aruarian_melody's reviews
469 reviews

The Clothesline Swing by Danny Ramadan

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Overall, this was an impressive debut that really tugged at my heartstrings. I think this book was very ambitious, trying to combine lived experiences of many queer people from Syria, showing life there and in many other neighbouring countries, generational trauma, refugee experiences and a wonderful love story ending in late life. Unfortunately, I often felt like I was given snippets of things I would love to explore further but we never returned to these characters/elements. Most of the time the book felt very disjointed with the constant jumping around. While I absolutely loved aspects of this, I never quite found my footing with this story. Still, I am impressed by how much the author made me feel for the two main characters and their love - considering the very limited time we spend actually developing that relationship. I'll definitely check out more work by the author. 
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 6%.
My second try to read this. I thought it was just an issue of "too high density of information for an audiobook" but sitting down with the paperback and really paying attention made me question the book very quickly. I'm a trained scientist and while I do not have a background in history or anthropology, the writing style immediately made me question how much of this is actually based in scientific evidence and how much is speculation by the author. Since there are very few sources given and speculation vs. scientifically backed theories aren't clearly differentiated, there really is no way to tell the difference. I did some research and it looks like the scientific communities of relevant fields are very critical of this book. Since I don't know enough to be able to tell when any of this is valid information, I won't continue reading. 
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
Loved the concept and the first paragraph really pulled me in. But the writing style ended up really not working for me and I dnf'd this one. I had no idea how old the characters were - we jumped from childhood playing with dolls to taking an exam for college and the voice of the narrator stayed the same. Overall it was too much "tell don't show" and therefore it remained surface level when I wanted to dive into these characters and their (promised) complicated relationship. Instead we get a reunion after years apart described in a handful of pages - with a direct description of how they changed with one-sentence examples for this change of behaviour... Just show me 2-3 moments and let me figure it out myself... I'm already feeling incredibly distant from the story and its characters and don't want to slide back into a reading slump.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know what it is about Steinbeck's writing, but his books just pull me in. For such a short story, this one certainly packed a punch. The style was interesting because it really does read like a play while still being a novel(la). Given when it was written, some things haven aged well, but I still couldn't stop reading and really enjoyed this. 
You Are Here by David Nicholls

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 14%.
Picked this up because I remember liking One Day way back in the day. Only made it 50 pages in until the awkward dialogue was too hard to handle. In general I liked the introspective beginning but didn't love the interactions. I was hoping this would be one of those rare exceptions in genres I don't typically enjoy, but this just isn't for me. 
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I really liked this book at first but lost interest as the story progressed and became more plot-heavy. What I enjoyed most were the flashbacks with the depiction of a hive mind. However, those elements vanished around two thirds in and only played a role in every second chapter until then. I would absolutely read something else by the author that is focused (with it being the main POV) on the hive mind and questions around individuality of segments connected to it. As far as I can tell, this series isn't going in that direction, so I'm going to quit it here. 
Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare Vol. 2 by Yuhki Kamatani

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Had its good moments but I'm just not connecting emotionally. It feels like it is trying to cover too many things too fast/with too little depth. 
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
Probably good as a historic reference book but not the kind of autobiography I enjoy. I thought it is a very distant writing style with many details that don't seem to impact the overall story. Contains a lot of name dropping (which I assume is meant to give credit to other important people - which is very considerate - but doesn't help with the flow of the story at all). I think this could have benefited from tight editing and some footnotes for (optional) details and explanations. 
Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare Vol. 1 by Yuhki Kamatani

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emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Important topic (especially in Japan) and gorgeous art, but some things/interactions felt a bit weird to me. Still, I'm intrigued and will continue the series. I imagine that publishing this in Japan must have been difficult and I applaud the author for their courage. 
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
Picked this up because it came up when I looked for character driven stories similar to Robin Hobbs work. Unfortunately, this one didn't work for me. Loved the first few chapters and th general setup but when the story really started I felt very distanced from it and its characters. I also wasn't a fan of the 35 year old protagonist lusting after his 16 and 19 year old charges. In the end I decided to dnf around a third into the book because I just didn't feel like picking it up anymore.