What an exasperating novel! Literally half of it is made up of the most inane, indulgent emails where characters ponder about consumerism and cosmetics and the philosophy of relationships, with zero theoretical background. Literally hundreds of pages of people just saying shower thought nonsense about labor and the exploitation of the global south and being like "idk if that makes sense, I've just been thinking about it." These are the sorts of conversations I have with friends over coffee and they tell me to read a fucking book.
The parts that aren't Wikipedia rehashes are also bizarrely inert. Huge chunks of the book read like alt text (constant plain descriptions of characters opening messaging apps), with almost no character voice because it's written in this detached third person style where everyone is a soup of the author just trying to have a single coherent idea. The back third of the …
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BOOitsnathalie reviewed Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d …
Review of 'Beautiful World, Where Are You' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
What an exasperating novel! Literally half of it is made up of the most inane, indulgent emails where characters ponder about consumerism and cosmetics and the philosophy of relationships, with zero theoretical background. Literally hundreds of pages of people just saying shower thought nonsense about labor and the exploitation of the global south and being like "idk if that makes sense, I've just been thinking about it." These are the sorts of conversations I have with friends over coffee and they tell me to read a fucking book.
The parts that aren't Wikipedia rehashes are also bizarrely inert. Huge chunks of the book read like alt text (constant plain descriptions of characters opening messaging apps), with almost no character voice because it's written in this detached third person style where everyone is a soup of the author just trying to have a single coherent idea. The back third of the book is the best by a wide margin because the emails go away and characters actually interact, but even that is too little too late because it's coming in with dynamics that are explicitly pulling from decades of friendship we barely see. We're meant to assume these characters are best friends despite only having uncomfortable interactions and bizarre emails. Then - psych - it's COVID time and we're talking about how actually nothing changed and isn't it sad we can't go to the cinema. Just exhausting stuff.
Finally, there are ongoing gestures at queerness which are so fucking obnoxious. Two of the characters are supposedly bisexual but everyone craves the traditional stability of heteronormativity. The book literally ends with a character getting pregnant and talking about marrying her childhood best friend and moving to the country.
This will certainly appeal to a certain type of middle class liberal that fancies themselves progressive but refuses to engage with actual materialist reality. Why consider decades of theory when you can act like you're the first person who has ever thought maybe it's wrong to subjugate much of the world to preserve an expendable lifestyle. Rooney is so transparently trying to come to terms with her own wealth and celebrity and it's just embarrassing.
What a fucking let down after Normal People.
The parts that aren't Wikipedia rehashes are also bizarrely inert. Huge chunks of the book read like alt text (constant plain descriptions of characters opening messaging apps), with almost no character voice because it's written in this detached third person style where everyone is a soup of the author just trying to have a single coherent idea. The back third of the book is the best by a wide margin because the emails go away and characters actually interact, but even that is too little too late because it's coming in with dynamics that are explicitly pulling from decades of friendship we barely see. We're meant to assume these characters are best friends despite only having uncomfortable interactions and bizarre emails. Then - psych - it's COVID time and we're talking about how actually nothing changed and isn't it sad we can't go to the cinema. Just exhausting stuff.
Finally, there are ongoing gestures at queerness which are so fucking obnoxious. Two of the characters are supposedly bisexual but everyone craves the traditional stability of heteronormativity. The book literally ends with a character getting pregnant and talking about marrying her childhood best friend and moving to the country.
This will certainly appeal to a certain type of middle class liberal that fancies themselves progressive but refuses to engage with actual materialist reality. Why consider decades of theory when you can act like you're the first person who has ever thought maybe it's wrong to subjugate much of the world to preserve an expendable lifestyle. Rooney is so transparently trying to come to terms with her own wealth and celebrity and it's just embarrassing.
What a fucking let down after Normal People.
BOOitsnathalie rated Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead: 4 stars
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead by Tom Stoppard (An Evergreen original -- E455)
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told …
BOOitsnathalie reviewed The lesser bohemians by Eimear McBride
A young Irish drama student in 1990s London makes new friends, establishes a place for …
Review of 'The lesser bohemians' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
A really challenging read. The prose is astounding and some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, but the narrative it's in service of is troubling. Broadly about how trauma becomes a constant lens through which you view relationships, and the difficulty of ever coming out of it, mediated through a 20 year age gap relationship. The degree to which the dynamics are addressed was never particularly satisfying to me, and becomes very explicitly romanticized as if the problems were purely historical.
There is so much I love about this book - its tenderness, intimacy, and willingness to engage bluntly with challenging topics - but by the end it becomes too infatuated with its characters to commit to the end that's coming. Will be thinking about it for a long time all the same, please do read the content warnings if you are considering picking this up.
A really challenging read. The prose is astounding and some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, but the narrative it's in service of is troubling. Broadly about how trauma becomes a constant lens through which you view relationships, and the difficulty of ever coming out of it, mediated through a 20 year age gap relationship. The degree to which the dynamics are addressed was never particularly satisfying to me, and becomes very explicitly romanticized as if the problems were purely historical.
There is so much I love about this book - its tenderness, intimacy, and willingness to engage bluntly with challenging topics - but by the end it becomes too infatuated with its characters to commit to the end that's coming. Will be thinking about it for a long time all the same, please do read the content warnings if you are considering picking this up.
There is so much I love about this book - its tenderness, intimacy, and willingness to engage bluntly with challenging topics - but by the end it becomes too infatuated with its characters to commit to the end that's coming. Will be thinking about it for a long time all the same, please do read the content warnings if you are considering picking this up.
BOOitsnathalie rated White Tears: 2 stars
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
From one of the most talented fiction writers at work today: two ambitious young musicians are drawn into the dark …
BOOitsnathalie reviewed Normal People by Sally Rooney
Rubbish. A quarter of it is love scenes. Very steamy like fifty shades of grey
Review of 'Normal People' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
A compulsive and brutally nihalistic romance novel. This is my first Sally Rooney and not at all what I expected, but it's very easy to see why she has become so highly regarded. She writes her characters with such tenderness and empathy, in spite of their confounding decisions and cycles of self alienation. At the same time they possess an acute, almost meticulous physical awareness that nevertheless only makes their pain more acute.
This book is predominantly about an inability to connect to others, of superficial interactions insufficiently standing in for a deeper connection the two protagonists crave. The conclusions they arrive at are frustrating, but so deeply articulated that they make a sort of sense. Nobody is capable of unpacking their adolescent (and ongoing) trauma because it requires a vulnerability that frankly terrifies them. So they dissociate, attempt to mirror each other, cling to the closest approximation of happiness …
A compulsive and brutally nihalistic romance novel. This is my first Sally Rooney and not at all what I expected, but it's very easy to see why she has become so highly regarded. She writes her characters with such tenderness and empathy, in spite of their confounding decisions and cycles of self alienation. At the same time they possess an acute, almost meticulous physical awareness that nevertheless only makes their pain more acute.
This book is predominantly about an inability to connect to others, of superficial interactions insufficiently standing in for a deeper connection the two protagonists crave. The conclusions they arrive at are frustrating, but so deeply articulated that they make a sort of sense. Nobody is capable of unpacking their adolescent (and ongoing) trauma because it requires a vulnerability that frankly terrifies them. So they dissociate, attempt to mirror each other, cling to the closest approximation of happiness they can find. It is unrelentingly bleak and I admire the willingness to refuse an easy resolution.
The degree to which this articulates an actual worldview of impossible codependency is murkier for me, with a lot of baggage of outdated psychology being inserted as an inherent cause of the isolation everyone feels (rather than, say, the class disparity that is crudely gestured at but far outside the novel's interests). I cannot begrudge it too much as it is well in line with characters who themselves have very little awareness of the reasons they are so unhappy, but I am skeptical about the ways that viewpoint inevitably gets expanded to be some sort of social truth.
Mostly I am surprised by the book's coldness. I devoured it in a few days and came away feeling profoundly empty. I do mean this as a compliment of sorts.
This book is predominantly about an inability to connect to others, of superficial interactions insufficiently standing in for a deeper connection the two protagonists crave. The conclusions they arrive at are frustrating, but so deeply articulated that they make a sort of sense. Nobody is capable of unpacking their adolescent (and ongoing) trauma because it requires a vulnerability that frankly terrifies them. So they dissociate, attempt to mirror each other, cling to the closest approximation of happiness they can find. It is unrelentingly bleak and I admire the willingness to refuse an easy resolution.
The degree to which this articulates an actual worldview of impossible codependency is murkier for me, with a lot of baggage of outdated psychology being inserted as an inherent cause of the isolation everyone feels (rather than, say, the class disparity that is crudely gestured at but far outside the novel's interests). I cannot begrudge it too much as it is well in line with characters who themselves have very little awareness of the reasons they are so unhappy, but I am skeptical about the ways that viewpoint inevitably gets expanded to be some sort of social truth.
Mostly I am surprised by the book's coldness. I devoured it in a few days and came away feeling profoundly empty. I do mean this as a compliment of sorts.
BOOitsnathalie reviewed The Stranger by Albert Camus
Thirty years after its original publication, The Stranger remains among the most influential books of …
Review of 'The Stranger' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
Read this while trying to work through my thoughts on Arrest of a Stone Buddha (a game that blends French nihilism with Hong Kong action... definitely an interesting combination). It's a very compelling and enraging book, I think if I'd read this as a depressed teen alongside Myth of Sisyphus it would have been an instant favorite.
A decade later I don't have much use for nihilism and find the exercise here cloying and unmoving. I will give it props for being the type of philosophy I so strongly disagree with that reading it does prompt me to think a hell of a lot about why I am so put off, which I suppose is the purpose of philosophy in a way.
Read this while trying to work through my thoughts on Arrest of a Stone Buddha (a game that blends French nihilism with Hong Kong action... definitely an interesting combination). It's a very compelling and enraging book, I think if I'd read this as a depressed teen alongside Myth of Sisyphus it would have been an instant favorite.
A decade later I don't have much use for nihilism and find the exercise here cloying and unmoving. I will give it props for being the type of philosophy I so strongly disagree with that reading it does prompt me to think a hell of a lot about why I am so put off, which I suppose is the purpose of philosophy in a way.
A decade later I don't have much use for nihilism and find the exercise here cloying and unmoving. I will give it props for being the type of philosophy I so strongly disagree with that reading it does prompt me to think a hell of a lot about why I am so put off, which I suppose is the purpose of philosophy in a way.
BOOitsnathalie rated Animorphs: 5 stars
Animorphs by Katherine A. Applegate (Animorphs, #3)
When Tobias, Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Cassie were given the ability to morph, they were also given one very important …
BOOitsnathalie reviewed The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
The Summer Book (in the original Swedish Sommarboken) is a book written by Finnish author …
Review of 'The Summer Book' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
A charming and reserved collection of vignettes wherein very little happens but everyone comes out a bit wiser. I have been a huge fan of Jansson's Moomin series for years and didn't realize until the introduction that this was also written by her (was looking for summer books and, well...). Her voice is very similar to her comics and still a delight, though I feel like something is lost without her illustrations. She has a way of describing the world like a depressed and cerebral child, whichs works amazing when paired with the silly Moomin designs but here just creates a sense of absence. In a way it's fitting for the themes of death, growing old, bodies wearing down, but feels more an accident of form than an intentional tone.
Was not quite the carefree summer getaway I was looking for, but I'm beginning to notice that most media centered …
A charming and reserved collection of vignettes wherein very little happens but everyone comes out a bit wiser. I have been a huge fan of Jansson's Moomin series for years and didn't realize until the introduction that this was also written by her (was looking for summer books and, well...). Her voice is very similar to her comics and still a delight, though I feel like something is lost without her illustrations. She has a way of describing the world like a depressed and cerebral child, whichs works amazing when paired with the silly Moomin designs but here just creates a sense of absence. In a way it's fitting for the themes of death, growing old, bodies wearing down, but feels more an accident of form than an intentional tone.
Was not quite the carefree summer getaway I was looking for, but I'm beginning to notice that most media centered around summer is almost by necessity a meditation on the passage of time and the implacable sadness that follows.
Was not quite the carefree summer getaway I was looking for, but I'm beginning to notice that most media centered around summer is almost by necessity a meditation on the passage of time and the implacable sadness that follows.
Margaret Simon can't wait to grow up. Her new friends swear they'll tell each other …
Review of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
This remains the defining coming of age story. Still the blueprint for movies like Lady Bird of Eight Grade, just a foundational text for people interested in grounded stories of adolescent ennui. Was shocked to see this came out in 1970, feels very daring for a children's book back then which tracks given people are still trying to get it banned today.
I am a sucker for religious uncertainty, struggling with femininity, and school drama so this ticks all the boxes. Margaret has a great voice that balances overly thoughtful narration with heaps of tween angst. Her titular reframe is initially a bit silly, but once the book begins to explore her anxieties around religion (stemming from pushy adults on all sides), it takes on a greater significance as it's clear her relationship with god means a lot to her despite having no name to put to it.
I do …
This remains the defining coming of age story. Still the blueprint for movies like Lady Bird of Eight Grade, just a foundational text for people interested in grounded stories of adolescent ennui. Was shocked to see this came out in 1970, feels very daring for a children's book back then which tracks given people are still trying to get it banned today.
I am a sucker for religious uncertainty, struggling with femininity, and school drama so this ticks all the boxes. Margaret has a great voice that balances overly thoughtful narration with heaps of tween angst. Her titular reframe is initially a bit silly, but once the book begins to explore her anxieties around religion (stemming from pushy adults on all sides), it takes on a greater significance as it's clear her relationship with god means a lot to her despite having no name to put to it.
I do wish the emotional beats weren't reserved for the last 30 or so pages. Much of the book is straightforward scenes of children existing in fairly unremarkable ways (which is itself interesting), but a lot of the major threads go unresolved as there simply aren't enough pages to handle them once the ball starts moving. It has also aged quite severely in many places, which would be alienating enough if everyone wasn't also extremely rich.
Glad to have this as a reference text for similar media, and excited to check out the recent movie which seems to complete the circle of grounded coming of age stories that are maybe more popular than ever.
I am a sucker for religious uncertainty, struggling with femininity, and school drama so this ticks all the boxes. Margaret has a great voice that balances overly thoughtful narration with heaps of tween angst. Her titular reframe is initially a bit silly, but once the book begins to explore her anxieties around religion (stemming from pushy adults on all sides), it takes on a greater significance as it's clear her relationship with god means a lot to her despite having no name to put to it.
I do wish the emotional beats weren't reserved for the last 30 or so pages. Much of the book is straightforward scenes of children existing in fairly unremarkable ways (which is itself interesting), but a lot of the major threads go unresolved as there simply aren't enough pages to handle them once the ball starts moving. It has also aged quite severely in many places, which would be alienating enough if everyone wasn't also extremely rich.
Glad to have this as a reference text for similar media, and excited to check out the recent movie which seems to complete the circle of grounded coming of age stories that are maybe more popular than ever.
BOOitsnathalie reviewed 克拉拉与太阳 by Kazuo Ishiguro
克拉拉是一个专为陪伴儿童而设计的太阳能人工智能机器人（AF），具有极高的观察、推理与共情能力。她坐在商店展示橱窗里，注视着街头路人以及前来浏览橱窗的孩子们的一举一动。她始终期待着很快就会有人挑中她，不过，当这种永久改变境遇的可能性出现时，克拉拉却被提醒不要过分相信人类的诺言。
在《克拉拉与太阳》这部作品中，石黑一雄通过一位令人难忘的叙述者的视角，观察千变万化的现代社会，探索了一个根本性的问题：究竟什么是爱？
Review of '克拉拉与太阳' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
Continuing to work my way through Ishiguro's bibliography in a completely arbitrary order. This touches on a lot of similar themes as Never Let Me Go - systemic caretaking, human costs of technology, being beholden to a world you barely understand - but with less clarity and emotional sophistication than made that book so exceptional.
It's quite interesting to see how in the 15 or so years, Ishiguro is now working through new concerns around AI and climate change as opposed to more allegorical technology. I think this one may end up aging better than I feel about it today, but I was left feeling like it never quite arrived at the ideas it was toying with. This is partially by design as it's told effectively from the perspective of a child, but even taken in perspective with the premise it's quite detached. In particular wish there was a bit …
Continuing to work my way through Ishiguro's bibliography in a completely arbitrary order. This touches on a lot of similar themes as Never Let Me Go - systemic caretaking, human costs of technology, being beholden to a world you barely understand - but with less clarity and emotional sophistication than made that book so exceptional.
It's quite interesting to see how in the 15 or so years, Ishiguro is now working through new concerns around AI and climate change as opposed to more allegorical technology. I think this one may end up aging better than I feel about it today, but I was left feeling like it never quite arrived at the ideas it was toying with. This is partially by design as it's told effectively from the perspective of a child, but even taken in perspective with the premise it's quite detached. In particular wish there was a bit more of an idea what this near future society is like. We hear about it in incongruous whispers but it ends up feeling like hypotheticals than anything coherent with the rest of the text.
An enjoyable read despite its frustrating inconclusions. Shockingly breezy for an Ishiguro book, I tore through this much faster than anticipated which may also speak to the reservations above.
BOOitsnathalie rated Animorphs - Người hóa thú #2: Vị khách: 5 stars
Animorphs - Người hóa thú #2: Vị khách by Katherine Applegate
Rachel is still reeling from the news that the Earth is secretly under attack by parasitic aliens. And that she …
BOOitsnathalie reviewed Animorphs by Katherine A. Applegate (Animorphs, #1)
Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night …
Review of 'The Invasion' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Wasn't allowed to read these growing up so now doing my own belated book club. Blown away at how good this is right out of the gate. Has a great campy sentai-show setup but pulls no punches with how gruesome this intergalactic war actually is. All of the morph descriptions are straight body horror, and the violence only gets away with being this gory because of Halo rules (it's not blood, it's yellow goo).
Our first POV, Jake, is fully the likeable leader boy archetype, but the character voice is so strong it hardly matters. Particular highlight is dog brain, which is exactly what you'd expect but even more charming. Under the YA nonchalance is a surprisingly affecting tragedy, particularly Jake's distant relationship with his brother (I imagine we'll see even more devastating scenes from the other POVs whose family life seems even more complicated).
Great start to this series. …
Wasn't allowed to read these growing up so now doing my own belated book club. Blown away at how good this is right out of the gate. Has a great campy sentai-show setup but pulls no punches with how gruesome this intergalactic war actually is. All of the morph descriptions are straight body horror, and the violence only gets away with being this gory because of Halo rules (it's not blood, it's yellow goo).
Our first POV, Jake, is fully the likeable leader boy archetype, but the character voice is so strong it hardly matters. Particular highlight is dog brain, which is exactly what you'd expect but even more charming. Under the YA nonchalance is a surprisingly affecting tragedy, particularly Jake's distant relationship with his brother (I imagine we'll see even more devastating scenes from the other POVs whose family life seems even more complicated).
Great start to this series. I am sure it goes off the rails over the next 50 (!!) books, but I'm fully bought in right now.
Our first POV, Jake, is fully the likeable leader boy archetype, but the character voice is so strong it hardly matters. Particular highlight is dog brain, which is exactly what you'd expect but even more charming. Under the YA nonchalance is a surprisingly affecting tragedy, particularly Jake's distant relationship with his brother (I imagine we'll see even more devastating scenes from the other POVs whose family life seems even more complicated).
Great start to this series. I am sure it goes off the rails over the next 50 (!!) books, but I'm fully bought in right now.
BOOitsnathalie rated The Buried Giant: 4 stars
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Buried Giant (Paperback, 2016, Vintage Books)
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope …
BOOitsnathalie reviewed Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
Girl in a Band: A Memoir is a 2015 autobiography written by former Sonic Youth …
Review of 'Girl in a Band' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
Had high hopes this would finally make a Sonic Youth fan out of me but I'm honestly shocked how boring I found it. Kim Gordon has a pretty abstract, detached way of writing that makes all the events described feel very distant and almost like they were happening to someone else. Maybe it's just that I'm not very interested in middle class art gallery culture, or that I also read Michelle Zauner and Carrie Brownstein's memoirs recently and both were much more engaging.
I will continue to not have any real feelings about Sonic Youth I guess. Truly zero opinions on this band I spent 300 pages learning about.
Had high hopes this would finally make a Sonic Youth fan out of me but I'm honestly shocked how boring I found it. Kim Gordon has a pretty abstract, detached way of writing that makes all the events described feel very distant and almost like they were happening to someone else. Maybe it's just that I'm not very interested in middle class art gallery culture, or that I also read Michelle Zauner and Carrie Brownstein's memoirs recently and both were much more engaging.
I will continue to not have any real feelings about Sonic Youth I guess. Truly zero opinions on this band I spent 300 pages learning about.
I will continue to not have any real feelings about Sonic Youth I guess. Truly zero opinions on this band I spent 300 pages learning about.