vacanthungarian's reviews
38 reviews

Rage by Richard Bachman

adventurous dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This short story, banned from print due to American sensibilities is a nice little read. Ok, so the subject matter is probably going to touch a nerve for many people in the US, but personally I just took it at face value. It surprisingly detailed for a story of less a couple of hundred pages. The protagonist, like many others in similar stories, just oozes charisma. He has an almost admirable level of confidence and even temperament that makes him likable. Equally, his class mates' reaction to the situation seems to tell a story of its own, suggesting that the situation itself is less important than the few hours of earnest connection they all shared and how dissatisfied they all are with the mundane reality of their lives. Realism is not the aim here, of course. Like many times before, King/Bachman paints a vivid picture of a variety of characters that feel very real and familiar. I liked it.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

adventurous informative inspiring reflective 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? No

4.25

Being one of the most instantly recognised classics, Siddhartha was my choice of short read to get those pesky numbers up. 
The story is more or less exclusively about a young man called Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin. Like his father, Siddhartha seeks wisdom and spiritual fulfilment. But he has outgrown what the brahmins could teach him and decides to embark on a long journey to find what he was looking for. Eventually he learns that spiritual fulfilment can't be obtained from others. He becomes the enlightened one.
I can't say I woke up from a spiritual coma after reading this book. But it was a nice story. Worth the read.

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-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

This was my first of Lahiri's books. The story was quite informative, but also a little long winded. But I have nothing if not patience and something does suck you in enough to keep reading. It flo s really nicely and you never get that black hole where you're so disconnected from the story that you have no idea what you read over the last 10 pages. 
The story is predominantly about Subhash, Gauri and Bela and not really about Udayan. Except everything is to do with Udayan. It's three perspectives of the same events and three people's emotions. None come out well. I think there's been entirely too much focus on whether these people are supposed to be liked or not, but I think this is entirely irrelevant. The point here is that this is a very realistic story with very realistic reactions from the three main characters. It's supposed to show how one person's choices, regardless of how well intended, can inadvertently damage the lives of those who love him. 
The author writes eloquently and with a great deal of emotion. Some great bits of history thrown in, but not enough to feel like a high school text book or Jack London's Iron Heel. Overall, it's a nice book.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-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

4.75

When I started reading this book, I was really struck by the similarity between this and Fairytale. Old man, about to die gives young guy the key to another world where he is now forced to become a hero and the responsibility of everything lies squarely on his shoulders... Yada yada blah. I thought it was lazy of King and it bothered me because I really didn't like fairytale at all. But the story developed nicely and it went on without that black hole you often find in books. You know, the one where it gets tedious and boring and you're just plowing through the pages until it catches your attention again. I really liked it. Not being American, I guess I didn't know a great deal about what the Kennedy assassination meant to them or how many theories there really were, so I was able to take the story at face value. And I app eciate the factual information that was injected into the book. So for me this was an enjoyable read and overall, a great story told.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark funny informative tense medium-paced

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

4.75

What a story! I am generally in the habit of avoiding books that gain a great deal of sudden popularity as they often turn out to be a disappointment. This one however was really good! 
From start to finish, our protagonist and all other main characters were awful people, but this seems to be a depiction of the culture in publishing/literature. At first I really thought it was a first class chunk of reverse racism where the perfect, overachieving Chinese girl is wronged by the terrible, boring white girl who is now going to be in big trouble for the next 200 pages until the author is satisfied that she is in her place. But it seems that despite there being a main theme of race, the author chose to take an impartial route, choosing to not stoop. It also seems that one of the important points it makes is that there is entirely too much emphasis on race and marginalised people. The storyline moves at a good place and the author remains focused and centred throughout, seemingly never sidetracked by small details. I think I died several times at the horror of the events that unfold around the protagonist. Took a fraction of a mark off for the ending as it felt like the author just kind of stuck it down with a bit of tape, rather than tying it up into a neat little bow.
It was very informative of the struggles of publishing for many authors. It made me a little sad actually as it reflects society in general now.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

This isn't really a traditional book per se, but it's worth a read nonetheless. I decided to go for a section each day and digest what I read. But it wasn't really for me. But then again, I wasn't looking for any enlightenment, do there's not much for me to take from it.

Tommy's Tale by Alan Cumming

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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

Tommy, our protagonist is a promiscuous, fun loving individual who is terribly afraid of becoming a responsible adult.
Then all of a sudden, Tommy at almost 30, realised that his life is missing the fulfilment of a stable relationship, a child of his own and other mundane things like that. So Tommy decides to completely self destruct and cry a lot. Then Tommy stops being the "permanently high, sleeping with every guy he can and dancing at every opportunity" kind of gay stereotype to "home maker, farmer's market, knows how to use a power drill" kind of gay stereotype with a little help from his flat mates.
So whilst I really did enjoy the story itself, feeling a little jealous of Tommy's life, I found it just a little bit too "Hallmark" at the end. 

J by Howard Jacobson

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Sort of post dystopian and apocalyptic, but not so thriller. The story revolves around two people who come from parents who are not from the village. They are vastly mistrusted by the locals and generally disliked, but very much encouraged to pair up because somehow this will restore an equilibrium across the nation... Or at least that's what I think was happening. The protagonist and his counterpart are both quite deep, reserved and painfully unhappy every step of the way.
This book is a major slow burner. It does drag on with the author almost going off on an over articulated tangent every few pages. Yet despite all this additional brooding material, it is actually quite hard to decipher what's actually going on. Or maybe I just switched off... but it is needlessly cry tic for such a long story. It is also very dep essing throughout as the pair never seem to be happy in any scenario. There were some parts when the story becomes interesting and starts to flow, only to return to being a literary equivalent of an NFL game with endless interruptions.
I did find it a little irritating that the protagonist with the English name is basically being ostracized by the people with the Jewish names and occasionally you catch a little animosity towards that culture. 
Overall, I didn't take much from this book and found it to be quite forgettable. Not terrible, but probably not worth the bother.

Problem Child by Victoria Helen Stone

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It's a pretty good book. I actually had no idea that there was a whole series behind it, but that's neither here nor there. 
So Jane is a very intelligent, career ori nted woman who likes to remind us every page or two that she is a sociopath and what that entails. She is pretty badass, not in the violent way, but in the smart way. She vanquishes several cretinous men on her journey to locate a missing niece who she never met, but clearly decided from the outset to turn into her protégé. 
A little bit of backstory is offered about Jane's upbringing in Oklahoma and we see a full picture of abuse and child neglect.
She does eventually find her niece who turns out to be just like her and they leave Oklahoma together with very sweet and understanding boyfriend (Jane's) agreeing that they all live together happily ever after.
Lots of trigger warnings.

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

At first I wasn't really sure what to make of this. The books seemed to be laid out like an endless series of moments flickering, sometimes completely unrelated. It was hard to understand what it was really meant to be.
Then the point of it all became apparent. Very quickly. And it was beautiful. It's hard to imagine how it must feel to face such a thing, but the characters had wisdom and love far beyond my capacity. I saw a beautiful, peaceful and joyous approach to such a delicate subject.
Rarely do I give such a high rating to any book, but I really feel that this story deserved it.