Books #44

[wishiniwasskinny]

I read My Friends recently and felt it was ok. I enjoyed Beartown but I feel Backman’s writing in My Friends is too pretentious and overly sentimental. I didn’t hate the story but his writing style was meh. My mum also read it after me and struggled to keep going back to it. She commented on the repetition that he does throughout the book.

I also felt the same about East of Eden as one of the other commenters. It dragged for me as the description was far too full on.
Again, the story was good so I’m looking forward to the adaptation with Florence Pugh

 

[Booklover]

finally reading broken country and good lord it’s just an unbelievably bland main character making terrible life choices over and over

also i hate when books try to tell you that a romance was life altering and never to be gotten over and show you precisely none of why that would be. basic teenage nonsense. move on, woman!

also the whole buildup to how the kid would die. oh no, not this rotten old oak tree that we’re told a billion times might fall on someone WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN

Harsh @LaBlonde

 

[CommentBelow]

finally reading broken country and good lord it’s just an unbelievably bland main character making terrible life choices over and over

also i hate when books try to tell you that a romance was life altering and never to be gotten over and show you precisely none of why that would be. basic teenage nonsense. move on, woman!

also the whole buildup to how the kid would die. oh no, not this rotten old oak tree that we’re told a billion times might fall on someone WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN

ALL OF THIS YES!

Just beat me in the face with the foreshadowing, it’d be more subtle.

 

[LaBlonde]

ALL OF THIS YES!

Just beat me in the face with the foreshadowing, it’d be more subtle.

IKR?!

also, when i read the synopsis i assumed that she and gabriel had been together for ages and so this was an actual adult meeting someone you’ve never got closure on, not a teenage boyfriend who she appeared to have been dating for like six months maybe.

the writing is also awful tbh. if it wasn’t on my kindle, it would be joining crawdads.

 

[Carapop]

... if it wasn’t on my kindle, it would be joining crawdads.

The ultimate insult!

Give it to me with Ministry of Time and we will sit happily together in the corner! I really enjoyed it. 🫣

 

[emmer_moans]

finally reading broken country and good lord it’s just an unbelievably bland main character making terrible life choices over and over

also i hate when books try to tell you that a romance was life altering and never to be gotten over and show you precisely none of why that would be. basic teenage nonsense. move on, woman!

also the whole buildup to how the kid would die. oh no, not this rotten old oak tree that we’re told a billion times might fall on someone WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN

I gave up on this one about 3 chapters in because I just knew she would PMO

 

[Pinkii]

finally reading broken country and good lord it’s just an unbelievably bland main character making terrible life choices over and over

also i hate when books try to tell you that a romance was life altering and never to be gotten over and show you precisely none of why that would be. basic teenage nonsense. move on, woman!

also the whole buildup to how the kid would die. oh no, not this rotten old oak tree that we’re told a billion times might fall on someone WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN

This exactly how I felt about heart the lover and that relationship! It was a standard uni relationship, GET OVER IT

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

IKR?!

also, when i read the synopsis i assumed that she and gabriel had been together for ages and so this was an actual adult meeting someone you’ve never got closure on, not a teenage boyfriend who she appeared to have been dating for like six months maybe.

the writing is also awful tbh. if it wasn’t on my kindle, it would be joining crawdads.

We need a special category for books: "Down the back of @LaBlonde's bookcase bad"

I nominate The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

 

[LaBlonde]

We need a special category for books: "Down the back of @LaBlonde's bookcase bad"

I nominate The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

i’m amazed that one isn’t down there given how much i hated it i think i just launched it into my donation bag instead (the second level of what happens to books i hate).

 

[chickhicks86]

We need a special category for books: "Down the back of @LaBlonde's bookcase bad"

I nominate The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

That was one of the first books I read off the back of the recommendations from the Tattle book threads, and I couldn't understand why everyone liked it! Maybe I should have paid more attention!

 

[LaBlonde]

I gave up on this one about 3 chapters in because I just knew she would PMO

i finished it and can inform you that she gets WORSE

admittedly i think it’s the writing quality but she straight up has an affair and feels nothing about it. no guilt, no complicated feelings, no regret, no passion, no emotions… it’s literally i’m having an affair. twenty pages later… still having the affair. we’re meant to think it’s the huge firey life changing thing and she’s just… having an affair i suppose. would be rude not to.

the writing style was so weird too. it’s not even telling not showing (or vice versa). it’s just nothing.

 

[Also_smoke_and_mirrors]

i finished it and can inform you that she gets WORSE

admittedly i think it’s the writing quality but she straight up has an affair and feels nothing about it. no guilt, no complicated feelings, no regret, no passion, no emotions… it’s literally i’m having an affair. twenty pages later… still having the affair. we’re meant to think it’s the huge firey life changing thing and she’s just… having an affair i suppose. would be rude not to.

the writing style was so weird too. it’s not even telling not showing (or vice versa). it’s just nothing.

This is one of the next ones on my TBR and you have just confirmed my fears

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

I finished Moderation and it was....fine. Acceptable.

But there's a blurb for a book by the same author which appears to be a load or tedious, self-important essays about reading and one section in the blurb says she "build(s) a moral case against...Joan Didion" which is just so flabbergasting that I don't even know where to start.

Someone who wrote something as aggressively mediocre as Moderation trying to take down Joan Didion is a level of arrogance that I genuinely can't fathom.

 

[Carapop]

I finished Moderation and it was....fine. Acceptable.

But there's a blurb for a book by the same author which appears to be a load or tedious, self-important essays about reading and one section in the blurb says she "build(s) a moral case against...Joan Didion" which is just so flabbergasting that I don't even know where to start.

Someone who wrote something as aggressively mediocre as Moderation trying to take down Joan Didion is a level of arrogance that I genuinely can't fathom.

I wonder is it irony or parody or one of those things. Otherwise HOW VERY DARE SHE