caitlin_89's reviews
522 reviews

I was hoping for something scary, in the vein of Hill House. It was not to be. But when I tell you that Jackson is the master of a perfectly innocuous yet deeply sinister atmosphere... Believe it. Most of these stories are so simple. A thieving housemate. A lover who ghosts. A guest who not only overstays her welcome, but makes herself at home in a literal sense. An uncomfortable neighbor. An overbearing housekeeper. Losing oneself in a drug-hazed, fever dream on an overnight trip to the surgeon. Your first day in the prison of working a retail floor. These are the horrors of everyday life and Jackson taps into the human psyche so well that these mundane snippets of humanity twist into something grotesque and unsettling. Bravo. (Some of it's kind of boring tho. Especially if you're expecting Horror Horror. But still.)

Go As A River is a beautiful meditation on fate and hope and the courage to make bold choices and take the next step. It's about the interconnectedness of every choice. It's about a girl. A woman. A life. It's devastatingly sad and devastatingly hopeful. It was a great book club read. Its prose, poetic. Its pacing, tight. Its plot, a bitter pill to swallow with a healing warmth. 

If poetic prose and books that make you weep aren't your cup of tea, skip this one. But I thought it was delicious.

I would like to write so earnestly and honestly as Kate DiCamillo. A perfect chapter book.

I'm so sorry, Devoney Looser. You are right: the Porter sisters deserve their story to be told. They deserve to reclaim the fame they lost. Bigger than Austen in their day? Astounding. But I simply cannot garner the enthusiasm to make any headway in this girthy tome. And every other sentence doesn't have to re-remind me that women in Regency times had very limited means and opportunity. I understand you have to set it up, but you have to trust me to remember that you said it already. So, by page 23, it was just too tedious for me to want to keep going. 😩

2 stars just so I can leave an explanation for the DNF. I wanted to love this, and it just wasn't my cup of tea. I think I fell off around halfway when I realized many of the essays were not, in fact, delights, but musings on sadder things. This is not a problem, it's just not what I was in the mood for in 2024. 💕

I made it about halfway -page 131. Lamott's essays are undoubtedly good, and warm, and wry, and meaningful, but not resonant enough for me at this juncture to want to finish the book.

This sat on my currently -reading shelf for 2 years. I finally had the courage to officially DNF it. Maybe I'll get around to it another time. Honestly, after reading Matthew Dick's Storyworthy, this guide was boring and redundant. I preordered it and was super stoked as a fan of The Moth Radio Hour, but reading it on the heels of Storyworthy, it just couldn't win.

After the first couple chapters, this book was boring as hell. The author would spend an entire chapter explaining one concept three different ways. Bro, trust your reader a little bit. Just because everyone doesn't have your credentials doesn't mean we don't understand what you're saying. The repetitive explanations and overdrawn connectors between key points of the thesis made this straight up unreadable. The intro had a ton of interesting research and stats, and after that, it was a slog I had to give up on even though the premise was really interesting. 

Backman writes deliciously. However, if I'd known the plot of this book prior to going in, I wouldn't have read it. Enjoyed for the Backman prose style. I wanted to see how the Beartown story ended, but I did not enjoy it.

I was looking for something akin to the electric energy of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House: truly nerve-wracking and scary but not something that would haunt me personally.

This book delivered on not haunting me. There was also no electricity. BUT. It's a solid ghost story, and well-written and enjoyable. And there were some good shivery scenes. Maybe I was just too cozy and content while reading? And maybe that's for the best, because I didn't want to be deeply scared. But the cover boasted four statements touting this tale as being deeply "chilling," yet it struck me as cozier than I believe it was meant to. Of course, the ghost and the recurring nightmare situation at Eel Marsh were chilling, but our main guy was so dang plucky!