stacielouise's reviews
123 reviews

No Love Lost by Luca Oliveri

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

adventurous emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

I want everyone to read this book. I want this, not only because I think it is really well written and the topic is engaging and informative, but because the author has instilled in me an awe for General Alex Dumas. 
I read The Three Musketeers right before starting this biography of Alexandre Dumas's father, so I had the characters of the musketeers fresh in my mind. It added a whole new element to the novel after learning how much the writer was influenced by his father, specifically his love for his father. Tom Reiss explaining that love, and then recognizing it in the books I've already read by Dumas, filled me with so much appreciation and respect. 
Just read it. Not only is General Dumas a captivating historical figure, but Reiss does a great job of laying the foundation of the world General Dumas was born into, lived in, and died in. I knew little before this about French history, and I new nothing about the civil rights movement that boomed in Dumas' time. Reading about it was both inspiring and heartbreaking. If I had to sum up this biography in two words, those would be the two. Inspiring and heartbreaking. 

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

It's hard to review this one, because it isn't really a full story, but rather a collection of thoughtful quotes that are provided while we follow the wanderings of a few characters. It's touching, and it was what I needed the moment I read it, something light that would make me think about life, friendship, etc. I would recommend picking it up and reading bits of it over time, rather than the whole thing in one sitting as I did. 

Tartarus Volume 1 by Johnnie Christmas

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The world of Tartarus was the most interesting part of this comic. I would love to explore it more, and explore the people in it. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters that we followed in volume 1, but I am willing to continue the series to see if any new characters come in that are more interesting, or perhaps one of the existing characters is fleshed out more. The surprise at the end definitely opened up the world a lot, and I love when surprises can do that. I think there is a lot of potential. Depending on how the plot unfolds in the next volume (how predicable it is/the tropes that are used) will largely determine whether I continue the series.

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

This book surprised me, and I love surprises. I was not expecting something that would make me deep think as much as I did while reading this. First off, it is mostly in second person, which took me off guard at first, but I quickly adjusted to it within a couple pages. What further caught me off guard was that the second person does not stick to one character, but we get the second person perspective of multiple characters in different chapters throughout the book, and once I got to the end I realized why. The moment I realized why this perspective fit so well, it changed how I viewed the whole book. I think this is one of those stories where you can go back and read it a second time and get a different experience, which is a great accomplishment for any author. 
I do have to say that I didn't care much about the well-being of the characters. They all annoyed me to some extent, but not to a point where it distracted from the story. I almost feel like that might been intentional, but I guess that depends on how you want to interpret the message of the book. 
I am definitely interested in picking up this author's other book set in the same world.

The Book: A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston

informative slow-paced

3.0

I thought the topic was really interesting. The beginning and the end had the most engaging information, while the middle felt bogged down in a lot of technical jargon and explanations. I'm sure if I were more familiar with book binding, these sections wouldn't have felt as slow and difficult for me. Since I know very little, it was hard to picture everything the author was referring to. I would have liked for diagrams and visuals as reference. It's been a while since I've read such a technical non-fiction, and I think that's another reason I felt bogged down in the middle of the book. I think anyone with an interest in the history of how books came to be made, who perhaps have some working knowledge of modern bookmaking, would enjoy this a lot. 

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

adventurous funny inspiring fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a very fun read. It definitely had moments when I thought... this is not very appropriate (a certain guardsman in a certain villainesses bedroom?), but it was still very entertaining. There is something to be said for pure heroism. I know modern books shy away from that, leaning more towards realistic, flawed characters that are neither good nor bad, hero nor villain, but sometimes it is nice to rely on a gentleman musketeer to be honorable and loyal at all costs. 

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

funny mysterious medium-paced

4.0

My favorite part of this book was the narrator. I loved the way the story was told, the way the narrator reminds you that he is also a character even though he isn't actively engaging in the plot. Knowing some of the history of the author from reading the introduction of my edition definitely added some weight that I think I would have missed if I didn't know anything about Bulgakov's struggles going into this. It added a bit of reality to this fantastical, chaotic story. 
I enjoyed reading it overall, although I felt it slowed for me towards the middle and a bit in the end, even though some truly incredible things happen in those parts of the book. I think that is because the Master didn't appear in the book as much as I thought he would, until the later half. I also had a hard time keeping all the names straight, but that 's not a criticism, just an observation. The chaos was absolutely entertaining. 

Rusalka by C.J. Cherryh

adventurous dark mysterious 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

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. The mystery was intriguing, and I liked the intricate wishing/wanting magic of the wizards, that seemed simple at first but slowly revealed it's incredible complexity. It had my thoughts all twisted on what could and could not happen, much like the characters themselves felt. There was a point when the story felt stagnant. The characters were repeating a lot of the same questions to each other over and over, as if the answer would conjure itself up or change, even though nothing had happened to change their situation. It could have been a part of the plot, because the confusion, misgivings and doubt of the characters is definitely a highlight of the story and part of the main conflict. It just seemed a bit too much at times. Not too much to keep me from really enjoying the conflict, though. The characters were really good. I liked Sasha and Pyetr's dynamic, and wish we could have gotten more of them just the too of them without the looming presence of the wizard hovering over them. Both characters felt like they grew a lot, and I really got to see that growth. The book is told in third person, alternating between Sasha and Pyetr's perspectives, so it shows a lot of their inner turmoil, doubts and worries. It slowed down in the middle, but the last third was definitely a page turner. 

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

3.0