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rubeusbeaky's reviews
537 reviews
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
This book might be transphobic? It's definitely misogynistic. Squandered premise. Could have been so much better in another author's hands.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Murder
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Aptly titled; woefully executed. Squanders the setup, themes, and mystique of the first book in favor of vapid, sensational depictions of violence and abuse. I feel betrayed by the author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
1.0
The worst piece of drivel I have ever had the misfortune to get tricked into reading. I don't understand, it came so highly recommended. But this book was just awful, in every way a book can be awful. Do not read.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
2.0
This book is creative with its fantasy and social commentary. But it is also ruthless, cynical and joyless. It was like The Grapes of Wrath and The Magicians had a baby. Yes, you amass a cast of characters and a plot unfolds (300 pages in :/), but who cares, if the characters are unlikable, the setup is tedious, and the plot is depressing.
In the Woods by Tana French
3.0
I feel like I got tricked :/ This book doesn't read so much as a Whodunnit, as it does a reimagining of "Catcher in the Rye". The narrator is untrustworthy, damaged, largely unlikable, and he makes the story about him when it should be about the murder mystery. It was well written, in a literary study kind of way. But it was not a well written /mystery/ novel, if that makes sense. I called a lot of the ending from the first few chapters.
Agatha H. and the Airship City by Phil Foglio
4.0
This book is FUN! It's a lot like reading an anime: talking cat, fighting robots, damsel with a destiny who expresses herself by whacking people upside the head... It's got swashbuckling, it's got romance, it's got great comedic dialogue. I really enjoyed seeing a German-inspired sci-fi/fantasy setting, as so many books use either America or England for their frame of reference. And I really loved big, strong, awkward, unsure, hopeful, traumatized, Agatha. I would looove to see this series brought to Netflix or something.
Was it the most "literary" thing I've ever read? No. Was it the adventurous, humorous, breath-of-fresh-air I desperately needed? Absolutely! Cannot wait to dive right into the next book.
Was it the most "literary" thing I've ever read? No. Was it the adventurous, humorous, breath-of-fresh-air I desperately needed? Absolutely! Cannot wait to dive right into the next book.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
1.0
Short Version: Not enough zombies.
Longer Version: This book is just a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" which someone copy and pasted into a Word document, then replaced various words, adding "zombie", "ninja", and excessive bodily humor references. There is little to no adaptation or wit. And how a zombiefied British countryside relates to Eastern martial arts bewilders me. The gimmick was funny for a chapter or two, but not an entire book. Not to mention, the book retains all the difficulties of the original, chiefly that the entire plot happens off-scene in letters.
Longer Version: This book is just a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" which someone copy and pasted into a Word document, then replaced various words, adding "zombie", "ninja", and excessive bodily humor references. There is little to no adaptation or wit. And how a zombiefied British countryside relates to Eastern martial arts bewilders me. The gimmick was funny for a chapter or two, but not an entire book. Not to mention, the book retains all the difficulties of the original, chiefly that the entire plot happens off-scene in letters.