Tag: disliked

Book Review, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Z.N.H.

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3.5 stars. So I read this book first in high school. I’ve been wanting to reread it for years and years because I remember enjoying it so much the first time. And well, I don’t really know why I liked it in high school or if I even understood it, because I had a really hard time getting into it. Janie was totally unlikeable and I couldn’t understand her motivations; character progression was nigh nonexistent. I also couldn’t figure out how someone watching her walking down the street with her grapefruit butt strapped into some overalls had to do with anything that happened in the last 99% of the book. It didn’t come full circle for me. I felt hollow and empty at the end, instead of fulfilled and like I enjoyed myself. The word choice and imagery were beautiful and maybe thats how I fell in love with it initially. Its quite a classic, and I think that I’ll still recommend it to friends and family, maybe just less vehemently so.

Book Review, Comedy, Non-Fiction, Self-Help

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by M.M.

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2.9 Stars. This book is a New York Times Best Seller for a reason, people just love a rant. That’s why we all pretend not to read the comment section on reddit or youtube, but in reality the voyeurism really gets us going. And to those people this must be insightfully, earth-shattering, even awesome–like I said it’s a NYT Best Seller for a reason– but it doesn’t mean it’s actually good. TSAoNGaF is basically what would have happened had I stumbled across a blog that was mildly entertaining and decided to binge read it for two weeks straight. And, honestly, this extended blog post was not worth 200 pages of conveying the same thing on repeat.

I wish he had footnotes, or at least an index, to direct you to his sources. The constant “as this one dude once said” followed by a quote with no indication of where it came from was not my favorite. I think it’s because I have read all this stuff in school in the form of scientific reports and journals (which unlike comment sections and blog rants, are unexciting unless you’re a nerd). But if I had happened to find a concept I liked, I wanna know to which of the hundreds of works that particular person published I should refer. I imagine this book changed the lives of thousands, perhaps even millions, but I don’t get the hype.

There were few grammatical mistakes, and I’d say it was well-written but there were terrible metaphors for dumbing things down and sometimes he would forget that his main premise was centered around the f-word and then all of a sudden remember. BOOM, closing paragraph of each section = f*ck x 30. It was exhausting, really.

Book Review, Horror/Thriller/Suspense, YA Fantasy

Something Wicked This Way Comes by R.B.

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Image result for something wicked this way comes by ray bradbury

3.5 Stars. If this book were made into a movie, it would be a horror-suspense film of 90s visual effect quality and not actually scary or thrilling at all. If this book were a television show, it would be a poorly made on the CW that was cancelled halfway through the first season.

What I liked about SWTWC: the eerie, rich composition with an almost poetic cadence. The imagery sets the tone for the book, awakening a spooky feel. Each word or phrase has a deep purpose.  The pacing is dynamic and ethereal. The jumbled and halting prose. I also imagined everyone spoke in a clipped mid-Atlantic accent, see.

What I disliked about SWTWC: All of the above would have been fine for anything less than 300 pages, it was downright exhausting. This book focuses on setting more than plot, though character development is prominent as well. The character development didn’t work because all the characters sounded the same.

It is a literary masterpiece, I suppose, but not really my favorite.  I wanted to be wowed like I was with Fahrenheit 451, but I’ll just have to take my expectations elsewhere.