Reviews and Comments

It's not like this was bad, it just wasn't super gripping and I kind of expected a larger story from Leckie. I think there were a lot of really interesting world-building elements here about how the aliens process time and space and the resulting ways they view humans but that stuff is sort of the backdrop for Leckie's exploration of character issues revolving around trauma and loneliness and making choices. Those dramas are interesting too but overall the book felt too small for a space book.

I kept expecting this to get more interesting or science-fictiony but it was pretty slow. Like a short story expanded to a novella and even the novella was too long. Kinda interesting discussions on the edges about what happens after robots take labor and people don't have that to trade on anymore. But that was about it.

Felt unfinished in some ways, like a lot of foreshadowing threads about the downfall of the system weren't explored, but overall an enjoyable book. It was only lightly satirical, or way dry or something. I expected it to be sillier, but it seemed almost sincere.

This book was interesting in terms of one of the narrators being an artist and being compelled to work in a weird way, but there was also a sexual tension subplot that was pretty weird and didn't seem to fit well.

This one seemed formulaic, especially compared to The Husband's Secret. It came after, which makes sense. Seemed like it was templated like the last one, but less interesting because the plot device of the memory loss and the split time story telling was kind of boring / artificial. Still, nice character depictions and understanding people's internal dramas, but ultimately, felt cookie cutter.

A comic memoir. This book seemed insane, because it was about how this guy managed when his wife ducked out and had an affair lasting years. Ultimately, I was more hooked by the wife's story and her unhappiness, she even gets a chapter in her own voice here. Pretty funny throughout as well, the writer has a lot of great one liners.

This one was pretty good. Kind of like Sally Rooney methadone while waiting for another one of hers. I liked all the characters and their drama seemed real and relatable as they loved people and got their hearts broken. Set in Ireland too which is interesting and a bit exotic.

This book was totally wacky. Narrated by a wife talking about how she's obsessed with her husband but also tests him all the time and wishes he would do more for her. But it gets more and more unhinged throughout. Maybe satirical, but also no winking if so. Translated from French so maybe that's why it's hard to say how funny it's supposed to be.

An interesting story, mainly due to the meta-fictional elements. Lots of fantasy remixes here with deliberate winking by an unusual narrator. Overall, though, the stakes of the story never really grabbed me.