Hopefully I'll get through chapter 5 today (it's on the longish side) but I'm so fascinated by Ryder's dynamic with Sebastian's family.

So far they seem “normal“ and Sebastian seems to be exaggerating how manipulative they are but this could still turn around and prove me wrong 🤔

😂

Really loving this book so far. 🩷

Started this today and omg the prose 😋😩 🩷🩷🩷

Some guy just followed me, who only read HIS OWN BOOKS, and I had such a visceral reaction to it. I high-key hate when people only follow you to sell you their word slop. Get out of here with this shit.

I'm really sad that I didn't love it. I'm not even sure how I feel about it, overall. It had interesting narrative choices, some scenes were creepy and unsettling, and the atmosphere was really well developed. But there was also a disconnect from the main narrative. Personally, I would have wished to only focus on the present, and then make less of the past events a focus, but I also don't hate it because there was a good reason for it.

This book had all the components that I would have adored under different circumstances. It had folklore, songs, and a whimsical fairy tale nature. The prose itself was very beautiful, but it's one of those books that unfortunately talks down to its reader, while at the same time trying to sound cultivated, but ends up being vapid and pretentious.

The book tries to redefine the word “magic“ with 'Grammar,“--

This book was definitely a mixed bag. The story in itself wasn't bad. I enjoyed what little we knew about Jeremy; his storyline felt so different from anything I've ever read before. However, the anti-medication stance was a bit old-fashioned. The monks are kind of a racist caricature, which isn't helping the book. Susan was especially unpleasant in this one as well. I am not a fan of her, and this installment isn't doing her any favors.

I'm 30% into this book and it initially peaked my interest because it dealt with fey and fairly tales but the way its written really bothers me.

The narrator is so pretentious and talks down to the reader and it irks me so much. The conversations feel so fake and hollow.

The flowery prose feels so overwritten.

I really want to like this book because it makes me think of Lud in the Mist, but it just isn't it 🥲

The way Asian coded people are represented here is kinda racist. Not gonna lie 😬

I don't have much to say about this one. I don't like Susan much, and once again, I do not care for the wizards. This is another instance of me wishing that the book focused on the more interesting subplot of Death replacing the Hogfather, but instead, there's a bunch of nonsense happening at the Unseen University that frankly adds very little to the overall story.

I enjoyed it overall, aside from all the things I've mentioned previously, that is also probably because I like music, and this was a heavily musical book. Death is handled a lot better in this book. The plot with Imp was pretty interesting, but I did not care for all the wizard shenanigans. I would have preferred it to be only focused on the band plot. I also am not a fan of how Death constantly says how death cannot be changed, and yet he--

Every time i'm starting to enjoy this book I get hit with some fatphobia, misogynistic ideology or racism and its exhausting. It's a product if it's fine but man oof

This installment is a lot better than the first Death book, but I still can't say I enjoyed it much more than the first. There are a lot of interesting discussions about life and death in this book, but I can't say I was very interested in either storyline, despite the strong start. There is a lot going on, and it feels disjointed; again, the transitions between the two storylines aren't very good (yet). Things really fell apart with the trolley-

Jumping back into TPs work with this one, and it was surprisingly disappointing. I get that this was written in the late 80s, but some of the minor things here really threw me off. There was the sexualization of minors, and the PoC representation here is pretty weak and offensive.

The transitions in this were very jarring, even more than usual (he got better at them in later books.) The plot itself felt weak. The MCs bickered a lot--

Once again not sure how to rate a nonfiction book, but it was interesting to read both perspectives in an unbiased way as to who was right or wrong and to learn about what happened to The Wager itself.

What happened to these men was very unfortunate, and the lengths they had to go through to survive.

It was harrowing to read, but ultimately very fascinating.

Restarted this today, but not before a refresher for a few previous chapters (I didn't want to completely restart it)

There were a lot of good ideas here, but they weren't executed in the best way. The atmosphere was all over the place, a lot of what happened lacked focus where it mattered. MC's interest in the FLI could have been more developed, as it mostly felt superficial (random crush that haunted the narrative)

I was hoping for more horror but all I got was 3 kind of weird things happening. The ending felt weak.

So far the horror of this book is grown ass men with dubious intent hanging around with minors 😬

I'm not sure how to feel about this installment. Tobias feels like a shell of himself in this one. The romance feels forced, there is simultaneously too much going on, and also too little. Silver's mother is at least very interesting.

There is a lot here that could be improved. I think if this was longer and had more time to develop it would work better. Otherwise it feels like an overflowing pot.

I really love folklore and am not super familiar with the Green Man mythology so I was very curious about this book.

I was a bit let down. The writing and atmosphere were beautiful and MC was very fascinating, but the story itself felt very surface level. I didn't care much for the romance, it did nothing for me, even if it served for a motivator, so it did have a purpose.

All things considering, it *was* a novella.

This was a very short book, but it packs a big punch. The story was a bit slow, but it fit the pastoral setting. Like many Peter S. Beagle novels, it starts off very inviting, but the rug is pulled from under you very suddenly, and you're left with a lot of strong emotions. This one is no different. I will not spoil any of it. I will, however, warn about the animal death and violence.

I was so excited for this book, and honestly, I was not disappointed. I can see how this type of book can be super boring to most people, but I am exactly the type of nerd that LOVES the minutiae of dragon anatomy and scholarly research and cataloguing, and identification. Lady Trent was a character who felt unique and had a lot of growth as a person through such a short book. There were some points that made me squint, but the book is very-

This also started off really fresh and different, but fell apart towards the middle, and the last 2 hours really dragged. There was still very good commentary about racism, exploitation, drug abuse, slavery, and prejudice. The “dehumanization“ of the goblins really rustled my feathers. The humor in this really struggled and was very low-brow, relying too heavily on 💩, especially because Pratchett is known for his humor. It's a very weak ending.--

Somehow the casual misogyny keeps popping up

There was this earlier scene where Lady Sybil and Vimes were over to this noblewoman's house, and Vimes started telling these young women that they should just get jobs and not rely on finding a rich man to marry. While I get the sentiment, I also fundamentally dislike it when ignorant men tell young women what to do.

Normally, Sybil corrects him when he's being like this, and yet she just sat there smiling. It doesn't sit well with me.

Just started this and I'm cakling so much at the P&P references

A quick read with beautiful illustrations

This book started off really strong and then gradually fell off. It started with the needless trope of woman 1 feeling insecure because woman 2 is prettier, crap that you see in older works. I was waiting for that trope to be subverted, but it was plain boring and unoriginal through and through. There were needles gendered remarks sprinkled throughout that I also didn't care for. Angua also became a mouthpiece for some xenophobic opinions--

I was curious about this one, and since it was a standalone, I wanted to read it this weekend. Aside from the fatphobia, this was a pretty fun book. It had very good commentary on wars and the military in general, and I found the plot twist to be pretty hilarious.

This one genuinely made me laugh at some of the scenarios and scenes.

I just started this book because I wanted a standalone.

The sudden fatphobia caught me offguard, especially by this very “woke“ author. I can't help but feel a bit hurt and greatly disappointed.

This was an interesting and fresh take on a time travel story, as well as being very focused on themes of rioting, corrupt governments, and revolution. It is on the heavier side in terms of topics, and there is a lot of death in this book. I enjoyed some aspects of it, but I cannot say I “enjoyed“ reading through a literal revolution, and brutality etc.

I am once again wondering how books like this win awards. This was very similar to Station Eleven.

This book felt longer than it should have been. The author spent more time listing random media than they did developing the characters, scenery, or plot. The MC was extremely boring, and the setting was extremely boring. How authors can make apocalyptic settings boring is beyond me.

My main issues with this book are the inconsistencies, on top of my general dislike of Emily. The story meandered too much and felt longer than it should have been. There were too many times when Emily had to get to a plot point and then make a B line because suddenly there was another thing going on, and things needed to be adjusted. Or some fairy nonsense was happening to foil her plans.

This was a light little collection containing nature and flower poetry. I enjoyed them.

This wasn't so much a Thriller but a really sad book. I was hoping there would be more nature and survival being described, but it is what it is.

I am still of the opinion that it would have been better with a clearer outline and fewer POVs; Overall, this is a very slow-burn type mystery with a lot of unnecessary padding. The buildup to the ending turned out to be a disappointment. The writing style itself was interesting and engaging. --

Halfway-ish done with this book, and my main “gripe“ (it isn't really a gripe) is that there are too many narratives/characters that lead to the same plot beat, so they could easily just be combined with other similar plot points into a more concise story.

So we don't have 5 different narratives going on at once that are essentially doing the same thing, leading the POV character from A to B, A to B, A to B. It gets so tediously repetitive.

This is the best poetry collection I've read by Oliver thus far. All of the poems are quite beautiful and evocative, a mix of lighthearted poems and hard-hitting ones full of life's truths.

Just read this poem, and it resonated with everything that is still happening, so I made this little edit.

This one was difficult to get into due to current events. Pratchett takes a hard stab at racism and prejudice, and what happens when two factions fight over a resource and a plan on making siege weapons. Although Pratchett's intent was good in satirizing both sides, the Middle Eastern presenting people feel more like stereotypical caricatures than actual human beings. I found their portrayal to be very racist, although I am aware it's accidental.

This book had little plot, and the MC was pretty unpleasant and selfish. This being semi-autobiographical makes me wonder if F. Scott Fitzgerald had any regrets or if this was just a recollection of his youth, fictionalized to a degree.

This served as an interesting time capsule; life in the 1920s seems so far removed from 2025, but at the same time, it's still very similar in a lot of ways.

I aim to finish this book today, so far it's been very interesting

This book was a lot different from the previous ones, which was a nice change. The scale of the story felt bigger and went into a lot more depth about the overall world. There was a lot less social commentary and jokes, and a lot more of the story focused on the plot and political intrigue.

Oh man, with everything going on, I was suggested skipping it for now, so that is what I shall do 😅

I actually really enjoyed this one! The story felt a bit more concise and focused. The humor felt a bit more well-timed and full of witty one-liners that actually added to the story instead of being peppered in to accentuate the absurdist style. The moral and religious commentary was really enjoyable.

This one was a bit of a murder mystery with themes of racism and gun violence/control, as well as classism. Once again, I found the commentary to still be relevant and interesting; it was bold to have MCs representing that prejudice and racism, but that also made them a bit less likable, although very human. There were other off-color comments and actions I didn't really like, but they are a product of their time.

DNF'd at 39%. I honestly just got tired of waiting for the actual horror to start and didn't care for the Desperate Housewives Shlock Shtishow.

Lynette could have been interesting if her actual trauma was explored instead of her behaving like a freak all the time (her casually saying how she would shoot a child is wild to me). Some plot points in the book were so unrealistic.

This was a fun, self-contained short story.

I can finally say that I didn't love it, but I really enjoyed the world-building and the social commentary, even if it's more Brit-centric. It's early enough that maybe in a few books I will start having a fav character, and early enough that I still would like to finish the whole Watch arc. I can absolutely see why Pratchett is such a beloved author, even if his novels are not 100% for me

As always Austen has masterful character and symbolic work, but Fanny felt a bit too much of an abused victim, that let's themselves get walked all over by others, but deep inside they have strong opinions(tm).

It's not that a meek character cannot be interesting, its that on top of ot all Fanny is very judgemental and puritanical and I did not care for it.