Hank Goodness is back — from a lot of things — and in Hogtown Market she trades one kind of trouble for about seven or so more. I had a habit of going along and being easy until I had an idea of what might happen next, but experience had taught me some good reasons not to do that anymore. (All quotes from the kindle version and I don’t have page numbers, sorry; title of this post is also a novel pull-quote) Minor spoilers ahead. […]
“You should have fallen in love with a happy man, if you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for the breathtaking beauty of pain.”
The Vorkosigan Saga is one of those classic SF series that has been a little intimidating to me because there are so many books in the series, and the suggested reading order of the series is not the publication order, so it doesn’t naturally lend itself toward easily identifying the “next” book in the series. Cordelia’s Honor is actually an omnibus edition comprised of Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan #1) and Barrayar (Vorkosigan #7)(???) Here’s a short plot description from Goodreads for both of those: Shards […]
this shirty forking book, I swear, it made me so mad
There were a few hot minutes where I was trying to pretend like there was anything I liked about this book. “You finished it,” I said to myself. “There had to be something that made you want to keep reading, right?” Well, yes, of course: hatred. From the very beginning, this book and its poor excuses for “characters” pissed me off. The main character is Scarlett, who is gutless and timid and who would do anything for her sister, Tella, because she loves her and […]
I accept that I am a writing-craft snob
If I hadn’t read “The Night Circus”, I would probably be giving this book a higher rating, but I think many of the things this book does well, “The Night Circus” did better. “Cruel Beauty” is also a YA, and I habitually have issues loving YA as much as I love adult books with similar themes. I had serious issues with the craft, and I realize after looking back through my other reviews, that I’ve become kind of a writing-craft snob, but this book was all tell […]
Live. Die. Repeat.
Over and over again, Ursula Todd lives through two world wars. She’s never in as much control of her death and rebirth as characters in The Edge of Tomorrow, for example, but she does learn from her multiple lives. It’s somewhere between deja vu and being able to completely accurately predict the future (because you’ve already been there). I have to admit to being disappointed with this book, but I don’t think that’s the fault of the book. I just wanted it to be something […]
Don’t Tell Me To Smile
My goodness. What do I even say about this that hasn’t been said already? Bitch Planet is a prison planet for women who are “Non Complaint.” They are too fat, too mouthy, too ambiguously scary, too….too. For all their failings in the eyes of this toxic patriarchy (is there another kind?), they are sent to prison. But it’s not like the expectation to be compliant ends with getting put in prison. It just morphs, changes shape. Instead of the daily grind of microaggressions and 1960’s-style […]