Started off great, but started falling apart in the middle. By the end, I was just glad I was done with it. Had a lot of potential, but failed in the Started off great, but started falling apart in the middle. By the end, I was just glad I was done with it. Had a lot of potential, but failed in the execution. The pacing was all over the place; some things were dragged out way longer than needed and others were completely rushed. Of course, the interesting stuff were the parts that were rushed and the boring stuff had way too many pages dedicated to it. I kind of feel like this novella was the prologue to the book that I actually want to read....more
I went into this pretty blind. I saw it in the new arrivals at my library and picked it on the title alone. It was a pretty quick read at a hundred paI went into this pretty blind. I saw it in the new arrivals at my library and picked it on the title alone. It was a pretty quick read at a hundred pages and change. It wasn't bad, and definitely better than I expected. . Based on the cover, I was kind of expecting it to lean young adultish, but it wasn't.
The story doesn't really waste much time. The titular circus tent shows up in the first few pages and we jump right into the weirdness. Most of the story stays in okay territory; it's not great, not horrible, and still entertaining. The ending though was what really kicked it up a notch. It was almost enough to bump it to four stars, but I'm still holding out.
Apparently the "I Found" is a series of sorts by this author, so I'll probably check out some of his other books. If they're all short like this and keep up the quality, they'll make a really good palate cleanser between larger books....more
Huh. The book blurb just kind of skipped right over the whole homoerotic torture porn aspect. It's beautifully written homoerotic torture porn, but itHuh. The book blurb just kind of skipped right over the whole homoerotic torture porn aspect. It's beautifully written homoerotic torture porn, but it's still homoerotic torture porn. Not at all what I was expecting when I picked up this book.
On a bright note, the writing was really great. Even though I didn't like the book or the plot, I was completely pulled in by the writing style. It was like getting sucked into a literary undertow that made it nearly impossible to put the book down and probably the only reason I finished it.
The main story breaks away a couple of times to tell two separate short stories that are completely unrelated to the main story.They're just shoehorned in for no particular reason. I'm not sure if these were intended as part of the original book, or were just a couple short stories that the author had lying around and decided to use. Maybe his early readers decided all the book really needed some torture porn to make it great.
This book wasn't at all my cup of tea, but I was still impressed by the author....more
Normally I'm a Simone St. James fan, but this novella fell a little flat for me. Like too many novellas lately, it felt like a short story that was flNormally I'm a Simone St. James fan, but this novella fell a little flat for me. Like too many novellas lately, it felt like a short story that was fluffed up to become longer. There was a lot of background info that wasn't really relevant to the story, in my opinion, and could have been cut along with some other non-essential fluff.
I'm a little disappointed on the decision to place the novella entirely in the 50s. St. James typically uses time jumps from the present to the past, so some of it being in the past is normal for her. In this story, everything takes place in 1959. The flashbacks all jump to the few weeks and days leading up to the "present" in the story. The decision mostly seems to have been made so that no one listens to or befriends the main character, a woman of ill repute (she's an unmarried actress). The misogyny of the era was practically a main character.
Overall, the story just was confusing and the conclusion felt rushed. Some of the fluff could have been better used detailing the history of the house or the neighborhood. This definitely wasn't a good example of St. James's work....more
I love T. Kingfisher. Whether it's horror or fantasy, you can count on her quirky and loveable characters stealing the show. Now, she somehow has madeI love T. Kingfisher. Whether it's horror or fantasy, you can count on her quirky and loveable characters stealing the show. Now, she somehow has made me sympathize and want to hang out with goblins.
As far as I can tell, this story isn't set in any of Kingfisher's other fictional worlds. It seems to be a straight up fantasy world, except that magic is a symptom of madness. That's a take I've not seen before, but really would like to see it explored in more detail. I'd love to see some more stories set in this world and I wouldn't say no to a direct sequel or two (or six).
This is a short read, so I tried to do the same with the review. If you like T. Kingfisher, fantasy books with a good dose of humor or just ever wanted to read a story from a goblin's point of view, then I highly recommend this novella....more
Sadly, this was a pretty meh read. The roles have changed from Prosper's Demon and this story is told from the POV of a demon with the exorcist from tSadly, this was a pretty meh read. The roles have changed from Prosper's Demon and this story is told from the POV of a demon with the exorcist from the first book nowhere in . The "hell is a mismanaged office full of red tape" was kind of funny the first couple of pages, but got old really quick. Most of the humor in this one just didn't really land for me. This is supposed to be set in the middle ages of another world, yet we still get comments like "this is all second-archer-on-the-grassy-knoll stuff" that just take me out of the story.
I liked Prosper's Demon, despite it being kind of hard to follow. Unfortunately, the sequel has all the hard to follow tangents without the fun of the first book. When I first read Prosper's Demon and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, I really liked K.J. Parker's style of story telling and found it to be a breath of fresh air. Maybe it's me, but now it feels kind of stale and more like Parker is a one trick pony. The stuff I found unique in the first couple of books, just felt tedious this time around. This book felt like a chore to get thru, even though it was only a little over a hundred pages.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be taking a break from K.J. Parker for awhile. I've been in a major reading slump this year and don't know that Parker has anything out there that's going to hold my interest at the moment. I might eventually give the sequels to Sixteen Ways... a try eventually, but might not. I'm not a big fan of indirect sequels and since I don't think there are any returning characters I might give them a pass. ...more
I liked the story okay, but it isn't anything spectacular. This series is getting to be almost too saccharine for me. I know this is set in some sort I liked the story okay, but it isn't anything spectacular. This series is getting to be almost too saccharine for me. I know this is set in some sort of utopia, but humanity is never going to be this perfect, I don't care how much of an optimist you are.
If you've read the first one, this is pretty much more of the same, just out of the forest and back in populated territory. It's been a minute since I read the first one, but this felt a lot more philosophical than the first story did. There wasn't a whole lot of new world building, outside of some of the recycling/organic building materials and their "monetary" system of good deeds.
A couple of things did bug me. First, this is still clearly Part 2 of a book and not Book 2 in a series. The other thing is that there seemed to be a lot of jumping around after the first quarter of the book. Dex and Mosscap are in a village talking to someone and then almost mid-conversation, a new chapter begins and they're in a whole new village. It just felt rushed and reminded me way too much of the final season of Game of Thrones. The best part of the series is the Dex and Mosscap interaction, and the best place to show that would have been out on the road, so just feels like a missed opportunity. I'll throw in another minor complaint...the pronoun "they." I get that Dex is non-binary and uses they as their pronoun, but it gets really confusing in the story trying to figure out when they is a reference to just Dex and when it refers to Dex and Mosscap.
I'm not sure if there are any more books planned in this series or not. Chambers likes to leave stories incomplete, so it's entirely possible that she could choose this as the stopping point. I'll probably read the next one if there is, but won't be in a big rush to do so. I've liked Becky Chambers so far, but in my opinion, she peaked with her first book. I keep hoping to see something from her that I enjoyed as much as Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. ...more
I didn't really enjoy this as much as the first Fractured Fable. While a Spindle Splintered was a fun read, this one just felt kind of preachy. I founI didn't really enjoy this as much as the first Fractured Fable. While a Spindle Splintered was a fun read, this one just felt kind of preachy. I found Zinnia kind of charming in the first tale, but she seemed whiny and selfish in this one. I didn't feel like this book added anything to the original story and was just really unnecessary.
Unless it gets amazing reviews, I don't know that I'll be reading any more in this series, if they come out ....more
I liked it, but not as much as Kingfisher's previous horror stories. Granted, that doesn't say a lot since I really, really liked the Twisted Ones andI liked it, but not as much as Kingfisher's previous horror stories. Granted, that doesn't say a lot since I really, really liked the Twisted Ones and the Hollow Place. I liked the characters, but didn't love them like I usually do. The quirk and charm were there, but in much smaller doses than I'm used to from Kingfisher. Usually, at the end of a Kingfisher story I'm upset that it's come to an end and want more with the characters, either in a longer story or sequels; with this book, one and done works for me.
This is a re-telling of Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, and that might be part of the problem. Kingfisher's previous MO for horror has been to write a "sequel" to a classic horror story. The classic serves as a writing prompt, but the story is completely new and all Kingfisher's. I think maybe in re-telling the original, the story wanting to be told was trapped in the confines of the original source material. There's already a set beginning, middle and end and Kingfisher has to fit her story into that mold, whether it wants to fit or not. I wonder if the story might have flourished more as a sequel set in a home built on the ashes where the House of Usher once stood.
Going into this, I'd read House of Usher, but remember very little about it. The problem was another recent book I'd read that had a very similar plot twist and spoiled the reveal in this one. Knowing the twist didn't really ruin it, but it would have been nice if I didn't know what was going to happen from the first page. All that said, I still liked this better than either of the other books mentioned.
The reason this got 4 stars was that it took a bit too long to get going for my tastes. A lot of the fictional history of fictional countries and the drawn out explanations of sworn soldier stuff (which I still don't understand) dragged the pace of the book way down in the beginning. It wasn't really necessary and made things a lot more confusing; I had to re-read more than one part because I wasn't sure what was happening. The first third was a bit of a slog, but I really enjoyed the final two thirds....more
This was a really fun, fast read. It's essentially Into the Spider-Verse with Sleeping Beauties replacing Spider-Man, and a handful of pop culture refThis was a really fun, fast read. It's essentially Into the Spider-Verse with Sleeping Beauties replacing Spider-Man, and a handful of pop culture references thrown in for seasoning.
I really liked all of the main characters and hope they all return for the sequel....more
I've been looking forward to this one, but it didn't really work for me. In my opinion, novellas work best when they're short novels, instead of long I've been looking forward to this one, but it didn't really work for me. In my opinion, novellas work best when they're short novels, instead of long short stories. This book's problem is that it is a very, very bloated and verbose short story. The prose was so purple it was almost black. The actual story part of the book could have been told in about half the pages used. The rest is just $10 words, filler and Japanese terminology I had to look up. It felt like a school assignment where you had a page minimum and your teacher was already wise to the expanded margins and larger font, so you had to whip out the thesaurus and adjectivify the hell out of that paper.
Character development isn't too critical if you've got a short, plot based story, but some basic character descriptions would be nice. It wasn't until almost the 20% mark before we found out the main character was a woman. Some of the details we do get add nothing to the story, except for confusion. We're told early on that the characters went to school together in Malaysia. Okay, so they're Malaysian. Well, actually, one of them is white and rich. About halfway thru, we find out that two of them are Chinese, but one of those guys is also half Japanese. Everyone forgets that the main character can kind of understand spoken Japanese. Is she Japanese? The rest of the characters? No clue. Other than gender and name, that's about all we get. In a throwaway line, we find out the main character is bisexual. It never really comes up again, but I guess it's good enough to get that LGBTQ classification on Amazon.
The only character history that was covered in any detail was that everyone in the group has dated everyone in the group. How could I forget that? They spend more time talking about that than ghosts.
Apparently it was also a prerequisite that we've taken at least one college course on Japanese history, folklore and architecture/decoration before reading this book. Seriously. I spent more time Googling terms in this book than I did reading it. That's including the time spent re-reading paragraphs after researching the unfamiliar words and forgetting what I'd already read. Seeing as this is being marketed towards a Western audience, footnotes would have been a huge help getting thru this.
Here's a line for example:
"On the walls, the yokai danced like they invented the idea, pirouetting through genres and periods, Nara to Muromachi, every shogunate of literati painting, austere to aureate, twelve bodies to a cosmic tango."
Nothing builds tension and dread like constantly stopping reading to visit Wikipedia and a dictionary to figure out what you're reading.
In the end, this read more like a young adult drama than a horror story. We get one jump-scarish moment when the ghost first shows up, then after that, the ghost(s?) are basically set dressing while everyone else argues. Really. The ghost sits around and laughs at them for the remainder of the book The dating history was far more important to the plot than the ghost. I'm not even going to comment on the slopped together ending. I'd call this 1.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because of the amazing cover art.
11/25/2021 edit: Dropped it back down to one star. This is one of those books that still irk me every time I think about it. No matter how good the cover is, I can't justify the 2 stars....more
The blurb really paints a different picture than what we get in this story. Everything in the blurb is in the book, but the blurb spins it into a creeThe blurb really paints a different picture than what we get in this story. Everything in the blurb is in the book, but the blurb spins it into a creepy and interesting horror story. The novella is none of those things.
The whole concept is a good idea for a short story, but there isn't enough meat for a full novella or novel. Maybe that's why the first half of the book was so repetitive. There really is no need for this story to be over 40-50 pages, other than to charge a price comparable to a full novel.
I had high hopes for this, but was very disappointed. This was my first Valente book and I don't know that I'll be reading another any time soon....more
At this point, Becky Chambers reminds me of AC/DC; most of their stories/songs are pretty good, the words are different, but they all sound the same. At this point, Becky Chambers reminds me of AC/DC; most of their stories/songs are pretty good, the words are different, but they all sound the same. You can get out your Becky Chambers score card and all the elements are there. An LGBTQ+ main character? Check. A low stakes/low conflict story? Check. A slice of life with no real plot? Check. An ending that's all sunshine, rainbows, and unicorn farts? Check. None of this is a bad thing, but I wouldn't mind seeing something out of her comfort zone.
This was a quick, fun read. My only real complaint is that this is pretty clearly Part 1 of a book and not Book 1 of a series. I'd give the story itself 4 stars, but dropped it to 3 for chopping one book into multiple parts. I'll alter my review and rating if I'm wrong and Book 2 is radically different, but it seems pretty clear where it will pick up.
I also need some kind of resolution on the crickets? What happened to that part? I need answers!...more
I guess this story decided it for me; I'm not a Stephen Graham Jones fan. There's just something about his writing style that I just can't get into. II guess this story decided it for me; I'm not a Stephen Graham Jones fan. There's just something about his writing style that I just can't get into. I've now read this and The Only Good Indian and came out of both feeling the same way. They were almost really great stories, but some of the writing choices just completely ruined them for me.
Night of the Mannequins had a lot of potential. This is one of the few cases where I feel like a book needed to be longer. Most of the story felt rushed and the ending wasn't really much of an ending and left me shaking my head trying to figure out what I read. Again, I'm reminded of the show Lost, where many questions are raised, but very few are answered.
This book really needed to be suspenseful, but it never happened. At the very beginning, the narrator tells you what winds up happening. The killer is revealed way too soon and so is the reality of the mannequin. For this book to work, I think the reader has to be wondering whether the mannequin is really alive or not for the majority of the book, but that is revealed way too soon. I was hoping that some of the story would be psych outs or red herrings, but that hope went unfulfilled. If most of these things weren't revealed until at least half way to three quarters of the way thru the book, I'd have liked it a lot better....more
