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Revolutionary in the most entertaining way

Revisado: 02-29-24

It breaks all of the rules with perfect, satisfying fury. The weaving of history, legend, science fiction, and metaphor is pure genius. I've never been someone who was into giant mech suit type stories - I don't know whether I'm more blown away by how profound it was or by how engrossed I was. My favorite thing about it is how unapologetically feminist it is. It's about class, ethnic minorities, warfare, criminal justice, systems of control and queer characters and relationships, but the feminism doesn't take a backseat ever, it almost made me realize how rare that is. The narration is absolutely perfect too. This is definitely a case where it's not just more convenient to listen to the book than read it, it's actually additive.

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Absurd even by romcom movie standards

Revisado: 12-20-23

I was actively annoyed as I listened to the end. Read like an essay question on a test where you ran out of time halfway through but knew you would be graded on the presence of a conclusion. Like the set up is fine but suddenly we're speed-running the part where they fall in love, so you have grown adults who think they've always been in love because they kissed once, never spoke for years and then hooked up while extremely drunk. I would be worried for them if I could suspend disbelief long enough.

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Shockingly Delightful

Revisado: 09-06-23

I really can't believe how good this was. All of the voice performances were excellent - so natural that sometimes it was genuinely hard to comprehend that these were actors and I wasn't just actually overhearing conversations. Which is down to the writing too - Bastone pulled off a multi faceted magic trick here. A 5 hour conversation between strangers flirting on a bus and navigating travel inconveniences in real time sounds like a real life scenario I would be desperate to drown out with a different audiobook, but when I tell you I packed up nearly my entire apartment and was so engrossed that it felt like the easiest thing in the world. And if I listed everything that happens over the course of this story it would sound over the top even for Hollywood, but darned if in the telling it didn't sound like just a crazy day a friend might tell you about over dinner. I love every single character, even the ones we only heard about - how I wish I could stick around to meet Vera and Paloma! And my soul feels more whole after listening. I don't even know how that happened.

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So much sexism, so much SA

Revisado: 08-21-23

It reads more like a swashbuckler romance from the 90’s than contemporary sci-fi. The main character processes absolutely everything through the filter of gender. It’s exhausting. Every man she encounters is either threatening her virtue or defending it because of their chivalry. Every decision she makes takes into account her vulnerabilities as a woman. Her main recourse to get out of scrapes is hope a man rescues her or attempt to use her womanly wiles. For some reason, the last straw for me was when she wanted to tell a man he was more decent than she had thought, but the only way she can think to express that is by telling him that another character was wrong, a woman COULD come to love him. I can’t even hear that line in anything other than the baby voice woman used to use in old B movies. I’m stopping at 6 hours in so I can’t give a full content warning, but there’s already been a pretty intense and graphic attempted assault scene and another female character has been carried off with that intention. There’s also A LOT of threats, speculation, general talk etc about SA. Also, the main character’s frequently discussed humor is…I can’t even say bad, because most of it would barely even register as jokes if other characters weren’t constantly talking about it. And it’s her primary personality trait so that’s extremely fun.

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I did not want to lose these characters

Revisado: 11-07-22

Wonderful writing. Thrilling, funny, sexy, inventive. I would like to just hang out with our heros for a few more books.
And Greg Tremblay's performance was spot on. Thank you for this.

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Paint by Numbers Harry Potter Fanfic

Revisado: 03-02-22

This story seems to have started its life as Ginny Weasley/Luna Lovegood fanfiction, and the author seems to want you to know that from all the little hints like the roommate editing a Harry Potter fanfiction rarepair event. She definitely wants you to know that it's a Pride & Prejudice fusion, at least inasmuch at it's like what if stodgy person + less stodgy person? And, there's nothing inherently wrong with any of that, but one of the things about fanfiction is that if people already care about the characters and the relationship, you can write a pretty bland, unoriginal story and it'll still be pretty enjoyable to those people. But I don't care about those characters, and this book did not make me care about these versions of them, to make them fit into the modern world, she took away even the very little bit that made them likeable in HP, and she took away all of the drama and awkward charm of Pride & Prejudice. They're such stock characters, who would not actually work together, and every single element in the story is a well worn trope. When even the sex scene was so boring I had to force myself through, that's really not a great sign, it wasn't even a particularly poorly written sex scene, I just did not care about a single thing or person in this book. I gave up 4/5 of the way through bc I got tired of dreading recreational reading like it was math homework. Actually I've enjoyed math homework more.

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The Worst Part Is the Misogyny

Revisado: 12-01-20

To be clear, there is fierce competition. From the character name "Dank" to the narrator's truly insufferable voice for the best friend, or choice to give Dank a faux British accent when he's supposed to be from Alabama, to the amateurish writing style, to the fact that there is just. no. plot. But the misogyny wins out - the nemesis in class is literally called "the town slut" by our hero, and "pure evil" for the crimes of being pretty and dating boys she and her friend have coveted. I kept thinking we would get details about how terribly she's bullied them but no. She's just pretty and popular. Meanwhile, as the star quarterback joining their table points out, our poor unfortunate heroes are the star basketball player, "his girlfriend," and the homecoming queen. Oh and the oh so charming thing Dank first says to our hero? "Wow a female who can actually admit she's wrong and say sorry?" Ladies don't you just love it when a guy disdains women but notices that you're Not Like Other Girls (TM)? Then he gets smart points for his completely uncritical analysis in class that Apollo represents the rational, the male, while the Furies represent the feral and female. Dank goes on to date the nemesis, while telling our hero how much it so sickens him to touch her. Seriously, this poor girl. The first glimpse we get of sympathy for her is when her ex boyfriend of 3 years, who sat by while our heroes talked shit, only chiming in to say that he never really cared about her that much, finally says "she has issues that make her act this way." "This way" being walking into the room with a tight dress and her hands on her date's arm in a way that seems slutty to our main character. I'm sure our hero is going to find out something about her home life that will make her feel bad for judging her so harshly but the idea that someone needs to show you their secret pain before you refrain from slut shaming them is no progress at all. Anyway I can't get past the bad fan fiction writing to get that far.

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Like meeting with a dietician

Revisado: 06-24-19

I was expecting this book to be more about examining weight loss science and debunking myths, but, while there is some of that, I wouldn't say it's the focus. The author is not a scientist or science journalist, but a dietitian, who spent years working with clients one and one. And that is what this book feels like, an extended meeting with a dietitian. The focus is on practical advice, pep talks, and reframing thoughts and feelings around food. There were a couple of principles that I am optimistic about implementing, like focusing on what you're eating more of (vegetables), rather than avoiding foods, but while I think it's worth trying, she didn't actually back that advice up with anything, just repeated it many times. As far as I know, eating unlimited fruits and vegetables is just as likely to make me gain weight as lose it. On another note, this book is aimed at urban, professional, young millennial women. There is a whole chapter (out of 11) about how to handle happy hour, another on how to order delivery, another on not being affected by food bloggers and bragging social media posts. None of these things apply to me in the least, and I'm actually a city dwelling, millennial woman... just an anti-social one who lives in a restaurant desert. If you are the intended audience, and want to see a dietitian without seeing a dietitian, I do recommend the book. The narration and writing style are very personable. There is definitely some good information, especially for people who are relative beginners, or have been tossed in the winds of fad diets. If you're already a pro at reading labels, eating whole, primarily plant based foods, and could tell with a glance that ketogenic is bs, you might be a little bored.

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So boring

Revisado: 06-23-19

Could not care about any of the characters, the language is trite, the pace is so very slow. Even events that should be exciting are told in a way that is boring for reasons I can't pinpoint. I gave up less than halfway through, so it's possible it picks up, but it just didn't seem worth it to me to finish. I was hoping it would remind me of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama, which is a masterpiece of spare prose, but instead it gave me somewhere between that book and the truly awful sequel that Clarke let a scientist with no writing experience write for some reason. I gave it two stars instead of one because it's an interesting conceit, it isn't misogynistic or offensive in any way, and the prose isn't fan-fiction level bad, just boring.

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Funny, Satirical, Ultimately Cheesy

Revisado: 07-16-18

I hoped that the excellent satire of act 1 would develop into something a little deeper. It did, but in a very cheesy "be yourself!" way, that I would have liked even less as a teenager. The characters aren't really developed past tagline personalities, with the slight exception of Petra. The way that the trauma of almost dying several times would actually affect a bunch of teenagers is completely ignored. But it's good fun, and the satire is funny enough to make it worthwhile.

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