Confessions of a Curious Bookseller by Elizabeth Green

Rating: ★

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

DNF at 12%. I tried to push myself to at least completing 30% of this book, but the humor does not work for me and the main character is too unlikeable. She’s not unlikeable in a “this is a good character” type of way either.

The story is told in bits of correspondence, mainly emails, with some journal entries from our main character, Fawn. I expected the journal entries to be more enlightening to her motives and her character, but she’s just as, well, annoying in her private writing. She seems to lack all self-awareness. I believe this is meant to be funny, but nothing about Green’s writing made me even smile.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Rating: ★★★★★

I loved this book from beginning to end, and it’s taken me two days to sit down to write this little review because I’m not sure what to say here besides, “I loved this book!” It took me a whole month to read it since this was a big book, almost 600 pages, and lately I’ve been reading shorter books, and I’m also a slower reader, so please don’t think that this is a slow read or a boring read. This book is intense in a lot of ways.

Even though it’s long, there are many scenes where a lot is going down and you won’t want to stop reading. So what’s it all about? Well, I guess I could loosely call this a period mystery, but it’s more of just a character study. I don’t want to say too much since this story has many many twists and turns, and all of it is highly enjoyable. It takes place in and around London in the late 19th century, which is basically my favorite time period. The writing is descriptive and layered. I loved every page of this story.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Rating: ★★★★★

Wow, this book blew me away, and I did not expect that at all. Our main character, 16-year-old Aza, lives with OCD and anxiety. Much of what Aza describes in this book – wanting to get outside of herself, away from her body, away from her thoughts – was extremely relatable for me, and I was on the verge of tears at many different points. I live with my own anxieties and mental health isues that this book excellently described. It’s been a long time since a book made me cry. I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. I recommend this to everyone, but especially those who live with mental illness and those who want to understand what it’s like to live with mental illness.

Misery by Stephen King

Rating: ★

I hated this book from the beginning. I generally save one star ratings for books I DNF, but this one deserves it. I only finished it to see how it differed from the movie. It is full to the brim with misogyny and hatred for the mentally ill. I even took screenshots (I read the ebook) while reading to share on Twitter.

I won’t spoil anything, but Paul, our main character, uses the rape word twice to describe something unpleasant. He refers to most women in the book as bitches. He goes on tangents describing how simple minded his female fan base must be. It was highly insulting and aggravating to read. Hating Annie, calling her a bitch, makes sense. But Paul feels the same towards all women.

Then there’s the talk about the mentally ill. In this book, they don’t need help. They’re just scary. King boils it down to this handy statement: “Depressives kill themselves. Psychotics, rocked in the poison cradles of their own egos, want to do everyone handy a favor and take them along.” That’s useful.

I hate this book. Do not recommend. Even if I could get past these things, the actual story is boring, gruesome, and gratuitous. This should have been a short story or novella.

The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho

Rating: ★★★

I read this book rather quickly, which was easy since it’s so short. The ebook (from Google Play) was about 20 pages. Because it was short, there wasn’t a lot of room to flesh out the details. I kept wanting to know more – about the main character, Siew Tsin, and about how this fantastical world worked.

It’s the Chinese version of hell, and I honestly know nothing about this. I probably missed a lot of symbolic messages here. How is terracotta significant? How long do people spend in hell? How do they get to heaven instead of hell? I had a lot of questions, which is both on me and on the story. I think if there was more space, this story could have detailed how everything worked. (Since it was not only a foreign subject to me, but also a fantastical story, I wasn’t sure what was traditional Chinese myth and what was invented by the author.)

With all that said, I did enjoy the story. I was pulled in and interested. I just wanted more. The writing at times was lyrical and moving, and yet at other times it was a bit basic – just telling the reader what we need to know. I would have loved this story if it had been expanded and developed more.

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter

Rating: ★★

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I can’t say much about this book because it’s so short, and therefore I’m not sure what’s a spoiler. But it’s a story about a woman and her baby and how they’re surviving in a dystopian type of future. The writing is good and very descriptive at times, but it surprisingly lacks emotional depth. There’s also no big, overarching plot points or character descriptors. For example, none of the characters have complete names. They’re just referred to as letters – R, Z, O, etc. For the first third of the book, I thought this may be because the author wants the reader to latch onto the emotions of the story, which center around a woman trying to survive with her baby. But without anything of substance to hold onto, the story came off as shallow and underdeveloped. I have a lot of questions that I can’t pose here because they may be spoilerly, and the story just fails to answer any of them. After the first third, I thought the book was hitting its stride, and I was really enjoying it. I read the entire thing in two sittings, which is rare for me. But as I was reaching the end, I realized I wasn’t going to get any answers, and became annoyed and frustrated. I think this is one you can skip.

The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang

Rating: ★★★

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I went into this thinking it’d be a fun, silly, humorous road-trip novel, and while it hits some of those points, I felt the story was trapped between wanting to be funny and wanting to be dramatic.

Most of the story focuses on the Wangs – there’s Charles, Barbra, Saina, Andrew, and Grace. Some chapters are dedicated to one character and his/her thoughts, and others will jump around between characters. There are even two chapters that are from the car’s point-of-view, which was definitely strange. There is tension between the family members, but then the story falters because it wants to be amusing. Absurd scenarios take place throughout the novel, and I was particularly annoyed with the third and final leg. If the author had focused on one or the other – either humor or drama – the story would have been much more successful.

I did decide on a three star rating because the writing, at times, was very poetic and moving. I believe this is Chang’s debut novel, and I would definitely pick up her next book, especially if it were more subdued and didn’t strive to be humorous. Additionally, I did keep reading it! I wanted to know how it would all turn out. However, around the 70-80% mark, I was getting very frustrated and considered putting the book down. At that point, though, I figured I’d come far enough. I might as well finish it.

I don’t know if I would recommend this book to anyone, though. Like I said, it’s trapped between two worlds – the family drama and the absurd, humorous plot devices. I suppose if you interested in both of those things, you can check this one out.