unabridgedchick's reviews
1398 reviews

Such a disappointing read (listen in my case, but the audiobook reader wasn't the issue here). I love Lively's novels but found this book so ... meh in the better places and disappointingly (lazily) xenophobic (by Lively's own admission) and colonialist. She cheers for the US-based pioneers who imported their gardening mores without acknowledging either the harm of importing plants nor the very real use of the land by indigenous and Native peoples already in the US. Later, she acknowledges that the rural wildlife have more right to be in her garden since she is the interloper, which is nice but also ... apply that to people? She extols the 'universal' regard for English gardens before briefly admitting Japanese gardens are well known -- then she makes a throwaway pronouncement that 'those' gardens aren't 'real' gardens. Her observations on non-British gardeners was ... I didn't notice anything overtly racist but her focus on whether someone was British descent or not when working with her or at their allotment felt icky.

Content Warnings

Intercepted by Alexa Martin

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The Last Hero by Linden A. Lewis

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

A truly agonizing read. My second Fitzgerald, with The Blue Flower being the first. (Loathed it, too.) Despite my affection for vague, artsy, rambling books, Fitzgerald's narrative style just doesn't hit me right. Reading her gives me the same frustration I get watching a John Sayles film: being dropped into the middle of things and leaving without resolution doesn't give me anything but a headache.

Picked this up only because of Read Harder 2022 (an award winning book from the year you were born); this seemed the best of a bunch of meh options (Dreamsnake, The Year of the French, Gloriana, and The Great Gilly Hopkins).

This took me nearly a month to read but I still feel like I was missing whole swathes of story.

Did Nenna and Richard sleep together? Did Maurice and Edward die? Did Martha and Heinrich sleep together?

And then in between puzzling whether shit happened, we observed meaningless stuff, like boats sinking and truant kids being rude to adults, a slice of 1970s London -- an era I don't enjoy anyway. My takeaway of boat life is that it's damp and grimy and does a number on your marriage. Or maybe people need to consider their spouse before buying a boathouse? Anyway, this book is stupid/too fancy for me.

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unabridgedchick's reviews 1398 reviews

unabridgedchick's reviews
1398 reviews