mynameismarines's reviews
1076 reviews

Book #01 for #HispanicHeritageReads 2017.

I enjoyed this so much. I've just finished and my heart is still a little in my throat. I will say that I thought the beginning was a little awkward in terms of setting up lore and characters. Not bad, but a little too on the nose, a little too heavy with the exposition, and lacking a bit of grace. That's the main reason this is 4 instead of 5 stars, but I can assure you that the story finds its footing, and just astounded me with the richness of the lore, the sweetness of the characters, and the fullness of the plot. I was invested, I was worried, I couldn't wait to keep reading more.

I loved Moreno-Garcia's [b:Signal to Noise|22609306|Signal to Noise|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411422208s/22609306.jpg|26580567] and now I loved this. I cannot wait for [b:The Beautiful Ones|33574143|The Beautiful Ones|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500030880s/33574143.jpg|54122902], as I have a feeling Moreno-Garcia is going to cement herself as one of my new favorite authors.

Video review to come.

To hear many more of my thoughts about this book, check out this podcast with my best friend!

In a word: stunning.

The spread of star ratings you'll find for this book absolutely points to how not-for-everyone this book is. It's hard for me to accept, though, because I feel like I found an absolute treasure. It was thoughtful and beautiful and meaningful and emotional. I ended up having to read this a lot slower than I imagined because every time I opened the book, I felt unmoored.

The mix of fabulism with the realism of what the characters face was brilliant. There may be no accounting for the gaps in the town where people lose themselves, or the death-like figure who kidnaps Roza or the Zeus-like figure who watches it all happen, but there is accounting for small-town life and the price of beauty and the expectations women face based on said beauty. There is the reality of seeing people or missing them, and loving those we see, and thinking we love those we aren't seeing. There is leaving and staying and thinking we have no choice in either matter.

Every character struck a cord with me. I'll be thinking about this for a long time to come and I can't wait to talk about this book and all of its meaning with people.

I loved it so much.

[September 5, 2017] Marking for rereading. I decided to pick this up and try it again because I've heard the series gets so much better. I'm going to continue with the series but my god, I really got the review right the first time around. This is so unenjoyable.

I mention all of this below, but the sticking points to me are:

1. Quintin is THE WORST. He could be an exploration of someone suffering depression, but the author doesn't do a good job telling us that's what this is. Instead, people tell Quintin he chooses to be miserable and often, it seems that way. And depression is NOT a choice. The messaging is so convoluted and at the end of the day, all it produces is an intensely unlikable character who I wanted to punch, constantly. We'll talk about his misogyny next, but WARNING that Q likes to use ableist language too; he repeats the word

Spoiler

retarded

and later describes someone as

Spoiler

cripple

.

2. This is full of misogyny. Every woman is described by their attractiveness to Q and often by their breast size and
2b.

Spoiler

The slut shaming is real. Even when Q thinks Alice is dead and she's mourning her, there is no acknowledgement of how he treated her WHEN HE WAS THE ONE WHO CHEATED. His relationship with her was very ownership-focused (on account of being a misogynist) and I really hated every second of it.

3. The pacing and plotting were so strange. It felt like it almost wanted to be one of those adventure books where Hobbits walk along and discover mini-adventures, seemingly randomly or in an unconnected fashion. It didn't work. Instead it felt disjointed and poorly paced. We get bits of randomness like Q spending a ton of time building up his magic only to quit it completely in a few pages. Or fox sex. FOX SEX. Or a few chapters dedicated to freshman year and like two pages to senior year. It was all over the place.

Not a good book. Not one I would start unless you have the fortitude to commit to reading the next two. Not that I know that either of those are good books... We'll see.

[May 23, 2014] In a nutshell: moderately entertaining and unnecessarily long.

Two stars seems a little low, but if we're following those descriptions, then this was just okay and I wouldn't go as far as saying that I liked it.

First and foremost, none of the characters in this story were particularly likable. Likable characters aren't a requisite, to be sure, but in this case it is a detriment to the story. I found Quentin completely insufferable. At points, it seemed like an intentional choice by the author: Quentin is an unhappy person who unhappy things happen to. At other points, I wondered if the author really knew what he was doing when he added some background things into Quentin's voice: whenever a female character showed up, he only described her in attractiveness and breast size.

The worst part of it all is that I was expecting a change, and never got one. Quentin started the book an entitled, selfish prick and then he sometimes became an aloof, selfish prick, or an angry, selfish prick, but the selfish prick portion of it was always pretty intact, even we he came face to face with a selfless sacrifice.

Without getting into details, I feel like Alice is slut shamed and I hated that entire turn of events and portion of the story. I know emotions were involved, and complicated ones at that, but it is never acknowledged that Alice did little to nothing wrong. It made me really prickly about her relationship in the book for that fact.

Because the characters are mostly unhappy, and because they don't change very much during the interim of the book, this is a cold book. I made zero connections with them, with the world, or with the action. The emotions they felt, I never felt. These were flat words on the page, and so even when the words were pretty, it was hard to enjoy.

Grossmen fits five years of school and a visit to another world in 400 pages. It enjoys the contradicting consequence of both feeling like too much action of those pages but too many pages as it is. The story ambles at points, skips around from here to there with very little reason for giving us particular details or back story. Scenes feel unconnected, developments happen awkwardly. The last 10% of the book did a better job at this, but over all, Grossman limply delivered resolutions to his own plot.

I'm not sure what else to say. It wasn't terrible. Everything about the book seemed to just miss the mark. Too much and too little govern the entire story and left me pushing myself to get through it and then pretty unimpressed by the end.

Stunningly beautiful and completely raw and emotional. I have so many feelings for this book that takes place so close to home but also across a sea, but also deep in the experiences of immigration and community I know, but also mired in the experiences I've only heard of and never knew. It will take me a bit for me to truly gather my thoughts and feelings here, but this will certainly go down as one of the best things I read in 2017.

Full review to follow.

I purchased this last year when The Many was long listed for the ManBooker Prize. So, I'm a little late here BUT that is one more book off my Kindle I can count as read.

In this short offering, Menmuir tells the atmospheric and almost spooky story of a man come to a strange fishing village to start over, to prepare a house for his wife who is perpetually about to join him throughout the story, to make sense of the village, of the inhabitants and of the memory of the man who used to live in the house he now looks to improve.

I think there was obvious talent here: as I mentioned it's very atmospheric. The book feels dreamy and lazy and invokes the mystery of the sea and of small towns. It is heavy with grief. Unfortunately, I found that it almost because too heavy and thick for what was a pretty simple plot, especially as Menmuir leads us along to what ultimately becomes the reveal (ish) for what's really going on. Up until the "twist" the whole plot really is "who is Perran?" and "wow, this village folk are weird." I didn't really care for a lot of it, and pulled myself through reading because it was short and I was making lots of progress during sittings.

Then comes the end. I feel like I had an idea that Timothy lost a son and then it kind of all felt like OF COURSE THIS IS IT as it became revealed. But also... it's all still so hazy and left to interpretation that I've thought about it for quite a while now, after finishing the book. I can't say for certain, obviously, where Timothy was, if anywhere at all, but I think it's clear that the village was more about his exploration of grief than any concrete place. I mean, we have the sea as a metaphor for that grief, oily and sick and producing only misformed creatures, and a boat with Timothy (and Timothy?) called The Great Hope floating along on it.

I wonder if 3 stars is too generous, but alas. I think there is something to be said for skill here. Even though I think there are places Menmuir's writing is clunky and obvious, I can admire what he created. Plus, this is a book that's left me thinking and wanting to talk to others about, which always gets points in my book.

So, maybe discussion video to come lol.

Full review to come.

Social commentary wrapped in a gothic horror translated so very well. Individual story ratings are in the updates.

This is definitely getting a placeholder review because:
1- WTF did I just read?
2- FEELINGS
3- THOUGHTS
4- I'm making a video about this.

Despite all the manga I've racked up that is on my TBR, someone recommended this to me a couple of days ago and I read it all in one day. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great introduction to the series. I can say that I know I'm prime audience because I love hero stories. LOVE. While this is of course tasked with some of the leg-work of the introduction and while I did lose myself in the action (and how it was drawn) a few times, I thought the overall experience was worthy of a 4-star rating.

Here are some of the positives:

- I know he's kind of whiny but the MC is also a precious cinnamon roll.
- "I'm so sorry" vs "you can be a hero" *cries forever*
- The MC works really hard and yes he gets a little luck and a power but hardwork is there.
- Obvs don't know where the series is headed, but I'm so happy the MC starts with some traditional hero qualities. None of this anti-hero mess. HERO! HERO! HERO!
- The meta-jokes, especially about how All Might is drawn. Love.

And so now I've got a cart of all 7 released volumes and two pre-orders and I'll one day make them all mine.

[December 23, 2016] - Marking for reread.

That sweet, sweet half-an-hour during which Harry thinks he's going to leave the Durseley's.

Also: Dumbledore the puppet master, man. He's like, "you guys go run around in time. I'mma be here. Locking this door.

Also: I was super aware of all the times this book used the world "seriously" and I chuckled every time.

[November 23, 2015] - Marking for re-read. The time turner has got to be objectively one of the biggest pieces of contrivance in the series, but I love it so much. I mean, I love those scenes and the way that they play out (here and in the movie as well).

I've been super sensitive throughout this re-read to Snape's awful behavior. I know he's got that whole complicated BS with Harry going on, but the truth is that he's awful to pretty much all the students. Neville's greatest fear in he whole world is Snape and I CANNOT HANDLE THAT. He's such a bad teacher and a resentful person.

That's highlighted by the arrival of Lupin who I love even more this 3rd time through. I felt so sad for him and all the times we're told he looks ill, but he's patient and kind and, you know, a good teacher. This guy is turning into an animal every full moon AND HE'S STILL A BETTER TEACHER THAN SNAPE.

The worst part of it all for me, though, was when Snape came into Lupin's class and taught them a class on werewolves. Low blow, asshole.

Anyway.

So many staples of this world show up here from Hogsmeade to the Marauder's Map and even Crookshanks and I loved reading about them.

Lastly, Sirius asking Harry to come live with him only to have that prospect almost immediately taken away from him? Breaks my heart.


[December 3, 2013] - Marking for re-read. First time through this was the story where I fell in love with the series. I enjoyed the first and second books, but here, that enjoyment grew to love. I also remember being in insta-love with Sirius Black, which is curious, considering how very little he appears in a favorable light. I guess past me just knew what was up.

Reading now, knowing the future, it broke my heart every step of the way. I love Sirius something awful, so seeing the introduction of his character was bittersweet. I still really appreciate this book for its pieces of history. Lupin is another one of my favorites and his class was fun to attend, even second hand.

Man, re-reading is fun.

[December 15, 2015] Marking for re-read.

[November 11, 2015] Marking for re-read. I did not plan on reading this exactly two years after my first re-read, but here we are! This book is probably still my least favorite of the series, but I liked it more than ever.

In this book we get our first real look at what Harry has to deal with during his entire time at Hogwarts and that is the ficklness of everyone's perception of him. Everyone turns on him so quickly and I think it's really interesting how at the Dueling Club people were willing to say that Harry was egging the snake on, simply because they were freaked out by his ability.

The entire concept of "mudbloods" is another thing that got me really thinking this time around because Rowlling has this whole action adventure series, but manages to include these little bits of too much truth. It's prejudice and hate based on things people cannot control.

There were a lot of little details I picked up on this time around that I just loved:

- Ginny almost leaves her diary at home and they all have to go back so she can get it. SO CLOSE TO A NORMAL YEAR.

- Dumbledore mentions here that a piece of Voldemort is in Harry and like WHAT? WE KNEW ALL ALONG? Pretty much.

- Ginny's Valentine for Harry <3

- Dumbledore taught Transfiguration, huh.

- I love the Weasley's and I loved this first look at The Burrow and their home life. They are such amazing parents and substitute parents.

- Can we just talk about how many of these elements come back? Azkaban and polyjuice potion and the sword of Gryffindor and the basilisk fang. So good.

[November 13, 2103] Marked for re-read. I was surprised how much more I appreciated The Sorcerer's Stone and how much I was not as thrilled by the Chamber of Secrets upon re-read. I don't even have real reasons why, just ~*feelings*~. I'm pretty sure this is my least favorite of the series. But, still like, Harry Potter.