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dangersquirrel's reviews
59 reviews
Erasure by Percival Everett
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-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? Yes
4.0
Once again really comparing the book to the recent film, and of course again the book is definitely superior. The original idea here is so intertwined with its medium, it is inextricably about literature. Sure, a movie can be a character study touching on representation and artistry and pretension and all that, but the word play here is absent in the film. The best part is probably when we actually ge to read My Pafology, something I felt was missing from American Fiction. I will say, while the family drama is less vestigial here than onscreen, it still doesn't quite feel like it all comes together.
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A strange one to compare to the movie, because the book includes several addenda that just about completely change the overall takeaways. While the book is perhaps more meandering, and less engaging than the incredible production design and performances of the film, it also does something important that the film does not: it satisfactorily explains and balances out Bella's hypersexual nature. While the political and philosophical musings in the print version are still often somewhat asinine or overblown, they are so much more fleshed out than Yorgos Lanthimos' screenplay. Here we get not just a beginner's guide to socialism, but also comparative exercises that touch on a much broader spectrum of perspectives, and internal critiques of both theory and praxis of victorian leftist movements. And perhaps most importantly, the main story is immediately underwritten by Bella's repudiation of McCandles' account. I do like the film but the cleverness and maturity of the novel really highlights the ways that that interpretation fell a little bit short.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
3.0
Very much like the movie: no amount of good intention or technical prowess can keep it from turning into a boring soup of atrocious white men. It's such an important piece of history for people to remember, but tragically the story as told here is boring. :(
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
So good and so funny, even after you realize it's really just one long excuse for the authors to air petty grievances with everyday phenomena. Occasionally veers into regressive talking points, but mostly just a fun adherent to the Douglas Adams school of theological sci-fi. I would recommend reading a physical book copy, because the clumsily-adapted audiobook does not do it justice and is responsible for bumping my rating down from what would likely be as easy 4 stars otherwise. I must say I did find it easy to hear Crowley and Aziraphael's dialogue in David Tennant and Michael Sheen's voices.
EDIT: Apparently there's a BBC-produced ensemble cast audio version of this. This is not the edition I listened to, and I now resent that fact.
EDIT: Apparently there's a BBC-produced ensemble cast audio version of this. This is not the edition I listened to, and I now resent that fact.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Wow. Just wow. So great to read a classic and actually be impressed!
To call this ahead of its time is a bit silly, because it would be ahead of its time if it was published tomorrow, and yet is also very of its time, even though the setting spans about 40 years and ends decades before it was written.
It can be difficult to adjust to the stylization, and it certainly throws you into the deep end when it cones to difficult subject material. But it is also so much more than the themes I knew were part of its reputation. The deep intimacy gained from the epistolary approach lets it develop its points so deeply through Celie's perspective, on race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion, all in beautiful and poignant ways.
Glad to have used my counterproductive Oscars fixation as a prompt to read this book that I should have gotten to a long time ago. It truly flew by. Curious and also kinda scared to see what Spielberg did with it.
To call this ahead of its time is a bit silly, because it would be ahead of its time if it was published tomorrow, and yet is also very of its time, even though the setting spans about 40 years and ends decades before it was written.
It can be difficult to adjust to the stylization, and it certainly throws you into the deep end when it cones to difficult subject material. But it is also so much more than the themes I knew were part of its reputation. The deep intimacy gained from the epistolary approach lets it develop its points so deeply through Celie's perspective, on race, gender, sexuality, class, and religion, all in beautiful and poignant ways.
Glad to have used my counterproductive Oscars fixation as a prompt to read this book that I should have gotten to a long time ago. It truly flew by. Curious and also kinda scared to see what Spielberg did with it.
The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
adventurous
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
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
3.5
Not gonna lie these started to blur together, but this was a proper YA series-ender. I have adopted Nico BTW, that's my goth gay son now.
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Another book I read because I watched the movie. I didn't think the movie was very good, and now I can see why: not only does the book itself do a poor job of conveying its own points, but it seems like a fool's errand to try and convert it to film, and Guillermo del Toro, as much as I love him, did a poor job on top of all that.
A dark exploration of the ins and outs of midcentury spiritualism is great, but this spends the bulk of its time just kinda faffing about being ominous without a real goal. The prose is really hit-or-miss, with a few pretty powerful passages but mostly just a lot of needlessly grimy and brutalist imagery, and a lot of backstory that goes nowhere. I would love to see a film adaptation that strips it down to bare bones and builds something more substantive off of the premise.
A dark exploration of the ins and outs of midcentury spiritualism is great, but this spends the bulk of its time just kinda faffing about being ominous without a real goal. The prose is really hit-or-miss, with a few pretty powerful passages but mostly just a lot of needlessly grimy and brutalist imagery, and a lot of backstory that goes nowhere. I would love to see a film adaptation that strips it down to bare bones and builds something more substantive off of the premise.
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
Percy and Annabeth get deeply lost inches from death in a hell dimension while everyone else wanders around looking for a portal and having gay awakenings and occasionally fighting monsters? Yeah this is just an average Minecraft server.
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
There's just... So much to unpack here. Such a long and dense book. It's very emotional to spend time with Lyra again. It does sometimes feel like not that much actually happens in the like 600 pages, but it also packs in so much of both world building and that super complex Phillip Pullman brand of philosophy. Surely a lot of it is pretentious, and surely sometimes he oversteps himself in depicting various cultures, but it's so ambitious -- even incredibly meta -- I have to give it credit.