purplemoonmyst's reviews
418 reviews

Unhinged by Vera Valentine

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

3.75

I was listening to a podcast (I forget which one and i and having serious regrets about that) when I heard about the book Unhinged. The podcast host said that the basic plot was a woman has “affections” with the door.

To be blunt, the girl fucks the door.

This is a small book; it clocks in at 71 pages, and I read it in approximately 40 minutes with my jaw on the floor 98 percent of the time.

I consider myself fairly well educated, but this book showed me there is a whole new sun genre that I have to yet know about. Like how to fuck a doorknob. My central Appalachian brain imploded, and I went and reread that part again and OMG.

I am definitely filling this book under the What the fuck did I just read shelf.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Into the Drowning Deep was the first book in months that held my attention. It took getting Covid to realize that at this point in my life, I really and honestly did not care about personal development as I did before. I could read every single book, but at the end of the at, I have a severe mental illness and trust me when I say almost zero books deal with ways to cope if you are Nero divergent. I finally got fed up, then. Instead, I found myself craving stories and not just any ole story. I have found my way back to my sci-fi and speculative fiction. I found that I craved those kinds of stories. Mira Grant has written Into the Drowning Deep, and she has written many books that I love. And she wrote about ZOMBIES! I know I am wired for wanting to read allll the zombie books. I discovered Max Brook in college, and I have read every single story he has written, and I LOOOOVE them! Mira Grant also writes about zombies (hello, Newsflesh), and she is one of my favorite authors. I mean, she is on the tippy top along with Max Brooks. So when I found myself in a slump, I told myself to hell with self-development I am just going to read some sci-fi and Zombie stories. That, my friend, is how I decided to use Into the Drowning Deep to break out of the” slump” I found myself in. I say slump, but it turned out that my brain was begging NO MORE SELF-DEVELOPMENT SHIT PLS!!

In a nutshell, this is about killer mermaids. However, this is not your typical Mermaid story. Grant is excellent at how she gives just enough info to keep reading, and when all is revealed, you will be surprised. Plot Twist, indeed.

There were a couple of places where I had to suspend my belief a little more than I liked, but the rest of the story holds up, so it is all good. There was a deaf girl who had a submissle or something. I went allllll the way to the bottom of the challenger Seep, and part of me wanted to call bullshit because there is nothing that I know of that can have that much weight on it and still stay intact. Still, as I am not in the mood to try to dig through equations and the like, I just let it go and enjoyed the rest of the story.

What thrilled me the most was that Rolling in the Deep had a bit of diversity. It’s not all that obvious, but for some reason, every (it feels like) horror or sci-fi book I like always seems to center on white males. I mean, look at Ringworld. That is one of the fave books of my LIFE, yet no natural diversity that I remember. And no, I will not put it in this review because I want to encourage people to READ the book and not just copy what a book blogger said.

I want to touch on the deaf twins In the book. As a Deaf Person myself, I was thrilled that Grant wrote in one of the deaf twins to be the one to go down in the submersible to get a look at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, much farther than anyone else has reached. I am like, holy shit, Grant wrote decent Deaf characters. The kind that doesn’t need saving because they have their damn degrees and are not interested in finding a man to balance out her “disability” Let me stop here a sec and warn you. Suppose you ever meet a Deaf person, especially one from Gallaudet. In that case, you need to stop thinking about being handicapped because some people (including me) will do you worse than the giant-ass queen monster in Challenger Deep. That said, treat us like we have half a brain, and all will be well.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

emotional inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

I have to admit that this is my first Becky Chambers book. I can say it will NOT be the last. For the last few months, I have been in the biggest reading slump in my life. I decided to return to my first love, SCI-FI, with some fantasy thrown in. I saw it at the library, and I had read about other book bloggers with similar tastes to me raving about BeckyChambers’ss books saying how much they love her books, so I bit the bullet and picked up The p slams of the wild built.

This reading slump had gone on for so long that I despaired of every indeed reading again. Thank God I decided to return to my first love, sci-fi, and Becky Chambers is a very skilled storyteller. Robot books can go either way, depending on how professional the author is, but I have to say that Becky Chambers’s book is pure Robot gold!

This is the first in the monk and robot series, so there are few explanations for what is happening. This is a GOOD thing. It means the author is showing you and not info dumping. I HATE when I read and the author decided to write 100 pages of pure info dump. I mean, I want to experience the world the author has created alongside the charter.

As a Sci-Fi fan, I have seen other stories where the author tried to show the human condition by various tropes, but I have to admit that Becky Chambers is a master at showing this. I loved the robot and the questions the robot asked to try an better understand humans.

Guess what?? The main character is nonbinary! It took me a while to get why Dex was bringing called Sibling instead of brother and sister. Then I figured it out and said, wow, this gives me hope for a diverse Sci-Fi genre. I try my best to read diversly, but no matter how hard I try, all the books I love seem to be written by cis straight white males. The only author that is different in this regard is Octavia Butler. I have read every single one of her books two or three times. I was soo upset when she departed this earthly plane. Now that I have read one of Becky Chambers’s books, I have high hopes that her books will be a new favorite. To soon to tell, but ii do have hope.

The most important part of a sci-fi book is world-building. The way that it is presented can make or break a story. I know I have read a book and would think it was bullshit because the author tried to explain how that would work adequately, and one can only suspend beliefs so far. I feel that Becky Chambers shines in this regard. You thought you were in the story with Singing Dex and the robot.

Rabbits by Terry Miles

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I found myself in a massive reading slump, but then I read Rabbits, and I have been reading other books in the same genre as of late—no more reading slump. I found out about Rabbits by the podcast with the same name. As many of you know, I received my cochlear ear implants six years ago, and the novelty of being able to hear and UNDERSTAND spoken words still has not gone away. I ended up listening to both seasons of Rabbits straight through.

The Rabbits Podcasts was so enthralling than when I heard that Terry Miles had written the book, Rabbits. I couldn’t hit buy on my kindle fast enough. I read the whole thing in one sitting.

I kept reading instead of sleeping because I HAD to know if K was ok.  it says right on the book that the “game” had maybe created a rip in reality, and I wanted to know what exactly a rip in reality was..Then the best plot twist I have read in my whole life whopped me upside the head, and I had to read it three times to make sure it was from the book and not from my head playing jokes on me. I have read many techno-thrillers in my day, but Rabbits has a plot twist that is STILL one of the best, if not the absolute best.

The basic premise of the book is about an underground game gone wrong. Then K has to go around to try and fix the game before all the metaverses collapse. Yes, that’s right, the “meta” verse. I think that is where Mark Zentunberg got the idea of the whole meta thingie. If you ask me. If you had trouble understanding what a metaverse is, here is a handy link to explain it all.

Rabbits will take you on a wild ride through a few metaverses, maybe… Before I hit the PLOT TWIST of the century, I had thought that it was limited to ONE real universe; then the PLOT TWIST happened, and even though I have been reading Hard Sci-Fi my whole life, that plot twist was so twisty that I had to read that chapter 4 times to make sure I was reading correctly… I was. I will not say much more than this because it is sooooo much better if all you know is what is on the Rabbits Podcast, and some game has gone very wrong a dit is messing with. The “fabric of reality .”And it is up to K to fix it. It has a superfast moving plot, so if you want to dig into the ideas in the book, it is better to listen to the Rabbits podcast both seasons first.

 

Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style by Suzanne McConnell, Kurt Vonnegut

informative medium-paced

4.0

To start with, I just want to profess my undying love for  Vonnegut. If nothing else, I am thankful for my college professor for introducing me to a world beyond ( think of something). After reading Vonnegut for the first time, I fell in love with his tale of writing. Yes, I read Vonnegut for fun….laugh if you must, but you have to admit that he is a master storyteller.

I admit that I am not as acquainted with his son’s work. However, it WAS a book about Vonnegut and writing, and I love books that give me insight into my favorite authors. It’s like I can experience the whole vibe without figuring out a way to bring a beloved author back from death. 

.

This book is not about the art of writing per se but rather a look into the innermost parts of Vonnegut’s mind. To be honest, I have always wondered how he got his ideas. I remember reading Slaughter-house 5, and I read it while I was in college, so that was 25 years ago, so my memory is not what it used to be, but I DO remember how I felt.  Even then, I thought Vonnegut was brilliant. It was only later that I learned he had been in Dresden when the USA bombed Dresden and that he was struck with the idea for Slaughter House Five. I like to think that it served as a cathartic exercise for him.

The author, a Vonnegut student at Iowa Writers Workshop, weaves a story that showed just how Vonnegut helped students to see the world differently during her time in Iowa. That is one of the best parts of Pity the Reader. While it is impossible for all of VONNEGUT’s admirers to take a class under him, this book is the next best thing. I would have loved to be his student to pick at his brain. Unfortunately, time and circumstances were not on my side, so…I can live viscously through his student.

However, if you are looking for a writing guide that will explain the plot and structure among those things, you will not find them here. This is more like a tribute to Vonnegut than anything else. Vonnegut 100 percent deserves all the respect he gets. It is hard to believe that Vonnegut will never again write another story, but his work will always be here to remember him. And based on Pity the Reader, I am not the only one that came to admire his genius deeply. While most people would turn on the sarcasm about me reading Vonnegut for fun, I have also met people who like me read all they can on Vonnegut’s works and about him. It makes me sad that we will never have more writing projects from Vonnegut himself, but we can always read his works.

 

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe

adventurous slow-paced

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

5.0

I know that Kindle Unlimited sometimes gets a bad reputation for not having a lot of books worth reading. I used to think that myself until I ran across (name of the book). This book is soooo good that it is on my top 10 contenders for the whole year.

I ran across this book randomly while I was looking for another book. Me being the nerd that I am, I thought the synopsis was good. I love anything, Sci-Fi or Fantasy. So I downloaded it started reading and didn’t stop until the end. Ad considering that my brain fog is still bad from both my ned and for Psoriatic Arthritis. I can’t focus for shit… Well, maybe I could, but I had tried to read, and it seemed that nothing could get through the haze of the brain fog.

Until I read (name of the book). Confession I used to play World of Warcraft until my eyes bled from staring at the gaming computer that I had way back then. I also paid for other games, but 80 percent of my gaming time was spent on Azeroth. Games usually follow the same plot formula in regards to quests and power-ups, and the like. Because of that, I could reply pictures apart from the nuances of the character’s doing and why. In (name of the book), the girl character speaks of going to a low level to stick up on experience easy part of the world and killing as many animals as she can. This I an easy way to level up. It may seem like a waste of time to a person who does not have this background info. What is a fast way to gain the necessary skills to defeat the big boss? After all, games have rules that everyone must follow. have Even you do not have a background in gaming, this is still a light, fun read. Which is all my brain can understand through the methxriexen haze that seems to be a permeant part of my life at the moment.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in this world and was quite sad when it ended. Although this is not my first choice in reading, I admit when my brain feels like it is just a huge lumpy mess and I cant ponder out what the hell is going on in a series such as Remberece of Earths path, die anyone else attempts the mental Gymnastics of The Dark Forrest? How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps is somewhat “Easier” and still provides ample entertainment.

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It has been a looong time ever since a book has challenged me to the fact I had to go look up the "cliff notes" version of said book. Friend, I will tell you this, This book, The Dark Forrest, did just that. I understood Three-Body Problem just fine, so it was totally unexpected to have trouble with The Dark Forrest.

To be clear, the writing itself was very, very good. It was the theory that threw me. I can generally sustain a far enough disbelief that I can make the story work in my head, and I do not have to go all over the Internet trying to find someone that would explain the Dark Forrest Theory in plain English. I mean, I could even make the whole Ringworld make sense in my head, and even when it came out that Ringworld could not mathematically exist, I could wrap my head around the idea.

The Dark Forest is the first book since High School that threw me for a loop this bad. I am serious. When I first heard of the Dark forest in the book, I had to and look it up in the cliff notes version.  I am still not too sure except that all of Humanity is doomed for some reason. I hope that the Next book, "Deaths End," ties up all the stories in Book 1 and 2. Because I truly can't see what the end WILL be. Expect the destroy of all Humanity...Other than that, your guess is good as mine.

All of that aside, I truly loved this book... I have a thing for Chinese and Russian authors, and I have to say that Liu Cixin is super talented in wring a Sci-fi space opera, my favorite Genre. Show me some aliens and a spaceship, and I get all grabby-like. It is miiinne. ALLLLLLLMINE!!

I love anything that stretches my mind. If you do not try to work your creative muscles, you will lose it. In that regard, I loved this book, AND I am next in line for a copy at the Library; and I   cant wait to see how it all plays out.

 

Before You Leap: A Frog's-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons by Kermit the Frog

5.0

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison

5.0

The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life by Piero Ferrucci

5.0