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jlkenneth's reviews
604 reviews
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
"But why should we have to be useful and for what reason? What divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right? Does a thistle have no right to life, or a Mouse that eats the grain in a warehouse? What about Bees and Drones, weeds and roses?"
3.5/5 stars. This book was like a fairy tale told by the Witch meets “Piranesu solves a murder mystery” and I gotta say, the vibes were IMMACULATE. Creepy deaths questionably being caused by animals? Gorgeous wintry prose from an eccentric old astrologer? William Blake meets existential dread? Sign me up!!
I really loved the premise, philosophy, and general feel of this book. There were several points where Tokarczuk’s writing was so powerful that I genuinely just had to put the book down and stare out the window in a sort of thoughtful fugue, (for me that’s always a win). Despite the kookishness of the narrator, there’s a sort of yearning tenderness at the heart of this story that I found extremely moving.
"The nastiest criminal has a soul, but not you, beautiful Deer, nor you, Boar, nor you, wild Goose, or you, Pig, nor you, Dog…What sort of a world is this, where killing and pain are the norm? What on earth is wrong with us?”Mrs. Duszejko’s core argument for the good of animals is also shockingly compelling as the book goes on. It reads as moralistic in the right way. "Crime has come to be regarded as a normal, everyday activity. Everyone commits it. That’s just how the world would look if concentration camps became the norm. Nobody would see anything wrong with them.”
The core exploration of religion, God, and nature was also stunning. This was a book that took the poetry and religion of William Blake and brought it strikingly into the 21st century with a concern for climate crises and post-religious society. All in all, I loved the themes and ideas this books concerns itself with.
Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me in terms of the plot, particularly toward the end of the novel. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I was disappointed to find the narrator to be unreliable in exactly the way you expect. For me, unreliability needs to make me read the text along a different lens once I understand what the narrator has been concealing the whole time, and that doesn’t happen here. What I suspected from the start of the novel what exactly what I got, and it caused the whole plot to feel a bit monotone in the end. Would still absolutely recommend this if you’re looking for a philosophical work about nature, love of the earth, and organized religion, even if it did fail to meet some of my expectations in the end.
A Crown of Swords: Book Seven of 'the Wheel of Time' by Robert Jordan
adventurous
medium-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
3.5
3.5/5 stars. I definitely have some mixed feelings about this one, but in spite of that, I think this might be the most I’ve enjoyed a WoT book since some of the early ones. I think Lord of Chaos was probably a better book, but I ended up finding this one easier to get through for a few reasons, in spite of the plot slowing down slightly. The shorter page count was incredibly refreshing after the last 3 books all being 800-900 pages, and I also think this is Jordan’s most balanced approach to varied POVs. Typically in one of these books, I hit a point where I am just tired of hearing about the same character - and usually when that happens, there’s another character I’m dying to learn about, who only gets 3 or 4 chapters in the whole book. A Crown of Swords was really the first time in this series where I felt satisfied with the amount of time I spent with each character; I stayed excited to know what everyone gets up to in book 8, and wasn’t ready to scream after being stuck inside one person’s head for 400 pages. (Spending less time with Rand in this one probably helped because despite him being the main character, I still just find him helplessly frustrating to listen to for so long.)
I also think my increased enjoyment of this book comes down to splitting my reading between audiobook and a physical read, which helped me get through the slower sections. That said, I have always enjoyed the sections that focus more on pivotal events in the lives of these characters than the more “epic” sequences, as those are usually where I have gripes with Jordan’s execution and/or lack of explanation. All that meant this was a bit of a perfect, slower WoT book in my opinion.
All in all, this is the most excited I’ve been to dive into the next volume, and I think the shorter page count, wonderful character development, and political intrigue/set-up here really made the difference. Also, this was finally the point where we really get to see Mat shine and GOSH it was worth the wait. I can definitely see why he’s a fan favorite.
This also puts me halfway through the series, which feels like a huge accomplishment!
Read on for my thoughts on the more controversial aspects of this book 😉
I do have some mixed feelings (as always) when it comes to the depiction of gender in this series. I think a real discussion of whether this series is sexist or flipping patriarchy on its head (seriously, it’s hard to tell sometimes and that’s evidenced in the mixed reviews each book receives) requires a lot more nuance and time that a GR review allows - but it seems like this point in the series might be a polarizing when it comes to your take on that question. Initially, it’s difficult to tell when Robert Jordan himself viewed men and women as inherently opposed, and that viewpoint came through in his work, or whether this is intended as a commentary on how the world is broken and flawed in his series as a result of the Breaking of the World and the Dark One’s corruption of saidin. I’ve read some good arguments on both sides, and both seem to fall short in some ways. For me, A Crown of Swords was one of the points where the characters’ treatment of the opposite sex was most infuriating, AND it was also the point where I started to think it was definitely being done intentionally rather than just as an RJ’s unconscious bias.
*light, non-specific spoilers below*
This book takes the prevailing views of gender in this world and introduces the issues of rape and sexual assault. Specifically, one of the male characters is repeatedly forced into nonconsensual sex against his will. The women in the story seem to take it as a big joke (he couldn’t possibly have been FORCED!? By a woman?!?), and it is constantly addressed as if the situation is humorous, but it seems pretty clear to me that the reader is meant to interpret this situation as rape. Yes, even when the characters refuse to see it that way. The victim in this sexual assault situation is constantly feeling embarrassed, out of his body, and like he’s on the verge of tears or panic attacks, which should clue us in to the fact that this is a legitimate SA scenario and he doesn’t view it humorously.
In my opinion, a lot of folks have difficulty separating the characters in these books with the author himself. Because the entire series is written in the first-person limited point-of-view, there is never an external narrator who tells us what to think - which I see as precisely the point of this series. In the 80s and 90s, fantasy had a tendency to be moralistic and simple, and the portrayal of gender roles was almost always extremely stereotypical (the works of David Eddings come to mind). Jordan flips things on their head with women in power and used to authority, while also keeping a lot of the stereotypes his audience would have been familiar with (i.e. women are incomprehensible, men think with their muscles, etc.). This book is the first time where I’m starting to see the commentary for which he intended this decision. If the genders were flipped in this sexual assault case, what we’d be left with is a fairly realistic representation of how women are frequently treated in the wake of sexual abuse or rape. The victim explains what happens to one of the women near him, and he is told he shouldn’t have smiled at his abuser the way he did, and insinuates that he wanted it to happen the way it did.
This sort of victim blaming is exactly what tends to happen to female victims of SA, and I think RJ was trying to challenge the views of his readers and build empathy for survivors. I don’t think it’s Jordan who trivializes the issue, I think it’s several of his female characters who do. This was his way of challenging a common scenario by inverting it, while still not making it the centerpiece of his work (because it is a side plot). I don’t think it’s fair to write Robert Jordan off as a sexist because of this, though I do think the point is often belabored and he could have done this without so much repetition (it really does get tiring listening to these characters’ asides about the opposite sex). This section also read differently on this side of the me too movement, but it’s easy to forget how often sexual assault was trivialized and victims were blamed at the time these books were written (even though that still happens).
Okay, mini-essay done 😅
I also think my increased enjoyment of this book comes down to splitting my reading between audiobook and a physical read, which helped me get through the slower sections. That said, I have always enjoyed the sections that focus more on pivotal events in the lives of these characters than the more “epic” sequences, as those are usually where I have gripes with Jordan’s execution and/or lack of explanation. All that meant this was a bit of a perfect, slower WoT book in my opinion.
All in all, this is the most excited I’ve been to dive into the next volume, and I think the shorter page count, wonderful character development, and political intrigue/set-up here really made the difference. Also, this was finally the point where we really get to see Mat shine and GOSH it was worth the wait. I can definitely see why he’s a fan favorite.
This also puts me halfway through the series, which feels like a huge accomplishment!
Read on for my thoughts on the more controversial aspects of this book 😉
I do have some mixed feelings (as always) when it comes to the depiction of gender in this series. I think a real discussion of whether this series is sexist or flipping patriarchy on its head (seriously, it’s hard to tell sometimes and that’s evidenced in the mixed reviews each book receives) requires a lot more nuance and time that a GR review allows - but it seems like this point in the series might be a polarizing when it comes to your take on that question. Initially, it’s difficult to tell when Robert Jordan himself viewed men and women as inherently opposed, and that viewpoint came through in his work, or whether this is intended as a commentary on how the world is broken and flawed in his series as a result of the Breaking of the World and the Dark One’s corruption of saidin. I’ve read some good arguments on both sides, and both seem to fall short in some ways. For me, A Crown of Swords was one of the points where the characters’ treatment of the opposite sex was most infuriating, AND it was also the point where I started to think it was definitely being done intentionally rather than just as an RJ’s unconscious bias.
*light, non-specific spoilers below*
This book takes the prevailing views of gender in this world and introduces the issues of rape and sexual assault. Specifically, one of the male characters is repeatedly forced into nonconsensual sex against his will. The women in the story seem to take it as a big joke (he couldn’t possibly have been FORCED!? By a woman?!?), and it is constantly addressed as if the situation is humorous, but it seems pretty clear to me that the reader is meant to interpret this situation as rape. Yes, even when the characters refuse to see it that way. The victim in this sexual assault situation is constantly feeling embarrassed, out of his body, and like he’s on the verge of tears or panic attacks, which should clue us in to the fact that this is a legitimate SA scenario and he doesn’t view it humorously.
In my opinion, a lot of folks have difficulty separating the characters in these books with the author himself. Because the entire series is written in the first-person limited point-of-view, there is never an external narrator who tells us what to think - which I see as precisely the point of this series. In the 80s and 90s, fantasy had a tendency to be moralistic and simple, and the portrayal of gender roles was almost always extremely stereotypical (the works of David Eddings come to mind). Jordan flips things on their head with women in power and used to authority, while also keeping a lot of the stereotypes his audience would have been familiar with (i.e. women are incomprehensible, men think with their muscles, etc.). This book is the first time where I’m starting to see the commentary for which he intended this decision. If the genders were flipped in this sexual assault case, what we’d be left with is a fairly realistic representation of how women are frequently treated in the wake of sexual abuse or rape. The victim explains what happens to one of the women near him, and he is told he shouldn’t have smiled at his abuser the way he did, and insinuates that he wanted it to happen the way it did.
This sort of victim blaming is exactly what tends to happen to female victims of SA, and I think RJ was trying to challenge the views of his readers and build empathy for survivors. I don’t think it’s Jordan who trivializes the issue, I think it’s several of his female characters who do. This was his way of challenging a common scenario by inverting it, while still not making it the centerpiece of his work (because it is a side plot). I don’t think it’s fair to write Robert Jordan off as a sexist because of this, though I do think the point is often belabored and he could have done this without so much repetition (it really does get tiring listening to these characters’ asides about the opposite sex). This section also read differently on this side of the me too movement, but it’s easy to forget how often sexual assault was trivialized and victims were blamed at the time these books were written (even though that still happens).
Okay, mini-essay done 😅
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore and War
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez
dark
emotional
sad
medium-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Police brutality, and War
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.0
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
adventurous
funny
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
3.25
The warmest and most enthusiastic three stars! This was exactly what I wanted it to be - quick to read, corny as hell in all the right ways, but with a huge and absolutely tender heart the whole way through. Because gay people deserve cheesy romcoms too! That said, I was surprised by how well-realized the characters are and how much genuine character development there was in the second half especially. Went in with low expectations and this surpassed all of them. *MWAH* I loved this ❤️
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.5
The most unique memoir and a delightful queer coming-of-age story mirrored against the author’s struggle to understand her father amid his own queerness. Allison Bechdel is just so incredibly smart and writes with delightful poignancy about her life and experiences. Loved it and will definitely be rereading at some point down the road!!
Another Country by James Baldwin
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Don’t look at me, people of the internet 🙈 Deepest apologies for giving this beloved book only 3 stars cause WOW I know people who really love this one! There were just a lot of things that didn’t work for me about this novel.
I really, really wanted to love this more than I actually did. Baldwin’s writing is stunning and elaborate, there’s no doubt about that - however, he lost me about halfway through when it came to the plot, and I never felt like the book recovered after that. I think I would have like this a lot more if it had been about 150 pages shorter but this was just so meandering.
My biggest gripe, though, is Baldwin’s treatment of women. It took me most of the book to realize that we’re dealing here with another gay man with a deeply ingrained sense of misogyny, and one that clicked I had a really hard time taking any of his commentary on race or sexuality seriously. We know from Baldwin’s interview with Audre Lorde that he was unwilling to look at the ways black men often make life more difficult in turn for black women, and he considered that being born a black man was the most difficult thing that could happen to a human. While I won’t discount the novel’s nuanced discourse when it came to race in America, there was so much interrogation of patriarchal norms that the book just refused to engage in. I found myself frustrated again and again that often, the growth and character development of male characters came at the expense of the female characters.
I can’t deny that Baldwin was a terrific intellectual and that he did so much for the cause of queer folks and African Americans. For me, though, his views on women soured the whole thing to point that I had trouble enjoying any of it.
I really, really wanted to love this more than I actually did. Baldwin’s writing is stunning and elaborate, there’s no doubt about that - however, he lost me about halfway through when it came to the plot, and I never felt like the book recovered after that. I think I would have like this a lot more if it had been about 150 pages shorter but this was just so meandering.
My biggest gripe, though, is Baldwin’s treatment of women. It took me most of the book to realize that we’re dealing here with another gay man with a deeply ingrained sense of misogyny, and one that clicked I had a really hard time taking any of his commentary on race or sexuality seriously. We know from Baldwin’s interview with Audre Lorde that he was unwilling to look at the ways black men often make life more difficult in turn for black women, and he considered that being born a black man was the most difficult thing that could happen to a human. While I won’t discount the novel’s nuanced discourse when it came to race in America, there was so much interrogation of patriarchal norms that the book just refused to engage in. I found myself frustrated again and again that often, the growth and character development of male characters came at the expense of the female characters.
I can’t deny that Baldwin was a terrific intellectual and that he did so much for the cause of queer folks and African Americans. For me, though, his views on women soured the whole thing to point that I had trouble enjoying any of it.
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
dark
mysterious
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
Loved this so much!! Seriously this is how you do genre fiction right. An ode to Shirley Jackson and Daphne du Maurier that is colored brilliantly by its historical setting and described with lush, vivid images. As a work of horror, this checked all the right boxes for me: a richly described house that feels as much like a character as the people who live inside it, a genuinely frightening premise, and a ghost story informed by the historical terrors of life under colonialism. The perfect homage to gothic fiction with a unique spin!
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
3.5
3.5 stars!
This was the final book of the Year of Sanderson Kickstarter, and as a love letter to fans of the cosmere it was incredibly sweet and fun to read. Like the other secret projects, this one is another sort of experimentation - one that didn’t land for me as much as <I>Tress</i> or <I>Yumi</i>, but absolutely worth reading nonetheless!
The implications of this book when it comes to <i>The Stormlight Archive</i> are massive and make my head spin 😳
This was the final book of the Year of Sanderson Kickstarter, and as a love letter to fans of the cosmere it was incredibly sweet and fun to read. Like the other secret projects, this one is another sort of experimentation - one that didn’t land for me as much as <I>Tress</i> or <I>Yumi</i>, but absolutely worth reading nonetheless!
The implications of this book when it comes to <i>The Stormlight Archive</i> are massive and make my head spin 😳