Review: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

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Anna:

It’s official. Ann Patchett is a literary genius.

Commonwealth is hard to explain, and it took me so long to pick up because besides being a multigenerational family tale, the description is pretty vague. I’m so glad I finally read it! This is a book that kept me reading late into the night, and only regretted a little bit the next day at work, which I haven’t done in a while.

The book is extremely character-driven, which is one of the reasons I liked it so much. Despite the depth of characterization, I wouldn’t describe the plot as slow-moving at all–there’s a family tragedy at the center of it all that ties the characters together and keeps the reader guessing.

This book has many different characters and perspectives, which is something I love in a book but is often difficult to do well. Ann Patchett does this beautifully. All the characters are fully fleshed out with real motivations and lives, even the ones that only have a few pages in their perspective. At the end thought about who I would identify as the central character. It’s probabably, Franny–the baby at the baptism responsible for mixing all their lives together in the first place–bringing the book full circle! Yet every other character feels just as vital.

Commonwealth is about guilt, forgiveness, and the complexities of familial love. It’s also set partially in Virginia, where I live and where everything bad in the book happens! I cracked up at all the descriptions of the summer heat and mosquitoes.

VERDICT: 4 books

Which Ann Patchett book should I pick up next? The only other one I’ve read is State of Wonder.

Review: Convenience Story Woman by Sayaka Murata

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, is like nothing I’ve read before. This is a short, easy read that challenges everything you think about society, education, identity, and what it means to be happy and successful.

Keiko Furukura, now approaching middle age, has worked in a convenience store since she was eighteen. She loves her job, and finds value in the work she does every day. Everyone else tells Keiko that she’s wrong to feel this way, and that this makes her not normal. They tell her she can’t be truly happy unless she has a full time job, a husband, and kids. When a lazy ex-employee, Shiraha, moves in with her and people assume they’re dating, Keiko’s happy little world is turned upside down. 

This book is crazy. Keiko is a unique character and she’s so happy and innocent that it’s heartbreaking. She has adapted to mimicking the speech patterns and behaviors of others based on what she’s been told is “normal”. I’ve heard other people speculate that Keiko is psychotic—I don’t think that’s the case, and I have no need to diagnose her. I think this book is really about society’s expectations surrounding identity and success. 

I gave Convenience Store a three and a half book rating because I thought it was too short and ended too early. However, I think this unique story is something I’ll think about for a long time.

VERDICT: 3.5 books

Review: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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Alexis:

Spoilers Below!

Overall, A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy, was a 4 star read. It was more along the lines of the first book than it was the second book. However, I did have a list of issues with it that I will explain below!

I’ll start with what I liked. Maas’ writing shines when she writes action scenes. I loved reading the war scenes. I thought she did a great job with their pacing and descriptions.

I also loved that Rhysand fully transformed in the final battle. I was like, “Heck, yes!”

I also enjoyed having all the High Fae in the same scenes. Their histories and abilities were very interesting all pooled together.

As for what I didn’t like as much, for some reason, Maas’ writing is just a little bit worse in this book. She has a tendency to lean towards the occasional cheesy line, but this book seemed to bring her cheesiness out just a little more.

This book felt like Maas had been rushed, that she had a deadline that her publisher wanted her to keep, so she wrote this book quickly. And then it wasn’t edited enough. The pacing felt slow. This book is about war, and war does drag on, but the plot doesn’t flow as nicely as it did in A Court of Mist and Fury. Everything just felt slowed down.

And…the sex scenes did not fit as well in this book as they did in A Court of Mist and Fury. They felt cringey and all of them were basically a carbon copy of each other. There’s also a scene where Rhys tells Feyre, “You smell like blood,” after they fought in a battle. And then they have sex. Hmm. I don’t know about that.

And, my biggest issue. I am all for diversity, but not just for the sake of diversity. Mor’s reveal as bisexual was a complete cop-out from Maas. Mor’s been hiding that she’s bi…for 500 years?? Just so she won’t hurt Azriel’s feelings?? Her hiding this from her family for that long did not feel true to character.

As for the plot, I had issues with the fact that Feyre is insanely powerful and yet she HARDLY FOUGHT. Obviously, Rhysand has significantly more war experience, but Feyre is his equal, so they should’ve fought together. Her mention of, “You know, I don’t really like war,” was not a good enough reason for her not to fight.

As for the whole new cast of characters at the end, this also felt like a cop-out from Maas. When Rhysand asked why they couldn’t find them, their answer was, “Oh, I guess we hid too well, so even our friends couldn’t find us.”

If they had been such good friends/allies during the last war, they definitely would’ve found a way to keep in contact with Rhysand and his crew.

As for my last complaint, Armen should’ve died. Rhysand coming back from the dead made sense, but there’s no way Armen could’ve come back after all that.

Despite my issues, I enjoyed the book overall! I definitely think the trilogy is worth a read, just be aware that it isn’t perfect.

VERDICT: 4 stars

 

Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

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Alexis:

Okay, let me start off by saying I have a lot of feelings about this book, which is awesome, because if I book can dig down in me and make me feel all sorts of things, then I am here for it!

A Court of Mist and Fury builds off of A Court of Thorns and Roses but makes the world 10 times better. Plot? There’s lot of plot. Characterization? Tons of it. Tragic backstories and permeating feelings of guilt? There’s a lot of that, too. I love character driven stories, and this book dove deep into the characters of Feyre and Rhysand.

It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling anything, but I’ll write my non-spoiler review first.

First of all, it’s important to address the fact that this book is a monster, as it weighs in at 626 pages. When I first got it from the library, I thought, “What can she possibly go on about for that many pages?”

I will admit, it took me a good 50 pages to get into it. The sex scene towards the beginning was cringey. The beginning was a little slow, but necessarily so, as Feyre dealt with the trauma from the end of the first book. But it quickly becomes interesting once Feyre enters the Night Court. I loved meeting a whole new cast of characters. Sometimes secondary characters feel too bare for me as a reader, but Rhysand’s crew felt very fleshed out.

Maas did a much better job of explaining the magic system, and I enjoyed learning about the world’s complicated history. I loved the whole atmosphere of the Night Court.

I enjoyed Feyre’s character development, and I really enjoyed learning about Rhysand. He’s such a complex character, and I loved learning about his motivations and his backstory. I’m also a sucker for the tall, dark, and handsome type.

Without spoiling anything, let me just say that this is the best relationship/romance I’ve read in a while. I wasn’t all for it in the first book; it was okay, but it was lacking a real depth. But Maas didn’t hold anything back in the sequel.

That being said, there were some small things in this book that I take issue with. While I enjoy Maas’ writing style overall, sometimes she throws out a line that makes me cringe. She writes “snarled” way too many times, and things like “said baldly.” She writes “he purred” more often than I ever want to read; I’m a firm believer in “said” is best. I know the characters are supposed to have a predatory side, but ugh. It was a little too cringey for me.

This book also negated the first book in a lot of ways, which I’ll go into in the spoiler-filled section of my review below.

If you’re debating reading the series, get through the first book so that you can get to this one! I loved the worldbuilding and I especially loved the character growth. I don’t give 5 stars lightly, but I was wholly engrossed in reading this. I stayed up past my bedtime reading this (whoops) and finished it the next day.

I’m excited to read the next one.

VERDICT: 5 stars

SPOILERY REVIEW BELOW:

 

Feyre + Rhysand—OH THANK GOD. Tamlin had no personality, and I was interested to see how Maas would further their relationship. But she hit it out of the park with Rhysand. He just oozes personality, and he and Feyre actually have chemistry! Yay! I’m very picky when it comes to relationships in books; often it feels too rushed or too out of nowhere. But Maas took the idea of a slow burn and stretched it, so that Feyre and Rhysand actually knew each other inside out and trusted each other with their lives.

I’m also down for anything with flying, and I loved how Maas described Rhysand and the other characters’ wings.

Like I said above, this book did negate some aspects of the first one. After everything Feyre went through to save Tamlin in the first book, she jumps awfully fast to Rhysand. I’m not complaining about it, because it honestly felt true to character, but it was a bit jarring at first. I know some other readers had issues with Tamlin’s actions in the beginning of A Court of Mist and Fury, and felt betrayed by his character and actions. But I wasn’t too fond of him as a character to begin with so…I didn’t mind!

And while Lucien was my favorite character in the first book, he acts like a shell of his former self in this one. But considering how his story arc ended, I’m sure I’ll see much more of him in the 3rd book!

Review: The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

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Anna:

I’m here again to gush about this great book. It took me a month to read–partly because it’s dense and partly because I wanted to savor it. I loved My Brilliant Friend, but it took me a year to get to book two. I’m going to make it a priority to finish the series in 2019!

VERDICT: 5 Stars

This is the second book in the Neopolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein. I’m not going to get into much of the plot, because I don’t want to spoil anything. While My Brilliant Friend told of Elena and Lila’s childhood together growing up in a poor working-class village in Naples, My Brilliant Friend follows them as Elena goes to university, and Lila navigates her new marriage. This book deals with the the effects of education, wealth, and marriage on people and their relationships. What I love about these books is that above all they’re about the complicated but unbreakable bonds of female friendship, and two friends who won’t let sexism and poverty dictate their lives.

 

Review: The Book of Dreams by Nina George

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Alexis:

The Book of Dreams is a thought-provoking and profound read. It follows four different characters from three different perspectives; Henri, a man who feels he is undeserving of love, who saves a girl from drowning but gets hit by a car and slips into a coma; Sam, his teenage son, who he’s unwillingly never met; Eddie, Henri’s ex-girlfriend and the love of his life; and Madelyn, a twelve-year-old coma patient who we see through the eyes of the other characters.

Though this isn’t classified as magical realism, aspects of it feel very magical realism. The book blurs the line between dream and reality. I won’t explain it any further than that, because I feel it’s best to read this book with fresh eyes.

George explores the cyclicality of life and death, and what it means to straddle the not-so-straight line between the two. She explores love, grief, and regret. Sometimes translations don’t do a book justice, but I found that Simon Pare did a beautiful job. The writing flows really well and George’s descriptions are beautiful and unique. 

This is a very character-driven story. It focuses on the experiences, relationships, and emotions of its three main characters as they navigate life around Henri’s coma. I loved all of the characters and was interested in all of their lives.

Another aspect I love about this book is Sam’s synesthesia: he sees color for numbers, emotions, etc. I loved his character and found his synesthesia added a lot of color (ha) to the story, though I felt like it could’ve been cranked up a notch because I found it so fascinating!

I think the ending of this book is polarizing, but I thought the ending worked well for the book as a whole; George even mentions in her afterword that this book was not intended to be “market friendly.” But I found this book deep, moving, and true to itself.

If you’re looking for a beautifully written book that intensely focuses on its characters and explores the boundaries between life and death, then I highly recommend it.

VERDICT: 5 stars

Anna’s April Wrap Up!

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Anna: I’m excited to share my April wrap up! This month included not one, but TWO five star books for me! Im currently finishing up three books that didn’t make it into this wrap up (classic). I’m also still loving memoir and middle grade!

 

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren: 4 books

George by Alex Gino: 3.5 books

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart: 5 books

Normal People by Sally Rooney: 5 books

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker: 3 books

 

What books did you love this month?

 

Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

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Anna: I love apocalyptic fiction, but I heard so many conflicting opinions about this author’s recent release, The Dreamers, that I decided to start with her previous novel.

The Age of Miracles has a lot of potential. At surface level, this book sounds like something I should love. It’s a character drive coming-of-age apocalyptic novel with a young and likable female protagonist, Julia. When earth’s days begin to slow and lengthen, society is split into people who follow the new system of “clock time” and people who abide by the sun and follow “real time”. Those who chose to follow real time are alienated, and the mainstream clock timers begin to exhibit symptoms of a gravity-driven disease.

This book scratches at the surface of something, and then fails to focus on the right things. When something interesting involving the end of the world happened I kept thinking, “we’ll get to that soon” but over and over again, we don’t. The societal division between clock time and real time is such an interesting idea, for example, but it is hardly explored. So much of this book feels like it’s on the surface of something but instead of diving deeper turns away and continues to explore the mundane and expected.

Another big problem I had is that many of the characters just don’t feel believable, besides Julia, who is about only thing about this book that feels real. Julia’s parents are poor stereotypes of a heterosexual marriage. Julia’s mom is always worried, anxious, and nagging her father, while her father is factual and completely robotic. I found it absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable that Julia’s father is completely unworried by the end of the world. HELLO, who wouldn’t be freaking out if Earth’s gravity shifted, people began to get sick, and the days unexplainably lengthened. The fact that he isn’t concerned at all about any of these things drove me insane. The author continually makes Julia’s mom out to be crazy for her anxieties, but since she’s the only character who seems scared by the impending doom, she’s one of the only characters I feel I can trust.

Don’t get me started on Seth. Walker just couldn’t decide what kind of character she wanted him to be. For such a character-driven novel, I expected more dynamic and complicated characters, and this isn’t the case. Both the plot and the characterization fall short.

VERDICT: 3 out of 5 books

 

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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Alexis: Read 4/27/19

Spoilers Below!

While I have some mixed feelings about A Court of Thorns and Roses, overall, it was a 4 star read for me.

So, here’s the book in a nutshell: It starts out as The Hunger Games, then turns into Beauty and the Beast, and finally turns into Twilight.

I’ll start with what I loved about the book. While Maas writes the occasional cheesy and cringey line, I enjoyed her writing style overall. I love the way she describes color, and I was impressed by the landscape she painted in the beginning of the book. I related to Feyre in the beginning of the book the way I related to Katniss: she’s a girl turned hard from trying to survive, and I sympathized with her.

I found Tamlin an interesting character because of his role as a host and protector of his manor and land, because of his drive and sense of honor. His shapeshifting was written well. And I liked Lucien the most; he had the most vibrant personality of all the characters.

Once the plot picked up, I enjoyed the action-packed third section of the book. I think Maas’ writing shines the most when she writes action scenes. I also enjoyed (finally) learning about the political and historical backstories of the world.

I also liked the romance. The middle section of the book was very slow-paced, so Feyre and Tamlin’s budding romance didn’t feel too rushed or insta-love.

As for what I didn’t love about the book, my biggest issue was that most of the important backstory/plot points weren’t revealed until 250 pages in. Yep. 250 pages. Even the synopsis of the book includes the curse, which Feyre doesn’t know about until, again, 250 pages in. Here’s the thing: everyone knows the basis of Beauty and The Beast. So the main, mysterious plot of the most of the book wasn’t so mysterious, because this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling. If Maas had switched it up a little more, the reveals would have been more interesting.

I also had issue with some of the characters. I didn’t have any issue with Feyre, though I found her name annoying because I had to remind myself how to pronounce it. I’m also not a fan of Tamlin’s name; it just sounds like the name of a modern five-year-old boy. But that’s just personal preference. I wanted Tamlin to have more of a stand-out personality, especially since he doesn’t have much of a role in the latter half of the book. Rhysand has more personality than Tamlin, and unfortunately, I have a feeling a love-triangle is going to make an appearance in the next book.  

As for the ending, I guessed it about halfway through the book. There were too many similarities to Twilight, and I knew human-Feyre wouldn’t make it too much further in the series.

Overall, this was a fun and engaging read. Though the middle was a little slow, it allowed time to get to know the characters better. I enjoyed the final section of the book the best, despite the Twilighty ending. I’m definitely going to continue the series, as I tend to like the first book in a series the least!

VERDICT: 4 stars