For some obvious reasons this book draws comparisons to Emma Cline’s The Girls. They’re both about chaotic and intense friendships between teen girls. And in both, the story is also told in sections about the future. Both share this second feature and it’s a failure of both. Neither book really justifies the future sections. Both would be better served by a voice from the future, but not one whose life we get much of a glimpse of. The difference these two books comes mostly from the […]
In which your hero is disappointed about his experiences with the Novel Book by Boz
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
This post is mostly punctuated by my disappointment with this novel. I should start by telling you two things about Young Vel Veeter. Oliver! is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was one of those movies that my family loved and we watched when I was young and impressionable. It was a big hit when it was out, but it felt like one of those things that were HUGE when I saw it based on how much I loved it and watching […]
A solid series of newish books
The Book of Unknown Americans – 4/5 stars I liked this book a lot and I really thought I was going to….well not not like it, but find it mediocre or something like that. I am not sure why I thought this, and well, I should probably explore that and really don’t want to at the same time. The book is told from many voices; almost all recent, first, or second generation immigrants from Mexico and Latin America. The voices range in scope and circumstance, […]
Admix of Newer fiction
Eat Only When You’re Hungry – Lindsay Hunter 3/5 This is a weird and gross book and also a sad and a touching book. Ostensibly, it’s a story about the divorced and remarried father of an addict who has gone missing looking for him in his old haunts. In addition, we are treated to a history of the failed first marriage and various other kinds of stories related to a life lived and now reflected upon. That’s why it’s sad and touching and sweet at […]
YA and Fantasy Audiobook Splurge
One of Us is Lying 1/5 Over all this is an OK mystery. The setup is that five high school students have been given detentions after school because their teacher found cellphones in their bags. When they’re in detention, one of the group, a hated webmaster and content creator of a gossip website that all the other members of the detention have been involved with before and they all have their little secrets to be protected. Well he dies when he drinks a peanut oil […]
Speaking of dilettantes
If you’re not singing the weird little Simple Gifts Shaker song I dunno. Anyway, speaking of dilettantes, which I was in my last review. Patrick Leigh Fermor is the best kind of dilettante in this book, one completely without the kind of annoying ego that would make him insufferable instead of an amazing observer. A young Patrick finished up public school and doesn’t want to go to college so he figures he’ll walk across Europe all the way to Istanbul (Constantinople at the time) and […]
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