galacticvampire's reviews
350 reviews

The Goldfinch is a beatifully written story of a terribly unlucky and considerably self-centered white boy. Which means he was very much insufferable, but that was the point. 

This book explores grief, trauma and bad decisions, and how a child without proper support grows into a selfish adult. It really plays with your emotions, guiding you from feeling sorry for Theo's bad hand in life to infuriated by his choices. 

I did think that some sections were too slow, I have to admit. Even if those events mirrored the character falling into routine and general apathy towards life, it was a temptation to skip ahead and get things moving. There was also a few coincidences too many that really took me out at times. 

I get how such an unlikable main character and narrator unsettles some readers, but I particularly love Donna Tartt's gift to creating a full cast of realistically flawed people. It feels rich and unique, even in their unpleasantness.

As with most fantasy books, it took me a while to locate myself in the setting, the political configuration, the magic, but once that happened everything clicked.

This is not only a great political tale touching on feminism and religious oppression, but also extremely unique. The characters have great chemistry and even with several pov changes, the choices to switch them never broke the tension.

I do think that it could be slightly shorter, as some points felt like overwriting or stalling, and you really shouldn't read this if you're interested in the romance, because it's not really the focus of this story. (Which was great, as the build up between them becomes way more complex with the space to breath).

Even if a little dense at times, this new take in fantasy is really worth it for the originality and incredible cast.

Funny thing: I liked this book more when I was a teenager, but I certainly hadn't understood as much as I did this time around.

Looking for Alaska is a very fair 2005 attempt at deconstructing the manic pixie dream girl stereotype, but it falls short on it being more focused on pointing out the shortcomings of flattening female characters than actually showing an alternative.

So in this process, Alaska never escapes the fate of existing solely for the male characters' benefit. Yes, the whole point was that Miles failed to see her as a real person, but that doesn't mean that the narrative managed to show what was missing.

Nevertheless, this is a really good book about friendship and human relationships, just the John Green's specialty at capturing the magic in even the simplest things in life.

Thank god this is a series because I'm already craving much more! 

This novella is a quick and charming introduction to this world, from the corporate-controlled space exploration to the philosophical question of what constitues a person.

The star of the show is obviously, Murderbot who is a big MOOD. It just wants to be left alone to watch his blorbos and is NOT ashamed to half-ass his job to get to that. Absolutely hilarious.

While the story holds a very lighthearted tone throughout, you can really feel the care Martha Wells put into portraying themes of humanity, relationships, compassion and autonomy.

It's impossible to evaluate a book without considering its context. Written in the early 80s, Feminist Theory was dealing with a completely different framework of both society and the feminist movem, but that only makes more glaring how many of the issues explored are still extremely relevant.

40 years later, the debate about what we now could call the #GirlBoss-ification of feminism has never been more pressing.

Focusing on different spheres of social life for each chapter, hooks main point is that feminism goals shouldn't be dictated by a small, high educated, rich and white minority, and that no true feminist ideal can be achieved without class and racial equality.

There are, of course, oudated ideas, like when it comes to sexuality and community, but the core values in these sections are still useful, and resignifying them is essential for progress. Criticising biological essentialism, women oppression by the hands of women, varied gender stereotypes according to race and class, individualism, golden star lesbians, and man-hating. All of these topics are relevant today, even if in different context or application.

All in all, hook's writing is dense, but not complicated, and while this is undeniable a technical text most people could follow the ideas presented.

This was insane!!

I definitely liked it better than the first book, specially because it's considerably easier to follow both in pov aspects and timeline.

The main plot is exactly what we got from the ending of book 1: getting Darlington out of hell, but the way there is brilliantly unexpected, built like a puzzle with hints and misdirections and plot twists that keep you entertained at every step.

I did miss a little bit of the other houses, as here they have already become background for Alex, and honestly there were maybe a little bit too much of subplots than necessary (

I particularly didn't feel like the whole thing with Alex's past added anything relevant

) but none of that really hinder my enjoyment of the book.

The story shines is how detailed everything manages to be, from the lore, to a background murder mystery, to dozens of classic references. I can't wait for the next step in this series!

For a while I wondered if my affection towards this book was due to it being one of the first queer romances I read, and my young and impressionable self.

It wasn't.

Red, White and Royal Blue is still an unparalleled queer romance for a reason. It's witty, it's charming, the cast is great, the dynamics are fantastic, the plot is moving. There isn't much else to ask for.

Romance characters tend to be annoying, because drama is part of the genre. But here, Alex's and Henry's hiperbolic circumstances makes all the drama quite plausible. And McQuiston balances it all very well to still keep the mood quirky and fun.

Once again, five years later, I'm orphan for a story that can match everything this book made me feel.

I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it's a great character exploration of Han and Leia and I had fun, on the other, the plot is an absolute drag.

Starting right after the battle of Endor, we follow Han and Leia tying the knot (in a magical and beautifully written scene) and being coerced into a honeymoon marketing the Rebellion victory. (It is, also, marketing for the short-lived Disney Star Wars Hotel)

While some descriptions of the Halcyon get a little silly, like Han talking for a whole page about the great showers, the section in the ship really highlighted their dynamic: Han is still suffering from PTSD from his year in carbonite and insecure about his place in a future where his wife is forever in politics, while Leia struggles with the knowledge that Darth Vader was her father and can't keep her head out of work even during her honeymoon.

The meat of the plot, though, only kicks in during the last third of the book and is unnecessary considering how generic it is.

Leia pulls a Karen and deceives the ship's Captain to change ALL of the passengers itinerary because she wants to make a political connection, then they meet a Empire remnant drilling the planet to destruction, investigate, save the day at the last second, the end

.

Regardless of this, Leia and Han's bantering and talking is fun enough on its own and I love that we got another tidbit of them.

In Cultish, the linguist Amanda Montell takes on the task of explaining how language helps shape human relationships with cults and cultish organizations.

Which is really surprising because I found it considerably surface-level on the context of linguistics itself. She is a great storyteller, and this is an incredible work of social studies, but when it comes to language? It's more like some brilliant moments peppered in than the bulk of the narrative.

Maybe it's because the author was stretched thin from all the topics she wanted to cover. We have old-school cults, MLMs, group gyms and influencers, all of them cultish, but complex on their own.

From an overall understanding, we actually cover a lot of ground on how each of these work on enlisting and keeping followers, which was cool, but I spent the whole time expecting something revolutionary or surprising. It never came.

Tie-ins are not really my jam, but Black Spire managed to merge hints of Disneyworld with a deep and sensible plot. 

Yes, sometimes the *wink wink* references to the park got a little too on the nose, spending time better used exploring the characters with things like a cantina menu description, but as someone who hasn't been there, it didn't get corny. 

I absolutely love the cast. Both Vi and Archex are interesting and complex in their own trauma, and the supporting characters are also quite unique, creating a really endearing dynamic. 

My biggest issue was  how removed from the main story they had to be to preserve the park's independence from events. The logic as to WHY they are in Black Spire doesn't make much sense, and everything ends up being inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. 

In the end, I wanted MORE of them, and thought they deserved to grow beyond the limits of a merch story.