.3)

-"You think Muad'Dib is yours because he mated with Chani, because he adopted Fremen customs. But he was an Atreides first and he was trained by a Bene Gesserit adept. He possessed disciplines totally unknown to you. You thought he brought you new organization a new mission. He promised to transform your desert planet into a water-rich paradise. And while he dazzled you with such visions, he took your virginity."-Bronso of Ix (p.4)

-"Muad'Dib's Qizarate missionaries carried their religious war across space in a Jihad whose major impetus endured only twelve standard years, but in that time, religious colonialism brought all but a fraction of the human universe under one rule."-Bronso of Ix (p.8)

-"A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation."-Scytale (p.22)

-"The Fremen are civil, educated, and ignorant... They're not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous."-Scytale (p.25)

-"Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of a weapon is religion when it becomes the government?"-Edric (p.110)

-"...to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.130)

-"I think what a joy it is to be alive, and I wonder if I'll ever leap inward to the root of this flesh and know myself as I once was. The root is there. Whether any act of mine can find it, that remains tangled in the future. But all things a man can do are mine. Any act of mine may do it."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.133)

-"If you need something to worship, then worship life--all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"-Paul Atreides (p.255)

[prose-mortem]

Book Review: Late Bloomer

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Late Bloomer was such a cute book! It satisfied all of my cottagecore, sapphic fantasies from the special interest in flowers to the sprawling farm in Asheville. It was an adorable comfort read straight out of Taylor Swift's folklore music album. One of the characters buys the other character greenhouses… What is more classic than that?

I loved Opal and Pepper's story. I deeply enjoyed the character development alongside the romance. For example, I thought (at first) that Opal was going to be a major pick-me with all the people-pleasing tendencies, but I was completely wrong. As the plot progresses, we see what a strong, smart, and loyal person she is to the people she loves. That was a refreshing arc! Both characters are neurodiverse (though Opal isn't sure what label fits her exactly), which was very relatable to an autistic person like me.

If there is a cozy, comforting (sapphic) version of Gilmore Girls, then this is it. Every detail was spot-on from autistic sensory issues to shoe art to niche special interests. (I loved Opal's fleeting special interest in the Victorian era. I felt seen.) The epilogue was so perfect! I wish I lived in Opal's and Pepper's world! If you like sapphic romance, this will pander directly to your most iconic and cottagecore princess fantasies!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers at St. Martin's Griffin for my e-arc! I hope Mazey Eddings keeps writing sapphic romances, because I will most definitely be reading them all.

[urmomluvbot]

i just read a little life and here's a messy review of the book by saying my opinion on people's takes on it

[THERE WILL BE SPOILERS] also dont expect this to be professional etc

i want to start off by saying that this book is like willem's movie "life after death"; either people absolutely loved it or people hated it. and i fucking love this. would i be rereading it? probably not. but would i think of jude for the rest of my days? yes.

the thing i keep reading about from the people who didnt like it is that a) it's a trauma porn, b.) it's lengthy with various of unnecessary parts, and c.) its just a sad book with a sad ending.

something that i dont really understand is people's need and urge and want to always, always read a book expecting a happy ending. ("and books lied, they made things prettier"). spoiler alert: life isnt like that! its ugly and u cant always run away from its ugliness, no matter how hard you try. no matter how hard jude tried. and i always had this hunch, when i was first reading it, that it wont end the way i'll like it, but still i hope and hope and hoped for jude and for all of them, and thats just the Human part of me. my in denial.

as someone who struggled from mental health, i actually guiltily thought in the middle of the book, "why hasnt he k!lled himself yet?" even before jude's attempt. i cant handle the thought of putting myself in his situation and pushing through, and that's the reality as well. you thought about it and yet , complying to it somehow makes you think that the hyenas won. that brother luke won, that dr traylor won. and the thing about jude is he always try. he tried to get through life, he tried to accept romance in his life, he tried and he tries to accept everyone's devotion and help because even though he feels like he doesn't deserve it; he feels like he owes them that at least. to try.

i can see how people, especially the first ones when it just came out, may be put off by the tones and the topics of this book, but as years went by and it grows in popularity, the trigger warnings had been set. one thing ive set my mind to when i bought the book is the advice i was given: to only read it when im in a stable stage of my life, and that's why it took me almost a year before i started reading it after buying it. the triggers are listed for anyone to see. YES. those things do happen in real life. those things, esp the rape and physical mental and verbal abuse DO come in hand majority of the time. the book is not trauma dumping or a trauma porn: it simply tells. (imo, its on YOU if u think this is a trauma porn. imo, it says a lot about you as a person).

the book is lengthy because it is intended to be, the "unnecessary parts" are not just fillers but a stepping stone to unraveling jude's past, to fully grasp the situation. they are there for a reason. you can skim through the book if you want to avoid them: but believe me when i say you wont fully get the book if you do. the book is not meant to be enjoyed. its meant to tell a story, to make you feel things for the characters, may it be pity or joy or anger.

jude is not meant to be understood or to help or to be pitied at, hes meant to exist. and those things are something that was given to him willingly by the people he loved. and the characters are all flawed. andy is a bad doctor, willem is lovable and maybe had too much love, malcolm is perfect (i love him so much), jb is infuriating most of the times, harold shouldve pushed more. they all shouldve pushed more, but they cant. because the way they love is also flawed and it gets in the way, because judy is also flawed. hes stubborn and confusing. but those are traits that makes them all human.

ive reblogged this before but ill say it again: ik its a meme, but not everything can be solved through therapy. again, it took jude YEARS to finally tell willem his past– willem. willem who jude probably trust with his life, who he lets help him and seeked out for him when he was bleeding to death from cutting too much. you think jude would talk to a shrink he barely knows? someones whos literally paid to talk to him? not even jb and malcolm knew.

smth i wanna address that i rlly dont get is people who claims it's homophobic, and i really and genuinely cant see it, as a lesbian person myself. every talk about sexuality (if there even is any thats worth noting for this part), had come naturally. everyone existed how people exist with each other. even when willem and jude got together, theres barely any talk about willem's sexuality. also, hot take (/s): sexuality is confusing!! not everyone wants to label themselves. ive known multiple ppl who majorly likes girls only, but have fallen for their recent boyfriend. it happens, surprise! not everyone wants to put themselves in a box.

in conclusion: i think people expects this book to turn out for the better as a psychological response. surprise, it doesn't. my opinion? it's not meant to be enjoyed. i dont recommend this to anyone but only because it IS devastating and im a sadist if i want people to experience those feelings the book will brought. however, the characters, the delivery of the story and the pacing, and hanya's god bowing writing style are what makes this book GREAT. great ≠ happy ending, just like how sad ending ≠ bad book. thanks!

[oracleofmadness]

This is such a cool read! I have never read a book by this author before, and I'm so happy that I got this chance to experience Gibson's writing.

So the story is amazing, and the writing is perfection. Laura, a "good girl" type who may harbor some carnal desires, starts college and immediately falls for senior Carmilla. Carmilla is in the same poetry seminar Laura is in. And, when she sees her beloved teacher pay attention to Laura (a new girl and a freshman at that!), immediate jealousy sparks, and this turns into just the best enemies-to-lovers read.

By the way, this book takes place in the 60s, and the author really made me feel that vibe through their writing and descriptions. I'm talking about word choice, things I imagine people would say at that time period.

The atmosphere was haunting and a perfect setup for this sapphic romance to bloom in the shadows and for Laura to learn the secret between Carmilla and their teacher.

I really enjoyed this and definitely recommend it!

Out February 13, 2024!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

[poppletonink]

BOOK REVIEW: The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

★★★★★ - 5 stars

"I'm under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you."

If Taylor Swift's Slut! was a book it would be The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - the life story of a reclusive Hollywood actress, the stories of forbidden love, pain, and heartache that made her hide away from the world.

The words heartwrenching, addictive, and shocking do not even begin to describe the experience of reading this masterpiece woven and written into existence by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The talent she holds is immense and incomprehensible. She can make the reader weep over a fictional actress - a woman who should be loathed for her lack of remorse and the terrible atrocities she committed; who is also merely a woman craving the love she struggled to garner her whole life.

Evelyn's story is of the brutal nature of female ambition and the way in which we are treated for it. Just like fictional women before her, be it Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare's timeless tragedy or It's a story of a woman painted as a slut for doing what she had to in order to survive as an actress in the cold-hearted, but glamorous grasp of Old Hollywood.

It is also a story of identity and assumption - how we as a society are too quick to create labels to brandish someone and put them into a box. The representation in this novel is wonderful, and the message told through this diversity is one that should reach out to the corners of the earth in order to be heard by all. Evelyn Hugo is a bisexual, Cuban American woman and she is powerful within her identity. She also perfectly sums up the point of this book in her own words: "I'm bisexual. Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box."

Reading this book is an experience that will leave people feeling heartbroken, as though their very core has been ripped to pieces. Simultaneously, it will leave them feeling invigorated, with a fresh wave of empowerment flowing through them. The lessons that are entwined into the pages of this novel are profound and important - they are lessons of love, feminism, and power. This is a book that people should not go without and one that should be declared mandatory reading worldwide.

[bookloure]

“A deer crossed the road ahead and paused to look at them before it vanished into the trees. The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?”

The more you love something, the harder it is to talk about. And that's definitely the case with Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven.

I first fell in love with this story in 2015. In the years that have gone by, I've lost all the plot and details of this story. But I never forgot how it made me feel. That last scene is imprinted still, in my memory...

Station Eleven is set in a wasteland, some twenty years after a pandemic wiped out 99% of the population and subsequent societal collapse. Unlike most futuristic dystopian novels, Emily St John Mandel put humanity back into the past: without the Internet, without the capacity to travel great distances, without the safety of laws, without society as we know it. Told in fragments and shifting timelines, we mainly follow a theater group known as the Traveling Symphony as they go through towns and settlements near one of the Great Lakes, performing Shakespeare.

Revisiting this now, it felt like reading the story for the first time. And it pleases me that this old favorite stood the passage of time. It's still a beautiful and well-written story about the human condition.

It's a story about pandemics, about found families, about the importance of community, curiosity, and hope.

And above all, this is a story about the necessity of art. After all, survival is insufficient.

Follow me on Instagram!

[just-a-girl-who-likes-sharks]

I am unwell after this…

And I’m like… so gay

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's Bookclub : It's In His Kiss

Title: It's In His Kiss Author: Julia Quinn Genre: Romance

Goodreads Summary :

Gareth St. Clair is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to beggar the St. Clair estates and ruin his inheritance. Gareth's sole bequest is an old family diary, which may or may not contain the secrets of his past... and the key to his future. The problem is—it's written in Italian, of which Gareth speaks not a word.

Review :

Look, we're to book seven and if anyone's expecting anything different by now, I don't know what they're thinking. Julia Quinn has a formula and she's sticking to it. And I've honestly gotten used to it.

Because you know what? I actually really enjoyed this book.

Does it have problems? Yup. Do I enjoy Quinn's writing style? I think it leaves something to be desired. Was I entertained? Absolutely.

I think something that makes romances palatable for me is if they're not the main focus of the plot. (If you're going to do romance then, oh my god, dig into good character examination, otherwise, I get bored quickly.) And this one (kind of like Romancing Mister Bridgerton) has a bit of an angle to it that stands out. There's a diary, there's missing jewels, there's getting to know each other while figuring all of this out. And, honestly, it's kind of refreshing.

Hyacinth has been a delight through the entire series so far, so I'm glad to say that she continues to be great in this. She's funny and clever and weird and I appreciate that.

Her love interest - Gareth - does have some of the same issues as all of Quinn's men. He's hot tempered. He's an idiot. He doesn't realize he's in love until after he's in loved. He's a bit of a combination of Anthony and Colin. But he's not as rough around the edges. Yes, there were definitely points that had me rolling my eyes. (When he thinks the girl who has never kissed anyone needs kissing lessons -- good god.) And yeah, the daddy issues in this book remind me A LOT of Simon in the first book. But really, he was fine and it didn't take me out too much.

Of course, there were some lovely cameos. Penelope shows up! she doesn't really do anything -- but it was nice to see her again. Daphne is a round for a bit. Violet has some great moments. Lady Danbury is an outright riot. And Anthony's one scene is one of the best in the books.

Colin wasn't around but, Julia! where is my missing scene where Hyacinth goes to get his help with the diary! I feel cheated! (I believe this is the only book he isn't in, though, so I'm hoping for just a little more time with him in book 8).

But yeah. While Quinn's structure of plotting remains cookie-cutter the same, she drags scenes on for far too long, and her characters are just recycled at this point, this book is fun and light and had me entertained, which is all I ask for.

Rating: 4 stars