philantrop's reviews
1769 reviews

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-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

5.0

Pixels and Passions: A Journey On The Road to Nowhere-In-Particular Through Three Decades


Maybe I’ve grown complacent: I love a good, strong plot; a linear story, told in chronological order. Along comes a book, its plot basically consisting of “30 years in the life of Sadie, Sam and Marx”; told calmly, only partly linearly by an omniscient narrator who retroactively fills gaps.

And: I am not a gamer and this is a novel about the creation of video games. 

On the other hand, just like the protagonists (and the author), I’m from generation X. I’ve played the games Sadie, Sam and Marx would have played. I may never have been a gamer but I’ve been a lifelong admirer of Richard “Lord British” Garriott (a legend of game design) whose immortal claim to fame is his involvement in the creation of the “Ultima” series of games and who founded “Origin Systems, Inc.”. Their slogan was “We Create Worlds” - and that’s what they did.

Gabrielle Zevin did, too: In “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” she creates a world that feels vibrant and alive. Zevin knows her characters intimately - their joy, pain, love. She possesses the enviable ability to bring to life the entire emotional “landscape” and the lived reality of her characters. Many passages have deeply moved me, others were light and clever, enjoyable and relatable.

»She had, he thought, one of the world’s great laughs. The kind of laugh where a person didn’t feel that he was being laughed at. The kind of laugh that was an invitation: I cordially invite you to join in this matter that I find amusing.«

I couldn’t help but fall in love with Sam, Sadie and Marx because in their beautiful imperfection they always felt authentic and true to life. There were points during the story at which I loathed each of them and yet couldn’t help but hope for them getting better or redemption or whatever else they needed. 

The extensive and intensive “world building” that Zevin achieves effortlessly does, however, come at a cost: The narrative style is leisurely and unhurried. At times, passages seemed to drag, but ultimately everything came together to form a magnificent and unique total work of art, which has given me a lot.

In her “Notes and Acknowledgments” at the end, Zevin writes that “»Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel about work [...] and [...] equally about love.« - and, to me, she triumphantly succeeds at that. What she leaves out is, that it’s also about storytelling itself: Storytelling should not be rushed, it cannot be forced; it takes time, dedication, work and love. 

The result is a novel that feels long and epic and accomplishes to narrate the feelings of at least part of a generation - the Zeitgeist - like few novels before. At times I rolled my eyes and was annoyed while at other times I felt almost overwhelmed by emotions.

»She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person’s death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does. After a while, though, the memory fades, and each year, you are left with an increasingly diminished version of the AI you had made when the person was alive.«

After having read many reviews I can imagine that this will remain a divisive novel: Many, like myself, can’t help but love it. Others will loathe it or be left irritated. It is the long road to nowhere in particular. I can understand all reactions to it.

When I started writing this, I wasn’t sure what my conclusion would be but despite some lengths, etc. I cannot ignore how strongly this novel appealed to me personally: Five stars out of five. 

And now I’m going to play “Donkey Kong” on original era hardware. 




The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Heather Gudenkauf's "The Overnight Guest" presented a complex and engaging narrative that captured my interest from the outset. The novel interlaces two timelines and a “separate” point of view with a deft hand, and while at times the shifts between past and present required a bit of effort to stay aligned with the storyline, the overall effect added a rich texture to the reading experience.

Wylie Lark, the protagonist, is a true-crime writer who finds herself trapped in a farmhouse, the location of a brutal event she's researching, during a snowstorm. 
The farmhouse setting in itself is one of the book's strengths: The author does an admirable job of painting a picture of the stark, wintry, partly desolate landscape. The house itself, with its history of horror, is so well depicted that it felt almost like another character – silent yet expressive. The atmosphere was sometimes as chilling as the narrative itself.

Incorporating a parallel story of a mysterious young boy, the eponymous “Overnight Guest”, Gudenkauf adds an emotional dimension that intertwines with the main plot in unexpected ways. This element of the story was both compelling and occasionally heart-wrenching.

It's important to mention that Gudenkauf handles the transitions between the timelines and points of view with care. As I progressed through the book, what initially seemed a challenging structure began to feel more intuitive, revealing its purpose in the broader tapestry of the narrative. 

All in all, "The Overnight Guest" was a thrilling, quick (albeit forgettable) read I enjoyed a lot - the farther I got, the less notes and highlights I took because I wanted to read, not prepare for this review!

Four stars out of five.




The Wedding Night Before Christmas by Kati Wilde

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

»O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!« (Horatio in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, act 1, scene 5.)

And so is this novel! Though it has some truly great ideas, they are often immediately overshadowed by banality and crudeness… Before I get ahead of myself, though, let me quickly state that this is it (for now) with Christmas romances but I came across the title - “The Wedding Night Before Christmas” - and couldn’t help myself but read it.

Beyond its strangeness, this was a winner for me and this is mostly due to the extremely relatable Audrey “Motherfuckin’” Clarke - how could I not root for her?!

»Two documents, exactly the same—except one was stapled on the diagonal, and the other stapled vertically.
Who does that? Only a monster.«

(Indeed, Audrey, and isn’t it almost as bad if the staple is not either precisely vertical, horizontal or - best of all! - on a precise 45° diagonal?!)

Audrey, the female protagonist and rock upon which this novel safely rests, is a capable, powerful, intelligent, self-made rich, attractive and neurodivergent woman.

»I’m not cold. But I don’t express myself in the same way many people do. I can barely tolerate people touching me or touching them in return. Affection isn’t physical for me; it’s mental and emotional. So I show affection by showing interest—and it’s impossible for me to feign interest if I don’t care about what someone is talking about or doing. But even when I do care, I know my manner comes off as lacking in warmth. If I could act, maybe I could fake it. But I’m not any better at pretending than I am at lying. So I can’t be anything other than who I am.«

Caleb, the male protagonist, approaches Audrey because he needs her financial backing to get even with a family who is trying to sue him out of his inheritance. His unconventional idea: He proposes marriage to Audrey and she accepts on the spot.

At this point, I looked up the author, Kati Wilde, to see if I had accidentally stumbled into a male wish-fulfilment fantasy… (Looks like I hadn’t.)

Caleb also swears all the time. For no fucking reason at all. In every second sentence. I’m not fucking exaggerating. And he has a “slight” personality problem:

»Personality-wise, I’m a vulgar asshole at my worst, and miles away from Prince Charming at my best.«

This becomes especially grating when very nice ideas…

»A fantasy that takes a warped perception I had of her, one that hurt her and ate me up with guilt, and turns that pain into something that’ll give us both pleasure.«

… drastically clash with Caleb’s swearing and crudeness.

»She told me to dress for a date, so I settled for what was clean and might stand up to the cold outside. And I suppose I look like some giant lumberjack escorting a sexy fairy princess into this damn party, but I can’t bring myself to give a shit if we don’t match.«

And yet, this novel worked for me because the chemistry between Audrey and Caleb is simply great and he never feels threatened by Audrey’s self-confidence or outward powerfulness. As any decent partner should, Caleb supports Audrey, takes her needs and challenges seriously, and vice versa. 

I would have loved to get to read a little more about Audrey as a successful business woman, about her assistants, Jessica and Jeremy, and some other side characters which are sadly neglected.

This is a very, very hot, spicy and steamy novel. I liked it but if you prefer a “fade-to-black” approach, this is very definitely not “your” novel… Also, versus the end, there’s more sex than anything else and I found myself wishing to read more about those two in non-sexual contexts.

Especially since there are quite a few open questions that aren’t addressed by the epilogue (“Five years later”) either: What becomes of the Wyndhams? What does Caleb do with his inheritance? What about Audrey’s parents? 

Despite being seriously annoyed by Caleb at times, I didn’t like putting this one down. 

Four out of five stars.




Snowed In by Catherine Walsh

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So, my first review of 2024 which starts with one of the two Christmas romances I decided to squeeze in - and sadly, it was slightly disappointing.

While I liked both Christian and Megan, the protagonists, who fake-date two weeks before Christmas in their hometown, they continuously threaten to get lost among all the characters and all that’s happening.

Because we pretty much meet the entire cast from the first instalment in this one as well - plus a few new characters, like Isaac - Megan’s ex-fiancé from whom she ran on the day of their wedding. The film “Runaway Bride” sends its regards…

Due to the time we spend with them all, a lot of things are happening and Christian’s and Megan’s relationship can’t really develop. When they’re finally really snowed-in like the title promises, the setting of a cabin-in-the-woods is not really used. Yes, there are some cute scenes but it left me waiting for more which never materialised.

Another major issue is the role Molly and Andrew from the first novel play: While I’m usually enjoying short “cameos”, this novel actually tried to keep telling more of their story (including major occurrences!) in Christian's and Megan’s novel which distorts the focus and is weirdly irritating.

»Andrew seems to think so too. He can’t stop glancing at her. Nor can he stop tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, a nervous gesture that I doubt he’s even aware of. But even if he wanted to, he can’t do anything with Christian and me in the car.«

There were quite a few things I liked, though: Mental health issues are addressed on an aside but neither do they feel “tacked-on” nor are they over-explored but are just a small part of the story: 

»I am not having a good day.
I would actually go so far as to say that I’m having a bad day.
And that’s fine. They happen.«

I also liked how Christian respects Megan and simply defers to her instead of “manly” deciding what she should do. (And don’t I know all too well how difficult that can be…)

»Christian catches my gaze, raising a questioning brow. Whatever you want to do, he seems to say. And I know he means it. If I want to go and talk with Isaac, then he’ll deal with my brother, so I can. If I want to fight my own battles, he’ll stand back and support. He’s got me. Just like he said.«

At the same time, though, there are truly grating examples of overly banal pathos and clichés that sometimes made me cringe:

»And as the exclamations of wonder start behind us, as the bonfire crackles and the stars glint overhead, I lift my lips to his once more and seal it all with a kiss.«

Something like that is just a tad overly dramatic - for me at least! If you want to read a fun Christmas romance, go for the first novel in this series instead. (And if you sign up for Walsh’s newsletter, you’ll get a free short story continuing the fun.)

Since it was still a mostly satisfactory read, I’m at my all-too-common three stars out of five.




Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-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

4.5

2023 was… not a good year. Not even reading-wise. So, as one of the last books in 2023 I wanted to read something holiday’ish, funny and emotional. 

Thankfully, this novel worked out very well: Andrew and Molly are kind, empathetic and relatable people…

»“I’m honestly okay.” Only now that I’ve opened the floodgates, hell if I know how to close them again. Oh God, did I break something inside? Is this just who I am now?
I’m going to be so dehydrated.«

Both have been flying home for Christmas for nine consecutive years and although they predictably became friends soon, things have been shifting between them. Now, on their tenth journey together, pretty much everything goes wrong. 

Yes, it’s all very predictable but the chemistry between Molly and Andrew is a formula for success and their banter - both in the present and in the interspersed flashbacks to earlier years - is both heartfelt and, very often, hilarious. At times, I actually laughed out loud (something I rarely ever do while reading).

I found myself hoping the author and her heroes wouldn’t mess up - and they didn’t: Yes, there’s a kind of “shock moment” (not a third-act breakup, though) shortly before the end but it’s plausible and intelligently handled.

I also really enjoyed that once both Molly and Andrew come to understand their respective feelings and challenges, they actually talk to each other. Miscommunication can be so annoying and here, a lot of that is avoided:

»Andrew frowns, draping the towel against the back of a chair. “What’s up?”
“I want to decide what this is before Christmas,” I say. “I don’t want to wait until we get back to Chicago. That’s too long. You said you’re not going anywhere, but I need to know where we stand or I’ll just go crazy.” I pause, sliding my hands down my thighs. “Does that make sense?”
“Of course it does.”«

Of course, not everything is perfect: The protagonists each struggle with a few problems, which the author isn't always capable of addressing with the desirable sensitivity.

The holiday atmosphere was wonderfully consistent and I read a lot of this book in an extremely comfortable armchair, between the illuminated Christmas tree and a quietly spinning Christmas pyramid, next to my wife of 24 years (minus one day at the time of writing).

»I could get used to this.
Going to bed with him, waking up with him, repeating it over and over again until it stops being special. Until I can take him for granted.
Not in that bad way, but a comfortable one. Knowing that he’ll be there. Just like he’s always been.«

After having done just that for more than 8700 nights, I know what Molly means and here’s to hoping for more of the same! 

Four stars out of five.




The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Go to review page

adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

“Not to be confused with William Goldman.”, Wikipedia helpfully told me when I looked up Golding - and yet I did confuse flashy, flamboyant Goldman with the unpretentious Golding. A grave mistake.

“The Princess Bride”, supposedly the “good parts only” version of his alter ego’s novel, starts with an introduction by its author whom I immediately disliked after reading it. His often-occurring interruptions of an extremely banal and simple story were further aggravating.

I also strongly disliked pretty much every single character: Buttercup, beautiful and an enormously stupid damsel-in-distress; the perfect Westley who is basically super-human from his first appearance onwards; Humperdinkh, the plotting prince of the land; the evil six-fingered count - I was almost bored to death by them all.

The story is mind-numbingly daft: Girl rejects boy in favour of a prince, boy finds fame/infamy, girl gets rescued by boy, consequently regrets all her life choices and tries to make amends.

Cliché after cliché after cliché as Goldman does could have led to a biting satire but this drivel reads more like an homage to the “cloak & sword” genre that is, thankfully, quite dead.

I rarely don’t finish a book (in fact, at the time of writing, it’s number 11 in 48 years); much more rarely at 74% but this sorry effort of a novel made me want to stop reading entirely.

One star out of five.




Tinkers by Paul Harding

Go to review page

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

2.0

I have to say Paul Harding's "Tinkers" left me feeling unmoved and dissatisfied - like so many other books this year... 

The novel revolves around an old man named George who is dying from cancer, and the narrative follows his thoughts and memories as he grapples with his mortality. The language used by the author is often ornate and overwrought, which, coupled with the slow pacing of the story, made for a tedious reading experience.

The characters lack depth and development, with George being the only character with any discernible personality traits, and even those are underwhelming. The supporting cast feels two-dimensional, failing to contribute anything meaningful to the narrative.

The themes of loss, mortality, and the passing of time are not uncommon in literature, but Harding's handling of them is clichéd and trite. Rather than telling a compelling story, the author seems more concerned with showcasing his literary prowess.

In conclusion, "Tinkers" is not a book that I would recommend to others. While the themes it explores are important, the execution leaves much to be desired. 

Two out of five stars.




A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh

Go to review page

lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Die drei ??? und das Gespensterschloss by Robert Arthur

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Als Kind habe ich nichts mehr geliebt als Detektivgeschichten und als ich auf “Die drei ???” stieß, war es um mich geschehen: Über Jahre habe ich jeden einzelnen Band gelesen, dann das Hörspiel auf Kassette genossen und weitere “Merch” (damals allerdings eher: Devotionalien) gekauft. Auf diese Weise entstand eine beachtliche Drei-Fragezeichen-Sammlung.

Schon lange habe ich mich gefragt, ob diese Bücher wirklich so spannend, interessant und nett waren, wie ich sie in Erinnerung hatte. Nachdem ich gestern ein wirklich schlechtes Buch beendet hatte, beschloss ich, mir diese Frage durch eine gründliche Untersuchung zu beantworten - entweder ich würde mir eine weitere Kindheitserinnerung zerstören oder aber einen positiven Abschluss finden.

Um es vorwegzunehmen: Ich habe das Gespensterschloss “in einem Rutsch” gelesen. Klar, mit 144 Seiten und ca. 37.000 Worten war das nicht schwer, aber es zeigt doch auch, wie gut mich die “geheime” Zentrale auf dem Schrottplatz, die getarnten Zugänge und Tunnel, unterhalten haben.

»Die »Zentrale« war ein fast zehn Meter langer Camping-Anhänger, den Titus Jonas vor einem Jahr gebraucht erstanden hatte.«

Natürlich darf man nicht zu viel erwarten: Die Geheimnisse dieses Buches sind für einen Erwachsenen schnell und einfach zu durchschauen. Der Erzählstil ist einfach, dafür aber sehr direkt, freundlich und empathisch. 

Die “Übersetzung aus dem Amerikanischen” ist zudem sehr bieder und fühlt sich heute leicht angestaubt an…

»Titus Andronicus Jonas, was hast du diesmal wieder gekauft? Du bringst uns noch alle an den Bettelstab!««

… aber auch das machte für mich einen gewissen Reiz der Lektüre aus: Wer spricht heute noch von “Räuberzivil” und wie viele aus den Generationen nach meiner Generation X kennen überhaupt das Wort noch?

Sprache und Stil sind aber durchgängig ebenso stimmig wie stimmungsvoll:

»Hoch oben am Hang, am Ende der engen, felsigen Schlucht, lag das Gebäude in düstere Schatten gehüllt.«

Erfreulicherweise kommen auch Passagen vor, die auf einfach Art eine perfekt passende, aber kind-gerechte Spannung aufbauen:

»Die überwältigende Empfindung panischer Angst, die Peter in der großen runden Halle der Schreckensburg gepackt hatte, war aber bestimmt von keinem Echo verursacht worden. Das wußte er.
Nicht für ein Vermögen wäre er jetzt stehengeblieben.«

Köstlich amüsiert habe ich mich zudem über all die inzwischen praktisch vergessenen Notwendigkeiten, die ich aber aus den Achtzigern noch gut kenne:

»Während Bob den Film transportierte und eine neue Blitzbirne einsteckte, schlenderte Peter zum Fenster hinüber.«

Natürlich, und auch das soll nicht ungesagt bleiben, ist ein Buch, dessen Erstveröffentlichung 1964 stattfand, auch immer ein “Kind seiner Zeit”: Die drei jungen Detektive sind ebenso weiß wie alle anderen Personen. Frauen oder Mädchen kommen allenfalls am Rande vor, beispielsweise als nervige Tante. 

Die Diversität, die wir heute zunehmend erleben; die Einzug hält in Literatur, Film und Fernsehen; diese Diversität ist nicht nur wichtig - wir alle wollen gesehen werden - sondern auch bereichernd und Triebfeder für Kreativität, Akzeptanz und Öffnung und ermöglicht es, auch vielleicht weniger konventionelle Konstellationen darzustellen. 

Das ist für mich der einzige kleine Kritikpunkt. Ansonsten kann ich allen, die sich auf einen Ausflug in die Kindheit begeben möchten, dieses Buch ans Herz legen.

Drei von fünf Sternen.




Morbidly Yours by Ivy Fairbanks

Go to review page

lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

“Be more positive!”, they said, so here we go: “Morbidly Yours” wasn’t horrible! Just very bad.

30-year-old widow Lark flees her native Texas, her embittered sister-in-law Rachel, who cyber-stalks her, to Ireland to work as an animator for a local studio. She moves into a house next to the undertaker’s, our male protagonist, Callum, who is about as interesting as a dead tree in winter.

At first, the chemistry and banter between the two was great and I looked forward to lots of fun. What followed, though, was basically this:

Lark: Callum is so wonderful but I must not fall in love with him because I practically killed my husband because we had an argument and he drove recklessly around afterwards.

Callum: Lark is so wonderful but I must not fall in love with her because I need to marry someone I don’t love to keep my business from falling into the hands of a greedy corporation. 

Lark: Let’s be friends with benefits, though! (I cannot emotionally handle that but somehow everything will be ok!)

Callum: Yes! (I cannot handle it either but…)

Predictably, next came some pretty nice and sensitive intimate scenes (usually I would have written “smut” but that’s the only well-written part so the latter term felt too crude).

Both Lark and Callum know communication is key and, consequently…

»Were we just going to ignore what just happened? The words were right there, resting on my tongue like a piece of hard toffee. I swallowed them down. Better left unsaid.«

With that, the vicious circle of “I love (him/her) but must not!” goes on and on and on… Mixed among all this are workplace drama, violence, a token non-binary person, whereas morbidity on the other hand is not really part of all this. Callum is supposed to be demi-sexual and/or demi-romantic (the author herself didn’t seem to be sure) but the representation here is just plain bad.

Oh, and, of course, there’s a third-act breakup so dumb I actually face-palmed.

The writing style and use of language is at high school level and the pacing varies between racing and Valium-induced creeping along. 

One star out of five.