stale_reviews's reviews
303 reviews

It by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

3.5

Pros
- Chambers is a good writer, several of Dex and Mosscap's conversations were very touching and heartfelt.
- Her ability to portray feelings of existentialism is impressive
- The world feels charming and lived in, a refreshing break in the otherwise bleak world of sci-fi
- Mosscap is my everything. Love that thing.
- Short and sweet
- The world is very accepting, at no point is Dex's NB status ever questioned. Refreshing to have a character like this simply exist without hassle

Cons
- Dex irritates me.

A robot has chosen you to be the first human spoken to in centuries, and all you can do for half the book is bitch about answering a few questions? Gtfo of here

- IDK why but I expected the philosophy to go deeper. The concepts discussed often struck me as very obvious. If this was my first introduction to philosophical sci-fi, I might have enjoyed it more.
- I felt like I was never given a chance to know Dex until the very end of the book. They just kind of exist, and give us little information about themselves despite the book being from their perspective. Hard to like a character that feels so aloof to me.
- I feel like Chambers either should have:
1. given this book more of a plot
or
2. devoted more time to living in Dex's head or watching Mosscap interact with the natural world.

The Deep by John Crowley

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

PROS

-Fascinating plot and eerie mysteries (

The events at the edge of the world gave off really weird vibes and I was so curious what the Visitor's purpose was

)

-Characterization and character development is accomplished through action rather than info dumps. The same can be said with the world-building. (

I never expected to like Redhand, Learned, and Sennred, but I loved their development. The edge of the world was incredibly captivating and left me wanting more answers. Who is the guy in the Last House? Why does he live there?

)

-The writing can be both beautiful and challenging at times.

-Drifts back and forth between feeling like Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Sometimes both!

-Satisfying ending

CONS

-Very slow start

-The writing was often difficult to parse, even compared to other books written in the 70's

-I'm not sure I understood all the themes that Crowley intended to convey. I recognized a lot of Christian symbolism, but nothing particularly novel or complex (

The Visitor is obviously a Messiah-like figure who rejects their intended purpose of violence

). If you know a lot about The War of the Roses (which I don't) you might get more out of this than I did

-Didn't enjoy homosexual relationships being referred to as "flawed love", but it was handled better than many Sci/Fantasy books of the time (

though I liked that there wasn't much blatant homophobia and many characters just moved on from this character detail

)

-

I thought Leviathan was going to be a manifestation of Thomas Hobbes' vision of the commonwealth, but that didn't appear to be the case. I never did figure out what Crowley was trying to do with it, other than remind the Visitor of their original purpose and resolve the plot.

French Exit by Patrick deWitt

dark funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Pros
- Hilarious dialogue. "

He was a pile of American garbage and she feared she would love him forever

"
- Fascinating and weird characters (

The apartment guests are the weirdest crew I've ever encountered

)
- Strange situations and behaviour (

Mme. Reynard and Malcolm... enough said

)
- Surprisingly likeable portrayal of the wealthy

Cons
- Still trying to understand the overall themes/message of the book, however that also means it gave me a lot to think about
-

Not crazy about the conclusion to the epilogue or "coda". Why are the nuns spinning away in eddies? I don't understand why this sentence was chosen to end the book

Avenger by Andy McNab, Robert Rigby

2.0

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad fast-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

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Did not finish book. Stopped at 60%.

It probably works better as a movie. Just not what I'm looking for in a book.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

Pages To Fill by Travis Baldree

adventurous hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

This should have been written into L&L! It's very good and really demonstrates the type of friendship Viv and Gallena had prior to the main story.

The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

The series as a whole has slowly declined in quality (subjective) and I just decided this was it. The characters are not interesting enough to me to justify this many books and Olaf's antics are becoming increasingly frustrating