aclassicalmess's reviews
135 reviews

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book can be summed up in all the things that it makes you think and feel. The House in the Cerulean Sea makes you worry over gardening equipment, makes you want to be a bellhop, makes you hate the society we live in today while simultaneously reminding you that there is hope, makes you fall hopelessly in love with the antichrist and it does this all while giving you a big gay hug. What more could be possibly ask from a book. Absolutely adored it!
The Stranger by Albert Camus

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

For the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Hasten then, my dear friend, to return, that I may again feel myself somewhat at home, which I cannot do in your absence.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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dark reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it even more the second time round, this novel just has so much to offer and one reading of this is not enough.
Never Let Me Go from first glance feels like a simple story that follows students at a boarding school, however it shouldn’t take very long to realize that this novel is so much more and quite a bit darker than that. It’s a story that can allow for the reader to question the nature of their existence and our overall relationship with death. Part of me is terrified to say more than that as so I don’t give the game away. I will say though that this is the type of book that has to be read twice, the first time is when you just follow the story through, let everything soak in, then you go back for a second read where the pieces clearly fall into place and get whisked away into the trance like state of Ishiguro’s writing, a reading where you don’t just read the words but register their deeper meaning and as a result gain a deeper understanding of what the novel is trying to convey. 

Update: I’ve read it three times now, but this is the first time that I ugly cried after finishing it. Bumping my rating up to 5 stars.