oofym's reviews
120 reviews

I always struggle to rank novellas due to the limited length, it can feel hard to form an attachment to the story when you can finish it in under 2 hours. It's difficult for your mind to really be immersed, yet I think Ms Ice Sandwhich does a pretty great job.

I'm growing to really enjoy Mieko Kawakami as an author, of course I've only read two of her stories so far, but I'm incredibly keen to read more from her. She has a knack for showcasing hard to describe emotions often associated with youth; that sort of bitter-sweet hopeful melancholy mixed with confusion that we all experience heavily during our formative years. It's hard to pinpoint how she does it, but she does. You really feel attached to these characters, I think perhaps because there's a sort of nostalgic element to how they're portrayed. So far reading Kawakami's books has felt like I'm reminiscing on old memories and I love that.


I think in the end 'Ms Ice Sandwhich' is about two different things: Trying to comprehend the adult world from a child's perspective, and learning to deal with loss, and honestly the last 20 or so pages of this novella were picture perfect, it made me want to come back and reread it all as soon as possible. I think I'm only giving it a slightly low score purely so I can read it again and rank it higher.

This was the most melodramatic story I've read in awhile. I don't even really have much to say about it, Mary Shelley's writing is always poetic; sometimes beautiful and sometimes incredibly evocative, but I didn't really get much of that in "Matilda". And maybe this is my own fault, but I couldn't help daydreaming all throughout the book, it wasn't holding my full attention at all.

Also the world "Alas!" Is so overused I couldn't believe it, it genuinely appeared on like every 2nd page.

This story could be summed up as: "😫 Alas! 😇😭 Alas! 😇"

Flowers for Algernon is my favourite sort of science fiction; one which focuses on the psychological effect an advancement in technology/science might have on a person, and boy does this story have that.

There's alot of different things going on here, and plenty of different meanings/parables I've personally picked up on, although I'm sure I missed some. The first thing that comes to mind is how the evolution and subsequent devolution of Charlie's mental state, or to be more particular: his IQ, is eerily reminiscent of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Going from being ignorant of everything(childhood), to trying to absorb as much knowledge and life experience as possible(Adulthood), and then eventually seeing it all slowly crumble and fade away within your own mind, seeing your skills, memories and most important aspects of your life all slip from your grasp as you try desperately to hold onto them (Dementia/Old age/Senility)
I'm sure the author intended this, and once you start to sense it coming and catch on, it becomes incredibly heartbreaking.

The second thing I picked up on was how the story seems to be wanting to showcase how humans innately want what they don't have, not only on a materialistic level, but also on a mental one. When Charlie is dumb he wants to be smart, when he's smart he'd rather be dumb. Only for the story to do a full 360 revolution and wind up with Charlie right back where he started; a dumb kid wanting to be smart.

And I have to mention the pervading sadness that seeps its way throughout the novel. In almost any segment of this book there is something to feel empathy for, something to worry about or truly just a heart-wrenching scene. Anything with Charlie's family made me emotional, the bullying he experiences when he's less mentally advanced Is also rough to go through. But then also how Charlie's increased IQ ends up causing him even more pain and suffering is something which I found really depressing, it's never good to be too over-conscious.

Overall I loved my time with Flowers from algernon, even if it made me cry a bit and caused me to have a slight internal crisis on the thought of losing my memories. 4.5 stars

This book was so good it feels wrong to even write a review of it.

The philosophy, characters, events, psychology, theology and just everything in this novel were so perfect. I feel like everytime I read something by Dostoevsky it has a %50 chance of changing me as a person. Again there is just so much I could say but it feels intimidating to even try.

Ill leave it at this: Aloysha is a G, we should all strive to be like him. If God doesn't exist, it's necessary to believe in one anyway. Pride is the enemy of humanity, love is the goal. Suffering is necessary, but we don't have to be bound by it.

Metro 2033 started off very strong, and over the course of its 460 pages gradually lost all of its steam. I can't help being a bit disappointed in this novel, although it succeeded in certain parts; especially in ambiance and atmosphere, it also feels very aimless with a distant lack of gripping plot, character intrigue and really just anything to keep it well paced. I shouldn't be having to read more lore about small settlements that don't have any importantance only 30 pages from the end of the story.

Another thing to note is the very poor translation, which I can't take away points for since it's not the original authors fault, but I'd like to highlight it anyway. The translation of my edition (Natasha Randall) has quite evidently been a bit slack with her work, there's typos, spelling errors, duplicated words and other obvious mishaps in sentences multiple times in the book. I shouldn't be able to tell a translation is poor when I don't even know the original language.

In the end despite my complaints I'm still giving Metro 2033 a positive rating. The setting, the tone and the atmosphere the novel illicits are all top notch, it's claustrophobic and dirty. The mysteries that occur and are spoken of in hushed tongues are my favourite segments of this book, anytime something unexplainable happens in the decrepit and dank railway tunnels i was always hooked.

So In short: Great atmosphere, a unique setting, and an enticing amount of curious goings-on to draw you in.
But also a poor translation, Aimless plot,not enough character depth and an overindulgence in lore dumping.

I really really appreciate this book, from a historical standpoint as much as a philosophical one. That we have the journal of a roman emperor from 2000 years ago is such a feat In of itself, but to read it and see that alot of the beliefs and views of Aurelius still hold up in our modern day is eye-opening.

To me this was another stepping stone towards finding a sort of universal truth, to discovering my own philosophy and beliefs; so to me it's very important in that regard.
I don't agree with everything in it of course, and Marcus definitely repeats himself quite a bit, but I don't think that takes away much from the philosophy of Meditations, if anything the repetitive nature of the text helps it all sink in.

Definitely one of those books that every human should read atleast once in their life, whether you agree with the philosophy or not.

This novel grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and wouldn't let me go, I read about 80 pages the first day and then the other 250 on the 2nd. So to say it was gripping would be an understatement.

I think what struck me the most about this was this ever present subtle feeling of "fakeness" to everything; "all the glitters isn't gold". The suburban dream is a lie, that's what this story felt like.

In terms of the writing style I couldn't help thinking about "Stoner" by John Williams the whole time, there's such an overlap going on here and considering the books were written like 3 years apart there's probably a reason for the similarities. It's a simple sort of prose that all the while has this nice glossy feel to it, like a beautiful oil painting which has the perfect amount being shown. I've seen reviewers call Richard Yates (The Author) a "Writers writer" and I couldn't agree more, if I could write it would be like Revolutionary road.

The way each character is equally grey and complex, nuanced and multilayerd, sympathetic yet off-putting; is really astounding. 
April is the special stand out though, by the end of the story I couldn't help feeling horribly sorry for her, her end is a Shakespearean tragedy through and through.

In short, this was essentially a perfect novel. It didn't make me cry or feel something profound, so it doesn't get a 5, but it definitely gets a 4 and a half.

Chekhov is such a consistently good writer, I was very pleased with this collection - especially considering he's known for his plays and his short stories rather than his novellas; but he should be as equally know for them because these are also pure quality.

The Steppe: 4.25 Stars

-Truly the most beautifully written of the bunch; especially when Chekhov describes anything related to nature. At first when I finished this I was a bit let down by the ending, but I quickly realised the sub title isn't "The story of a journey" for no reason. The steppe is about the process we can all relate to, fixating on a destination only to discover that the journey was the most important part.

The Duel: 4.5 stars

-Really surprised by how much of a blast I had with this one, Chekhov's character writing Is on full display here. I felt like every character was a scene stealer, and yet they were all in the same scenes. The character of Von Koren, the questioning of rationality as a belief, the showcasing of man's ability to constantly change and of course the empathy for humans that runs through all of Chekhov's writing; I loved it all. I'd say out of all the stories this one was the best for pure entertainment.

Three years: 3.5 stars

-Unfortunately I'm going to have to say this was the weakest, but even then 3.5 is a positive rating for me.
I really enjoyed the dynamic between the "protagonist" and his wife, it was heartbreaking and yet hopeful at the same time. But I wish Chekhov did a little more with this one, I suppose its more of a social critique than an entertaining or affecting story.

Story of an unknown man:
4 stars

-One of the more tragic stories in this collection, I'll admit my thoughts are a bit foggy on this one as I was drinking while reading it, but hey I gave it 4 stars at the time and read it all in one sitting, so I'm sure it's good. This one felt the most like a Dostoevsky story, a broken woman, an overly conscious man, a slow spiral to the end. I also remember really enjoying the prose in it. Gotta reread this story sometime to freshen up my memory.

My life: 4.75 stars

-This one tore me up, if "The story of unknown man" was tragic in an entertaining way, then "My life" was just depressingly tragic. Maybe it's because this story focused on a major fear of mine, or maybe it's because the ending is so incredibly moving and melancholic; but I'd wager this will be the story that I remember the most. It's a story about how people we love can hurt us or leave us, but not always through maliciousness, sometimes they truly don't mean to, or they just wanted to go down a different path in life. 
"My life" was a borderline tear-jerker.

This was certainly something. I expected crazy and I got crazy. Hunger is a character study of an individual, it's not your typical story, there's little plot or character development to be found but instead you find yourself as a reader utterly entrenched in the head of a lunatic.

What i found most surprising about Hunger was just how ahead of it's time it was in certain aspects. You've got an unreliable narrator, an almost magical realism component to parts of the story and a willingness to completely forgo many commonplace components required In a popular story; in short there are literary techniques being used that were incredibly rare for the time. 
Not only that but the feel of this story is just so unique, the closest thing I can compare it to is section's from "Notes from the underground" by Dostoevsky. But this story is completely manic, it's bipolar in style and has an unsettling up and down, up and down rhythm.

I can't rank this any higher than a 4 because I do think there are flaws to it, Hamsun doesn't go as deep into the inner workings of the character as I would have liked, and the story has a repetitiveness to it, but again this is meant as an artistic experience more so than a typical story.

Despite Knut Hamsun being a bit of a dick head, he's undoubtedly inspired authors and genres that im a fan of in the modern era, so it was super interesting to read one of the progenitors of it all.

It's good, it's touching, but also a bit of a let down.

It's a simple story that's simply written, a young girl gets taken care of by an unknown couple for a period of time, realises they are better parents to her than her real ones, and then unfortunately has to go back to her biological parents.

I think it's a sweet story, but the short length of it does it a disservice, as a reader you don't really get enough time to become emotionally invested in the Kinsella's, especially considering they only really warm up to the girl in the last third of the book.

Honestly, my favourite parts were the unsettling, slightly ominous sections. The first night at the new house and the boy in the well. I think it's a shame that Keegan didn't lean more into the subtle horror of going to a new home and unearthing the past. Instead she went for a more basic emotional plot, which I think would have worked better with added length. 

Also I don't really get the praise for the prose, maybe the average person's reading comprehension has degraded so much that they think this is in any way remarkable, but again I didn't see it. This novella is written to suit a 5th graders comprehension skills, and look there's nothing wrong with simple, but I'd rather we didn't hype up incredibly basic prose.