captainfez's reviews
1052 reviews

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

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

5.0

The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe by Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow, James J. Conway, Cara Schwartz

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dark funny mysterious 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

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger

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challenging dark informative slow-paced

3.0

Japan is a country that's had a Bit Of A Time. 

At the end of WWII is was bombed into atomic submission (twice) by the nation that would become the defacto dictator of political structure and positions of power, it experienced unprecedented growth and became one of the richest countries in the world. 

Then, of course, there was a bubble and everything went tits-up. Security was no longer assured. Birth rates fell. Productivity fell through the floor. Entrenched ways of working started to inhibit growth, rather than spur it to nation-envying heights. And millions of adults locked themselves away from the world in voluntary seclusion, becoming hikikomori, individuals choosing to withdraw from the world entirely, often placing burdens on the familial unit. 

(To read more of this review, please <a href="https://captainfez.com/2023/10/02/book-review-shutting-out-the-sun/">visit my blog</a>.
Dubliners: Text and Criticism; Revised Edition by James Joyce

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

3.0

Gibbons or One Bloody Thing After Another by James Morrison

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challenging funny mysterious medium-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

America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots: A Diagnostic by Phillip Freedenberg

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challenging funny mysterious fast-paced

3.0

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

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

5.0

The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross by David Foster

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challenging funny informative mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The first David Foster I’ve read turns out to be right in my wheelhouse but also a bit of a ’70s let it all hang out holdover. This last part isn’t a particularly bad thing, but it does mean that when things get a bit hectic, the author has the ejector-seat trip of “hey man, it is what it is or was or whatever” that he can cling to.

Crossing the Line by Nick Mckenzie

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challenging dark informative tense fast-paced

4.0

I'm not going to lie: I'm reading this for different reasons (and have probably enjoyed it in a different way) than the usual reader. I'm digging in because at heart, while it ostensibly speaks to the murderous fuckwittery of one man, emblematic of a section of Australia's elite forces, it also addresses the power that journalism can have, despite obstacles - legal, cultural and military - that might get in the way. 

(Read the full review here: Book review: Crossing the Line | Yeah nah. (captainfez.com))
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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dark emotional funny mysterious 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

3.0

Yellowface is a novel that’s partially a thriller (or potentially a spook story?) and mostly about the ins and outs of writing, editing, and publishing. It spends a lot of time discussing the idea of race in writing: who can write particular stories? How does the presentation of the author inform public response? What happens when someone pretends to be something they’re not?

(Read the rest of the review here: Book review: The Adventures of Christian Rosy Cross and Yellowface | Yeah nah. (captainfez.com))