disfluffstuff's reviews
72 reviews

Finished the whole book in just five days, my quickest read in a long time. 

Melancholic, strangely moving, and full of deep youthful yearning. At no point in the story could I tell where it was going,

except for the climax - I saw it coming unfortunately, which is actually rare on my part - but

it was a nice read and beautifully translated. 

As soon as I finished the book, I felt like it was good. Days later, I felt like it was really good. I kept having flashbacks to certain scenes, and the simple realism of the plot left me pondering about the existence of lone lovers in the world and their earnest longings. I feel like my eyes have been opened to yet another genre that I had previously never considered due to my aversion to the romance genre. Although I don't particularly enjoy books with a melancholic vibe as well as those from the modern-day romance genre, this book left me curious to explore others that revolve around such themes of archaic subtle romance accompanied with feelings of deep longing that is not often showcased in today's media.

Classic mystery novel. Miss-Marple style with a dash of humour & chaos.

My goal in 2025 is to explore a wide variety of genres. With that in mind, am I glad I read this? Yes. Would I give similar books a chance in the future? No. 

As an avid Philosophy-hater, this is the closest I've come to liking a book of the genre but as mentioned in the Afterword, this book refuses to "be put into a neat genre box. It’s a philosophical treatise as much as it is a story about an alien world." Hence, although a mere melancholic story at the surface, it is curiously intriguing and leaves us pondering on the answers to the questions: "What does a person become when stripped to the core, raised in isolation? What might a woman be like under these conditions?"

I'm intrigued by how the author managed to maintain a compelling tone that steered me away from dropping the book even though she openly hints on multiple occasions to the readers not to have any expectations for a climax. 

Concluding my review with these excerpts from the Afterword:
"The prose is cool water. Its images are lonely, weird, sometimes horrific, and always arresting."
"It shows the worst of what humans can inflict on humans, but also the best that love and togetherness can do. It is a minute account of a nightmare and yet also a triumph of the small, seemingly trivial fragments that make up who we are." 
"No life is ordinary, the book seems to say. No life is without hope, without light, even during the unimaginable."
"Our narrator muses [....] ‘After all, if I was a human being, my story was as important as that of King Lear, or of Prince Hamlet that William Shakespeare had taken the trouble to relate in detail.’ The smallness of one person left alive in the vast and mysterious world is a daunting concept. But doesn’t the best science fiction make us think about our world anew, and who we are?" 

Excellent story written in classic simple style.  Funnily enough, the fact that I did not have full knowledge of the Nazism period allowed me to relate to the oblivious main character, Bruno, in many instances. Towards the middle of the book, you get a sense of impending doom that forces you to keep reading yet stop reading at the same time. The storyline's slow shift from Bruno's carefree and innocent perspective to the horror at the end made for a very morbid tale.

The irony exhibited by Boyne in the final lines of the book hit especially hard considering the genocide that has been ongoing in Palestine for nine months now. To think that history would repeat itself in this cruel way is one thing, but to helplessly witness it along with the rest of the world is another.

Short and sweet. Evokes a bit of emotion and has just a tad bit of a philosophical touch.

Classic detective-mystery novel. This book had been on my TBR for at least five years now but turns out this was the best time to finally pick it up because I (coincidentally) started reading this on the plane back from Istanbul so all the references made perfect sense. 

Regarding the revelation of Lylie's true identity, I had an idea how it would end

once the DNA test results were revealed (I think we all did) but then the final twist regarding Melanie (Lylie's mother) was thrown in our faces and that was quite unexpected, I liked that. Definitely did not expect so many murders even though it really shouldn't be that surprising seeing how the guy is literally an ex-mercenary.

Loved the pacing and layout of the plot, the way each clue was revealed slowly, allowing us to fit all the pieces one by one like a puzzle before delivering one last blow with the final twist. Ngl I skipped a few descriptive paragraphs though, especially towards the end but nevertheless, a great read overall.

I loved Dahl's Madness and subsequently started this one with high expectations but unfortunately it did not come up to it. I read 4 out of 10 stories and had to power through all of them. On the last day of 2024, I decided that I will not be powering through anything in 2025, hence the decision to drop it altogether.

From starting the TG series in 2020 to taking a 3 month break halfway through TG:re and picking it up again to finish it right before the end of 2024; it's been one long journey, and a great one at that. 

I started reading it with no great expectations, just a silly li'l fantasy manga for funsies, so I was taken aback when I found it to be deeper than I thought, making myself question my basic morals and ethics at several points in the series as the story delved more and more into the lives of ghouls, their right to live, their justification to kill in a world that is "Kill or Be Killed", their attempt at coexisting with humans, their desire to not coexist with humans, so on and so forth. 

At the beginning, I naturally found myself sympathizing with humans in every situation that was human vs. ghoul but the series does a good job of forcing you to shift your perspective and choose between good vs. evil instead. The portrayal of certain humans beside ghouls and their truly evil nature makes you question your sense of justice and loyalty to your own species.

Rize's story from start to finish is excellent, absolutely loved the full-circle plot line. Outstanding character development in many characters throughout (Looking at you, Urie & Suzuya).

Mutsuki's story is straight up crazy.

Love the chemistry among the QS Squad.

Kaneki & Hide the cutest bestie boo 4lyfers.

I've got many more characters worth mentioning but we will need a whole different review for that.

The whole Dragon arc has got to be my favourite one from TG:re. (Don't remember my favourite one from TG, probably one of the battles - perhaps the one with the

final showdown of Kaneki vs. Arima

?)

After everything that went down though, it was Ishida's Afterword that almost got me tearing up. I truly admire the resilience and dedication of artists who keep going even when they feel like they've hit their lowest, be it for their loyal readers or for anything else. Eternally grateful to Ishida for powering through because if not, the world would be missing out on this masterpiece of a work of art.

This was an excellent read and I thoroughly enjoyed it except until the very end. It was gripping and kept me hooked right from the beginning. I loved the pacing, the suspense and the little plot twists but things started to go downhill from

the moment Alicia started to speak again.

First of all, there was a lot of build-up towards her first words after choosing to stay silent for that many years, only for me to be let down.

That whole part was satisfactory, to say the least. But I still saw hope for a sick ending as the story went on, only to be let down once again. 

See, I don't mind the whole idea of

messing with time and dimension to create a mind-bending storyline;

infact I love it. But the way this concept was executed in the book was quite poor and, dare I say, amateurish.

Theo's discovery of Kathy's infedility played a major role in his gradual descent into insanity so it just does not make sense that the very man who Kathy was fooling around with, was dead the whole time. It's crazy and a waste of an otherwise excellent plot.

Overall, I'm glad I read it even though I was left with a tinge of disappointment as the whole story just had so much potential.