Scan barcode
historyofjess's reviews
2011 reviews
The Final Solution by Jay Ryan, Michael Chabon
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was just fine. As always, I'm a big fan of Chabon's prose and his quirky storytelling, but the actual story and characters in this just didn't grip me that much.
Benito Cereno by Wyn Kelley, Herman Melville
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Silly me, thinking that a 19th century book about a slave revolt would be about anything except the white men surviving the brutal "negroes" that overtook the ship. For a short novel, this dragged for me. The first chunk of it is clearly meant to provoke intrigue, but I just had trouble getting attached to the various sailors and the narrators' cold, anthropological observations of slaves on the ship. And then the actual action of the story is introduced, it's all reported in a cold, recap of someone just reciting facts.
An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo
emotional
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.0
It's been a long while since I first fell in love with Harjo's writing in a college class and I haven't read nearly as much of her work since then as I should have. Her poetry is so effortlessly beautiful. It can be personal but also worldly, whether writing about a personal loss or generational grief of her people.
The End We Start from by Megan Hunter
adventurous
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I was struggling with a lot of short fiction I've read recently, but this was a great example of what can be done in tight number of pages. This intimate tale of a brand new mother facing an apocalyptic flood while having to care for her newborn and, maybe, just maybe find her husband in all the chaos...it's incredibly powerful and emotional. It reads like a series of quickly scribbled journal entries along her journey, both distant and yet still filled with desperation and longing. Really impressive.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The tone of this book was really challenging for me. I love a bit of whimsy and some meta injected into my fiction, that can be a lot of fun, but in Meddling Kids, the author seemed to be having things two ways. Cantero wanted to write a scary horror book about a grown up, emotionally traumatized version of the Scooby Gang, but he also wanted to make silly references to the Scooby universe—in particular, every mention of the "Zoinx River" (which was not at all relevant to the plot of the story but still got brought up several times) made me roll my eyes and took me out of things.
In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
My favorite thing about TJ Klune books is the heart and the love and the joyously quirky characters in them. And this book...just didn't give me that. Maybe it's because most of the characters were robots, several of which spoke in some variant of a robot patois that I got a bit exhausted with. But this just didn't melt my heart the way Klune's previous books did. I was bummed that this was such a slog for me.
March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
This entire series is a must read. The third volume leads to some of the most well-known moments in the U.S. civil rights movement, opening with the bombing of the Black church that killed four little girls (the artwork of which is devastatingly beautiful), through the signing of the Civil Right Act, the assassination of Malcolm X and the marches in Selma, Alabama (basically, if you've seen the movie Selma, a lot of that is in here). Through it all, Lewis also discusses the shifts and changes in the organizations behind the movement, including SNCC. It's such an important document of a momentous time in American history and the black and white illustrations are at once minimalist, while also decadently beautiful.
Cursed by Thomas Wheeler
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The more Arthurian stories I read, the more I'm starting to think that it's just not my jam (I've got a few more on my TBR pile, so we'll see if that continues to bear out). On paper, this seemed like it should have been right up alley. "Why yes, I would love to learn more about the Lady of the Lake. She seems super fascinating." But ultimately, this was just kinda meh for me. I didn't find anything done in this world to be particularly interesting or groundbreaking and there was a lot prequel-itis in the name of "oh hey, here's this character you're familiar with, we're going to introduce them in a surprising way that'll make you go 'What?'" It was just a bit a slog for me and I never got fully invested in the characters or the story.
We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
On paper, the idea of telling this second volume from the perspective of the other side of romantic duo introduced in the first book seemed like a super compelling idea. In practice, it doesn't totally work it. Carmen was just a much more interesting character when she was mysterious. Being inside her head was, frankly, kind of exhausting with the degree to which she bounced back and forth in how she was feeling at any given time. While there were some more intense stakes to the dystopian world of this series, it still felt like it wasn't a fully realized world and that everything resolved a little too easily. In the end, it was just a little bit unsatisfying.
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
adventurous
tense
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
3.25
There were aspects of this book that felt a little timid, particularly that it's set in what is clearly an extremely misogynistic, Handmaid's Tale-esque dystopia...without ever fully reckoning with the reality of a world like that. Like, the protagonist's husband is a tool, but he's a surprisingly tame tool. The soft edges mean that this universe never feels fully authentic, but where the dystopian qualities are lacking, the author does a much better job focusing on her main character and on the intrigue of her first becoming an unwilling participant in a resistance movement and then a much more enthusiastic member. The romance is also a nice touch, though it's also a bit underdeveloped and occasionally forced. Still, the cliffhanger ending did have me ready to move on to the next volume.