maxgardner's reviews
333 reviews

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Extremely sad but very beautifully written and kept my attention the entire way through. The parallels between the stories are well drawn out by Adania Shibli, and I think she does an excellent job of developing the characters and establishing a natural rhythm with the story progression. The ending is abrupt but packs a punch and leaves you with a lot to think about (and maybe, hopefully, some actions to take, where possible).

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked the two main characters that Xochitl Gonzalez created for this book and the way she weaves their disparate but similar stories together. It's pretty great that we start with Anita on her final night and then we swap to Raquel's perspective and see her unwittingly following in Anita's footsteps, for better and worse. Gonzalez does an excellent job of exploring the nuances and complexities of the Ivy League art world through the experience of someone who isn't white and wealthy, and she does it without seeming empty or pandering; we see Raquel's struggles to find herself in the work of the artists chosen for the curriculum and by major museums as well as the social dynamics she has to navigate the people of this community. The cast of supporting characters are all well developed and likable (or unlikable in a good and/or necessary way), and the story itself has a nice pace that moves along while also giving room to reflect and engage with the commentary Gonzalez is making. I felt a lot while reading this book in that I was laughing a lot, rolling my eyes at the insanity of the wealthy idiots Raquel was interacting with, huffing with frustration at the bullshit she had to put up with. Gonzalez makes it all feel very real, even as she takes it in a direction that's more magical realist. Overall, I really enjoyed this one.

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ok, much much better than the first. Tamlin honestly sucks and Feyre is super annoying, but once something happens that kind of branches Feyre off on her own journey in this one, she becomes much more tolerable and we get introduced to a cast of characters that is wayyy better. I really enjoyed the little found family she comes across in this, and I can see how the series is shaped to continue and why so many people like it now. Sarah J Maas really has a thing with nipple play, though. Anyways, I'm actually looking forward to reading the third.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

A fun pop sci-fi book that is exactly what you'd expect of a Blake Crouch novel—fast-paced with a crazy concept and concisely developed characters. I've only read one other by Crouch, but this follows a similar formula of taking the implications of a scientific theory and extrapolating them to a tense thriller. I do remember being a bit underwhelmed by Crouch's writing of the female characters in Dark Matter, but he's made an improvement with Helena. I also found the romance between Barry and Helena much more believable and natural. My only real complaints with the book were I wish it had taken more time to explore the psychological impact on the characters, particularly Helena as she takes on this monumental task of trying to save the world from her own creation and Barry as he processes these alternative timelines with and without a family. But I get that this is not a literary novel, and I'm not sure Crouch is even interested in this more indulgent style of writing—he does take brief moments to touch the surface of emotions, but he opts for cliches (albeit, not badly) more often than not to push the plot along. He's conjured up some really heartwrenching, complex scenarios that provide a lot of opportunity to add color to these characters and explore the human condition, but instead he plows through to keep it a solid thriller. I also think there's a lot of suspension of disbelief in the latter half when the characters start making decisions that don't quite add up or make sense within the context of the established rules and with how smart their characters are. But all in all, if you don't think about it too hard, you'll have fun and also have plenty to think about.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous funny tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I have a lot of friends who have read this and wanted me to read it, so I gave it a shot on audiobook. I don't love split-genre romance books (as in, I don't mind romance in my stories so long as it isn't one of the primary genres of an already genre book, like romantasy), and this was just a reminder of why for me. When a book is written with romance as the most important element, it almost always changes the writing for the worse (unless it's meant to be a cute romance story based in realism, though even then...sometimes). So much fluff and cringey scenes; most of the interactions between Feyre and Tamlin are in service to their eventual romance, not to their character development or the overarching story of this conflict between the mortal and fairy worlds, which is an unfortunate fumble on the part of Sarah J Maas, who has created an otherwise interesting setup for a fantasy story. In turn, the story is SO BORING. It's Feyre being mad she has to go live in a goddamn mansion instead of in poverty with a family who fucking sucks and doesn't care whether she lives or dies (and who ALSO are taken care of and given a better life). Like boo hoo, sorry, I don't feel bad that you got literally the ideal outcome here, and her emotions about it are so wishy washy, even as she warms up to Tamlin. She's such a petulant, whiney character that I found unbearable and unlikeable in almost every regard, which made it tough to care at all about the story progression. Then you have Tamlin, who's such a flat, one-note character—handsome, smart, kind-hearted, has come to save Feyre and bears the burden of his kingdom. There's also such a weird disconnect at times between the language and the world the story's based in. It feels like Maas wants to set this in the 17th/18th century based on her descriptions of the worlds, but then they use language and interact in ways that feel disjointedly modern at times. Not to mention Maas abusing several phrases repeatedly to the point that I would roll my eyes every time I heard them pop up (why are Feyre's bowels constantly turning to liquid? is she shitting herself this entire book?). The book finally picks up for the last 1/3, and though I found some of that section done well, it was still way too much time dedicated to romance (with ANOTHER man coming in as an obvious future romantic prospect for Feyre on top of the continuing romance with Tamlin). Like give it up, this woman is in captivity living in squalor for three months but I'm supposed to believe the first thing she's going to do when she gets a moment alone with Tamlin finally is to try to fuck him? Be so fucking for real, I don't care of it's "not real". In so many of the places where we get these little forced interjections to build the romance, it's Maas doing the least interesting thing with the story. I don't care that that's the point of romantasy. All of this to say, I did not like it, but I'm reading the second because I've heard it's quite different than the first, and I can at least give that a chance to see if it's an improvement.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

This is a poignant story that kept my attention all the way through. I loved all the blackout poems; it's a beautiful way to reclaim the narratives that were co-opted and maliciously used against the queer people who participated in these studies, and it works really well with the overarching narrative that references the works these poems are created from. The relationship between Juan and Nene is really nice—you can tell Nene looks up to Juan and wants to help him and be with him as he passes, but it's also clear that Nene needs some sense of affirmation and support from Juan as he too begins experiencing deterioration in his mind. Thought provoking, heartbreaking but also funny, I just really liked what Justin Torres did here.

Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed

challenging emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This essay is a beautiful reflection on death and the complicated relationships of family, particularly with the family you marry into. "Her desire to avoid speaking honestly about complicated feelings was equal to my desire to do the opposite." Cheryl Strayed has a way with picking the correct details to include to really add color to the themes and emotions she's exploring, highlighting the differences between herself, her husband, and her mother-in-law. She's not sparse in her writing, but she also isn't too wordy. Just another poignant piece of writing from her, I really enjoyed it and can see myself revisiting it.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Not quite what I was hoping for in terms of a cozy mystery—it has a lot of the right elements, but as a whole, it falls flat. For one, there is a lack of tension to the core mystery(ies) they're trying to solve; the book meanders so much between all the characters that you kind of lose track of what's happened and who the potential suspects are so that you don't feel that thread of tension pulling you along to find out what happens and then, when you do get moments that progress it, they pack less of a punch. I also found the resolutions to the mystery lackluster because the characters and world felt slightly underdeveloped. The only characters in the Thursday Murder Club I feel really get enough time to shine are Elizabeth and Joyce, and Joyce's diary entries get old quickly and don't really benefit the story, which made me dislike her a bit. I liked Elizabeth, and I wish we'd gotten more of Ibrahim, as he seems to be meant to be the analytical thinker/brains of the group, but we barely get any moments that allow him to showcase that. That's maybe one of the bigger failings of the book—each member isn't really given enough to do with their signature trait/characteristic, and in turn, I don't buy the moments when Osman tries to act as though those characteristics played a natural and inevitable part in something happening. I just wish overall this had been more. I wouldn't be opposed to reading the second one and seeing if maybe he's made some improvements now that he's gotten the initial introductory work out of the way.

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Anxious People, but it still has so many of the signature elements of a Fredrik Backman novel—quirky characters that are annoying initially but lovable once you get to know them, wordy prose that flows well, lines that hit on something universal and profound. I didn't love reading from the perspective of a child, though, as it creates an odd mix of tones, where we sometimes feel like we're observing something from a much more mature perspective but then revert back to a limited perspective and vocabulary at other moments. I also don't love when an author writes such specific cultural references into a book; in this case, Backman couldn't have known what would happen with JK Rowling and, in turn, Harry Potter, but even without the tarnished legacy, it's still a bit cringeworthy when Elsa constantly talks about how great Harry Potter is and compares everything against it as if its the epitome of great literature. Admittedly, this goes back to my point about reading from a kid's perspective; I can understand how a child might think this way (I'm sure I did at one point, too), but it doesn't make it less annoying. The book also feels quite long, unnecessarily so at times, and because of that, didn't flow quite as well for me; I did not find myself constantly reaching to pick this up and continue the story, which I did feel with Anxious People. Overall, not bad, not great, definitely enjoyable enough to warrant a read, and I'll still be reading his others.