Reviews and Comments

Kuang is clearly smart and has good ideas. Not a very good writer though. Nothing a good editor can’t help, but hers continues to let her down. Seriously, a book where the chapters just follow the story (almost entirely) in a straight line? PhD student descends into Hell to retrieve her advisor = A B C D. It gets old REALLY fast. For 541 pages. Like “Babel,” the writing doesn’t warrant this page count.

Twilight for grown-ups. The lead is a Mary Sue/Chosen One who learns again and again that the power was within her all along. It’s unbearably straight and gendered with her vampire man. Goes on too long. Not finishing this series. I am curious, though, if the TV series is any good.

The second Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery. Our crimesolving duo, Jonathan Darcy, son of the “Pride and Prejudice” Darcys, and Juliet Tilney, daughter of the “Northanger Abbey” Tilneys return. But his school chums are introduced, still clinging to childish dynamics and cruelties that complicate the MCs’ increasing regard for each other.

I enjoyed this! The title demands to be uttered aghast at a ball. The usual liberties taken with these beloved characters and their stories—I’ll read them all. Taub doesn’t quite have Austen’s voice down, and it’s a bit overlong, but recommended for fans of witchy books and “Pride and Prejudice.”

I’m not sure this series needed to go on this long. This and the prior book take place in the same world, but not in a material way that matters. It’s just another cozy sci-fi story about people working it out. Which Chambers is excellent at writing! Just make it a standalone.

After five books in this series, what else is there to say besides I plan on buying all of them? And happily re-reading, maybe in sequential order this time, maybe in publication order after that. Only then picking up the new books. There are few series I can think of that bring such perpetual pleasure: Earthsea, His Dark Materials…

This was mildly interesting: a murder mystery among genetically altered “titans” and exploration of their strange underworld. Guess I’m just not into this genre. The only noir book I truly enjoyed was “Something More Than Night” by Ian Tregillis—I recommend that instead.

Unexpectedly funny! Good story too: a handful of people across history are brought to the near future before their recorded deaths. The main “expat” is Commander Graham Gore, an arctic explorer from 1847 whose priggishness is endlessly entertaining (I’m an unrepentant Darcy lover). A romance, like in many stories where the tension is better than consummation, ruins it though.

A woman keeps waking up to Nov. 18th. Non-sci-fi with a sci-fi premise! Tara tests the boundaries of her circumscribed life, driven by curiosity, philosophy, and despair. Short, but it drags sometimes as you’re trapped in the monotony with her. Even though I’d like to learn what becomes of her, I don’t think I can read the full septology. Hubby said the 2nd didn’t add anything.

I love this cover so much; it’s like a riso print for a comic. Had to diagram characters, locations, and timelines to follow all of the jumping around. It’s Nayler’s usual fare of capitalism, consciousness, environmental collapse, and AI, but he always manages to write interesting stories about them in different combinations. It’s not all bleak, but what a mess we continue to make for ourselves.

Another book with no punctuation or new paragraphs for dialogue. I can’t wait for this trend to be over. Our protagonist spends a single day fighting her Parkinson’s while making a difficult journey across Buenos Aires. She learns painful things about key women in her life and her part in their suffering. Beautifully human.

I mean, the title alone! 🍿 Lead characters from Northanger Abbey, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice are suspects in the titular crime. I’ve read all of Austen’s novels, and have the usual favorites, but I enjoyed the extensions of these characters’ stories (purists beware); even the unhappy ones. A new crime-solving duo must navigate decorum to find the killer. De-fucking-lightful.

This was a hate read. Not sure why I feel a need to subject myself to writing that hasn’t improved from the first book in this series, characters that are still loathsome, and a story that doesn’t make up for any of these shortcomings. I do have a completionist tendency which might be getting more severe over the years. Lord help me, I’ve already decided to read the next (please-let-it-be-the-last) book in the series.

Love the premise: a young girl realizes she’s an alien and reports on humanity via fax to her people on Planet Cricket Rice. But for this twist, it’s a Bildungsroman that’s much more enjoyable during her childhood vs. adult years. Two passages from the former, one involving her misophonia, truly made me cackle. There’s never a direct confirmation of her origins but her adulthood disappointed for me. Oh well.

A wholly original way of exploring grief that wasn’t depressing. Coral is a lesbian author who finds her brother dead by suicide, and begins responding to texts on his phone as him. Intercut with excerpts from her own dystopian novel and flashbacks from their family’s lives, this was hard to follow at times but always beautifully written. One of those I-love-how-your-mind-works authors, I-could-never.