verityshillabeer's reviews
106 reviews
Our Wives Under The Sea, by Julia Armfield
5.0
Beautifully written. Somehow both romantic and horrific, but also neither of those things.
The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
2.0
Shockingly I just didn't find this funny or interesting, despite trusted opinions highly recommending it to me! Honestly I was bored... And it did that horrible thing of putting me into a reading slump because I just didn't want to pick it up.
It was as an audiobook, so maybe it just had a particularly bad reader?
It was as an audiobook, so maybe it just had a particularly bad reader?
Children of Paradise , by Camilla Grudova
4.0
I really enjoyed that! It would be a great book club book - I think there were lots of references that went over my head, but I'd love for them to be pointed out to me lol. I'm really glad this is on the Women's prize longlist, so I'm sure there'll be lots of natter about this in due course.
Girlcrush, by Florence Given
2.0
Unfortunately this was just really poorly written. It needed so, so much more editing.
Matrix, by Lauren Groff
5.0
Highly recommend the audiobook read by Adjoa Andoh! She read this out perfectly!!!!!
This started out strong. Just a stunning writing style that I luuuurve. Got a bit bored about 3/4s through then picked up again at the end.
This started out strong. Just a stunning writing style that I luuuurve. Got a bit bored about 3/4s through then picked up again at the end.
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell
4.0
I was pretty likely to enjoy this as linguistics is a special interest of mine. This was pretty good!
I didn't love her writing style - especially didn't like the repetition of 'more on this later' rather than fleshing out her point and creating more intersectional arguments. But ultimately it was an interesting read that gave me some things that I'll continue to think about after closing the book.
My main takeaway was that 'cult' isn't a super helpful word. Someone I'm close to is in a few situations that I've referred to as 'cultish' many times over (they're fun stories to talk about lol) but I'll definitely stop that as a) the situations are not as extreme as calling them 'cultish' makes them sound (in comparison to cults like heaven's gate or Jim Jones), and b) the word cultish can finalise any productive or caring conversation about the situations. Good to bare in mind!
I didn't love her writing style - especially didn't like the repetition of 'more on this later' rather than fleshing out her point and creating more intersectional arguments. But ultimately it was an interesting read that gave me some things that I'll continue to think about after closing the book.
My main takeaway was that 'cult' isn't a super helpful word. Someone I'm close to is in a few situations that I've referred to as 'cultish' many times over (they're fun stories to talk about lol) but I'll definitely stop that as a) the situations are not as extreme as calling them 'cultish' makes them sound (in comparison to cults like heaven's gate or Jim Jones), and b) the word cultish can finalise any productive or caring conversation about the situations. Good to bare in mind!