le_lobey's reviews
344 reviews

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East by Adán Kovacsics Meszaros, László Krasznahorkai

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challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A meticulous project from Krasznahorkai that straddles the line between "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and Alan Moore's Jerusalem. He's reaching for the ineffable, propelled by the paradoxical immaculateness and brutality of human design and of the natural world.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

This was a wild, and stomach-turning ride. The last twist really blind-sided me, not necessarily in a good, or earned, way. What interested me most was Bazterrica’s exploration of how language and euphemism anesthetize us to the horror of the world around us. Ironically, the gruesome detail and shock factor baked into the world building had a similarly anesthetic effect — I was never more upset/uncomfortable than in the first 2-3 chapters because I just got used to it. Slavery, Holocaust, Colonialism, elderly abuse, animal abuse via Cannibal conceit.
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Soft Science by Franny Choi

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I loved these poems. Choi puts her words together delicately and viciously in equal measure. The collection unites the machinic and erotic, the human, cyborg, and ecologic, and explores the minds of the future to examine womanhood, consumption, predation, and intimacy at a primordial level.

Standouts include: The Turing Test series that frames the whole collection; On the night of the election,;  A Brief History of Cyborgs; The Price of Rain; Afterlife; Chi; You’re So Paranoid; Ode to Epinephrine; Chatroulette; Solitude; and several parts of Perihelion: A History of Touch.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Highly observant, and often beautifully written. The story of a simple, good man coming to terms with what that means in a complex, bitter world. It took a lot of restraint to end it where Keegan did.
Banana Palace by Dana Levin

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dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

3.25

Some of these were really great. I particularly liked:
- Talk Show
- Melancholia
- The Point of the Needle

In its best moments, I liked how the images developed with an ominous dream logic. As real as the poems' environmental pessimism is, it felt a bit obvious.
Music Outside the Lines: Ideas for Composing in K-12 Music Classrooms by Maud Hickey

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informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

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

3.0

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love the cryptic worldbuilding even though it made the book a bit less accessible at first. I read the first four chapters and then took a several month hiatus before getting absolutely sucked in when I picked it up again. I finished the rest in a week!

The climax was bit messy? It felt like new threats kept getting piled on to serve each new character revelation when focusing on a single prolonged battle with
the Jaghut Tyrant
would have been more cinematic and narratively satisfying.

Kruppe is a treasure.
Chasing Homer by László Krasznahorkai

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Paranoid, animalistic, unreliable narrator. Wild twist at the end. I really enjoyed the way the feel of the music tracks mirrored the varying moods and themes of the different chapters.