onceuponatime's reviews
180 reviews

Večera za šestoro by Lu Min

dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Zanimljiva knjiga, bilo je lepo i upoznati autorku i slušati kako opisuje teme kojima se bavi u knjizi.

Karakterizacija je bila promišljena, ali se nisam nužno emotivno povezao za likove. Ovo je ona vrsta knjige o kojoj je zanimljivije diskutovati nego nužno čitati.

Sam prevod je bio kvalitetan ali mi se stil nije svideo. Možda sam ja prevideo namere prevodioca koje objašnjavaju neke od odabira reči za koje sam mislio da su čudni, ali neću čitati knjigu ponovo pa će to ostati misterija. 

Ghost Town by Kevin Chen

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Despite everything, I felt like the very end was too abrupt and I wanted to see a sign as to what kind of path the characters would take after, because their complexity is the strongest part of the book for me. 

I was (pleasently) surpised by some of the ways the author connected the characters and storylines, I didn't expect it! 

Also where did the corpses from the staged fire come from??

Paradise by Toni Morrison

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I liked this book somewhat better than 'Jazz', nicely vivid characters and a setup that very smoothly explores complexities of gender and race relations, and what makes a paradise for each. The perhaps misguided worship of the past/history/tradition is also a crucial moment in the story.
There may be some loose ends at the end of the story but they were purposeful. 

I think the ambiguity of who was 'the white one' among the women at the Convent is a really good and thought-provoking choice.

This story wouldn't exist without race, and race and its ramifications echo all throughout the novel, and yet it is often interestingly not present (especially in the a Convent!!!).

Jazz by Toni Morrison

emotional reflective sad medium-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

3.75

The last 50 pages or so of this book really make it, and they're the ones that finally got me interested in the characters. I had to whip up a family/connection tree to make sure I was getting everything right at some point. I know Morrison wanted the book to have a strong presence of music (and it does!), but maybe not as much as I expected. It is a neat comparion to "Beloved", though, as the main characters really are fishes out of water in the big city and their history immediately continues onto their family's whom just got freed during the grandma True Belle's time..

Beloved by Toni Morrison

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

The story beats and characters' personalities developed really gracefully and compellingly through the book. I think I found some aspects of the story's ending lacking a bit, but I was pretty immersed in it throughout. Though I'm not sure how memorable the whole storyline will be for me, certain moments and visualisations certainly will. 

Even tho it's called Beloved, she is more of a presence, a consequence and trauma than she is a character. She defines our focus characters, though, Sethe and Denver. It's love as haunting/grief.
Sethe's such an interesting character, her actions, pain and thinking (and how they are shaped by the slavery she survived) are the most interesting part of the book.

I'm planning on reading all three books from the trilogy. 

Another Country by James Baldwin

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

The way James Baldwin does characterisation is something that I've seldom ever experienced. I found myself being drawn into the reality of all the main characters and I could feel the way their presence influences and describes the people around them.

Especially the way Rufus stays present in the narrative after his death.

It was a complex and natural web.

If i had to describe the main thoroughline of the novel it would be the complexity of love and relationships and the tensions of race in them. 

The ending is slightly open-ended but I do find it an interesting thing that all three pairs presumably stayed together, for the time being at least.

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

What a fucked up thing family is. 

The descriptions of religious zeal were interesting. 

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

i enjoyed both books in the duology, but i just wish they were something else. 

they weren't bad! they told an interesting story with good chatacters. but i don't think i was the best audience for it. i didn't feel emotionally compelled at almost any point in the story – it just sort of passed through my fingers.
i had the impression that the characters were too self aware and i was being told too much about their inner lives in a way that wasn't compelling. 

i'll enjoy telling people about the story maybe more than i did reading it. 

Your Love Is King by Espi Tomičić

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

hvala osobi koja mi je preporucila ovu knjigu, idem malo da se isplačem i da je iskoristim za analizu sopstvenog života

Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna by Enheduanna, Betty de Shong Meador

informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

really cool to have gotten a deeper understanding of the sumerian life and society in which enheduanna wrote these poems in. i loved the extensive talk about the sides of inanna and what those meant for women in the mesopothanian society