ed_moore's reviews
224 reviews

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

challenging dark informative mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

“What are the dead anyway, but waves and energy? Light shining from a dead star?”
 

‘The Secret History’ is the story of six classics students studying under their omniscient professor Julian Morrow, the events that lead to the murder of their classmate Bunny and the aftermath of such. It is a book full of characters who you aren’t supposed to like, as a reader you root for their success and their failure at the same time. Richard is an extremely unreliable narrator which is a positive in my opinion as I really enjoy such perspectives, and though he is dislikable I did find myself relating to the last dislikable narrator I was in the head of, Merricat from ‘We have always lived in the Castle’, and that was an irritating reading experience; such was absolutely not the case with Richard. 

An element of writing style that did frustrate me however was Tartt’s chapter lengths, the majority of them exceeded 100 pages making breaks in the narrative frustrating to reach. I also found myself, alike to my experience with M.L. Rio’s ‘If We Were Villains’ I really enjoyed the focus on academia and then enjoyed it less as the plot strayed away from the focus on the wholesome university experience and late nights studying. In the case of ‘The Secret History’ this was at about the halfway point. The book was still very much engaging just not as strong as it was in the first half in my personal preferences. 

The rooting in academia throughout however was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to just see a bit of intertextuality and know I had read such book in many cases. I also enjoyed the descriptions of insomnia suffered by a couple of the characters as I don’t think I have seen it before in a book (not that I ever considered it as underrepresented just didn’t think about it until it appeared here) so I enjoyed reading an alternate perspective of something I struggle with. 

I am very much skipping around the main elements of ‘The Secret History’ here I feel, but that is because I enjoyed a lot of the little things. The main characters are extremely problematic but they are all shamed for this, Tartt criticising the culture of white academic elitism behind many layers, and the ending left me both satisfied and underwhelmed at the same time in a way. So much happened and yet the epilogue concludes with little happening, but I believe that was just fine for the tone of the novel. 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

“A real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what’s necessary to defend a woman” 

Owens’ ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ wasn’t what I thought it was be nor what it was made out to be at all. It has focus on two timelines, Kya as she grows up abandoned on the North Carolina marshes, and this timeline slowly catches up to 1970 and the suspected murder of Chase Andrews out on the marsh. It begins as a story of abandonment and a young girl adapting to survive, arguably with far too much ease; Owens does not include many problems within her plot related to the abandonment that Kya genuinely struggles to overcome nor does it particularly deeply look into the complex emotions that must come with such a character. The mystery is introduced quickly but takes a back seat for the large majority of the novel, not much is added to it in terms of clues or red herrings and it is generally quite poorly written and predictable. I was disappointed by the mystery aspect, especially as the book evolved and begun to focus more on this new identity of becoming a romance. 

 

I am often an advocate of separating art from the artist but for a book written in 2018 to frequently use the ’N’ word to no real plot effect or meaningful, especially given the controversial status of Owens as a person, I feel I have to address this as a huge negative. Yes ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is a historical fiction and trying to reflect American race prejudices of the time in its setting, however this is extremely poorly done and the use of certain phrases was unacceptable for the 21st century in the manner that Owens remorselessly used them. 

 

I enjoyed Owens’ descriptions of setting and intimate relationship with the wildlife of the marshes. It was a completely absorbing atmosphere with a focus on love of nature, however that is about all that wasn’t disappointing or problematic with ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Abandonment

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

“These seeming men and women about me are indeed men and women, men and women forever, perfectly reasonable creatures full of human desires and tender solicitude emancipated from instinct and are slaves of no fantastic law, being altogether distinct from the beast folk. Yet I shrink from them.” 

Once again I wasn’t a huge lover of a book by HG Wells. His writing just doesn’t quite work for me. ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ follows Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked on a remote tropical island used by a Victor Frankenstein-esque doctor who transforms animals into imitations of humans. It was quite similar to Mikhail Bulgakov’s ‘The heart of a dog’ in this sense yet Bulgakov did a much better job in exploring this. Wells’ sci-fi has undertones of racism and explicit themes of animal cruelty throughout, which Prendick is somewhat a figure exposing this but also his sympathy is very limited and often leads to violence. There are also traits of Wells’ writing which feature here as I have observed in others of his work, principally the fallback of saying “these creatures were indescribable to my human mind” to paraphrase and then proceeds to not convey to the reader what he is talking about, almost just because its a science fiction Wells uses that as a fallback for lazy writing. I can commend unlike others in this case that the characters were actually named, there were few of them so I had a good understanding of them and development was okay, good for Wells’ standard at least. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only eating for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps we’ve burn terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help” 

‘Letters to a Young Poet’ was so unbelievably cute. Franz Kappus wrote to Rilke asking about his poems, and Rilke takes him under his wing and begins by offering poetic advice which soon evolves to his wholesome advice on young love, fears and his perspective of the world. It was so impactful, so quotable, and honestly what I needed today. Words are so beautiful and can hold so much power, and Rilke really demonstrated that. I do wish Kappus’ letters were included rather than just Rilke’s replies to fully contextualise the dialogue between them, though I am sure they would feature in other editions and nonetheless Rilke’s words stood strong on their own and were beyond beautiful. Did sob, it was so cosy and wholesome yet powerful, and such a short and uplifting beautiful little book. 

 

With all devotion and sympathy, 

Rainer Maria Rilke 

 

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

2.75

“Thus life each moment makes me die, And death itself new life can give; I hopeless and tormented lie, And neither truly die nor live.”

Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ is often claimed to be the first modern novel, and all in all it was a start but proved the form of the novel certainly had some places to go. It just felt unnecessarily long, and yet the plot feels fractured and hard to follow and the only characters who have meaningful roles and are remotely developed are Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panca. It tells of a man called Don Quixote, who believes himself a knight and recruits Sancho as his squire for the quest to save a damsel called Dulciena who he believes he is in love with. In seeing inns as castles and windmills as giants his knightly errants are entirely fictional and surprisingly ‘Don Quixote’ could be seen as an extremely early depiction of dissociative identity disorder (not that this would’ve been the intention and therefore be presented well).

Though regarded by all around him as insane you can appreciate the view Don Quixote has towards the world, he has imagination and sees magic in the mundane, which is commendable and a fun outlook on life. Quixote has the ability to view the world as something greater than it appears to be. His various follies, which often lack any form of aim or conclusion, do result in a meta-narrative being written as various writers within the story record Quixote’s adventures, Cervantes even naming himself and praising his own poetry. The book is littered with excerpts of poetry throughout which is a nice inclusion and honestly reads much better than the primary novel, yet I find it funny but also hubristic the praise Cervantes gives himself in his own magnum opus. 

The narrators tone also draws away from immersion in the primary narrative, announcing the likes of  "here ends the second book" which stage the book to be more of a history than a narrative. Hence it also seems to wrap up narrative arcs far too quickly and conclude, there is no build up to the ending and it just seems to happen. This was certainly a bucket list book but not a hugely rewarding read, it did coin the word ‘Quixotic’ though.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

“Whether it is better, I ask, to be a slave in a fools paradise at Marseilles, fevered with delusive bliss one hour - suffocating with the bitterness of remorse and shame the next- or to be a village school mistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England” 

I enjoyed Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’ however for some reason found it difficult to pick up, it wasn’t necessarily page turning. ‘Jane Eyre’ follows the younger years of Jane as she goes through charity school and then works as a governess and falls in love, each making up three major arcs in her life. I very much enjoyed her earlier years, heightened by the love of literature presented in these  and then felt the book really slowed down in the middle, this may be down to the fact that I didn’t really like the character of Rochester to some degrees and wasn’t rooting for he and Jane. He is a really interesting character but preferred the story in sections where he was out of the picture.

Jane on the other hand was a narrative voice from an autobiographical perspective. This allowed you to really intimately connect with her as a protagonist and she felt quite real. Though many of her later decisions I don't really agree with it is easy to forget that for the majority of the novel she is only 19 and such perhaps brings context to a lot, despite this she feels very matured. Another character I will bring brief attention to is Jane’s student Adele. The ward of Rochester is a young French girl and all her dialogue was in French. My ignorant brain can’t understand French therefore with it being untranslated in my copy much ended up being missed surrounding Adele. 

Brontë places a lot of emphasis on character and most of whom are really well written and developed, the plot would be extremely lacking if not for this. However, Bertha is crucial to both the plot and literary theory (coining the concept of the ‘madwoman in the attic’) yet is hugely ignored by Brontë and her characters. There is certainly a justification for Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’. 

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

“My error was thinking that alone was somewhere you could go rather than somewhere you were left” 

Armfield’s ‘Our wives under the sea’ is a book about the complications of grief at its heart, with a large emphasis being placed on its alternating perspectives and timelines, switching between Leah stuck in a submarine that has lost power in the darkness of the ocean and Miri both living through the uncertainty of when Leah was missing, and trying to mend a relationship with a partner who is far from the person she was before she went missing, both emotionally and physically. 

The characters were each compelling and in many cases with dual perspectives I often find myself desiring to be in the mind of one when I am with the other, however in this case I really didn’t prefer one perspective more than I did the other. That being said the numerous perspectives and timelines did feel a little clumsy in places especially when switches were made to make some mundane remarks or list some facts which weren’t extremely necessary, it often took away from plot. The plot itself was also very simple, it is ambiguous in places and meant to be a bit unsettling and weird whilst rooted in the domestic. None of this I minded too much other than there was no major change as the plot progressed and I could guess, and accurately did, how it would end after about the first quarter of the book. 

I have also heard a lot of acclaim for Armfield’s prose however I didn’t find it anything remarkable in particular, overall the characters were really strong but the other elements were acceptable yet nothing mind-blowing. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

“Our house was a castle, turreted and open to the sky” 

Jackson’s ‘We have always Lived in the Castle’ was a strange book, it has a lot of focus on the little things: unreturned library books, papers with an undisclosed purpose, six blue marbles, and it seemingly ignores the more pressing present issues and forces mental illnesses and darker truths into the shadows of the narrative. Conceptually that is really interesting but on face value regarding the story the reader interacts with the book was quote bland and unenjoyable. Nothing particularly happened for the large majority of the plot and though the characters were extremely interesting I just couldn’t get on side with them. 

The protagonist Merricat is an insufferable narrator with a hatred to visiting the grocery store, psychologically she is really interesting and would be brilliant to analyse but as a POV character I really struggled with her. I am finding this difficult to articulate as reflecting on the entirety of ‘We have always Lived in the Castle’ her character is fascinating but in regards to my experience when reading I just didn’t enjoy it or her at all. I reckon this could possibly be an opinion that grows and develops with time though. Aside from Merricat however most of the other characters, Constance especially despite her being a central character, don’t have very developed personalities and are too content with the mundane. 

Alike to Merricat, the plot was generally quote dull and the conclusion extremely unsatisfying, but once again alike to the books protagonist I feel it has potential to grow on me with time to marinade in my mind. 

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

adventurous dark informative tense fast-paced

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

4.5

“Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. A thousand different worlds, and translation, however futile an endeavour, to move between them” 

R.F. Kuang’s ‘Babel’ is by technicality a fantasy but the magic system was so subtle and comprehendible, in addition to being set in 1800s Oxford, that it didn’t feel much like its genre. As not a huge fan of fantasy I really appreciated this as Kuang left the main focus not on magic systems and fantasy, but instead incorporating them into a wider commentary on the British Empire and colonialism. The way this was handled was really poignant, following Robin Swift, taken from Canton as a boy to study translation in Oxford and contribute to empire, and his discovery in what his involvement means and therefore revolution against colonialism from the inside. This complicated dynamic led to questions on who on the surface level was the antagonist, and this was frequently unclear and really left a lot of suspense which was fun. The best element by far was ‘Babel’s’ entrenched focus on etymology and love of literature within the book. It was full of intertextuality and respect of different languages and cultures and I even learnt a thing or two about words which I adored and didn’t suspect in picking up a fantasy/dark academia. 

I did however feel in places that characters were often fleeting or their roles unclear, much was left unresolved on individual character levels though the larger plot ending was satisfying. I also did find myself in utter visible shock in places which is highly commendable. Kuang’s use of footnotes was a point of contention for me however. They were included in the audiobook and often came in quote jarringly, and their purpose was varied and unclear. Sometimes It academically footnoted a quoted text, sometimes a Chinese pronunciation (which I can’t understand why such wasn’t just accurately pronounced in the main prose and instead had pronunciation reaffirmed in a footnote, and other times providing details that were fictional about the characters and really should’ve just been included in the main text. If they had a more defined purpose that was less scattered they might’ve been slightly less jarring, and in places can see and respect why they were used, but I felt they took me out of the reading experience a little by their randomness. That is however the most principle of my criticisms and in the scheme of things such aren’t that much. 

I read ‘Babel’ so quickly despite its length which is a testament to how well it flows and how engaging it is, I will note that I much preferred the first half to the second that had a focus on the simpler Oxford university life, but am mostly satisfied across the board.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

“We are always getting away from the present moment, our mental existences, which are immaterial and have no dimensions are passing along the material with a uniform velocity from the cradle to the grave”

“H.G Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’ portrays time as a dimension equal to height or width, where a scientist has constructed a Time Machine and recounts his first voyage into the future. It was an improvement on ‘War of The Worlds’ however for a book titled ‘The Time Machine’ I felt as if it’d be better if the book was just set in the future world of 802,701 as oppose to complicating the book with the time travel aspects which really don’t add much. The utopian society of the future was generally quite unimaginative too aside from the concept Wells explored of the depletion of human intellect.

Alike to ‘War of the Worlds’, Wells opts to leave his characters unnamed which results in a lot of reader detachment and in addition to their lack of names, the characters are quite flat and uninteresting. There is no remarkable development in them nor do they express much emotion. Perhaps this was down to length but I would also just attribute it to Wells’ distanced and writing style that lacks any flower.