Tag: dialogue

Review: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

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Alexis:

I’m glad I read The Last Wish, but since it was originally published in 1993, it definitely has that old high fantasy feel to it.

This is the original series that delves into the world of the Witcher called Geralt of Rivia—before the popular video games, and before the TV show adaptation.

I’m not sure if it was just the translation or not, but this book is very heavy on the “tell” without a lot of “show.” Whenever there was imagery, I really enjoyed it, but this book is honestly 90% dialogue. I normally love dialogue, but it was a little too much, to the point that sometimes actions would only happen in dialogue. 

I also found it interesting that Geralt is much more vocal in the book than in the show. 

However, I was pleasantly surprised that the book is non-linear, just like the show. Suddenly, the show’s structure, which seemed all over the place at first, makes more sense. 

This first book only delves into Geralt’s storyline, with one main scene with the sorceress Yennefer, and several of the adventures with the troubadour Dandelion, who is named Jaskier in the show. The main difference in the worlds is, like I said earlier, that the book feels very “old” high fantasy. What I mean by that it’s a medieval world, with elves, and dwarves and monsters, and pubs with beer, but also sexism.

The first section of the book opens with a sex scene. Several of the characters (though most are monsters, but still) talk very casually about being rapists, and unnecessary comments about women were made several times throughout the book.

I think the show feels more contemporary (and it should, since it was created decades after the book was written). Many of the characters in the book hold unsavory views of women, especially Dandelion, who comes off as a rowdy, rather than the foolish but lovable Jaskier. While the TV show still has sexist characters, both Geralt and Jaskier are respectable characters.

Overall, I’m glad I was able to see where this popular fandom originated. But I’m probably going to stick to only watching the show, which is rare for me when it comes to books!

VERDICT: ⭐⭐⭐/5

Review: Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave

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Alexis:

This is a book with an unlikeable main character. In fact, most of the characters are unlikeable, except for Sunshine’s cute niece. This makes for an interesting book. As a reader, I kept wondering, “Why is Sunshine like this? Why has she made all these terrible decisions?”

Lying, and what happens when your lies are exposed, is the center of the book. In Hello, Sunshine, Dave exposes how living a lie makes Sunshine confront her past and her future. Sunshine is a successful culinary star, but the kicker? She can’t cook. When she gets hacked and her secret is exposed, her life immediately falls apart.

It was a fast and interesting read, but it wasn’t super impactful.

VERDICT: 3 stars

Review: Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

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Alexis:

Clock Dance delves into the life of Willa, exploring her life over several different stages. The beginning of the book focuses on Willa at age 11, 21, and 41. The latter, longer half of the book focuses on her at age 61, when she suddenly decides to fly across the country to take care of a woman’s daughter.

What I liked: I really enjoyed the first three sections of the book. I think Tyler did a phenomenal job describing her life and her thoughts at her different life stages. I especially enjoyed learning about Willa’s family at age 11; it was poignant and explored her family’s dynamics.

The image of a saguaro cactus pops up several times in the story, hence the front cover. I enjoyed the recurring imagery and I thought it served the book well. I also adored the descriptions of Airplane the dog!

What I disliked: I wasn’t a huge fan of Willa’s storyline at age 61. Unlike the first three sections, Tylers’ writing was rambling. Other than Willa, I never felt a great connection to any of the other characters, and even though Tyler’s dialogue was on point, the characters felt too flat.

Derek and Peter were also super douchey. And Willa was such a passive character. The last section was supposed to be when Willa stands up for herself, and makes a life-altering decision. But I never really felt that. I appreciated that this is a book that focuses on the life of the always complacent woman, but I wanted the life-altering decision to be bigger.

I ended up skimming the ending because I couldn’t stand reading another description of Denise hobbling on her crutches, or Willa cooking something, or Cheryl watching TV. Also, a nine-year-old named Cheryl? Maybe I’m just being picky, but overall, the fourth section didn’t do it for me.

VERDICT:

First 3 sections: 5 stars

Last section: 1 star

Total: 3 stars

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Review: The Editor by Steven Rowley

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Alexis: 

What I liked: I like Rowley’s writing style. I remember liking it a lot in his other book, Lily and the Octopus. His dialogue is always on-point and funny, and I enjoy his imagery. 

I also really liked James as a character. I found him funny, and I enjoyed reading about his relationship with Daniel. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set in the 1990’s, and I enjoyed the political climate and the history of the book.

What I disliked:

I really couldn’t get into this until about halfway through. James’ story was a little too boring at first, and I found myself skimming a lot of the details. I wanted to have more of James’ backstory earlier on in the story.

My biggest issue with the book was with Jackie Kennedy as a character. I could tell that Rowley was being careful with how he wrote her, and because of this, she never felt fully fleshed out as a character. I’m not a huge fan of historical people being one of the main characters in books, and I don’t think she served a good enough purpose. In my opinion, the editor would’ve made more of an impact in the story if Rowley had made up a famous editor and created a backstory for her. 

There was also an event towards the end of the book which I felt like didn’t fit into James’ character, and was a little too on the nose. 

Overall, I liked James and Daniel, and as a writer myself, I enjoyed reading about James writing his novel. But the slow plot and Jackie’s character dragged this down a star.

VERDICT: 3 stars

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Review: Nocturna by Maya Motayne

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Alexis:

I hate to say this, but I didn’t love Nocturna by Maya Motayne. However, Nocturna gave me a great writing idea, and Motayne even responded to me on Twitter! She’s super sweet and I think she has a lot of promise.

Nocturna has a great set up: a prince and a girl who can steal faces team together in a Latin-inspired world.

But here’s the thing: I’ve read this book before. Maybe not specifically this book, but all of the elements that tie it together. I found the magic system to be pretty generic: a mix of bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and the magic from Harry Potter, only with Spanish verbs instead of Latin.

I’ve also read this plot over and over. Alfie, the prince, releases a darkness in order to save his best friend and vows to fix his wrongdoing to save his kingdom from destruction. He and Finn, the face stealer, team up in order to break a girl out of prison to help them.

My other biggest issue with the book is that it’s too “tell-y.” You know, the “show don’t tell rule.” Well, unfortunately, the first half of the book tells way too much. The dialogue sounds stilted because every character talks in chunks of exposition. While the beginning of the book was promising, the book starts to drag pretty quickly. At least 100 pages could’ve been cut from the book to make the plot flow faster.

The dialogue got better as the book went on, but it still wasn’t great. I think “quipped” is now my least favorite dialogue tag.

I also think that “maldito,” or “damned” in Spanish, was really overused.

I liked Alfie as a character, but other than that, I had a really hard time caring about the characters. For that reason, I found myself skimming the last ¼ of the book.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. But I have high hopes for Motayne, and I hope she grows as a writer for the next book in the series.

VERDICT: 2 stars

 

Review: Lab Girl by Hope Jaren

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Anna: Welcome to my April memoir review! This month my memoir of choice was Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. I thought this called for feet and green tea.

I’m really enjoying the challenge I’ve seemed to have given myself in 2019 of reading a memoir a month! I’m finding memoirs particularly enjoyable to listen to on audiobook, because I can easily listen to them at work. I listened to Lab Girl this way!

I found Hope’s life fascinating. Her love of science is so beautifully described—she thinks and writes so differently than I’m used too. There are breathtaking descriptions of trees and plants, which I found peaceful (although sometimes they made me a little sleepy!) I also liked how Jahren framed the narrative events of her life around chapters of release plant studies. My reading taste however, craves narrative, and I think what I enjoyed most were the scenes of Hope and Bill’s quirky friendship and the descriptions of her Scandinavian family.

Something that bothered me was Jahren’s use of dialogue tags that weren’t “said.” “Said” is, in my opinion, the only necessary dialogue tag 90 percent of the time, and I find other tags endlessly distracting, and this was especially the case in this book. All the “replies” “answered” “sighed” etc. in this really stuck out to me! This is quite the pet peeve, I know, but this is something I couldn’t avoid noticing on audio.

As a person who studied English and works in book publishing, the value of scientific research is something I take for granted. I read memoirs about writers all the time, something I never really realized until this book. Lab Girl reminded me of the importance of science in our world. Something Jahren repeatedly talks about is the fact that scientists don’t receive enough funding to carry out expensive and necessary research. This is something I knew but honestly never think about. Lab Girl helped me realize the importance of scientific funding and has even made me look at trees differently.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 trees