newwavepolly
I was really disappointed in this book. I excepted it to be great but it was really kind of a nightmare to read. Despite the credit it gets for being a really well written, classic novel, I thought it wasn't too well written, with repetitive, almost perfunctory sentence structure and besides a few articulate, insightful passages the writing was overall juvenile. It was incredibly long-winded, with pages dedicated to describing the most mundane details and interactions that were completely insignificant to the plot or characters.
This complaint falls more under personal preference I guess, I'm really not a fan of the method of characterization used. Instead of developing characters through their actions, thoughts and interactions with other characters, the characters personalities/motivations/complexities are explained in detail within the narrative. The characters thought processes at various times in the novel (and these processes appear for most characters despite it being centred primarily around Francie) are also explicit explanations of their attempted characterizations. All this is presented to the reader as fact, rather than letting the reader infer the characters personalities and motivations organically for themselves. It felt like a third-party analytical essay on the characters embedded into the story.
I know this book is pretty beloved and maybe there's something about it I'm missing or not getting, but I was underwhelmed and thought it was ok at best.
It wasn't a terrible book, and would probably hold a lot of appeal for middle schoolers. Hasn't inspired me to read further in the series.
:(My head spins a little thinking about how much happened during the course of this book. Towards the latter quarter of the book, references to events that happened earlier felt like they happened in a different book; this was so long and involved and captivating. Hugo has a unique storytelling technique that I really enjoyed - it read like being told a story aloud. The multitude of characters are easy to love and invest in, but it goes without saying this story is really sad and things are pretty awful fir everyone.
It wasn't a bad book, or badly written, and it hasn't curbed my desire to read other Ian McEwan books. The plot and characters were completely improbable, and the descriptive passages were long winded. Besides that it wasn't THAT bad, just sooo... meh.
On the basis of my personal enjoyment of reading this book, it's a solid three stars. I've debated a bit with giving it four stars because I loved the themes present, and the messages and points it was trying to make, but overall I just didn't like it enough to warrant four stars.By far the best parts of White Teeth were the parts centered around the teenage children of the two central families. I found those characters and their stories interesting and compelling where the stories of the family patriarchs were dragging and repetitive. I liked the look at the so-called multicultural England through the point of view of the teenagers. Their narratives were abundant in the themes of race and class and showed the identity struggle and casual racism they were exposed to as a result of being a minority race in a white place.
I also found the Chalfen family interesting, if insufferable. They are a large perpetrator of casual racism and ignorance, despite their boasting of high IQs and being largely intellectual. Through the PoV of the characters Irie, Millat and Alsana they're a kind of villain but in reality they just hold the typical ignorance and unawareness of a white, middle class family. One of the standout displays of ignorance and unawareness is in Marcus Chalfen's reaction to other people's reaction of his work in and books about genetics. He genuinely can't understand why people (particularly people of colour) would look at his work in genetic manipulation on a mouse and jump to a eugenic genocide of minority races by a society that puts white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes on priority.
Zadie Smith's prose and writing style was wonderful, and thematically White Teeth was great, but the narrative and characters left something to desire. I can't pinpoint the exact reason why this book was a bit meh, besides the fact that it wasn't incredibly intriguing or enjoyable. I don't really like that I didn't enjoy this books so much, I was hoping to love it and become a fan of Smith.
It was enjoyable and well written, just a little dull. There isn't much going on and it's a bit too similar to Pride and Prejudice.
This was an absolute nightmare to read. So dry, long, and repetitive. I read the first quarter, skimming most parts, then gave up and read only the fairy tales I was most familiar with.
I really did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I finished it yesterday and I'm still a little overwhelmed about the whole thing. This is the most I've been emotionally invested in a character in a really long time. The book itself drags in places, and I found myself skimming some parts rather than reading them. Because of this I fluctuated in what I thought would be my star rating for this book; the first half was a five, briefly in the middle it was a 4, but by the end it was a five just for how much I actually cared. Not a person to really care for romantic subplots, I genuinely rooted for the pairing of Pip and Estella and found myself anxious about their fate. Great Expectations is filled with diverse, interesting characters who are easy to root for (or against), and despite the drama and seriousness of the plot, it's written with much humour. As my first Dickens' novel, I was surprised by how easy this was to read (and read quickly).
Much easier to read than Trainspotting, but lost a lot of whatever it was that made Trainspotting so great. The first third of the book starts so well and is really on Trainspotting level, but the remainder of the book is unnecessarily long and gratuitous.
A lot happens in a short amount of time. The plotting is a little off to me. It seems more concerned with diving right into action and plot than developing the world and characters then pacing itself. The actual world of Discworld is obviously vast, unique and well thought out and I hope the pacing and development evens out in the sequels.
Nobody is reading a Snooki book and expecting great insight. She's obviously no Tolstoy, but A Shore Thing wasn't the worst thing I've ever read (or even the worst thing I've read this week). Just like every other ghost written celebrity book, it's superficial, silly and dramatic. But it is entertaining and fun. If you can appreciate something like Jersey Shore (or any other given reality tv show) for what they are - mindless entertainment - you can enjoy this book. It also deserves a bit of credit for its surprising moments of positive messages of female empowerment (this is seriously a story of a girl who gains independence from a controlling boyfriend and decides what to do with her future and a girl who realizes she's way too in love with her life to try so desperately to find a boyfriend). But that could just be my own bias of thinking Snooki is really a covert feminist figure for just doing her own thing and not caring about other people's (usualy unjust, always a bit gendered) criticism.
This was pretty bad. I expected something more, but it was just the same trite, juvenile young adult romance. The kind that seems to be written by a 12 year old who knows nothing of love or human relationships. The plot was silly, over dramatic, convoluted, and under-developed. Once you think it can't get any more ridiculous, something else completely unnecessary and dramatic happens (for one paragraph, never to be mentioned again). Overall, this seemed more like bad fanfiction (of some already bad media) rather than a real story.
It's obviously not Harry Potter 2.0, and if you read this expecting it to be Harry Potter 2.0 you'd be disappointed. Despite falling short in comparison (as everything Rowling does post-Potter would), it's more than a good read. It's a slow starter but once you are familiar with all the characters and their individual story lines, it becomes quite compelling. And to echo was pretty much everyone has said about The Casual Vacancy, Rowling obviously excels at writing teenagers.
A very sweet, touching book about a lovely person. Also probably the best book I'll ever find in a Dollarama.
