melanie_page's reviews
1469 reviews

Ultra is a fun, witty science fiction novel for the elder millennial with a female-dominant cast perfect for readers interested in psychic powers, Area 51, and Stranger Things.

Full review here: https://grabthelapels.com/2021/06/29/ultra/

I'm having a hard time following along with the audiobook, so I'm going to DNF this and switch over to the text version.

My favorite aspect of Laura Rider’s Masterpiece is how complex it is when you look beyond the satire and purposeful clichés. Jenna is a learned person, quoting from Brideshead Revisited and playing Scrabble in different languages, yet her e-mails to Charlie are like something from a high school diary. Laura is a capable businesswoman with a hands-in-dirt job who wants to enter the literary world. Even though she tries to be more worldly like Jenna and fails, her personal development lends itself to understanding human behavior in a complex way. Hamilton crafts a story about educated vs. laboring people, sex vs. marriage, learning vs. experiencing, and satire vs. the actual absurdity of being a human.

I bought Laura Rider’s Masterpiece at a Goodwill because I loved her novel The Book of Ruth. When I got home and saw the low ratings on Goodreads, I was disappointed. But, I already owned the book so I went in with low expectations. I found the novel quite funny and revealing regardless of the low ratings on Goodreads, feeling it is worth 4-5 stars. 

Elvis reads much older than ten, and I wished that she were around seventeen instead. As a summer volunteer at a zoo, Elvis was filling out paperwork for the zoo vet. Her mother left behind an unfinished manuscript on a biological study of animal sleep, and Elvis is not only working to complete that book, but is told by everyone around her she should . . . as if that is normal for a person in elementary school to do.

Full review here: https://grabthelapels.com/2021/06/15/rabbit-cake/

When Eve randomly stops at a B&B to do an interview, she is wearing an orange t-shirt that says, "Sorry, I got bored," has no resume, and is sassy with the owner. He doesn't hire her, but we're made to feel by his friend that he was overreacting? Then, Eve accidentally runs him over with her car. The description of him landing on his right wrist with his full body weight and his blurry vision suggests the crash isn't a minor bonk, but something serious. Eve tells him she's glad she hit a person a not a dog, which is a bizarre conversation to have with someone who needs to go to the hospital, and then offers to "show him her tits" to distract him. That's when I chose to DNF.

There is about a one second pause before the voice narrator switches to a new section from the point of view of a different character. So, I end up "rewinding" the audiobook a lot to get back to the beginning of the second once I've figured out who it is. Granted, the author does a good job of helping you figure out who the character is quickly without being overly obvious, but for the audiobook format a 3-4 second pause would really make a difference between sections.

Ultimately, I'm choosing to DNF this book because I don't care what happens to any of the three main female characters. None of them live a good life, so when they face peril, I don't care what happens to them because there isn't much they would return to anyway. None of the three care about another person deeply, so little is at stake. Their main goal seem to be 1) get money 2) eat food 3) don't be raped.

I guess the novel is too slow moving for me, and I'd likely be more interested if the author chose to focus on two close relationships, like Wanda and Miryem, or Miryem and Irina. (not sure if I'm spelling these right; again, audiobook). Miryem has the connection of making Irina's accessories and Wanda working for Miryem, so she's the pivot. But the three each have their own issues separately, and I just couldn't find it in me to care. Wanda even says she doesn't love her brothers, Miryem finds it hard to care for her parents, and Irina is a tool for her father. They have no good relationships, no FEELING that makes me see them as people.

Try The Bear & The Nightingale by Katherine Arden instead.

I thought Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence would be a harrowing, inspirational memoir, because that’s what we expect in the U.S., but despite surviving the nine-week walk back home, the author reveals that her mother and one of the younger girls were returned to the settlement camp, and that later Pilkington Garimara was also kidnapped and sent to a similar camp. Molly’s other daughter, Annabelle, was taken as a child and never seen again. It’s a grim read, but the author never writes in such a way that you feel you can’t get through. Thus, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence serves as a trusty record of lived experience and history by an Aboriginal woman, with memories carefully recalled by her family.

Check out the full review: https://grabthelapels.com/2021/06/08/follow-the-rabbit-proof-fence/

Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is narrated by three people: Stephanie Willis, Bethany Lind, and Nicholas Techosky. Willis and Lind do an excellent job voicing their characters, who narrate separate chapters. The production quality is clear and sharp. Techosky’s part was unnecessary; he narrates chapters in which a reporter questions people associated with the Blackbird Cafe for a news article. Nothing becomes of the article, and the chapters are about sixty seconds, if that. Why did Webber include these? Techosky’s reading is cringey, too — women get the falsetto treatment.

But overall, Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is an interesting, peaceful novel that is fairly predictable but an enjoyable ride nonetheless. It could be enjoyed either as audio or text, given that the author wrote the two female protagonist voices, Anna Kate and Natalie, differently.

Check out the full review at https://grabthelapels.com/2021/06/03/midnight-at-the-blackbird-cafe/

A Loss for Words was a wonderful memoir that I couldn’t put down, capturing Lou Ann Walker’s parents’ personalities, their home life, and society’s reactions to people with hearing loss.

Check out the full review at: https://grabthelapels.com/2021/06/01/a-loss-for-words/

The main setting beautifully connects the Tayledras with Heralds so that you remember what this world is, the characters were funny and snarky, and the bond between Dallen and Mags is the most apparent its ever been, as seen with the ease they have in their relationship, at once teasing and then and supportive when needed.