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Pandabearbooks
I love a great world with relatable characters who seem realistic, even if they are fantastical.
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City of Ashes
With a Bullet
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Bridget Jones: Elämäni sinkkuna
Adulting 101
I picked this up wanting to read something light, and funny, and a little bit sticky sweet. Got exactly what I asked for.Edit: I had to come back to this "review", because I noticed I was still thinking of the characters. There really was a lot I enjoyed about this, I think pegging this as "just" fluff might take away from that.
I'll just list some of the things I liked:
- Best friends, one of whom is gay and the other straight
- No sexual tension between said friends
- Sweet yet flawed characters
- Parents who love their kid and only want the best for him
- Even when said parents and kid don't really know how to communicate with each other
- Relatable angst - I can still remember being nineteen, moving out to college and being ambushed by hysterical crying on my way to the flat hundreds of miles away from my childhood home
Every Heart a Doorway
For me, this book was a three and a half star read. I picked it up because I was attracted to the name. Unfortunately, it didn't quite deliver.What I loved:
- The premise
- The ideas
- The characters
- The inclusiveness (mainly Nancy and Kade)
What I didn't like
- The plot
No matter how pretty a package you wrap a story in, if it doesn't have meat, it's not a good story. I couldn't help but feel as if the author got off to a good start, and then lost her train of thought completely and never got it back, so she ended up finishing the book with a very thin and unconvincing story. I was especially disappointed with the ending.
However, this book was very beautifully written and I did enjoy the ideas. Luckily, it was also quite a short book so it didn't feel like a complete waste of time.
The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
Turns out I remembered next to nothing of this volume from when I last read it over ten years ago. Go figure. Still liked it though. The story got me in an unexplicably deep and almost maudlin mood. Dare I say my thoughts started spiraling in the way of an existential mini-freakout. Dangerous things, Dreams.
I don't have a proper review to give on this. Read it, let it in your head, decide for yourself.
Illuminae
Once I got going, I had to keep going (which is why I'm writing this at a little past two am with swollen eyes). Apart from the teensy bit cheesy ending, I ended up enjoying this a lot. This wasn't the first experimentally layed out book I've ever read, so it wasn't the formatting alone that did it for me. But it did make the story very refreshing. Different. Also, I feel like I spent half the book reading with tears streaming down my face, weeping for the weirdest things. That usually marks a good book for me. And I guess the cheese at the end was inevitable, considering this is, at the end of the day, a YA novel. (I have to add that I think this might be one of the first books I've come across that might have actually been more impressive as an ebook instead of a paperback.)
Withered + Sere (Immemorial Year)
I can't not rate this five stars, not when it's so wonderfully fucked up and great in creating this amazing bleakness, this half-mad man in a world that's everything I expect it to be in the not so distant future. It's always dangerous for me to read books set in post-apocalyptic times, because they always mess with my head, but it's Klune so of course I had to read it. I say this in most of my Klune reviews but I just never cease to be amazed at his versatility. All his books, wether stand-alones or series, are so different from each other while still retaining that something, that quality that just makes it so enjoyable.
This book was different from other thing's I've read from Klune, not only in that it's so dark, but also because it has so little dialogue in comparison. It conveys Cavalo's voice so clearly and convincingly it's spooky. What I don't get is how people have tagged this as a romace above, for example, dystopian scifi. Did we read the same book? I expect Crisped + Sere might fit that description a little better, but the romance was more an afterthought in this one than the focus of the plot. In my not so humble opinion.
I have to say though, I'm not sure wheter or not I can read Crisped as soon as I get it. I think I'll have to brace myself first, because I can just smell the tears that will be in my future. Just let it not be Bad Dog. Or SIRS. Or Lucas. Or Cavalo. Just kill Patrick and the rest of his loonies, right? Why not make this a fairy tale, eh? Please?
 - T.J. Klune)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I love the Harry Potter universe. I grew up with them, and they will always be a part of me and how I see the world. To me, the story ended after book seven, before the epilogue. This was not a Harry Potter book, nor a Harry Potter play. This was a play that took place in a version of the Potterverse that seemed to have been created by someone who had never read the books and wrote the story based on a ten minute explanation on what the world and characters were like. If the characters were more, well, in character, I might have been able to tolerate the abhorrent plot and all the holes in it a little better, but they weren't. The only character that was even remotely enjoyable was Draco Malfoy, and even him in a seriously fanficcy "reformed" way. Just no. Nope nope nope.
I regret reading this and I refuce to accept it into the same universe with the rest of the books.
Orphan X
Book 2 in the #boutofbooks read-a-thon was luckily a whole lot better than the first one. I didn't have many expectations for this one beforehand, and purchased it semi-randomly on Audible to have something to listen to on my walks. Funnily enough, I ended up listening to it while making a scarf, but that's neither here nor there.I'm not usually one for the James Bond / Batman type of protagonist, or the story that flies from one action packed scene to another, but something about this was different. Despite being the ultimate hitman (with the weakness of having a conscience) Evan Smoak is not your typical macho man main character. Something about him seems vulnerable and maybe that's what makes him almost relatable. Despite what he is and what his history has been, he's still human.
This story was not perfect, but where the plot or the characters had their flaws, they were written in a way that made me care for them and above all, to believe them. The story was well written and fast paced (made even more so by the fact that I listened to it in double time.) The final plot twist was not entirely unexpected, but still managed to shock me enough to go from "I'm not sure if I'm interested in the sequel" to "I can't wait for the sequel to come out in January".
Definitely a great thriller with one of my new favorite male protagonists in a long while.
Light
This time around a rating of 3½ stars will be rounded down. First off, I liked this book. I liked that the romance was sweet and not graphic, I liked that the characters involved were generally nice people who just klicked and there wasn't too much drama between them. It was nice. I made me aww at parts.
Secondly, the villain was well written. I hated him. I hated the bigoted hateful shit he was spewing and in several places I had a tough time reading through the things being said and thought and done. Because while there were telepathic and telekinetic abilities at play, the drivel being spouted was straight from present day society. Made me sick.
Now, if it was all so nice, why "just" three stars? Mainly because aside from the psychic abilities of the characters, there was nothing really original about this story. Even the plot twist was of the sort where I thought that was the logical thing to believe from the get go, and just felt like the main character was being a little slow on the uptake.
This was a good, quick read which was, admittedly, a lot heavier in subject matter than I expected, but nonetheless quite a light read. To use Goodreads' rating, I liked it, but I didn't really like ti.
Love for the Cold-Blooded, or The Part-Time Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero
Three and a half stars, but let's round up in this case.This was a lot better than expected. I didn't expect this to be bad, per se, I just expected a typical, predictable gay romance book. I picked this particular book for the promise of it being funny (I picked this off of a recommendations list) and possibly also hot. The premise of heros and villains and their offspring was also promisingly different from most other books in the genre.
In a word, this books was delightful. I don't think I stopped smiling once and on several occasions I even giggled out loud. The villains were of the sort whose endgame was defeating the multinational soulless bookstore chain in favor of the traditional more personable bookstore, or to stop people from dressing up without proper fashion sense. Also, a few ploys to take over the wolrd, but you know, just to make it better. They also never failed to wait for the heroes to show up and take the civilians to safety before throwing down.
The best thing about this book was the writing. It flowed easily, was paced well, and made the story believable in all its unbelievableness. If that's even a word. I really enjoyed the characters and I especially liked how the author assembled the cast of characters. Too often books in this genre have mainly all male casts and the few women are pretty irrelevant and poorly constructed. The women in this book were all people in their own right and pretty bad ass to boot.
I'll definitely be looking into more of Gabriel's books in the future, if they're anywhere near this good.
Silkkiäistoukka
This ended up being a three and a half star read for me, mostly because it had more filler than it needed. I can appreciate solid character development and a slow build plot, but I don't want to be bored while reading a mystery, and at certain points in the story, that's what happened (can we just axe the bits about Charlotte? I get that Strike is complex and wounded and that Charlotte is a big part of what his life is, but I just don't give a shit about her. Same goes for Matthew, really.)The last fifth of the book was really the saving grace here. Until that point I was getting desperate with the sluggish pace and then suddenly everything was revealed in a couple of dozen pages. Basically what I'm saying is - this was a good story and the ending was great, the author just took around 200 pages too many to get there.
Night Watch
A nice short story, but nothing to write home about. This lacks the tension and drive I've come to expect of Josh Lanyon, but her recent work has been somewhat lacking for me, in that respect.
Bear, Otter, and the Kid
I'm guessing this is one of Klune's earlier books. Of all I've read from him, this was my least favorite. Which isn't saying this was bad by any means, just that Klune's gotten a lot better over the years.The characters are amazing as are the relationships (mostly) but this one had quite a few too many monologues thrown in the dialogues and some of the decisions the characters made were downright ridiculous. On the other hand, people make dumbass decisions all the time in real life too, so.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and couldn't make myself put it down in my need for reassurance that it would all turn out okay. I'll definitely read the follow ups too, but maybe not in the near future.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
I'm not even sure how many times I've read the books, and I don't even care. Reading the Potters is always like coming home, and now I've proven myself that I'm also capable of reading them in Swedish as well as in Finnish and English. I regard the plot differently than I did when I first read this at age twelve (imagine that) but these are the kind of children's books that are timeless for me.
The IF Diet
this was a quick and easy read. it was written to be popular with the masses, so it was "witty", and had basically zero references to anything that might have backed up the bold claims made in it. it did have an extensive list of studies and articles at the back of the book, but that doesn't really tell me anything. i do find this topic really interesting though, and plan on reading up on it more. hopefully the next book will succeed a little better in convincing my inner sceptic, as well.
Flowers for Algernon
Finished reading Flowers for Algernon sobbing like someone had died, dammit. Stylistically not my favorite but so well thought out it doesn't really matter.
This book was funny and entertaining. It had wizards, hornless gay unicorns, half giants, talking dragons, and dark wizards who monologued a lot.
The humor was cracky and silly and right up my alley. The plot wasn't the most original out there, but it didn't really matter. The characters were great, the narration fluid, the dialogue was real and the way this was written was seriously so addicting I ended up reading until four am, even though I knew I had to be up at six am.
A solid four stars out of five (and this lacks that one star only because I've loved other books of Klune's even more.)
The humor was cracky and silly and right up my alley. The plot wasn't the most original out there, but it didn't really matter. The characters were great, the narration fluid, the dialogue was real and the way this was written was seriously so addicting I ended up reading until four am, even though I knew I had to be up at six am.
A solid four stars out of five (and this lacks that one star only because I've loved other books of Klune's even more.)
