le_lobey's reviews
341 reviews

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood

Go to review page

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

4.5

Remina by Junji Ito

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Elegy for the Undead by Matthew Vesely

Go to review page

dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.0

This was ok — Zombie Honeymoon meets the last of us. The book was trying to be a lot more emotional than I felt in the back half.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Go to review page

dark informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Now I want to learn more about
Bernie Madoff
. Very moody and mysterious — I loved how the narrative is so fractured. 
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Wonderful! Loved the way she used enjambment to really keep things moving forward but also crafting cool moments of meaning and association. There's a religiosity to these poems, particularly in the first half. A promise of something else that didn't always resonate but which was comforting.

My favorites were:

The Largeness We Can't See
Life on Mars
No-Fly Zone
Emil und die Detektive by Erich Kästner

Go to review page

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Was für ein Kerl! Emil ist ein so guter Typ. Es macht viel Spaß, dieses Buch auf Deutsch zu lesen. 
We Who Are about To... by Joanna Russ

Go to review page

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

4.25

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective sad

5.0

The sea, the sky, my heart and i
We're all an indigo hue without you
It's a blue, blue world

It's unsurprising that it came up right at the end, since this reminded me a lot to Wittgenstein's Tractatus in its structure. I was amazed by how Maggie Nelson was able to get so much of the unutterable to sing, and by how many disciplines she invoked to build this bower/bouquet. It's not just about her relationship to the color blue, but rather through this color an exploration of grief, desire, art/film theory, sex, phenomenology, anthropology and so much more. There is a whole world here.
Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 1 by Christopher Ruocchio

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio

Go to review page

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75