fedelikeslego's reviews
64 reviews

Il diavolo nel cassetto by Paolo Maurensig

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mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I wanted to give it 4 stars, but then I read the last 10 pages. They were so bad I changed my whole mind.

Pro:
  • I enjoyed the style.

Cons:
  • There was no need for that plot twist. It didn't make sense, things weren't explained well (except for the dog episode and the cliff one), and it just sounded stupid. I loved the town story and the books, and the story about the devil, but the end just doesn't make sense at all.
  • There was no need for this thing about a novel, in a novel, in a novel (three!!!!). The first two "boxes" appear for like a couple of lines at the beginning and at the end for no reason. It would have been better with just the main novel.
  • This whole things about foxes just doesn't make sense at all. You could take it off and nothing would change, in fact, it would just be better and make more sense. 
  • Some characters (the vet) didn't make sense at all, again, you could take it off and nothing would change, in fact, it would just be better and make more sense.
  • I would have loved so so so much to know more about the people of the village. 
Tegumenta. Dizionario emozionale by

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Recensione no spoiler, non dico niente che non faccia parte della trama principale, conosciuta e pubblicizzata. È presente un piccolo spoiler ma è nascosto e segnalato.

Due parole: che schifo. Idea bellissima ma esperimento terribilmente mal riuscito. Leggerlo è stato un orribile parto, mi sono dovuta obbligare a finirlo. Ho visto molti commenti positivi ma io non riesco a farmi ingannare "facilmente" dalla bella poesia (che dura mezza riga). Ci sono frasi molto carine ma i commenti inutili di Luca e Tea sono talmente tanti, e dico talmente tanti (tipo il 90% del libro), che ti fanno perdere tutta la bellezza. Il dizionario emozionale è la parte peggio riuscita, ed'è un peccato perché è proprio lì che si sarebbe dovuta trovare la poesia. Sono presenti talmente tanti termini inutili (né poetici, né utili ai fini della trama), che non ci capisci un c***o, nel frattempo ti sei dimenticato della bellissima frase letta prima e non fai che chiederti "Ma che sto leggendo? Qual'è il punto? Sono scemo io?", e allora rileggi la stessa cosa cento volte, senza che questa migliori. 

Tea de Girolamo è completamente inutile. Sarebbe stato più sensato farla intervenire solo nell'introduzione e alla fine, invece (per fortuna neanche troppo spesso) se ne esce interrompendo le lettere del dottor. Chenosi con i commenti più inutili che potrete mai leggere (quasi della serie, "Il cielo è blu" - Dott. Chenosi; "Il dottor Chenosi sta dicendo che il cielo è blu, molto audace da parte sua" - Tea de Girolamo; non sto scherzando quando dico che sono tutti inutili e fastidiosi). Anche il personaggio di Lei è completamente inutile, non ha letteralmente nessuno scopo nella storia, se fosse stato eliminato la trama sarebbe rimasta esattamente identica, eppure metà libro è comunque su di lei.

Il libro non solo è terribilmente scritto, è anche terribilmente impaginato. Non mi puoi mettere una lettera di tre pagine con dei documenti medici in mezzo. Perché mi fai fare avanti e indietro ottocento volte? Mettilo alla fine e stop. E poi, perché mi obblighi a fare avanti e indietro anche ogni santa volta che dici un termine medico inventato e con 12 significati? Peggio ancora quando la definizione del termine ti rimanda a un'ulteriore definizione che ti devi andare a cercare 40 pagine dopo. Non riesco neanche a dirvi quanto sia fastidioso questo terribile labirinto. Da una parte questa "intricazione" è  carina perché il personaggio principale del libro è la pianta della "Condanna", che si "arrampica" nei personaggi e nei luoghi del borgo; dall'altra però... è eseguita male, malissimo.

Tralasciando l'orribile scrittura, la storia era carina, ma anche qui, poteva essere sviluppata meglio. Non fatevi ingannare dalla pubblicità che è stata fatta, il mistero è praticamente inesistente. Mi è piaciuta  la trama principale, questa potente "pianta della Condanna" che ammalava e ammaliava gli abitanti del borgo. Le storie dei pazienti sono carine ma sfortunatamente a metà libro si nota fortemente come la fantasia dello scrittore inizi a svanire. È stato anche troppo improvviso il passaggio dagli ultimi casi medici al crollo dell'edificio, sembra completamente impossibile.
il libro personalmente sarebbe dovuto finire con la morte della maga, l'uomo giallo e il neonato erano due personaggi insensati, stupidi e mal eseguiti. La mia parte preferita è stata quella dei 12 uomini che hanno rapporti con il mondo vegetale, anche la storia di Tea che non torna a casa è molto carina


Avrei apprezzato molto di più se il libro fosse stato ridotto di ⅔: la trama sarebbe risultata più piena, la poesia sarebbe risultata più "potente", definizioni e personaggi inutili sarebbero stati tolti e il libro sarebbe diventato un capolavoro.

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No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

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challenging informative sad tense medium-paced

3.0

It is extremely difficult to write this review without sounding “bad”. I enjoyed the reading and I’ll write my favourite quotes at the end, but since this is a review about the book, and not what she’s saying, I’ll be a little harsher.  

This short book is a collection of Greta’s speeches. Even if I found some great quotes, hearing and reading speeches are two very different things. This book was short but extremely repetitive, it was annoying reading her presentation of herself every 5 pages (out of 69!). I would have loved much much more to read a single, longer, written-speech that could somme them all. 

Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can 'solve the climate crisis'. But the climate crisis has already been solved.
We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change. - Almost everything is black and white

Some people say that we are not doing enough to fight climate change. But that is not true. Because to 'not do enough' you have to do something. - Prove me wrong

I don't want you to be hopeful.
I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our  house is on fire. Because it is. - Our House is on Fire

I know that since most people are not aware of the full meaning of the climate crisis (which is understandable since it has never been treated as a crisis) a school strike for the climate would seem very Strange to people in general. - I’m too young to do this

When many politicians talk about the school strike for the climate, they talk about almost anything except for the climate crisis. - You’re acting like spoiled, irresponsible children

Where some people seem to be more concerned about the presence in school of some children than the future of humankind. - A strange world

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Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Unlike Convenience store woman, which I hated and couldn’t keep myself to finish it, I liked this. I read it in one sitting and I’m giving it 4 stars just because I enjoyed reading it.

I’m so confused I feel like I’m high. That’s what it feels like at the end of the “experience ”. I felt so high that their discussions had perfectly made sense.

I think that the book could be divided in two parts: 
  • The first ⅓ of the book. Here incest and rape/pedophilia were extremely explicit and I’m not sure I liked that. Even if the love story between the kids was so cute (they were so innocent it didn’t “bothered me that much”), I don’t think that it was necessary to explicitly write for pages about all the sexual intercourses that the protagonist had. It was too much.

  • The last ⅔ of the book. This part was a bit more enjoyable, and it’s more centred about what it means to live in this world and in particular in Japan. Murata definitely makes a perfect description of the Japanese society (it would probably make sense only if you lived in Japan or a similar asian country), it’s just so sad and frustrating. In the last chapter, as i said, I felt like I was high. I’m still trying to process what I red. I’m just confused, nothing else. 

Movie reccomendation
: The Holy mountain (1973), I felt the same way reading the book and watching the movie. Different plot, different settings, same vibes.

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A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return by Zeina Abirached

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emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Premise:
I think that it comes out pretty natural to compare it to Persepolis. The plot is very similar, the historical period is the same, even the artwork is similar, but I didn’t see it as a bad thing. War is war. You can’t just say that Persepolis did it best because war is war, and it’s awful everywhere. This is just a different experience, but still a true story, so we should pay some respects for who lived through it and for who died because of it.

What is it about?:
I found it a “lovely” story. It doesn’t tell us much about the war, but it makes us live with the characters for a couple of hours. We discover what happens “inside the walls” during the war, and how people still try to act “normal” during this awful scenarios. Persepolis is a little different because it’s more of a life-long story, here we’re just spending a typical day with the characters.

The story switches between what happens in the room and the past life of the characters who stay there. This thing comes out pretty naturally in the story line and it adds a lot, in this way we’re able to learn about the culture as well (foods, weddings, maids, games, baby’s names).

Characters analysis:
Some people have criticised the behaviour of the characters, saying that they lacked feelings, such as anger or sadness. According to my interpretation, they are not lacking anything. This people are just trying to live their lives as normal, that’s why they love the little things (coffe, cakes, vodka, tapestry, watering the plants). Some of them are just surrendered by their faith
This happens for example with:
- Anhala, who is unfortunately completely abandoned by the family she grew “What about you? You’re not going with them? Me? Oh, nooo. Canada’s too far away… I’m much to old for that now. […] I’d rather stay here! At least I feel at home here”. Also “Farah’s parents left the country the next day, they moved to Paris […] to wait until the situation in lebanon settled down. They left Anhala behind.”, and at the end “Farah and Ramzi finally got theit visas […]. Farah’s aunt took Anhala in”.
- Ernst, who keeps playing the board game by himself, playing both as himself and his dead brother.


Final thoughts:
The drawings are super cute and they have so many pretty and delicious little details. It took me about 2 hours to finish the whole thing. It’s definitely an easy read and I feel like it’s more of a child reading then Persepolis. I enjoyed it a lot , recommend it!

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Cose Preziose by Stephen King

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 22%.
Storia carina ma mi sono stufata di leggere King, scrive di m***a.
Grammatica della fantasia. Introduzione all'arte di inventare storie by Gianni Rodari

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2.0

Osservazione carine Gianni ma non mi interessano i tuoi ricordi d’infanzia 
Il computer sotto il mondo - Non Ho Bocca e Devo Urlare by Harlan Ellison

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2.0

L'ho letto secoli fa e non ricordo molto, ricordo però che non aveva molto senso e secondo me mancava di qualcosa, avrei preferito fosse più lungo
In nome della madre by Erri De Luca

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Metto due e mezzo perché è il voto più neutro. Cosa dire? Non ci ho capito niente, ma è colpa mia perché non conosco abbastanza ne la maternità, ne la religione, ne la storia per capire questo libro. Religione e periodo storico a parte non mi è comunque piaciuta questa idea di figlio come continuità del proprio essere e corpo femminile come contenitore
Drammi privati e pubbliche virtù. La maestra italiana dell'Ottocento tra narrazione letteraria e cronaca giornalistica by Anna Ascenzi

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informative medium-paced

3.0

Lettura interessante, sinceramente nient'altro da aggiungere, avrei preferito più fatti e meno giri di parole.