sarahdm's reviews
156 reviews

This is good, I just think this just took me awhile to get into. I didn't really find myself endeared to these characters as quickly as I was to the original trio. Except Leo, who's backstory and powers are really interesting. I also think the multiple POVs was hard to get into, mostly because I didn't really care about 2/3 of them until the later stages of the story. I think this series is promising and hopefully the next one picked up a little more speed.

"Are you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go ape shit?"

This is a weird feminist sexual freedom novel from the 70's. She f*cks a bear. She FALLS IN LOVE with said bear. The metaphor isn't exactly subtle. Its just a little disappointing. I feel like as far as feminist literature about these types of themes, there is better stuff out there.

I think its still worth reading if you can bear it :D

Spoilers about why I found the book disappointing below:

Honestly was enjoying this book until the bear hurt her and she returned to society. I wanted to see this woman go FERAL, reject society and the rule of her sex/gender and truly experience freedom by becoming the weird lady that lives in the woods and f*cks a bear. But it didn't happen.

 

This is the second book I have read in Macmillan Publishing's Remixed Classics series. The first one I read was "Self-Made Boys" which I ended up not liking at all. So I wasn't really feeling hopeful about "Most Ardently" but decided to take the dive anyway.

At the end of the day this is a self-gratifying fluff piece. This book is very "historically plausible" rather than "historically accurate." The author takes this direction so we can have a fun happy ending queer romance and I am okay with that. Mostly because this book is still very much in the setting. It still feels like regency era England. It still feels like a P&P story. It still even has a lot of the original themes of marriage, gender, family, and social class, just with a more queer perspective. Unlike "Self-Made Boys" we are not completely divorced from the original text.

With that being said, I did enjoy this book all the way through and I'm not even a huge fan of P&P. The plot (which does have changes from the original) is cute and fun. I was in fact, kicking my feet and giggling. The only complaint I think I have is that the text is a little plain but besides that this really is just trans masc joy of a read. Definitely recommend if you are looking for something fun and cute. 

Perfect. I could actually see this one being the “conclusion.” (there are of course more books so no real worry there) But this one is so neat and great. Murderbot gets reunited with its humans and I loved every moment of it.

Guys, I can't do this. I can not defeat this absolute 48 hour long behemoth of an audio book.

Stopping at 11%, 5 hours in, somewhere in chapter 5. Shes like, 19 right now, just got her first apartment, just made her Broadway debut in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" singing in an office chair. And I am BORED. Despite what you might think "I was very talented at birth and I only ever did things my way" is not a very interesting life story.

She keeps going on and on about being obsessed with "the truth" and "facts." She doesn't want to do anything anyone says for her to do because it doesn't feel "authentic" or "factual." Lets call it what it really is: this woman is a control freak. She has to control her narrative SO MUCH, she is LITERALLY controlling the narrative by giving us every single detail and also actually narrating the book herself. Did her VICE GRIP of control on every single detail of her life make her successful: probably. Was that throttle-hold of control interesting to read: no.

Liked the bits where she talked about clothes and fashion. She seems like a really passionate artist. Also when they added snippets of her music into the audio book. 

She is a very talented singer and an absolute icon. I do love her. But I don't 48 hours love her. 

This is such a weird little book. I feel like I am very much not its demographic. This whole thing smells like beef jerky, tobacco, and Budlight. Dean Winchester and Eddie Munson got together, wrote a D&D campaign, and this is the result. Its such a love letter to rock music and the fantasy genre, there are characters with names like Neil the Young and Tiamax. The whole time it was giving "this is definitely just some guys D&D campaign" but where I feel a lot of books in this category are boring, this one honestly delighted.

I like all of these characters. They are all unique and they really are just oozing bromance. The main cast's friendship is really awesome to explore, and its giving sports anime levels of endearment. We are super spoiled with not one but THREE overly protective father figures which is a trope I am a huge sucker for. "I would literally destroy the world to save my little girl." Chef Kiss. But I think the gay old man wizard with fantasy trench foot that is Arcandius Moog really steals the show. I think the only complaint I have is that there aren't really any interesting female characters. There is Larkspur and Lady Jain but they aren't what I would consider main characters and definitely are not written with the same care as the other main five. I did state before that this book is kind of giving off "a fantasy lover's man's man adventure" so I'm not really surprised by the lack of strong female characters.

The writing and themes are a lot more in-depth then what I was expecting. The music motifs and descriptive prose are amazing and just fun to read. The book is at its core a comedy, but that doesn't stop it from having serious insightful scenes about death, fatherhood, friendship, morality, identity. In this pile of "haha funny fart butt dick" jokes, there really is something heart felt in these pages.

I think this is a super hard recommend. Can't see anyone liking this unless you love campy fantasy D&D stuff. If I wasn't already a huge fan of D&D and I didn't enjoy the loving father trope, I feel like I would be giving this book a solid 2.5-3. Solid divorced dadcore.

I'm so heart broken. Feel like I saw the ending coming but it was still so sad. And it was still perfect, funny, fun, and wonderful. Murderbot Diaries has yet to have any pitfalls. 

I think I wasn't ready for 60% of this book to just be the final battle. It honestly felt like it dragged. Coupled with the quickly resolved relationship problems and the deaths of characters I was just not invested in, this just could have been better. But I also can't really imagine it going any other way. I think this is still a good ending to this pentalogy and I'm still looking forward the rest of the tie in series.