amy_haynes's reviews
689 reviews

George Orwell is a master of his craft. His ideas and creations are spectacularly well formed and coherently and vividly conveyed. This book hasn't aged a day. I marked it down from 5 stars for 2 reasons. First is a what I read as or wells belief that man's natural urges are to rape and murder if he can't get his own way (perhaps only intended in the world he's created but still...) and generally an uncomfortable representation of sex and gender. Secondly in the final part of the book there are some very long explanatory chapters that seem overly repetative and hammer their points so hard that they stop being ground breaking and seem to lose a lot of their power that way. 
Over all I loved it. 

The language and imagery was generally really enjoyable, but the characters weren't particularly likable or engaging and the plot was chaotic. The internal logic of the world didn't make sense to me either. Maybe this is one on those children's books you have to love in you childhood to ever really appreciate as an adult. 

I remembered being read this story at primary school and liking it many years ago, though I couldn't remember much else about it. Now that I've read it again as an adult I believe this is most likely where my love of gardening and nature probably really began. It's so beautifully descriptive of all things best about British countryside, I can almost smell the fresh air as I read. I imagine it would be wonderfully soothing to listen to as an audiobook. 

It was almost really good. It had me gripped and really intrigued about the secrets at times but the sense of danger waned by about half way and the secrets likewise mostly didn't live up to the hype. The ending was better than I was concerned it would be though overly convoluted. It wasn't as sharp as Brookmyre's earlier books lacking his usual humour and yet not tense enough for a straight thriller either. Still I enjoyed it overall. 

Fascinating, engrossing, unusual. I couldn't figure out how to rate it. It lacked a classics narrative structure (wobbly wobbly time wimey stuff) which left me feeling a bit lost and aimless. But considering I was confused and thinking of giving up on the book in the first 2 chapters, I was fully on board by the end. 

A fun steampunk setting and mostly enjoyable characters. Unfortunately plot holes and implausible behaviours were noticeable and detracted from my enjoyment. I may get around to continuing the series in the future. 

Such a treat to have a full length novel. Brilliant in all the expected ways. The only weak spot to me is slightly underwhelming and unconvincing romance

Another great installment full of the most delightful fantastically absurb situations. 

These just keep getting better. The more I get to know all the residents of st Crispians the more intrigued I become. My favourites escapism series in a very long time.