alireuter's reviews
244 reviews

a classic cat & mouse thriller, i picked this book up from a charity shop many moons ago. it was a very quick read that spanned over a train journey with one change. buchan fills the pages with intense escapes & suspicious characters, fulfilling the promise of a hunted man on the run. unfortunately, i felt that in places it was too fast paced that it limited the amount of time we get to truly understand the character of hannay, his intentions & personality. at only 100 off pages long, it’s a quick plot that moves along well, despite things getting tangled up at times. i can see why it’s a classic in its danger, suspense & connecting to hannay’s fear & trust issues, i just wish there was more about him throughout the book.

 i’ve read so many fitzgerald novels & short stories before, but i haven’t read one like this. the structure is experimental & the tone much darker, but still emulates his wonderful writing & descriptions. i’ve heard it is semi autobiographical & i definitely felt that even on page one. it relays the story of him & zelda, how they fell in love, the society around them & their ultimate downfall. as much as it was interesting to read about, fitzgerald’s bias is clear in depicting gloria, supposedly representing zelda, as an historic manic pixie dream girl who is careless & naive. we now know this is false as he stole many of her literary works from diaries but it was disappointing to see this portrayal when anthony (fitzgerald) was so unlikeable even when he was desperate to come across as the hero. overall, it’s not what i imagined & i wish it pressed on more societal issues & themes, but i can see why it’s an iconic classic with it’s fitzgerald charm dispersed between the pages. one question: why is he so obsessed with people get hit by cars?

I can see why yellowface has done so well & i can also understand why it may not be people’s favourite. i honestly believe that due to the narrative, subject matter & themes, your enjoyment is dependent on what you love in a book. i love an unreliable narrator, especially one who is morally grey (& internally racist) but is still intriguing in the most chaotic ways. i caught myself rooting for june at times & had to reframe the angle i was reading it from which i thought was clever. i’m not an expert in cultural appropriation or chinese culture but kuang did a fabulous job of dissecting the core elements & presenting them without coming across as overwhelming, rather educational. i’m really interested in how kuang felt writing from the perspective of an all american white woman so i’ll definitely be researching that! even if not intended, yellowface really makes you think about your stance on cultural matters, becoming a commentary on the publishing world in a satirical and twisted way as well as encapsulating the humour in thriller. i didn’t want to put this book down & i’ll definitely be reading more of her work.

i read this in secondary school but picked it up again to see what the reason is for it being a christmas classic, & now i finally get it. reading it in one sitting, i related to scrooge as i always do but felt a christmas joy throughout the story as he did too. i’m not a festive person but a christmas carol does encapsulate everything people do love about christmas! 

after american psycho, i was excited to read more of ellis’ work however this one was quite disappointing for me. it started off intriguing, capturing glimpses of intertwined characters & their lives but it descended into a mess. the group started off as small & easy to understand & i liked figuring out how they were all connected, either through their children or even affairs. however, this group expanded into people who had no connection into the beginning which i found rather jarring & took myself out of it all. each chapter is a short story from a different character’s perspective but it never seems to return to the same one which is disappointing (apparently the film is bad too). i would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if it was limited to a group of characters who were somehow connected but with separate stories but instead i felt discombobulated every chapter trying to decipher who i’m reading about & what’s happening. i liked the first few chapters because i thought it was going to lead to something but it never did. i read a review saying how it’s all “rich people with rich problems”, which can sometimes work, just not here. at parts it is also as graphic as american psycho, but i’m starting to think that it’s just a staple of ellis’ writing, which he does well. go read american psycho.

at page 120, michelle obama almost drove me to tears. knowing that what she described was real & that it happened every day to so many people somehow got to me. obviously, i knew this before & that every one has gone through pain, but i think that reading this from the perspective of such a strong woman who has spent years being the face of multiple movements really touched me. of course, this is what autobiographies are about, revealing your inner self to the reader who perhaps had never truly known you at all, but as someone who doesn’t read a lot of this genre, it exposed me to someone who has lived the almost opposite life to me & that’s one of the most important experiences reading can do for you. michelle held my hand as she walked me through her memories, her doubts, her longings & you do feel as though you’ve stepped through her story. there are inevitably pacing issues but i think that’s a somewhat staple of the genre & the tone sometimes felt sometimes inconsistent. overall, it’s a great book about a brilliant woman with a unique perspective; being the first & currently only black first lady. 

i love the world of harry potter but this was a disappointment for me. i found myself being more  invested in the original characters such hermione, ginny & draco rather than the new ones & the family dynamics introduced. maybe because i’ve read half the books in the series, this one it feels as though it was lacking depth & humanity. i’m sure this is because a play is supposed to be watched instead of read but it just felt overall unnecessary in what it introduced (voldemort & bellatrix having a relationship?!) which led it to become disingenuous in the story telling. yes, it wasn’t written by you know who, but it was her initial idea & proposal but due to her history with attempting to expand the wizarding world, it kind of seems like a cash grab rather than a story she felt she needed to tell. it was nice to see where the characters ended up, but this was already told through the original book & film series.

this is one of the most fascinating character studies i’ve ever read. everyone is familiar with it, christian bale dancing to huey lewis in a raincoat but this book is so much more than that. patrick bateman is an empty shell of a man, but is this due to his mind or at the fault of society? the beginning & end are cyclical, nothing really changes from the start of the story but that’s how everything’s always been: no arcs, just terrible people being terrible. at times i would read the disgusting opinions of bateman’s coworkers and was relieved that this is a dystopian story where men dont think about women like that, then i remembered that there are men out there just like them all around. it makes you observe that bateman is actually a smart person, but with a weak mind & the people he’s surrounded by almost dumb him down to the stereotypical businessmen talking about nothing & everything all the time. all i can do is applaud ellis in his writing, a dark satire that can be ridiculously hilarious on one page (i especially enjoyed the tom cruise appearance), then watch it unfold into an unnerving graphic horror on the next, & at times it’s difficult to digest. the pure genius is down to the unreliable narrator of bateman himself & the psychotic undertone of the question between if he’s a serial killer or a paranoid  schizophrenic. this is evident by how the narrative was clear & coherent at first but gradually became absurd & vague through a descent into madness. a fascinating read if you can sit through the gruesome scenes & bigoted language. 

i know you shouldn’t compare philosophical books but this is up there with the most easily digestible & simple to understand. however, i aim his more at the memo section rather than protagoras. although both are interesting, the former exhibits a discussion & exploration of ideas rather than an argumentative debate. despite its interesting dive into the idea of hypocrisy in art forms, protagoras comes off as two intelligent but pretentious men (as all ancient philosophers are) just arguing the same points without coming to an all rounded conclusion on many themes that they discuss. on the other hand, the memo’s exploration of the existence of the soul & whether virtue stems from knowledge of divine intervention makes you feel as though you’re part of the discussion rather than witnessing it. if you’re interested in getting into ancient philosophy, i’d start with this as i wish i had done instead of going straight to aristotle’s politics. overall, it would’ve been a five stars for the meno but protagoras brought it down.