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isaacreads's reviews
68 reviews
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
2.0
This is not a love story.
This is the story of a queer relationship, one we all have at some point, where you find your self in the love you hold for someone who knows themselves, by knowing them, you know yourself, it is about the pleasure of leading someone to revelation, having already experienced that pleasure yourself. It also has beautiful metaphoric prose.
That being said, I did not like this book
It could have done with less scenes, although the prose is beautifully crafted, the author could have packed a larger punch if the scenes were whittled down.
The lack of coherent paragraphs, while I understand the stylistic choice, it does not lend itself well to readability.
In straight media it is portrayed as a gay lolita, playing into the stereotype of pedophilic gay men, but in reality this story portrays a reality of gay life outside of the straight understanding, where you find yourself through the worship and love of someone that holds power over you.
Its gross, from foot fetish, to peach, to boderline rape fantasy, to I kid you not the romantisation of shutting together, while I understand that it conveys the metaphor of the relationship, its gross, and feels out of place with the rest of the story.
The sequal, this book would have lended itself so well to a open ending, to trail off and let the reader draw their own conclusions, the writing, the style, the themes all lend themselves to such a ending, but instead we get a forced incoherent ending that reads more like drivel than the beatiful prose that the book was written in.
This is the story of a queer relationship, one we all have at some point, where you find your self in the love you hold for someone who knows themselves, by knowing them, you know yourself, it is about the pleasure of leading someone to revelation, having already experienced that pleasure yourself. It also has beautiful metaphoric prose.
That being said, I did not like this book
It could have done with less scenes, although the prose is beautifully crafted, the author could have packed a larger punch if the scenes were whittled down.
The lack of coherent paragraphs, while I understand the stylistic choice, it does not lend itself well to readability.
In straight media it is portrayed as a gay lolita, playing into the stereotype of pedophilic gay men, but in reality this story portrays a reality of gay life outside of the straight understanding, where you find yourself through the worship and love of someone that holds power over you.
Its gross, from foot fetish, to peach, to boderline rape fantasy, to I kid you not the romantisation of shutting together, while I understand that it conveys the metaphor of the relationship, its gross, and feels out of place with the rest of the story.
The sequal, this book would have lended itself so well to a open ending, to trail off and let the reader draw their own conclusions, the writing, the style, the themes all lend themselves to such a ending, but instead we get a forced incoherent ending that reads more like drivel than the beatiful prose that the book was written in.
Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice by Wayne D. Dosick
2.0
Far to prescriptive and biased in the rabbi's own views to be educational, lacks a sense of understanding of greater historical influence on spiritually, however makes valuable points
Skarlaken by Irma Venter
Die eerste Afrikaanse boek wat ek gekies het om te lees, en dit was a uitstekende keuse. Ek is al van kind af mal oor speur stories, ek het groot geword op Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, en die Famous Five.
Teenspyte van my kennis van die genre, was hierdie boek net op n ander vlak. Die storielyn trek mens in, net as jy dink jyt dit uitgefigure verander dit, maar wat rereg vir my die boek gemaak het was die verhoudings tussen karakters en die karakter ontwikkeling wat daarmee kom. Ek is gek oor Jaap en Sarah se Father Daughter bon, wat net alhou sterker gemaak is deur die karakterontwikkeling waardeur hulle gaan.
n Fantastiese boek vir mense wat hou van rillers, karakter ontwikkeling, en laat aand wakker bly.
Teenspyte van my kennis van die genre, was hierdie boek net op n ander vlak. Die storielyn trek mens in, net as jy dink jyt dit uitgefigure verander dit, maar wat rereg vir my die boek gemaak het was die verhoudings tussen karakters en die karakter ontwikkeling wat daarmee kom. Ek is gek oor Jaap en Sarah se Father Daughter bon, wat net alhou sterker gemaak is deur die karakterontwikkeling waardeur hulle gaan.
n Fantastiese boek vir mense wat hou van rillers, karakter ontwikkeling, en laat aand wakker bly.
Triangulum by Masande Ntshanga
3.0
A interesting read, but trys to be too many things at once, I am either not smart enough for this book, or it is too vaguely written, I suspect it is a combination of both these things.
Scrapers by Zack Scott
4.0
Evidently well researched with stunning graphical design, however, I find that some of the comparisons drawn between building are arbitrary, and it does not give as much historical context for each building as I would like, focusing more on interesting "Fun Facts"