Book Blog #313: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

 

Title: Clockwork Angel

Author: Cassandra Clare

# of Pages: 479 (paperback)

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own. Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

Review: I don't think there's much else to be said about this book that I didn't already say about Clare's The Mortal Instruments series almost 10 years ago. Both were written only a handful of years apart - I wasn't expecting any major growth in that span of time and unfortunately was not pleasantly surprised.

The flaw that gets them all - third person POV switching. Honestly, since it was in the third person, the POV switching was less offensive that other books I have read. I wouldn't hold it too much against it even if there was slight overlap with some of the POVs. 

What REALLY annoyed me though (similarly to The Mortal Instruments) was the main character, Tessa. Surprise, surprise, she's a huge book nerd. People who are writers have a higher likelihood to ALSO be big readers, so if I were to take a guess, Tessa has adopted the same love of books that Clare does OR Clare is pushing this character trait to try to make her protagonist more relatable. Try as she might, she tried a bit too hard, and it came off disingenuous.  I'm supposed to believe this girl can only relate to others through relationships she's read about in books, yet also has no problem getting along with the wide variety of personalities around here?

Speaking of wide variety of personalities, while each character is very different, many of them have one over-exaggerated quality that defines them. Will is "tsundere" type, Jem is the un-ironic version of the "me, an empath" meme, etc. It makes the roles they play in the story SO predictable. 

On a positive note, I knew this would be a pretty mindless and quick read because of Clare's simplistic writing style. She reiterates important story points, so it's easy to skim quickly through the book and still basically be able to know what is coming next. It was also pretty easy to visualize each scene in my head - there are a lot of "thriller/horror"-eque moments that I'm sure would play out as a jump scares if it every made it on the big screen...

Not the worst thing I've read, but not a very original piece of fiction either. I probably wouldn't recommend it unless you already liked some of Clare's other books. 

Book Blog #312: Palo Alto by James Franco

 

Title: Palo Alto

Author: James Franco

# of Pages: 211 (paperback)

Genre: Adult, Short Stories, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: James Franco’s story collection traces the lives of a group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. In “Lockheed” a young woman’s summer—spent working a dull internship—is suddenly upended by a spectacular incident of violence at a house party. In “American History” a high school freshman attempts to impress a girl with a realistic portrayal of a slave owner during a classroom skit—only to have his feigned bigotry avenged. In “I Could Kill Someone,” a lonely teenager buys a gun with the aim of killing his high school tormentor, but begins to wonder about his bully’s own inner life.

Review: Palo Alto reads like a book that is written for Franco rather than for a certain audience. As someone who grew up in Palo Alto himself, he is writing to "memorialize his youth" (his words for the essay at the end of the book), so it is difficult to criticize this "artistic" fictional manifestation of his raw childhood experiences. 

And yet criticize is what I'll do. The first major flaw is the POV switching. Since it's a collection of short stories, the perspective is going to change between each story. If this was the only POV switching this could have been fine - one story is completely read through before beginning a completely unrelated story from another high schooler. but unfortunately within each story there is first person POV switching between each chapter.

To make matters worse, the POVs are all told in first person. When I start a new chapter, I struggle to figure out who's POV it is because I have to wait for someone to mention the protagonist's name. Is this a character that was already introduced to us? Have I read from their perspective before? Are they related to any of the other characters I've already been introduced to? There was an instance where I was forming a new character in my head, only to realize the character was the same Teddy from a couple of chapters ago. 

Franco said in his closing essay that he purposefully removed the unifying factor from the collection of stories (so the short stories do not all fall under some unifying theme or purpose). This would be fine if there was more obvious division between each of the stories. But with the way the POV switching was executed, this was not obvious at all. 

This book is short, but it took me forever to read - I was just not interested enough in the short stories to pick it up again. It's a slice of life where each story doesn't necessarily have a strong message nor are the characters very diverse in their personality. All of them read as troubled, dysfunctional, wild, or delinquent, maybe all of the above. Since this is based off of Franco's youth, I'm assuming this is the crowd that he surrounded himself with, but the way Franco portrayed them did not make me any more intrigued to hear these fictional characters' stories. 

Franco of course is no masterful writer. Regardless of where his true passions are, to me he will always be an actor first and a writer second. His simplistic writing style makes his book read like a YA even though the content matter leans more adult. 

I could have lived just fine without reading this book. I feel neutrally about James Franco (he's fine as an actor, but I'm not a big enough fan to just be reading this book because of him). I don't feel as if I gained anything from these short stories either. But that actually feels perfectly fine. Something tells me that it doesn't matter to Franco if anyone likes it or not - he probably would have written it anyway. But in the eyes of a reader, this book was mediocre at best. 

Book Blog #311: Working on a Song: the Lyrics of HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell

 

Title: Working on a Song

Author: Anaïs Mitchell

# of Pages: 257 (paperback)

Genre: Nonfiction, Plays

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis: In this book, Anais Mitchell takes readers inside her more than decade's-long process of building the musical from the ground up--detailing her inspiration, breaking down the lyrics, and offering thoughtful annotations of Hadestown. Fans of the musical will love this deeply thoughtful, revealing, and open look at how the songs from "the underground" evolved and became what they are today.

Review: I love the musical Hadestown, so of course I love the book that describes the process of it becoming what it is today! 

*Disclaimer: I don't consider there to be spoilers in talking about the contents of this book since it is nonfiction. A lot of the points I am talking about here have already been discussed online. I'm also not considering any Hadestown spoilers to be spoilers in this review. 

Hadestown is by no means a new musical - it's been put on as an album and as a production many times before it ever reach broadway. When I was becoming obsessed with the Broadway album, I was surprised to find another album of songs that were similar, but with slightly different lyrics. Turns out some records of other versions of this musical exists out there, and that there is a lot more to the story that what is presented in the Broadway production.

In Working on a Song, Mitchell goes song by song and describes how each on evolved from Off-Broadway (NYTW) -> Citadel Theater in Edmonton -> London's National Theater -> Broadway. The Broadway production is already an amazing masterpiece, but this book shows that even a masterpiece has imperfections. Some decisions Mitchell didn't seem happy about, but cuts and edits had to be made in for the sake not letting any given act run too long or to make it more palatable to a Broadway audience (e.g. cutting out some of the more obviously lines alluding to sexual abuse between Hades and Eurydice). 

It was also cool to hear how the perception of the musical changed from 2006 to now and how different parts of the musical stood out to people depending on the sociopolitical climate (e.g. sexual undertones between Hades and Eurydice's contract during the surge of the #MeToo movement, Hades capitalistic wall during Trump's campaign + presidency). 

The part that stood out the most to me was actually the note on "We Raise Our Cups." Before reading this book, I would almost always listen to the soundtrack all the way through (rather than skipping around to my favorite songs). However, whenever I would get to the final song, I was always pretty disinterested. I wasn't a fan of the song, and the story at that point is over (it felt more like a farewell for the live performance that I didn't feel was necessary when only listening to the soundtrack). I was happy to hear that Mitchell's feelings weren't dissimilar - "I tried to cut 'We Raise Our Cups' from Hadestown in every single production we did post-NYTW" (254). But I was really touched to hear what the song was meant to be saying particularly about the following lines:

Some birds sing when the sun shines bright 

Our praise is not for them

But the ones who sing in the dead of night 

We raise our cups to them

... Some flowers bloom

Where the green grass grows

Our praise is not for them

But the ones who bloom in the bitter snow

We raise our cups to them

I never closely examined these lyrics until this book when Mitchell explains this is meant to be praise for Orpheus "not because he succeeds, but because he tries" (255). The idea that it's not about merely being praised for weathering challenges but also trying for things that might even be doomed to failed (as Orpheus was doomed to fail in this old tragedy). Mitchell relates these experiences to a flower - the flower is the beautiful success that most people see and recognize, but all of the experiences and failures are the seeds and the roots that made the success possible. It really supports the idea that all experiences help build character and make you the person you are today, whether they are good and bad. Just like Mitchell's writing process, even experience that might not seem relevant can result in some sort of success later down the line. 

The meaning of this song is actually very inspiring, especially for those who suffer from imposter syndrome that otherwise might hold them back from certain experiences and opportunities. The worst you can do is fail - and that failure can help bring you one step closer to success somewhere else. 

For fans of Hadestown - I would HIGHLY recommend this book. If you haven't seen the musical yet - I think it is a must watch (regardless if you want to read the book or not) and definitely required content to fully appreciate Working on a Song.

Book Blog #310: The Oceanography of the Moon

 

Title: The Oceanography of the Moon

Author: Glendy Vanderah 

# of pages: 319 (paperback)

Genre: Adult, Romance, Mystery

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Synopsis: After the untimely deaths of her aunt and mother, young Riley Mays moved from Chicago to her cousins’ Wisconsin farm. Here she found solace in caring for her extraordinary adoptive brother, exploring the surrounding wild nature, and gazing at the mystical moon—a private refuge in which she hides from her most painful memories. But ten years later, now twenty-one, Riley feels too confined by the protective walls she’s erected around herself. When a stranger enters her family’s remote world, Riley senses something he’s hiding, a desire to escape that she understands well. Suffering from writer’s block, bestselling novelist Vaughn Orr has taken to the country roads when he happens upon the accommodating, if somewhat unusual, Mays family. He’s soon captivated by their eccentricities—and especially by Riley and her quiet tenacity. In her, he recognizes a shared need to keep heartbreaking secrets buried.

Review: This was just....not good. I wish I didn't waste the time reading it.

I picked this book on a whim - I saw it on the shelf, didn't know anything about it, and saw it was pretty highly rated on Goodreads (with a low but decent amount of reviews). I only let myself walk out of the building with one book that day, and this one was the lucky winner.

I should have left it on the shelf.

Here's what I liked:

- It was a relatively quick read (with spotty reading sessions, I finished it in a week). The writing and plot is simple enough (+ there is some repetitive points) where you can practically skim it and still get the same experience.

- The cover is pretty, in a simple way. Very ambiguous, definitely some better covers out there (and I bet other designers/artists could have come up with a better cover based on the book), but overall I have no problem with it. 

And as for what I didn't like...

The most obvious offender is first person POV switching. I know this is something I am particularly sensitive to a fault about. Sometimes POV switching is justified (although I still believe that every first person POV switching story can be told better from third person and/or without any POV switching). Sometimes the POV switching doesn't even bother me that much because it's not too disruptive to the flow of the story. 

This was not one of those books. The POV switching was COMPLETELY unnecessary - it is a prime example of why I STRONGLY dislike it when a story is told like this. The Oceanography of the Moon is told from two perspectives - Riley's and Vaughn's. Throughout most of the book, these two characters are interacting with each other, which means there's A LOT of duplicate information for the reader to slog through. 

For example, Riley might mention from her perspective that Vaughn seems to be experience a certain emotion, only for Vaughn to tell us in the very next chapter the EXACT SAME THING but from his perspective. The problem? There is NO new information in doing that. Riley's perspective is good enough, and if it's important to know that she is wrong, then we can find out the same time Riley finds out. 

The second offender is the writing itself. I haven't read Vanderah's other books (and based off of this one, I'm not sure I ever will). However, for this book, her writing simply is not believable. Generally, the characters' dialogue does not sound realistic. There's a moment when climate change is mentioned by people who are supposedly passionate about the topic. However, it was mentioned at such a superficial level to the point that I assume Vanderah did not do enough research on climate change to write a character that could convincingly talk about the topic. Additionally, the romantic development is minimal - way too quick for what I would expect based on the characters and the situation they are in. 

Now, I can usually be overly critical and tear apart a trashy romance BUT a lot fo the time I still end up enjoying it because I am a HUGE sucker for trashy romance (or of course non-trashy romance). When I realized this book was not well written, I thought to myself - "at least we will get some good romance action later on." NOT. I can usually ignore poor character building if the author is able to convincingly write about two people's relationship with the assumption they are deeply in love with each other. Unfortunately this didn't work either because all the hot and heavy moments (regardless if there was sex or not) fell flat. I was not emotionally engaged at all. Anytime a romantic moment came up it was either not described in enough detail (physically, emotionally, you name it) or it was cut short to chug along with the plot. 

The final big offender was the plot. I didn't realize there was even an actual story to read until half way through (I went in blind, didn't read the synopsis), which means this book really lacked focus. The beginning part of the story was so full of fluff and boring. I was not interested in any of these characters nor their backstory and didn't realize that Vanderah intended for the reader to be interested in the mystery of Riley and Vaughn's past until half way in or so. I also was curious on if more would come from the "magic" aspect (no, I didn't even know if this was a sci-fi/fantasy or not, and it was not apparent in the beginning of the story either). On the other hand, the second half of the book read like a soap opera (no spoilers) in the way that soap operas make a bunch of "shocking" reveals and random dramatic things happen at "convenient" times. There was no redeeming section of the book. 

I was flip flopping between 1 and 2 stars while I was reading because I wasn't sure if 1 star was too harsh. But by the end, I, not feeling stimulated emotionally nor intellectually by this book, decided that 1 star is appropriate. 

Don't read this book; it's not worth your time.

Book Blog #309: The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

 

Title: The Basic Eight

Author: Daniel Handler

# of Pages: 329 (paperback)

Genre: YA, Mystery, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Meet Flannery Culp, a world-weary high-school senior. She is primed to take on the few remaining obstacles that stand between her and the rest of her life: the SAT, college applications, the fall semester....Mercifully, there are a few distractions: 1) her friends, the Basic Eight; 2) Adam State, the object of her affections. If only things hadn't gotten out of control. If only Flan had stayed away from the absinthe. Then she wouldn't be a topic on daytime talk shows, or incarcerated, or have time to edit her journals....

Review: This lands somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.

I was really struggling through most of this book (I'd say the first 2/3rds were really tough to get through). There's only so much entitled, angsty teen protagonist POV I can stand reading in one sitting - it took me a LONG time to get through it just because I kept putting it down. I even took a break to read Project Hail Mary instead try to mitigate the reader's block that was setting in.

The most interesting aspects of The Basic Eight are that it's told by an unreliable narrator (this part of the mystery of the story - is Flannery telling the truth? Are there hints that indicate otherwise?) and the ending (finally, some mysteries are solved!). The ending was actually what helped me decide on 3 stars - I was actually gripped by the story and wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Additionally, since this book is actually pretty old now, it was interesting to compare with how teenagers were portrayed in YA written 22-23 years ago vs how they are portrayed today. 

That being said, this still does not excuse the earlier parts of the book and how Flannery is just not a very likable protagonist (not even in the love-to-hate type of way). Since this book is her "diary," it's written in her voice (first person), which makes for a somewhat unpleasant read. There's a lot of build up that is unnecessary - a lot of fluff I didn't need to read. 

I really liked the ending, but I don't think it was worth reading (there are better books out there to read that might have the same affect!). I've yet to read a mystery that beats Silent Patient, and after reading this book, that DEFINITELY remains true to this day. 

Book Blog #308: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

 

Title: Project Hail Mary

Author: Andy Weir

# of Pages: 476 (hardback)

Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Adventure

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Review: I loved The Martian, so I was really looking forward to this book! 

The story is told in first person - I've come to realize this is the perfect POV for Weir's books because it's the only way for the protagonists humorous internal thoughts to shine through. The only aspect of this that I didn't like was the time skipping that happened throughout the entire book. The time skips worked out a little better in this book than others since the reader gets to truly experience Grace's POV and his experience of recalling his lost memories. However, the classic problem still stands where I want to learn more about the main plot but end up having to trudge through pages of a flashback.

This leads to the second problem; the first 100-150 pages were really hard for me to get through. I started reading this book a while ago, but it ended up sitting around untouched for long stretches of time just because the beginning part of the book wasn't interesting enough for me to really get into the book. If anyone else has the same problem, I encourage you to push through because the rest of the book went REALLY fast. It's a very gripping story that has a good mix of suspense, despair, humor, and camaraderie.

A lot of the science went over my head; I'm not sure if it's just because this book is longer, but it seemed like there were more scientific explanations in Project Hail Mary than The Martian. I have to admit there was a lot I ended up skimming over (some parts I just wanted to know what happens next, with less interest on the exact science behind how it's happening). 

Highly recommend giving this book a read. Although it's not my favorite book, I definitely enjoyed it. 

Book Blog #307: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

 

Title: The Richest Man in Babylon

Author: George S. Clason

# of Pages: 194 (paperback)

Genre: Philosophical, Finance, Self-help 

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Countless readers have been helped by the famous “Babylonian parables,” hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. In language as simple as that found in the Bible, these fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys. Acclaimed as a modern-day classic, this celebrated bestseller offers an understanding of—and a solution to—your personal financial problems that will guide you through a lifetime. This is the book that holds the secrets to keeping your money—and making more.

Review: I'm on a roll with these 3 star reviews. 

Definitely a huge contrast from Severance; this is very capitalist. While Ling Ma would tell you to NOT work until the end of the world, Clason's parables encourage people to have grit and determination, be hard working, and increase your wealth through smart investments. My favorite quote: “In my youth I looked about me and saw all the good things there were to bring happiness and contentment. And I realized that wealth increased the potency of all these. Wealth is a power. With wealth many things are possible” (p.13). 

This book was okay. Short but not sweet - The Richest Man in Babylon was about 3 times too long. Like a long winded email, the main points could have been easily summarized in a bulleted list (you can find such a list on the Wikipedia page for this book). The parables provide basic financial advice that seem intuitive once you read them, covering the main tenants/rules in broad strokes and thus making it a pretty simplistic read despite the old fashioned language. 

My takeaways were: as long as you are determined to be wealthy, you can be. Once you are determined, seize opportunities because luck comes most to those who do not hesitate. Then, when you have some sort of income no matter how small, save (and keep safe) at least a tenth of it and invest it WISELY (huge emphasis on not making a dumb investment - this point was repeated multiple times throughout the book). Finally, you are rich. 

Congrats! If you read this review, you don't have to read the book. I just saved you a couple hours of reading. In all seriousness, it's not a bad book, but it's long winded; reading a summary would be sufficient. 

Book Blog #306: Severance by Ling Ma

 

Title: Severance

Author: Ling Ma

# of Pages: 291 (hardback)

Genre: Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost. Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

Review: I'm surprised thriller wasn't a top genre for this book. 

It's interesting because this book felt like a cross between the last two books I read: Migrations and Beautiful World, Where Are You. This is probably me noticing small similarities; Ma also doesn't use quotation marks around dialogue like in Beautiful World, Where Are You. Both Severance and Migrations were told in first person with time skipping (something I don't enjoy). However, where Severance and Migrations differ is that Migration's time skips helped build suspense and slowly unveiled a mystery while as Severance attempted to do a lower scale version of this with Candace's life during the Shen Fever, but it's much less exciting.

Beautiful World, Where Are You and Migrations also differ from this book in another major way; these books made me feel something - they touched my heart or evoked emotion (usually sympathy/sadness) at least once throughout their stories. For Severance, I was just scared during some parts (there's always a bit of a thrill when characters are exploring an apocalyptic world and the suspense of what would happen/show up). Candace might have been a more realistic protagonist than Franny in Migrations (and this might have been because Ma may have drawn from her experiences to develop this character since they have similarities in their backgrounds), but when it came down to who's story was more interesting, I would have to say it was Franny's.

This story actually is a little too real; it was written pre-pandemic, but there are some startling similarities between how this dystopian world was impacted by the Shen Fever and how the real world was affected by COVID-19. This is no fault on the author/book, but since everyone has lived through the pandemic, Severance didn't offer much unique perspective in terms of dystopian world building (thus making it less of an interesting story to read). Considering that she wrote this before knowing how COVID was to be handled in our past and present, I do still applaud her unintentional prediction of how the world would respond to a pandemic/epidemic. 

The final gripe I have with this book is that the ending was incredibly unsatisfying to me. It feels like this book should be part of a series, but at the same time I don't know how interested I would be in reading the rest of the series. The ending felt like Ma was tired of writing and left a lot of questions unanswered. Sometimes there's an art of leaving the reader wondering, but in this case it felt like the story barely got anywhere when it suddenly ended.

On a more positive note, I really liked the theme of change vs routine that Ma decided to explore with this book. Set in New York, one of the most upbeat and diverse cities where things seem to be full of change - everything is happening in New York. This backdrop was an interesting choice to show how the people within can still be stuck in a monotonous lifestyle. While Severance's plot an overdone apocalyptic journey, it still sends a powerful message on how a capitalistic society can negatively affect our values and in turn affect how we lead our lives. 

This book had potential, but it falls short. It's a quick read, but I would not be recommending it in a hurry; the theme is worth reading about, but I feel like there are other books out there that will have a similar message AND everything that this book was missing. 

Book Blog #305: Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

 

Title: Migrations

Author: Charlotte McConaghy

# of Pages: 256 (hardback)

Genre: Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Contemporary

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Synopsis: Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool—a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime—it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?

Review: This book was so CONFUSING.

Not confusing in the sense that I didn't understand what was going on in the story, although there is a fair bit of that as you peel the onion on our protagonist's life. I didn't realize that this book would be written in first person, which means she's a bit of an unreliable narrator at times. The story is also presented in slices from her life; sometimes you'll be reading about her present as she follows the terns on their migration to Antarctica, sometimes you are thrown a snippet of her life from her childhood, sometimes you're given a memory from somewhere in between. 

Time skips are always annoying to me as a reader because I always find myself wanting to learn more about a different slice of time but have to read through more boring time slices first before going back to the interesting part. It's frustrating, but I can understand why McConaghy decided to tell this story this way; it adds to the mystery. 

I was honestly surprised that mystery wasn't one of the genres for this book because I think that aspect of it is what kept me coming back to this book. It reminded me a bit of Silent Patient, which also time skipped around. Migrations differs however because I was not completely blindsided as I was in Silent Patient; although I could not predict everything that happened in Migrations, everything was not entirely unexpected either which weakened the shock value upon the big reveals. 

I was almost going to give this book four stars because it had me feeling emotional, especially at the end. When a book makes me FEEL something, that usually means it's a pretty good book. However, I didn't love the McConaghy's writing; the way she portrayed her characters felt unrealistic to me. For example, something felt off with the way she portrayed children; they way they acted seemed exaggerated, like how people would imagine a child would act instead of how they actually are. 

Another aspect I did not like was the first person narrative from Franny; she is such an extreme character since she is a huge environmentalist. It's difficult to be able to read from her perspective and hear her internal thoughts when she's not relatable (I want to help the planet and save the animals as much as the next person, but her love for birds and other creatures goes above and beyond). 

I was also shocked to find that this was basically a dystopia. The world isn't too different from the present, and I don't think this was clearly described in the synopsis. However, this was basically a cautionary tale on what could happen if we are not mindful of human impact on the Earth and other species. While this is a great message, it does come off as preachy since the characters were such extremists. 

So why was this book confusing? I don't know how to feel about it. I was emotionally affected, and even though I cannot relate to Fanny's personality, I still felt sympathy toward her and wanted to know more about her story. This alone would have led me to give it four stars at least, but there were so many other issues that I mentioned above that forced me to dock off an additional star; I think the story is good but the execution could have been better (such as in developing the characters to be more realistic). 

Although it wouldn't be at the top of my list, I would actually recommend this book; it's not that long of a read, and I'd advertise it as a mystery around our protagonist - who is Franny Stone, what is she doing, and why is she doing it? Framed as a mystery, it's actually a pretty gripping story. 

Book Blog #304: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

 

Title: Beautiful World, Where Are You

Author: Sally Rooney

# of Pages: 356 (hardback)

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Review: I was flipping between 3 and 4 stars for this book, but I firmly see it as a four star book now that I finished it. 

I can see why this is "John Green for adults" (where the adult part is that it would be more relatable for adults, and there are more descriptive sex scenes); it scrutinizes the little details in the characters' lives and includes at great length Alice's and Eileen's existential pondering. This leads me to the first aspect that I didn't like about this book; every other chapter or so include a letter (written of course in the first person) between Eileen and Alice. This is where most of the existential pondering occurred, and honestly I was bored of it. They would ramble about religion or something they read recently, and overall it really broke the flow of the story. 

The rest of the book is written in third person, switching between Alice and Eileen for the most part. Rooney takes advantage of the third person POV to also go at great lengths to write flowery descriptions of the characters' situation; this I actually enjoyed sometimes or at the very least didn't mind Rooney including these. I found it helpful to understand the sentiment behind the characters' interactions, and I was better able to visualize the scene. 

Nevertheless, Beautiful World, Where Are You is far from groundbreaking; the TLDR is that four people (Alice, Eileen, Simon, and Felix) all have varying degrees of mundane lives and struggle with happiness in their lives. It's very slice of life, albeit one of the better ones, that depicts the cruel plainness of life and how easy it is (especially in adulthood) to feel lost and lack meaning in one's life. 

Definitely not giving me the warm and fuzzies, but I appreciate that it made me feel a mix of happiness and sadness/sympathy toward the characters; if it makes me feel something then it deserves some brownie points. 

It wouldn't be on the top of my recommended list and definitely won't be for everyone (it took me a while to get myself to sit down and read this book because often times I didn't see where this book was going/what the point was). If you like reading slice of life / people struggling with themselves and their relationships with others while they just live their life, then this is the book for you.