georgereads982's reviews
82 reviews

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.

I have  countless issues with this book.  Firstly, the writing itself felt incredibly surface level and clunky and yet there were moments where it felt like I was reading ridiculously pretentious drivel.  It felt to me like this book was written for men who want to 'understand women's issues better', and straight white women.  I have no evidence to back that up, but even during the first chapter I could hear Taddeo's intended audience screaming from every page. 

Especially when she referred to a teenage girl being groomed by her married male teacher as an 'affair'.

I am also baffled as to the fact that Taddeo spent 8 years researching this book and yet all three stories centre around straight white women, two of which are

rape victims and the other is manipulated into a cuck fantasy by her husband.

  Not one WOC? Not one queer woman? Not one woman who has a healthy relationship with sex?  Really?  The author travelled across America for 8 years and found three slightly different shades of the same woman. 

The real villian though is the marketing.  I researched the book a little before picking it up from the library and what is described is so far from the actuality of this book it honestly made me angry.  This book is marketed as a book about desire and yet there is very little desire present at all (You'll be sick of the word desire by the time you've read even one article).  It is a book about three average women, and three fucked up marriages, (

one of those marriages being the groomers').  Also including a story of rape and molestation (both of which were done by male authority figures) in a book that is being sold as a tell all on women's desire, is a very dangerous thing to do.  I think Taddeo's handling of the molestation retelling was bad enough, but including it in this book at all is simply wrong.  This story does not centre desire.  It is three stories of damaged women trying to make the best of awful situations they have been put in by men.

Lisa Taddeo should not have written this book, let alone allowed it to be described as feminist.  The prologue alone tells you all you need to know about her views on women and sex when she

describes a vicious sexual assault her mother (who is dead by the way) experienced every day on her way to work, in uncomfortable detail.  Taddeo wonders why her mother "allowed it" to happen and seems disgruntled that she can't ask her mother this exact question.

  Honestly, it's my fault for continuing to read after that.

Finally, there was absolutely no point to this book.  It simply exists.  For no reason.  No conclusions were drawn and no valid points or discussions around sex and desire were made.  A completely pointless borderline damaging book.

Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener

This book was my first look into autofiction and I can't lie, I don't really know how I feel about it as a genre.  The stark contrast between the chapters about Wiener's great great grandfather and the chapters about her relationship was jarring.  I found the difference in quality to be stark, with the chapters surrounding her family life much more digestible and engaging.  The content surrounding her alleged ancestor felt very out of place.  The chapters about her ancestor felt so much longer and harder to wade through.  

At certain points it felt like Wiener was working through what she wanted the book to be whilst writing it.  A part of me wishes Wiener chose to make this book into two.  Both aspects of the story are interesting in their own right but are simply not fleshed out enough because of the constant flipping between the past and present.  Again, this could be my lack of knowledge about autofiction, but I really can't understand the need to make these vastly different stories into one book.  Especially because, despite the blurb mentioning discussions on colonialism and Wiener's ancestry, I would argue there is very little discussion of these topics.  A large majority of the story was

about her father's affair, her polyamory and her own affair.  None of that is mentioned in any descriptions of the book.

  Which felt misleading.

On a positive note, I have great respect for Wiener's unwillingness to shy away from the fact that she makes awful, hurtful decisions.  She touches on this briefly when discussing her great great grandfather, she mentions how easy it is as an author to scrub yourself clean of responsibility.  I don't feel that Wiener did that, which I imagine was very difficult and confronting for her.  It was interesting to read about her life from her perspective although there were certain parts that I felt had too much detail, but that's just me.

Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson

4.0

I think I will always love Caleb Azumah Nelson's way with words.  Although I enjoyed Open Water more this was still a great read.  I found the second part to be a little too long, I got lost in it a little bit.  Especially considering the first and third sections are so concise and moving, it felt like not a single word was wasted.  Whereas with the third part, there were sections that felt heavy on the page. 

The last two chapters were incredible.  Its rare that I feel so moved by a relationship that I have no way of relating to. 

I think this story allows the reader to realise that their parents are living for the first time too.  They have experienced hurt and joy and everything inbetween.  That they have memories and regrets and dreams.  It's very easy, as a child of a parent, to forget that you parents were people before they became parents.  Caleb Azumah Nelson paints that narrative beautifully.

Honestly, this man could write a grocery list and I'd read it.

Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater

2.5

I had quite high hopes for this story, especially after reading the prologue.  I think it had the bones to be a really great story about obsessive women and imperfect victims but unfortunately it just didn't live up to what I was hoping for.

I found the story itself to be very repetitive, especially with regard to Laura's day to day.

She would get embarrassingly drunk, her friend would take her home, she would make a move on him or say something inappropriate, and then she'd wake up hungover and pretend like nothing had happened.  Those exact events were written (in annoying detail) repeatedly throughout the book

.  The characters themselves were either completely flat or exaggerated to the point they felt like a caricature.  The booksellers themselves (including Laura and Roach) had no value other than the fact that they all sell books for a living, even their conversations outside of work revolved around books/work.  There were also parts of the book, towards the end, that were incredibly overwritten, with lists and lists of unnecessary detail about a booksellers day and customer questions.  I think that last 100ish pages of the story desperately needed a tighter edit.

The climax of the story was also very anticlimactic.  I found myself frustrated with the choice Alice Slater made to have

no consequences for Laura or Roach.  Laura's conclusion felt like a "phoenix rises from the ashes" with no real acknowledgement of the awful things she did or the overwhelming problems she desperately needed to address.  All we get is "now she lives by the seaside,  problem solved!"  This felt very lazy and not true to the original plot.

On a positive note,

I really enjoyed the slow process of Roach changing from wanting to be Laura's friend to wanting to hurt her.  I found that aspect of Roach's character to be genuinely unsettling because it was such a gradual change and was incredibly well paced.

 

Overall, I don't know if I would read another of Alice Slater's books because I don't think the writing style was for me.  But, you live and learn.

My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay

I really enjoyed this book, certain parts were more enjoyable than others to be sure but overall it was an interesting read.  My only criticism is that some chapters relied too heavily on the official government documents to carry the weight of the story.  Especially when Lemn doesn't provide any personal context to what the documents state.  I found his personal recollections and explanation to be significantly more interesting but at certain points, particularly in the later chapters, these moments became less and less.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

4.5

I was blown away by this book.  I think Bel Canto will be very hit or miss depending on how much action the reader is expecting.  This book has little to no action at all which, in my opinion, made it that much more special.  I truly felt a connection to all of the characters, even the ones we knew very little about.  I found myself, much like the hostages, never wanting the story to end.  

After finishing Bel Canto I looked at some reviews and general opinions online and found that most people didn't enjoy the abruptness of the ending and honestly I felt that way as well, at first.  But after more thought, I came to realise that there was no other way to end this story.  The hostages and guerillas were essentially living within a suspension of time, a dream.  The only way for that dream to end is to wake up and waking up is always incredibly sudden, whether we want it to be or not.  It was a devastating end but a very lifelike end - as Messner says early on, these situations never end well and the government always wins regardless of who becomes collateral damage.

I think this story will stay with me for a while, its definitely made me want to read more of Ann Patchett's work.

The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke

2.5

I had high hopes for this book as it was described as an "eerie gothic thriller" but in all honesty it did not fill any of those descriptors.  There was little to no subtlety in the prose which meant that everything was over explained or emphasised in such a way that virtually all of the implied eerieness was diminished immediately.  It also was not particularly thrilling until the last 50ish pages and even that was a limited thrill.

My main issue though is the

lesbianism.  As a queer woman I cannot put into words how frustrating it is when authors use queerness for no reason other than to make their story more interesting.  4 lesbians in one house? in the 60s? yeah okay.  Sure, Jan.  Oh yeah, and they all die.  How lovely and not at all disappointing.  More to the point, there was no build up or implication of Mabel and Morven's feelings for each other being anything other than platonic until Morven randomly kisses Mabel.  Their relationship is completely platonic until it's not.  This never happens with straight couples in books and yet continuously happens with queerness - queerness does not just happen, it is a beautiful thing and deserves so much more than what authors give it.  !!Calling all Authors!! If you want your characters to be queer, write them as queer for more than one plot point!  I am so sick of authors making a character queer to move the plot along.  It is lazy and feels like a diversity tactic.

Also, every character fell flat for me.  We know next to nothing about any of the women involved aside from a very limited background story as to how they ended up at Lichen House.  And that they have all been pregnant at one point or another.  There were moments where it felt like the only background the author gave these characters was their pregnancy - which is incredibly disappointing.  I think this could have been a great story if the author had taken to time to make her characters seem like real people and not just props to guide along the story.  

The ending itself was incredibly rushed.  I think the pacing of the story as a whole was okay, but the final event came out of nowhere and was honestly quite jarring (which would be great if it was intentional, but I don't believe it was).  There were also SO many loose ends and unanswered questions.  In all honesty, the only reason I finished this book was due to my curiosity as to how it would all tie up - lets just say, the climax of Pearl's time in Lichen House left a lot to be desired.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

3.5

The story of theranos and its downfall was compelling to begin with, however it quickly became confusing as more and more employees/teams/investors/complicated medical jargon was introduced.  I think John Carreryou's narrative started out strong, but as he introduced himself into the story it quickly became messy, jumping from person to person and situation to situation with no real sense of structure.  

The level of detail was also frustratingly inconsistent.  Some details that seemed unimportant were mentioned multiple times (take a shot everytime he mentions people being thrown by Elizabeth's "deep" voice) whereas moments that provided context and allowed the story to progress were only mentioned briefly or never mentioned again - particularly with regard to deals that Elizabeth made and the manipulation she engaged in.  The downfall of theranos and everything that happened after the Wall Street Journal article was completely glossed over which was a strange choice.  Carreryou only wrote one chapter about the aftermath of his article and how theranos was affected despite the (sometimes unnecessary) detail he went into regarding trivial things within the company in its early years.  

Overall Bad Blood was an interesting and compelling read but it could have done with a bit of fine tuning.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

4.0

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

The level of detail about the architects and the fair made this book so boring.  It's probably a great read for people interested in architecture but not for me unfortunately.