Writing 52+ reviews is hard. Writing 52+ reviews is harder when I’m supposed to be writing my dissertation, and not reviews. Oops! Well, anyway, here we are. The Gone-Away World is a very strange book. It’s also a very good book, but it’s a good book that took me awhile to get into and appreciate. Harkaway’s prose is witty and often nonsensical, filled with non-sequiturs and descriptions that seem to mean absolutely nothing, and yet somehow conjure a well-staged — if surrealistic — scene, and […]
Spark of Hope in New YA Novel
This new YA novel has the makings of another multi-book blockbuster like Harry Potter or Hunger Games, but it’s not derivative or formulaic. Sabaa Tahir makes beautiful use of her cultural background (the child of Pakistani immigrants in the Mojave Desert, an outsider who did not feel particularly brave growing up) and vivid imagination to create a world that is dominated by dark spirits and a powerful militaristic elite. The Martials (who remind me of the Spartans) have ruled ruthlessly for 500 years; they’ve enslaved […]
Boobs: Does Size Really Matter?
I admit that I picked up this book purely because of the title. I was expecting something a little goofy, and that’s what I got, but not in the way I expected. The action takes place in Orario, an area defined mostly by the existence of The Labrynth, what seems to be a cave of who-knows-how-many-levels filled with monsters. Adventurers come to town to slay the monsters and earn both reputation and money. Also in the case of the hero, Bell Cranell, the admiration of […]
If his middle name is Luck, his first name must be Bad.
One of the worst curses you can fling at a Discworld character is “May you live in interesting times,” hence the title of the book. But aside from it’s promising title, the 17th Discworld book was a bit of a letdown after the fitting soulful musings of Soul Music, but it almost made up for it in sheer volume of jokes and witticisms alone. I wanted to quote something practically every other page. The perfect Discworld book is funny, biting, and deep-hitting. This one was […]
Sex, Drugs and Music With Rocks In.
“He had the feeling, once again, that he’d missed out on something somewhere. He’d never really realized it until the last couple of days. He didn’t know what it was. He just wanted to do things. He didn’t know what they were. But he wanted to do them soon.” “There are millions of chords. There are millions of numbers. And everyone forgets the one that is a zero. But without the zero, numbers are just arithmetic. Without the empty chord, music is just noise.” It […]
I See Dead People
This review is a few weeks late, but I originally chose this book as an antidote to tax season stress. And it worked! Thank god for books. I’ve read (and enjoyed) a few of Maureen Johnson’s books in the past and this one didn’t disappoint. Rory Deveaux leaves Louisiana for a London boarding school, Wexford Academy, while her parents work in Bristol. In London, she’s greeted with Rippermania. There’s been a murder near the school, closely mimicking Jack the Ripper’s first victim. As the victims […]
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