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takemyhand's reviews
142 reviews
White Noise by Don DeLillo
2.0
I don't have much to say, simply because I've done all the analysis, as this was a mandatory reading for class. This was...a special novel to say the least, but I didn't hate it so, that's that.
Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger
3.0
one plot twist on top of another, this book was a rollercoaster from start to finish i loved it
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
4.0
3.5 STARS
I marked this as 4 stars as I’d rather give it a higher rating on GoodReads because, boy, was this a rollercoaster of emotions. The Silence of the Girls tells the story of Briseis, queen-turned-slave during the Trojan war after the fall of her city to the hands of the Greeks. This book wishes to tell the story of the Trojan war through the eyes and experiences of the women who suffered of it, rather than the men who caused it, and works through Briseis’ life in the war camp, as the slave of the man who murdered her entire family.
I think I was meant to read retellings, and specifically greek mythology retellings and that this was my life’s most joyful something. My favorite genre of stories, told through the lens of a woman whose story is so often forgotten, pushed aside in favour of the Great heroes of the war, and this was a refreshingly feminist novel, although, somewhere along the lines, I became increasingly interesting in Achilles’ character rather than Briseis.
It is also almost impossible to not compare it to the other Trojan war retelling The Song of Achilles for the simple reason that they are both set in the same time, and have the same goal of uncovering the forgotten stories of this period of history. Pat Baker does a relatively good job at the story-telling and it is rather easy to understand Briseis’ despair, as she went from having an entire city bend at her orders to being the one to serve the men in the camp. It’s a story of grief, of pain, of the horrors of war and the condition of women, and I think it was as beautifully told, as it was painful.
I marked this as 4 stars as I’d rather give it a higher rating on GoodReads because, boy, was this a rollercoaster of emotions. The Silence of the Girls tells the story of Briseis, queen-turned-slave during the Trojan war after the fall of her city to the hands of the Greeks. This book wishes to tell the story of the Trojan war through the eyes and experiences of the women who suffered of it, rather than the men who caused it, and works through Briseis’ life in the war camp, as the slave of the man who murdered her entire family.
I think I was meant to read retellings, and specifically greek mythology retellings and that this was my life’s most joyful something. My favorite genre of stories, told through the lens of a woman whose story is so often forgotten, pushed aside in favour of the Great heroes of the war, and this was a refreshingly feminist novel, although, somewhere along the lines, I became increasingly interesting in Achilles’ character rather than Briseis.
It is also almost impossible to not compare it to the other Trojan war retelling The Song of Achilles for the simple reason that they are both set in the same time, and have the same goal of uncovering the forgotten stories of this period of history. Pat Baker does a relatively good job at the story-telling and it is rather easy to understand Briseis’ despair, as she went from having an entire city bend at her orders to being the one to serve the men in the camp. It’s a story of grief, of pain, of the horrors of war and the condition of women, and I think it was as beautifully told, as it was painful.
The Wicked King by Holly Black
3.0
“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.”
Book two of The Folk of the Air series is definitely my favourite of the series. Skipping ahead the introduction, as soon as it starts, the author throws the reader back into the universe, starting right where we left it. Jude has power now, more than she could have ever dreamed of, but it has cost her. Betrayals over and over again, bluffs, and breaking of promises, The Wicked King covers it all, and Jude suffers a great deal of deception in this one.
In this one, however, compared to my reading of the first volume, I was paying a lot more attention to the romance sub-plot of the story : Cardan was a much more present character, and with that came a lot more interactions with Jude, and obviously, the tension between the two was palpable. It was so well-done, reading about the evolution of their relationship (not romantically, just the relation between them two). Holly Black knew how to keep me on the edge of my seat, waiting for more, wanting more, really. The plot twists were beautifully executed, genuinely had me gasping multiple times throughout the book, because some of them were so unexpected. But this is really the beauty of it all, how as a reader, I was so engrossed in the story, and the current happenings, I didn’t see the bigger picture, and, once the gears were set off, it was a domino effect of surprises.
I truly have nothing more constructive to say, I loved this, I loved Jude in this book, I adored Cardan, I loved the tension, I loved the universe. It was truly a splendid sequel !
Book two of The Folk of the Air series is definitely my favourite of the series. Skipping ahead the introduction, as soon as it starts, the author throws the reader back into the universe, starting right where we left it. Jude has power now, more than she could have ever dreamed of, but it has cost her. Betrayals over and over again, bluffs, and breaking of promises, The Wicked King covers it all, and Jude suffers a great deal of deception in this one.
In this one, however, compared to my reading of the first volume, I was paying a lot more attention to the romance sub-plot of the story : Cardan was a much more present character, and with that came a lot more interactions with Jude, and obviously, the tension between the two was palpable. It was so well-done, reading about the evolution of their relationship (not romantically, just the relation between them two). Holly Black knew how to keep me on the edge of my seat, waiting for more, wanting more, really. The plot twists were beautifully executed, genuinely had me gasping multiple times throughout the book, because some of them were so unexpected. But this is really the beauty of it all, how as a reader, I was so engrossed in the story, and the current happenings, I didn’t see the bigger picture, and, once the gears were set off, it was a domino effect of surprises.
I truly have nothing more constructive to say, I loved this, I loved Jude in this book, I adored Cardan, I loved the tension, I loved the universe. It was truly a splendid sequel !