Casey

As always, a great story from TJ

Reviewed: 06-26-24

Short but sweet, this is an extension of thinking from a a few other books that I enjoyed thoroughly.

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Mono No Aware!

Reviewed: 08-18-23

It took me two tries to get this book started, but I couldn’t be more glad I gave this another shot. This book is now winding up in my top 10 best reads of all time. Sometimes your mindset just isn’t open to a book, so if you are like me and tried this and didn’t get sucked in, try again!

As a gay man that just hit 50, this book spoke to me on a level I don’t think any other book has. This story takes place across the entire life of a man Cyril, starting at boyhood and following all the way through. I found such immense connection with the idea that when you are young and angry before coming out, you can be immensely selfish and live in the stories in your head, especially if you loved a straight friend. Thankfully, as you grow you and expand emotionally you find more empathy and a wider view of the world and how and where you fit in. This book narrows in on this idea in such a way that it touched me deeply and I found, for the first time, this may not be as an uncommon feeling as I thought (again, too much time on my hands in my youth to think only about me I guess).

The story and writing are both deeply sad, touching, and always tempered with dry and dark humor, beautiful imagery and description that was both deep and economic. I found myself both laughing and crying equally and with equal satisfaction and could viscerally feel the world that Cyril lives in. I highly recommend this book if you are feeling a bit wistful and looking back on your youth. It brought the Japanese literary concept MONO NO AWARE to the fore for me. One of my favorite feelings. Enjoy it!

A note on the narrator: An exceptional job. The Irish accent bring so much to the reading of this book that I cannot imagine having read it and not listened. I found a deep empathy in the reading, bravo!

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For fans of Fairy Tale

Reviewed: 08-05-23

I recently re-discovered Stephen King, by reading Fairy Tale. I so thoroughly enjoyed that book that I was looking for something along the same lines. King somehow writes children so perfectly and both Fairy Tale, and this book have the same texture and feeling of childhood. While this book is not perfect, as you’ll see from every other review, it’s solidly suspenseful, fun, exciting, and I definitely thoroughly enjoyed every moment. As the story comes to its climax, you realize there’s a message that addresses topical worlds concerns. Definitely pick this up. If you read fairy tail and you’re looking for some thing that has a similar texture.

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I sort of fought reading this book- Silly me!

Reviewed: 03-07-23

Wow, this book was an absolutly surprising treat. I'm not a huge Stephen King fan, I've read quite a few of his books, but it's not my go-to by any stretch, and the idea of fairytales are also not exactly in my wheelhouse so I sort of fought reading this book. It wound up being in my top three reads of last year. First off, I found the writing so intimate, compelling and the voice was just really something special. I felt so intimatley connected with the charcters and locations and the story is so playful and surprising yet familar (like a fairy tale should) it really propells you at a very wicked rate. I actually loved the vaugue 1950's Americana vibe that runs through much of Kings writing in this book. As a gay man I was reluctant to give over to this but once I let go I was totally rewareded. Do yourself a big favor and start reading this today!

AUDIOBOOK: I absolutely adore this narrator and felt that he added an immense amount to the reading of this book. My best friend read this at the same time, and we both felt like HALF of the pleasure in listening to this in book was the spectacular narrator and how perfectly he fit the main character as well as his miraculous voice shape-shifting for the others in the book!

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Next level creepy fantasy with spectacular narration!

Reviewed: 10-29-22

If you love a long book, with serious world building at its core, with many twists and turns, this is for you. Imagine a Dickensian vibe mixed with a creepy Baroque fantasy and put in a blender with some Cronenberg-style visuals and you just start to get at the deep and vivid vibe in this book. I was so excited to have the world continuing to unfold for me and there is even a very cool little map at the front this book, that I missed reading the audiobook. The locales sort of build upon each other, starting in the slums where there is mud that is semi-alive and creates “flukes” or Cronenbergian style creatures with multiple limbs that live only for a moment and ending up in lavish palaces that have a Mervyn Peake kind of style. Each environment has a whole world of characters to match its intricate visuals. The people start to really embody the spaces they are in and work hand in hand with the visualizations created to really build something incredibly deep, rich and intricate.

You will be able to envision every aspect of this book as the descriptions and world building are some of the best I’ve read this year. But you will never be able to guess how the story unfurls. I was continuously surprised and delighted at the directions this book took. Just give it a few pages and if it seems to speak to you, you are in for an amazing ride. I found each location more surprising and exciting than the last and was propelled through this book at a feverish pace.

AUDIOBOOK: I highly recommend reading this as an audiobook, the narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, does an absolutely brilliant and magical job. The voices the narrator creates are so particular and bring to mind such incredible visuals, that you will fall for many of the characters simply based on their dialog and voice acting.

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9 people found this helpful

If you watched the film…(SPOILERS)

Reviewed: 02-20-22

Tight, taut, and beautiful. For those of you who watched the movie on Netflix there is a lot more to explore here. It was interesting to see through the eyes of many of the characters and explore areas that were not visited in the film. I hate to say it but the casting of the movie was so well done that I couldn’t not see the actor who played Peter when I read the book. Definitely a beautifully written story with a subtle and semi-complex method for explaining how Peter plots his revenge on Phil. Worth reading even if you saw the film. The writing alone is fulfilling.

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1 person found this helpful

This is a gay classic for a reason...

Reviewed: 01-25-22

This is a gay classic for a reason. Like everything I have read from Mary Renault– simply exquisite writing. While the time in which this was written, 1953, prevents any real description of physical love I found this warm, highly intelligent, and perfect for an Anglophile like myself. I constantly found myself looking up some subject or other from the era in almost every chapter (Pink Gin, drippings, colloquialisms, fabric, military references, architecture, etc.). This opened wikipedia exploration into so many interesting things from the time that the book consumed much of my thought even when not reading. The restraint the author had to show exploring gay subject matter mixed with the language of the era, had me so enthralled that this aspect alone was reason enough to enjoy the book and really something to savor.

Understanding gay culture and mindset right after WWII was incredibly interesting and if you are an Anglophile, a history buff, or love an intimate internal portrait, you will find so much here that will spark your imagination and interest. Highly recommend this if you liked Renault’s other books like The Last of the Wine or The Persian Boy. Oh, and it’s not one of those old LBGTQ books where the characters are all miserable or end up dead. This is a great one.

AUDIOBOOK: A spectacular job by Joe Jameson, he added so much to the reading experience and character development. This is one of those books that you are glad you listened to and didn’t read as the voice acting added such an incredible amount texture and depth.

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3 people found this helpful

Woah! This was not what I had expected.

Reviewed: 01-07-22

Ultimately this is an incredibly rich world of subtle magic and a love story, hidden for most of the book in complicated relationships and societal norms– strange semi-magical societal norms for sure.

The magic aspect is quite restrained, as it only seems to exist in one way- binding memory to books, which i found super interesting and even a meta commentary on writing and reading at some points.

The world-building is on a par with the best I've ever read. I found that out of everything this book has to offer, and its a lot, the world building, descriptions of the characters and environments, clothes, nature, etc. were so magnificent that I felt an actual shift in my reality when I moved from the book back to my life. This so rarely happens but when you find a book that does this for you, it can mean everything for a short time. It's simply immersive.

Something that I really appreciated was that none of the characters are truly black-and-white and everyone exists on a level of gray (morally, personality, "good vs bad") so there was a naturalness mixed into this world of strange restrained magic and richness to each of the main characters that we so rarely see in "fantasy."

I'm sure you'll read reviews that say this book is a bit of a "slow burn". Which it is, but I believe because the world building is so rich tactile, and spectacular there is never a moment of "too slow" as you constantly are aware of where you are, who you are with, how they feel, and you can feel it, touch it, taste it, at every moment. So while it takes a while for some things to happen in some sections I was thrilled to be in the realistic moment as I knew everything was purposeful.

There were a few moments where I expected specific, maybe cliché, outcomes but every turn I was surprised, excited and loved where I landed.

As you can see I liked it, lol. One review I read often in the comments before reading was that there are 3-4 parts, and the world shifts considerably in each part. I was prepared and anxious about this. In the end I found the fact that these incredible shifts in perspective we actually part of what I loved about reading this, as I was always surprised at where we end up. I would feel a bit sad to lose some of what a previous part had to offer but within minutes I was excited to be propelled to the next story arc.

Some parts are more focused on the "love story" and veer a bit away from the magic or tension but I found these equally satisfying and exciting.

AUDIOBOOK: I highly highly highly recommend the audiobook here. The narrator is nonpareil. The voice acting is some of the best that I've ever heard. The character of Emmett is done so perfectly that you can see him, his teeth, his mouth, etc. from the voice acting. This is a case of the perfect narrator cast for the perfect book. Really!

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7 people found this helpful

Exciting and wildly interesting technology

Reviewed: 07-16-21

I really enjoyed the world-building in this book. While some of the LGBTQ romantic relationships were a little pedestrian, overall the character development and world building is phenomenal. I loved all the human-cyborg stuff as well as the way aliens were depicted with their culture, science and technology. This reminded me ever so slightly of Becky Chambers book “a long journey to a small angry planet”, so if you enjoyed that book I’d say you would enjoy this. Very surprising and cool. Definitely not what I expected when I started it and I found the sci-fi elements very fresh, new and exciting.

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1 person found this helpful

beautiful/casual and a unique tone of voice

Reviewed: 04-12-21

This series has become of one of my new favorites. The writing is so beautiful and casual and the tone of voice throughout is incredibly warm and inviting. I found the tone to be one of the most succeussfull things about all of the books in this series. I usally dont love short stories as I want to be immersed in a story for a longer bit of time but the pacing of all of these stories are perfection. This book reminded me why I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers which many have called "cozy sci-fi." While I wouldnt call this "cozy sci-fi" it had a simlar effect on me, a deep connection with the main character though a warm tone that really allows you to feel like you get Murderbot and their vibe very deeply. I also loved the ambigous or non-existent sexuality or gender. I waited for so long to read these and know wonder what the heck I waited for. I cant wait to read the longer book! Get this asap! I highly reccommend the audiobooks as the narrator is spectacular.

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1 person found this helpful