hollyway's reviews
524 reviews

The White Girl by Tony Birch

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emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

*read for book club*

It's always hard to rate books I read with a fever lol, but anyway I really liked this. Nothing fancy, just good storytelling. I loved Odette and Sissy. And yes I cried 👍
Apeirogon by Colum McCann

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.
This was a book club book but also one I already wanted to read. Sadly I couldn't connect with it no matter how hard I tried.
Sula by Toni Morrison

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

4.0

Beautifully written as always but for some reason I didn't connect with this one as much as her other books. I think a lot of that is me and the mood I've been in, which is just how it goes sometimes. Anyway, that's not to say I didn't like this, because I did. Just not on the same level as my favourite Toni Morrisons, at least this time around :)
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Fascinating and entertaining. Kurt Vonnegut's style isn't my favourite but I do respect it and it's never uninteresting.
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

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

4.0

So many killer lines in this. The melting of past and present tense was really interesting. I fear reading the whole novel in one day has boiled my brain too thoroughly to have anything clever to say but basically I liked this a lot and am keen to read more Deborah Levy in the future. 
Ask Me about My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain by Abby Norman

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3.0

Abby Norman is a good writer but the overall product of this book is a little underwhelming. I don't mind a book that straddles the line between educational and memoir but in this case I feel it would have been a lot stronger if it had just chosen a lane. Endo has been a part of my life for over a decade so the chances of me learning something new from this were low, but I still could have enjoyed it as a memoir if it had been more focused in that direction. As it is, it's not bad, but it wouldn't be my go-to recommendation for someone wanting to learn about endo/women's health.
The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

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

4.0

Jelinek is a true original, from her prose to her characters and plot. I was lulled into a nightmarish trance reading this novel. An addictively unpleasant experience but far from an exercise in shock value. It's fascinating to read a book from the 80s that explores love, power and female sexuality with more nuance, depth and boldness than many modern novels. The complexity and contradiction in every joint of this story is so powerfully human.

This novel is absolutely not for the faint of heart, nor is it - as could be assumed from the blurb - a straightforward sexual awakening narrative. It is a portrait of an animal gone mad in its cage, seeking escape while clinging desperately to the bars. It has left its mark on me for sure.

Also: my first Austrian novel!
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down

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

4.0

A beautiful, intimate character study. Really liked this one. 
Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman

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hopeful informative

4.0

It's always jarring to read political commentary from pre-2016 or even pre-2020. Not that this doesn't hold up. It's more about what it doesn't say than what it does. 

To be honest this was a bit of an exercise in confirmation bias for me (which I didn't know it would be when I picked it up at the op shop). It's always nice to have your convictions backed up, but it wasn't as compelling as it could be since I was already familiar with the concepts presented. That said, I would definitely recommend it as an introduction.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I just adore Truman Capote's writing. His powers of storytelling are just as present here as in his fiction. He conjures characters with such colour and precision. This book is abundant with the most striking descriptions, but it all feels so natural and effortless. Of course the story itself is a nightmare - but that's the thing really, is that it's not. It's very real, and Capote renders on every page a haunting portrait of humanity in all its inconvenient nuance.