leitnerkev's reviews
678 reviews

Our Share of Night: A Novel by Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The writing is stellar (as usual for Paolo). The layers are fascinating and the world comes alive in many ways. It's a tough world and our hero is unready for it, but that's part of the richness of the story. I gotta say though I didn't like the ending. Woulda been a 4.5 otherwise

Open Throat: A Novel by Henry Hoke

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Brilliant. Reads like poetry, impactful as literature, gripping as a genre read. A quick vicious essay into otherness, being an Outsider, voyeurism, humanity and empathy, and more. Well well done

City of Bones by Martha Wells

hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.0

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I find the best speculative fiction stories have small and large stakes - that is the story moves on critical elements that are important to the characters and yet set amongst a larger more cosmic story - whether that be epic or not, something where the story impacts larger society, moved by critical points important maybe only to the characters. The Ministry of Time has this structure and is a very enjoyable story for it, you can get invested in the protagonist and her out-of-time ward, whom she is tasked (ostensibly) with orienting to the 21st century, or the complex time travel conspiracy plot. Or both! It has also my favorite kind of ending, a messy, untidy, unexpected, but also ambiguous and potentially hopeful one, allowing the reader to make some guesses or assumptions about what may be coming next, and how the characters will continue on. Not in the cliffhanger, I want a sequel, type of way, though. I love a standalone book with some mystery around the edges and this has got that in spades. Well deserving of the hype it's been getting. 

Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Fantastic return to the Shades of Grey series which I had been awaiting foe years now. Forde is as clever, strategic, and eloquent as ever. Pure British posh in every sentence. Loved it, hopeful for the third book in this series as this one serves well as its own story but is a greater service in the larger arc of the overall story. Highly recommended

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book was kind of a let-down. I was super excited to read it (audiobook) and I think the author executed on the story they wanted to tell but it left me unmoved, unconnected to the characters. I think the epilogue was my favorite part of the story? It's a nice trim little novel with a Agatha Christie type air about it and even the writing style but I had higher hopes. For example, I never felt anything about being in the Wastelands. Seems to me that was a critical basis for the emotional call of the story. It was just kinda there. The Wastelands serve to put in some crisis points to the story (the water sub-plot, the Gray adventure) but it itself wasn't compelling or interesting or villainous or scary or much of anything. 

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a really sad, sweet, somber reflection of grief and letting go. Emma Straub's writing is brilliant - poignant, poised, and eminently readable. And her insights on fate and destiny and acceptance are definitely worth reading. A slim novel that knows what it's trying to say, never gets distracted, and manages to entertain and delight while probing a genuine and heartfelt exploration of relationships and "how life is supposed to turn out" is inspiring. Highly recommended.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

For awhile, I really, really hated the male lead, Doug. So much so that I avoided returning to the audiobook, despite being fully invested in the story, and Annie's journey. And, I had to ask myself why. He's clearly terrible (certainly for most of the book) but not villainous, at least not in terms of the genres I typically read - fantasy, sci-fi, and dystopian. Did I fear too much being like him? Perhaps I'm unsettled on the question of robot-humanity, what level of rights or dignity are they entitled to? In my defense, we haven't as a society worked through that soooo....

And I thought given my visceral reaction to the antagonist, that this book was really good. But then, he changes. No spoilers, I promise. And then the ending, it also lacked the courage of the rest of the story in reckoning with difficult issues, and sought a middle road. One which was satisfactory to most? 

There was a point at which, specifically the Lake Champlain passage, that this tale was soaring toward a 5/5 for me, and then it became a melodrama with a punches-pulled ending.