I really couldn't get into this one. Can't say if it picks up later, but the 150 pages I read were very slow. There have also been thrDNF - approx 25%
I really couldn't get into this one. Can't say if it picks up later, but the 150 pages I read were very slow. There have also been three different perspectives and multiple timelines so far, which doesn't help when the pace is dragging because it gives us less time to become invested in any one of the stories.
Also-- and I really do wonder if this is a way in which my preferences have changed, as opposed to the author's style -- this book felt very juvenile. It read like YA with a bit of sex and cussing thrown in (so, basically, like most YA these days). The characters were very basic, especially in Maria's chapters, where she fits every headstrong, obstinate heroine trope while still coming across as emotionally immature. Her husband and in-laws are such sexist caricatures, devoid of nuance, that it was hard to take them seriously (please do inform me if they experience some interesting growth later).
I have enjoyed Schwab's books in the past but it's been a good six or seven years since one wowed me. Perhaps I have just outgrown her work....more
To be honest, I really thought I would like this even though I didn't like Dazai's No Longer Human. Junji Ito is a brilliant artist with a deliciouslyTo be honest, I really thought I would like this even though I didn't like Dazai's No Longer Human. Junji Ito is a brilliant artist with a deliciously deranged mind. Plus, I also couldn't help thinking that all the things I disliked about Dazai's semi-autobiographical novel lend themselves quite well to the horror genre.
But, sadly, no. I actually found this graphic novel to be boring and weirdly porny. Even Ito's grotesque horror couldn't make this thrilling....more
Hmm. I enjoyed Steinbeck's writing, as always, and he creates a strong sense of place in this sardine-canning district of Monterey, California, but I Hmm. I enjoyed Steinbeck's writing, as always, and he creates a strong sense of place in this sardine-canning district of Monterey, California, but I find I prefer his longer family epic novels like East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath.
In this book, we visit brothel owner Dora Flood, Chinese grocer Lee Chong, marine biologist Doc, a bunch of unemployed rogues led by Mack, and the disabled boy Frankie who struggles to fit in anywhere, amongst others. Cannery Row's short vignette-style chapters flit between so many different characters that I didn't feel particularly invested in any of them, save maybe Frankie. This was not the case in the other two books I mentioned above.
There is a beauty in how this ragtag bunch of characters come together and forge connections. It is thematically and atmospherically strong-- the gritty setting, the poetry in the mundane --but structurally plotless, and reads like a collection of loosely connected episodes....more
It's been a long time since my manga days, but Junji Itō makes me want to get back into it.
Uzumaki is a horror graphic novel about a town that becomesIt's been a long time since my manga days, but Junji Itō makes me want to get back into it.
Uzumaki is a horror graphic novel about a town that becomes obsessed with, and possessed by, spiral symbols. I imagine Itō sitting there with the phrase "spiral into madness" in his head and then running with it to the extreme. It's a combination of graphic body horror-- freakish and grotesque mutations --and a creeping, eerie sense of wrongness.
The imagery will stay with me, but so will the overwhelming sense of inevitability that permeates the book. The spiral is a force that cannot be reasoned with or escaped—it simply is, an existential nightmare that erases free will and consumes all in its path. Strangely, I never once felt like the point of this story was to overcome or escape the spirals.
Each chapter introduces new and ever more disturbing ways in which the spiral takes over the town and the minds of the residents, all of it building towards a climax that is simultaneously unsatisfying and surely the only way it could end....more
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