stories_of_the_soul27's reviews
265 reviews

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was a delightful read. A story told through letters about a group of people you will gradually fall in love with. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to connect with the characters through their letters but I was proved wrong. The content of the letters were so vivid and full of so much warmth that it is bound to touch your heart. The book is funny, witty, emotional and informative. It is full of sunny, quirky and brooding characters. It’s fun and lighthearted. Sometimes so lighthearted that you forget that the backdrop of this story is the Occupation by the German soldiers. That is one thing I strongly disliked about this book. The sufferings were portrayed but in a lighthearted way. There were also instances of some characters strongly placing their opinions that not all German soldiers were evil. I get that. But I feel in this story the two sides - that German soldiers forced great atrocities on the occupied people and that some of the German soldiers were kind - wasn’t balanced out properly. It negated the effects.

Under the Red Hood by Judd Winick

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Judd Winick has done a phenomenal job of bringing back such a hated character back to life in such a haunting, tragic but beautiful way! There is so much anguish, trauma and anger seeping through the story and the characters and Winick wrapped them all up beautifully. Every drop of emotion was well measured and placed at the right places. It hurts you tremendously when Jason asks why the Batman has let Joker lived when he was the one who took Jason from him. The back and forth of the dialogues hits you more than the punches exchanged between Batman and Red Hood.
The compilation was really good. It had chapters of satisfying action and seeing Black Mask losing his empire bit by bit but unable to do anything. And then it had the whole Batman and Hood exchange.

I need time to recover from this.

P.S. I need to specially mention the comment of Alfred about how the one thing the villains fear most about Batman is his “resolve”. It is so true. We love Batman so much because he always gets up and just gets going. Always! He is not sentimental in the way a father or lover is but he loves Gotham and the few people he holds dear to him. For Gotham and them he keeps going.

Jade War by Fonda Lee

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

First book of 2023 and it completely wrecked me!!! Off to a great start!

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Why??? Why? Why? All this angst and trauma and death??? Why? Why do I deliberately veer for such stories and then get mad at the author for writing it???

Chokshi you are a genius! The amount of research you must have done to fuse mythologies and histories of various cultures and countries, spanning centuries! Genius! All of it concocted and built a fascinating world.

Batman: Death in the Family by Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

I liked the lonely place of dying more than the death in the family. I think the whole fiasco with Joker seemed ridiculous to happen somewhere in Middle East. I get that the readers wanted Jason dead but that was really a brutal way for a kid to die.

The Lonely Place of Dying felt better to read in terms of the dialogues and storytelling. The role of Robin isn’t an easy responsibility to carry as a kid. I liked that it was briefly explored. Having Two-Face as the villain here certainly upped the stakes for Batman. It’s a good story to show how the death affected Bruce as well as Batman and it probably left a few tears in its wake. I loved how Tim was introduced. Boy was a bubbling energy who told Batman and made him hear things that others couldn’t. Exactly the kind of Robin was needed for Batman after the death of Jason. And amazing artwork!!!!

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I want to carefully pen down my thoughts regarding this book. The story has been set against a backdrop of difficult times that West Bengal was going through. In terms of that I felt that the writing was lacking the finesse that might invoke the sentiments of the readers. I am familiar with the Naxal movement and still felt the info dumping was too bland to make anyone care for this movement and in return care for Udayan. The only thing that I cared for Udayan was the relationship he shared with Shubash. Shubash and Udayan were like two parts of the same coin and reading about them would make you think about your own siblings. However the base of their relationship was short lived in the book. We are soon introduced to Gauri, another of the protagonist. Both her and Shubash’s story was deeply explored showing various time periods of the lives, the paths they take, the friendships they form and the people they meet. It was quite interesting to read about these two very mundane character who never would have crossed paths, if not for Udayan. But it is the writing or the storytelling which made the book lack warmth and care. Too much info dumping about some random topic, forced descriptions of a house or a landscape, unwanted metaphors lowered the value of the story. I also felt that the characters didn’t grow much in the later years of their life. The resentment, guilt, trauma and all other negativity stayed. It isn’t uncommon. You never really get out of the dark, gritty years of your life and it was shown through every other characters of this story and the story has been about that and that only. But something about the way it was written that made me feel that the author was punishing them all for something.

However after reading 414 pages of this book, somewhere you start caring for them. I did too.

Spider-Man: Blue by Tim Sale, Jeph Loeb

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced