webtheweeb's reviews
32 reviews

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Unbelievable. Poignant, brave, sad, and - perhaps most oddly of all in this genre - ultimately hopeful. There’s so much in this tiny book. SNOW WAS GENERAL ALL OVER IRELAND!

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.

I fell out if my GOT phase….I will finish this someday!

The Metamorphoses by Ovid

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

3.5

Ovid is, as with all things, occasionally beautiful and occasionally unremarkable. I think this book is very valuable as a source for understanding how our stories get told and untold and changed and morphed (pun intended). I’d recommend reading just a few myths - Echo and Narcissus, the Death of Orpheus, and anything involving Hecuba are some of the best.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The first half of this book was a 1-2 star and the second half was a 4-5 star, so let’s meet in the middle(ish). There’s an attempt here at a kind of Rick Riordan-esque familiarization of forces beyond human understanding, and for most of the book, it just doesn’t work. The characterization often doesn’t fit (a 40 year old lawyer making Comic Sans jokes and saying “I hate everything” constantly brings to mind something a tumblr user might have written in 2014. And the tumblr user would do it better.) and the same talking points are returned to again and again, the same language re-parsed and re-used. Metaphors are mixed in a way that doesn’t seem intentional. The only thing that saved this book for me was its plot and its subject matter - how could that ending NOT make you cry? Still, this is much weaker than Klune’s first book. The final half makes it worth the read.

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

I almost feel as if I have no choice but to give this a 5-star review. For all its seeming redundancy, for all its repeated successes and showboating, for all it wandering and wavering and weaving much like the wind itself, Rothfuss’s writing is simply a joy to read. It’s as easy as Kvothe’s assured strumming of the lute. It’s as consistently intriguing as his many well-learned stories. It simply is.

I’m not sure if Rothfuss will ever continue this series, but to me, this is enough. The overarching narrative is interesting, but not nearly so interesting as the anecdotes within the couched narrative. I loved the different places we visited in this book, particularly Ademre and all of its people. The worldbuilding in this book is pretty remarkable, and it makes up for Rothfuss’s rather boldfaced explorations of Kvothe’s many…pleasures in this volume, his gallant male-focused fantasies.

Still, I loved imbibing this story, and I’d gladly drink a dozen others of its length. Worth reading even without promise of a continuation!

Nightwing, Vol. 1: Leaping into the Light by Tom Taylor

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

WOW. Absolutely one of the tightest, most gorgeous comics I’ve ever read. That prose is just beautiful, and I am in love with this characterization of…I was gonna say Dick, but honestly everyone. Easily one of my new top favorite comics of all time.

Batgirl, Volume 1: Batgirl of Burnside by Babs Tarr, Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Irene Koh

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 4: Last Days by G. Willow Wilson

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (And More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

WOW, is this run just incredible, and this is probably my favorite volume so far. Literally comic writing at its finest. It’s fun, it’s poignant, it’s immensely relatable to mid-2010s former fangirls…it’s everything.