These reviews, which were promoted in CBR social media, on our homepage, and in Pajiba Love, appear below by review publication date, not by date featured.
Godzilla: The Official Movie adaptation by Greg Cox
I’m a fan of Kaiju in general, I absolutely love Pacific Rim and hated the western world’s first attempts at Godzilla movies (they were not good). But they tried again back in 2014 and I gave it a shot at the cinema because Ken Watanabe and it seemed a bit more ‘accurate’ to my image of the Big Guy. As a movie it wasn’t perfect and characterisation felt a bit flat so when I did a rewatch over New Year I was steered in the […]
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro My rating: 4 of 5 stars I chose this for the CBR15 Passport Challenge in the “Travel Your Bookshelf” category. The first time I read Buried Giant, it was going to be a 3 star rating the ending saved it for me. That moment on the shore with Axl and Beatrice gets me in the feels. It’s such sharp, intense writing that leaves a strong impression on a reader. That deserves recognition. Originally, I thought the plot didn’t have much […]
Trell: Nothing But The Truth by Dick Lehr
I recently took my daughter, (Bibliophile here on CBR), to a local book store to spend some gift money she had received. She chose this book after one of the staff recommended it, and I said it sounded interesting. You should soon see a review from her about this book but you get mine first. Then you can read the book and decide who is right. 🤣 Perhaps it was my background in law or because criminal justice was the area I was always interested […]
A Man Named Doll by Jonathan Ames
I liked the other Jonathan Ames books I’ve read, and learned ten seconds ago that he’s the creator of Bored to Death, which, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a show on HBO Max (which I haven’t seen, but which multiple people have told me I’d like). Anyway. A guy named Happy Doll – for real, his parents named him that…seriously? a little much right off the bat – is an ex-cop who’s now a fairly unsuccessful, i.e., not busy, private detective. A friend comes […]
The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope
I love a good immersive world in fantasy and speculative fiction, where you feel like you could be in the setting. The Monsters We Defy takes place in Washington, DC in 1925, and Clara Johnson, the main character, can communicate with spirits. I listened to the audio book of this, and Shayna Small does an exceptional job with the voices and the setting and making you invested in the story. I am not surprised to see this won the Audie award for best audio book […]
The Dark Forest by Ciuxin Liu
** some thematic spoilers ** I loved The Three Body Problem and had high hopes for the sequel. But I found this book so hard to get through. It’s dense. The first half or so is so slow. I persevered, because I also found the first book hard to get into and all that critical acclaim had to have some justification. But as the pace started to pick up, more dimensions of disappointment unfolded. Even before the nihilistic Battle of Darkness took place and the […]
