emilyusuallyreading's reviews
746 reviews

I crave thrillers; I love the adrenaline of a good scary story, but there is something so desirable about one written by Christian authors whose desire is to expose darkness and glorify the light. House isn't super terrifying, but it certainly has its moments.

Four confused travelers are left stranded at a hotel in the backwoods of Alabama. After they meet the deranged owners of the hotel, the lights turn off and a tin can is tossed down the chimney along with the command to kill one person of the group or have all die at dawn. The four guests are forced into a basement haunted by disturbing secrets, hidden beneath a house that is as alive as evil itself.

I'm a huge fan of both Peretti and Dekker. The novel's style is clearly Dekker's, but the characters and broad story reveal Peretti's hand well. Excellently creepy and a good read.

This is one of the most powerful books I've read in a long time. Pecola's story is devastating, while Claudia's is empowering. I was riveted from the first page to the last, and I came away from the book with understanding about the effects of poverty on multiple generations. Certain sexually explicit scenes made me feel uncomfortable (and most of them were meant to). The overall message and social commentary of The Bluest Eye were both challenging and unforgettable.

What I Liked
Suzanne Collins is a phenomenal writer. I read this book for the second time, but her stakes are still high enough to make me read a 390 page book in two sittings with no sleep in between. She shows without telling better than almost any YA author I've ever found. (An example would be when Katniss is angry with Gale and she slams her food tray so hard against the counter that the dishes clatter.) Each character's story

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and their deaths

is agonizing and heart-wrenching to read.

The third installment of The Hunger Games trilogy is no weak link. It's devastating, inspiring, and stunning.

What I Didn't Like
Okay, let me be honest and say that I like about 99% of Mockingjay. And what I didn't was mostly a matter of taste. The war scene with the pods and the fighting and the running around dragged on a little long for me towards the end, but Collins still had me captivated

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by Peeta's insanity... would he kill Katniss? Would he kill himself? Poor, precious Peeta!

with each new page.

The twists in Catching Fire are stunning. I appreciate how Collins has focused on the inner turmoil and trauma that Katniss must overcome after winning games that are riddled with bloodshed and violence without turning her into a self-pitying teenager.

What I Liked
Margaret Atwood explores feminism better than almost anyone I've read. Although all of her fiction that I've read was written several decades ago, many of the points still vividly apply today.

One of my favorite character developments over the course of the novel is that of Ainsley. Having a strong personality does not necessarily make one independent and strong-willed; Ainsley is as easily swayed by society as any of the characters as the novel, and it takes several readings of her character to grasp the reality of this.

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For example, her strong-willed opinions about how to raise children without a man, and a single conference changing her mind completely to the point that she desperately seeks to marry the first man she meets so that her son will have a father-image in his life.

I also appreciated Marian's relationship with food in the novel. I read The Edible Woman for a class assignment, and when I began the book, I assumed it would be about a woman with an eating disorder. In a way, it was, but I wholeheartedly appreciate that a struggle to consume food is not necessarily wrapped around low self esteem or some of the well-known body image struggles that so many women face. Anxiety and lack of control in life

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and in Marian's case, complete alienation from her physical body

can create a difficult relationship with food, for women and men both.

What I Didn't Like
Some of the messages in The Edible Woman have left an impression upon me. However, the story is incredibly slow-paced. It took me a while to get through the text; it was far too easy for me to set down the book and move on to something else instead.

None of the characters were likable. Marian is passive and hysterical

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with no definitive change between the first chapter and the last.

. Duncan is disturbing, entirely unattractive, and somewhat ominous. Peter is unlikable for obvious reasons. Ainsley is flaky and judgmental. I know that unlikable characters are kind of a common theme in Margaret Atwood's works, but when I cannot find any reason within myself to like or relate to any of her characters, I only want to put down the book and move onto something else.

What I Liked
I read this book as an assignment and had no idea what it was about or what to expect. I began to read while making dinner, holding the book in my left hand while cooking tilapia with my right. Now I laugh at the irony of it all.

Like Water for Chocolate contained memorable stories that I will not forget for quite a long time.

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Gertrudis running away from home while making love with a man on the back of a galloping horse, for example.

I love the concept of Tita's emotions being so strong and so passionate that they alter the world around her through the food she makes. I love the strength of the women in this novel, and I was captivated by the magical realism throughout.

What I Didn't Like
There was a fairy tale element to Water for Chocolate, so much so that it often seemed too simple and childlike for my tastes. When Tita cried so long that her tears created a stream of water, my heart did not break for her. I felt alienated by many of her intensely emotional experiences.

Pedro drove me mad throughout the entire book. An incredibly passive, selfish, and weak-willed character. I liked him less than Mama Elena, who had meaning in her life and a strong will, despite her cruelty and violence.

The ending veered so dramatically into the realm of magic and legend that I disassociated with the story completely.

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Perhaps I never connected with the love between Tita and Pedro enough for me to understand why she didn't move onto her lingering love with John after Pedro's passionate death. I never quite understood John's purpose in the story at all.

There were many beautiful aspects to this story, but it fell a little flat for me, particularly towards the end.

What I Liked
This novel was strikingly beautiful. I was fascinated by the glimpses of a culture I know almost nothing about (although I realize that this was not written by a Japanese person, I still learned more than what I knew before). I was deeply struck and pained by the idea of women living glamorous lives of celebrities while being essentially owned as slaves. Memoirs of a Geisha is one of the most compelling novels I have read in a long time.

What I Didn't Like
There are two things about this book that I did not like.

The introduction bothers me. It is written as if by a pretend translator to provide a false sense of authenticity to Sayuri's story. In fact, the book is historical fiction about a Japanese woman written by an American man, Arthur Golden. Writing is to go beyond oneself, so I do not mind Arthur Golden's being the author. But the efforts to make sure it seemed as if Memoirs of a Geisha was a real memoir bothered me. Every reader needs to take this book for what it is: historical fiction, and realize that it will take more than a Western novel to truly understand another culture.

The other thing I did not like about this book was the ending.

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Glamorizing Sayuri's story into a similar parallel to Cinderella... but her "rescue" is that she becomes a mistress to a much-older man who is already married to a wife? The extent of how much of Sayuri's identity and purpose revolve around this old, married man drove me insane.

What I Liked
The characters in this book are strong and realistic. Jane is a quirky and powerful female protagonist, and Akiko is equally compelling. I loved how their stories intertwined across the pages, even as they lived thousands of miles apart.

What I Didn't Like
I'm not a big fan of "preachy" fiction, and this book preached its message. The anti-meat message was pounded into the reader again and again. I read a quote once that said, "Readers won’t tolerate a writer on a crusade to tell the world the real meaning of life. What we will tolerate, however, is your sincere attempt to present a character struggling through the difficulties of life." There was way too much blatant "moral of the story" in My Year of Meats for it to be fully enjoyable. There were so many long lists of facts and tangents about anti-meat and DES poisoning that I found myself skimming through several pages, bored by a message repeated over and over and over.

The sexual explicitness of the novel was too much for my taste. In my opinion, it distracted from the characterization and artistry of the book.

What I Liked
There is a rich authenticity to The Namesake that reminded me of Khaled Husseini's novels. The characters are real and tender and likable. Jhumpa Lahiri is a lovely wordsmith. She has captured her culture and the immigrant experience in a way I have never understood until after reading her novel.

What I Didn't Like
The plot was a little weak. Not a lot happened in the novel. There was a deep sense of nostalgia and homesickness, but there was no real acceptance of identity or transformation of character by the end of the book. At times, the descriptions were long and overwhelming, while the plot building was slow and faltering. The Namesake was not captivating enough to leave a lasting, powerful impact or a permanent place on my bookshelf.

This was one of my favorite books of my childhood. Growing up, I related strongly to Sara's odd, overactive imagination and her intense desire to read books and escape into their magical worlds. Reading the book again, so many years later, I feel the same way. Sara is a beautiful character. The scene when she gives food to a beggar girl made me blink back tears. Sara's determination to act like a princess in terms of how she treats the people around her, no matter how difficult life might be, is profound and powerful. If I ever have a daughter, this will be one of the first books I ever read to her.