jroberts3456's reviews
446 reviews

This book starts wild and just keeps getting wilder until you hit a climax you could not predict in a million years. Lovers of myth and fantasy will fall all over themselves with this one. Hawkins has weaved a tale that’s fun, frightening, mysterious, hilarious, and weird. An amazing read.

A phenomenal, astounding work of long form journalism that shines a spotlight on what’s going on with American politics today. Expertly researched and impeccably sourced, Dark Money explains, in the simplest of terms, just what has happened with campaign finance over the last few years and, indeed, the last few decades. Terrifying, infuriating, and enlightening, this is required reading for anyone who watches or reads the news and thinks “what on earth is happening.” Remarkable.

Picked this up after reading Little Fires Everywhere and while I enjoyed LFE a bit more, it was only slightly. Ng is clearly one of our best working writers, and her deepest talent is in bringing life to the mundane. The tiniest details, in Ng’s hands, provide the emotional fodder to bring anyone to their knees, but to also make them reconsider. A fantastic work.

Maggie Shen King has proven herself to be a phenomenal creator of worlds and weaver of plots in her debut novel. Her characters come alive under her deftly written prose, and the way she structures her novel allows her to slowly trickle information about her dark future at an increasingly frantic pace. At times the plot came together a bit too conveniently for my particular taste, but never did that overshadow her remarkable talent and worldbuilding prowess. She is a writer to watch, for sure, and I can’t wait to read more from this talented person.

Mulgrew writes with a erudite wit that’s ever captivating and frequently emotional. Hers has been an extraordinary life of hardship and privilege, and her experience is uplifting and inspiring. A wonderful read for fans looking for her life story. Don’t expect many specific details about her work—this is not that story. Her career is painted here in broad strokes, with most of her focus aimed at her life overall. Potentially disappointing for those looking for juicy stories or salacious depictions of Hollywood living. This is a story of loss and hope, hardship and success, failure and triumph. What an amazing life.

Heartbreaking and beautiful in all the right ways, Future Home of the Living God is simply wonderful. Fans of dystopian literature will be thrilled, and it serves as a fantastic de facto companion piece to The Handmaid’s Tale. Erdrich plays with many of the same themes as Atwood, though it’s definitely been updated to suit its time. Harrowing, powerful, moving, lyrical.

Johnson writes with an undeniable lyricism that you cannot help but fall completely into. Even the more boring, slow sections of the novel are enrapturing with Johnson’s beautiful prose. While the dueling tales of the book can seem tedious at times, they are deftly intertwined and satisfyingly can’t concluded. A joyous experience.

Anyone who even remotely follows sci-fi has come across the name Brooke Bolander in recent years, what with all the Hugo noms and Nebula noms and such. Her short story career has been fascinating to watch, culminating in last year’s visceral and powerful “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies.”

Her first book, a novelette, is yet another shining example of the immense talents that lay within her hands. It’s a quick read at just 90pgs, but as any fighter will tell you, the quick hits often pack the most punch.

Lyrical and heartbreaking, The Only Harmless Great Thing is a book that begs to be absorbed, it’s prose glows like an irradiated warning sign you cannot help but ignore. It’s a quick read, but in it lies a wallop, one that will leave you begging, in equal parts, for mercy and for more.