aecorsilva's reviews
111 reviews

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

i don't generally support censorship but i do think margaret atwood should be banned from writing rap music ever again - can't believe i have to analyse this like it's a postcolonial work of literary genius

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

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adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

good, but not one of Shakespeare's best. ending felt quite rushed.

Content Warnings

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

this feels hotly blasphemous, but i must confess i didn't appreciate hamlet at all. i think the conditions in which it was read, the course, the teacher, certainly soured me on it, and perhaps i'll revisit it in a decade and find a new appreciation, but for the moment i found it particularly disappointing. hamlet and ophelia were fascinating figures, but there was something about the structure of the play i found supremely lacking, and which perturbed me the whole way through. i didn't particularly like the book, but i like my rating even less.

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

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challenging reflective slow-paced

4.75

best enjoyed over a lifetime: will return to frequently. plath's mastery of the poetic and prose form are really highlighted here, where vignettes of life are as vivid as if you were placed directly next to her. her philosophical examination of her own character is excruciatingly raw - in many ways, she embodies the 'everywoman' so many try to reach.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

The Urge: Our History of Addiction by Carl Erik Fisher

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

fisher does a really good job of presenting an informative yet philosophical text that absolutely engrossed me in a topic i didn't think i would have any interest in, and honestly i was so close to giving 5 stars but:

i found the book often jumped around a lot that made it confusing to follow, especially in the middle sections where i wasn't as familiar with the historical context, and which also prevented deeper analysis and depth in discussion and explanation (although to be fair that's not uncommon in nonfiction writing in this zeitgeist and he's not particularly worse than other authors)
the referencing system for this book is horrendous - at the back, there's a small quote followed by the citation for that specific phrase, which is fine now i'm typing it out but let me tell you it was so much more difficult than it needed to be when i was reading and i wish he'd just gone with footnotes (although again i do understand why he didn't - this book is incredibly well-researched which is fabulous and allows for a great overview but also means there's an enormous amount of material to cite - an entire third of my copy was citations)

i know the long criticism section makes it sound like i'm super critical of it, but i just think those were the things i noticed the most (as opposed to the writing style and fabulous selection of statistics and anecdotes, which were amazing and therefore didn't satisfy the nitpicky cigar-smoking monocled critic at the back of my head), and overall i'm very happy i ended up reading this, and i reckon it's a good book to kick off 2024! hopefully all my nonfiction reads will be as insightful as this one :)

Content Warnings