All posts tagged: 3.5 stars

Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

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“I assumed everything bad in the world could happen, because everything bad in the world already did happen.” I picked this one up fairly soon after finishing Gone Girl because I was just so intrigued with Gillian Flynn’s incredibly writing and the way she sees the world. The way she highlights the stark truths that are right in front of us but we are often too distracted to see.I just needed more of it. What’s it about: Libby Day’s family was brutally murdered when she was seven, suspected as part of a Satanic ritual, and her testimony against her brother, Ben, put him in jail for life. Years later, she meets a group of people obsessed with her family’s murder who believe that Ben is innocent. “It was surprising that you could spend hours in the middle of the night pretending things were okay, and know in thirty seconds of daylight that simply wasn’t so.” What did I think: In true Gillian Flynn fashion, this was a nasty little scab of a book. That is not to …

Book Review + Giveaway: Cypulchre by Joe MacKinnon

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“If you can’t kill the dreamer, kill the dream.” What’s it about: Paul, an exiled, schizophrenic, neuroscientist hacker who invented the CLOUD, a virtual reality internet-like thing that is difficult to explain but is totally bad and has allowed the Outland Corporation to basically control everyone and everything, teams up with some rebels to destroy his creation and save his estranged family (and the rest of humanity). What I thought: I really liked it. It’s got everything from CLOUD addicts and mad-max-esque gangs to tech geniuses and gun-toting men of the cloth, from android strippers, to bionic samurai and even giant insectine war-robots. How can that not be awesome? Paul is an interesting character. Although I didn’t exactly buy his schizophrenia, he was definitely unhinged, and his actions constantly surprised me, and not always in a good way. I would have liked to see a lot more of the other characters though, as well as more of the CLOUD and the world in general. I think it could have been more thoroughly explored. I also …

Book Review: Silvermay by James Moloney

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There comes a time in all young parents lives when they must ask themselves the question: Should I kill my baby for the good of all mankind? for most of us, the answer is most likely ‘probably not’, but for young Silvermay, who finds herself the primary carer of baby Lucien, her answer might just be ‘yes. yes I should.’ What’s it about? When young, beautiful Nerigold goes to work for a Wyrdborn lord (basically sociopaths with magical powers – FUN!) and ends up with no memories of the last few months and a baby in the belly, she, and a mysterious-yet-really-really-ridiculously-good-looking travelling companion claiming to be the Baby Daddy, go on the run to protect her baby from his evil real daddy. When a weakened Nerigold and her newborn, Lucien, literally fall into Silvermay’s lap, ends up being the live-in (or rather on-the-run-with) nanny. And of course she ends up falling for Mr Dream-Boat McFake Baby Daddy. What did I think? So I have been eyeing off this book for quite some time. I mean seriously just …

Book Review: Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

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“Someday we will be more than words in the dark.” I have to say that I am in agreement with most of the reviews I’ve read about this book. That up until the 75% mark, this book would have been a solid 2.5 stars. It is the last 25% that bumps this book up to 3.5 stars. What’s it about? A small number of refugees from the kingdom of Winter are trying to reclaim their homeland from the evil Spring kingdom, who killed their queen and enslaved and brutalised all their people. But no one really knows how hard this has been on one of the young refugees, Meira, because trying to save her people is really getting in the way of Meira being Meira. Until she gets a nice hard reality check right in the face, gets over herself and becomes pretty awesome. What did I think? I know my intro might make this book sound bad, and for the first 75% or so of the book, Meira is a whiny, although often hilarious, little brat. But …

Book Review: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

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“The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?” This book graced many a Top books of 2014 list, but does it live up to the hype? In my opinion not really, but it is not without good moments. What’s it about: Well, many synopses claim it to be the story of a travelling symphony in a post-apocalyptic North America/Canada after the world is decimated by a flu pandemic, but I find that’s not really true. This is a book of many stories, and these travelling actors/musicians are only a small part of that. It is a book about how people are connected to one another. It switches between multiple POVs, telling the stories of a small number of characters over what adds up to be about 50 years. “First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough any more. After that, we want to be remembered.” What did I think: I found this book to be …