philantrop's reviews
1806 reviews

Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez

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

2.5

There’s really not much to say about this beyond the fitting blurb. It’s a nice little story of little consequence and length. If you like the author’s other works, you will neither regret reading this one nor missing out on it. 

Three stars out of five.




You, with a View by Jessica Joyce

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

After two extremely bad novels, I needed a winner to overcome a severe reading slump - and this one served very well. Amusingly, the one genre I never used to read - romance - led me straight back to reading.

Noelle, going on 30, has lost her beloved grandmother Kathleen, her job and her flat; the latter, adding insult to injury, leading to her moving back into her childhood bedroom at her parents’… 

At that point, still deeply grieving, Noelle finds out that Kathleen had a great love before her eventual husband. Her curiosity piqued and in continuation of an old secret-trading game Noelle and granny played, she finds Paul, her grandmother’s old lover, and his grandson - her college “nemesis” Theo.

Theo has become a hotshot entrepreneur, a Forbes' 30 Under 30 - you get the gist. There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark, though… Together, our three protagonists go on a roadtrip to the core of their respective relationships.

This is the basic story and, of course, Noelle and Theo fall for each other in a enemies/rivals-to-lovers situation. What made me basically plough through this novel over the course of two days was the sensitivity with which all three protagonists are portrayed: Scarce are the “cheap shots” and yet “You” exudes an atmosphere of kind, sensible and sensitive lightness without being without substance.

The banter between Noelle and Theo is entertaining and funny and their more serious interactions feel heartfelt and honest. Throughout the entire novel, the story and its protagonists never leave the realm of plausibility.

Both Theo and Noelle have serious issues in their lives but Noelle slowly opens up to Theo and their mutual trust grows while they get to know each other again. There’s attraction early on but no “instant love” but personal growth in vibrantly and lively depicted environments.

There’s also no third-act breakup: Yes, there’s a conflict but it arises completely naturally and believably. It’s also dealt with by the author in a very sensible and sensitive manner - I could very much relate to Theo’s unfortunate behaviour and in the 25th year of our marriage (haha, C.!) I’m very happy to have found a person who acted (and still sometimes has to act) just like Noelle does at a certain point.

Paul is also a well-used asset and I really think the overarching backstory of his relationship with Kathleen really added to the mix. I really, really liked the epilogue as well. A brilliant and very fitting idea that I’ve actually never read before.

Even among its countless siblings in the romance genre, “You” stands strong and tall.

The missing fifth star is due to some choices of the author I don’t fully approve of but which only marginally diminished my enthusiastic reading of a very nice, charming, and refreshing romance novel.

Thus, very easy, very deserved four stars out of five.




Murder in Tuscany by T.A. Williams

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lighthearted slow-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

0.25

I came to this book knowing nothing about it. I’m leaving it unfinished at 50%, knowing I hate pretty much everything about it…

First of all, it’s rare that I read a novel and can tell after 5% that the author is an old white man. Why, you ask? Well, the hero, a retired police detective, never stops lamenting about his estranged and soon-to-be ex-wife while at the same time never stopping to ogle and lust after other women. Always commenting on their bodies, never on anything else…

»She had short hair and was wearing no make-up but didn’t need any.«

How very generous of him! The hero also keeps assigning “funny” nicknames to everyone around him, e. g. “»Agatha (aka Marge Simpson)« or the housekeeper/valet whom he calls “Dracula”. Of course, he’d never say that to anyone’s face.

Also, our hero is full of entitled self-pity and oh-so-funny remarks…

»This is justifiably reputed to be one of the greatest works of art in the world but all I can say is that it was probably a very cold day when Michelangelo sculpted the part of the statue’s anatomy that was attracting most of the attention.«

Also, this thing is excessively boring. Together with the turd that came before it, it induced the worst reading slump in my life so far.

The entire novel consists primarily of sexism, clichés and stereotypes and is so full of everything I do not like at all, that I can only actively warn against reading this. 

To round this up, here’s all you probably want to know about Williams in his own words…

“Firstly, my name isn't T A. It's Trevor. I write under the androgynous name T A Williams because 65% of books are read by women. In my first book, "What Happens in Devon" one of the (female) characters suggests the imbalance is due to the fact that men spend too much time getting drunk and watching football. I couldn't possibly comment. Ask my wife…”


Amusingly, my wife actually read this in parallel (without either of us knowing that!) and gave up at almost exactly the same point and she had exactly the same things to say about - just in a less friendly way than I do here… 

One star out of five for this streaming pile of faeces.




Nolyn by Michael J. Sullivan

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I tried really hard to like this but couldn’t. In fact, I’m giving up at 62%... I liked “Legends of the First Empire” and that series’ protagonists. I love Michael’s Hadrian and Royce.

“Nolyn”, though, is a different matter: We’re 800 years after the events of “Legends” and some of the old heroes are still around which is one of the issues: All the human protagonists are, of course, long gone; but the elves are still around. Unreasonable lifespans of several thousand (!) years are poor, unconvincing and annoying storytelling devices.

Yes, that was made clear in “Legends” and I was worried that might create a problem but it never mattered in that series. Now, Nyphron is still around but - before I DNF’ed - he doesn’t appear. He’s talked about but we don’t get to “see” him.

Also, an old nemesis from “Legends” is still around, still conspiring and plotting which is very annoying: Don’t reuse old enemies; they had their time and place and 800 years later, they should simply be gone.

The adult half-elf children of the heroes of old are, of course, still around but what they think, talk about and do ridicules, deconstructs and belittles their parents. It doesn’t help that these children are neither very interesting (Nolyn) nor relatable (Sephryn). 

Up to 62% very little of consequence has actually happened: We get lots of info-dumps, much bemoaning, and that’s pretty much it.

I was bored, annoyed, disappointed, and actually avoided reading like the plague in order to not have to deal with this book and not have to write this review.

I’m still going to read Michael’s other books and - just like with all three books in “The Rise and Fall” - have backed them all on Kickstarter and will continue to do so but I’m going to be more lenient with myself about DNF’ing his books… 

One sad star out of five.




Toasty by Alexa Riley

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

1.0

The plot in a nutshell: Caveman grabs a woman, deflowers her, and knocks her up in the process. Woman flees, caveman captures her again, woman turns out to love cavemen and especially this one. Lots of sex ensues, in-between woman tells caveman she’s pregnant. Caveman: “We would have had kids anyway!”. Two epilogues with escalating numbers of children and some more caveman behaviour.

One star out of five.




Face Her Fear by Lisa Regan

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

By this 19th instalment in the Josie Quinn police procedural series, Josie, our heroine, has gone through many traumata: The death of her ex-husband, the shooting of her grandmother, and the death of a colleague - things have amassed and despite being in therapy, Josie suffers from severe insomnia and now there’s bad blood between her husband Noah over… something new!

No wonder Josie follows her therapist's advice and goes on a retreat with a renowned trauma therapist in a remote, isolated location in the wilderness - what could possibly go wrong?!

In a setting that reminded me of Agatha Christie’s classic “And Then There Were None”, Josie faces her fear(s) when one of the other participants is murdered… A wild bear also makes an appearance and to top things off, a snowstorm suddenly starts and causes everyone to hole up together - a murderer among them!

Without her team, Josie must not only work on her mental health but also find out who killed the victim. A very dense story unfolds brilliantly with a very interesting cast of characters, some chapters from Noah’s perspective who involuntarily approaches the case from another angle, and breathtaking descriptions.

Investigating without her team, without contact to anyone but the therapist and the other patients around, we get to spend a lot of time in Josie’s head. Her thought processes are clever, a delight to read and mostly very plausible. At other times, the action happens at breakneck speed but Regan manages to always find a fitting pacing and blend from one state to the next.

Even though the area Josie and the others are confined to is very small, Regan masterfully uses every nook and cranny to weave a strong and complex web about murder, guilt, abandonment, child abuse and much more. We dive deep into the past of most of those at the retreat and, of course, especially the much-bemoaned dead granny and the posthumously-sainted colleague take some room - the latter as a “ghost voice” in Josie’s head and in the narration. This is reminiscent of the previous novel during which mourning the dead relegated the actual mystery to the lower ranks. Thankfully, it’s by far less prevalent here.

And while I hate the despicable abomination of a word, this novel for me was basically “unputdownable”. I’m still on sick leave after surgery, so I had ample time to read and this novel was devoured in six hours and 44 minutes.

The usual niggle with these novels is that they contain about 85% actual content and the remaining 15% consist of advertisements for and excerpts from Regan’s other novels. This is annoying and leads to the subtraction of one star from this unusual but very thrilling and satisfying read!

Four out of five stars.




Chocolat by Joanne Harris

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emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is one of the rare occasions I’m giving up on a book but I just don’t enjoy this one at all… From the beginning, I’m confronted with “paranormal”, “supernatural” bullshit.

»My mother was a witch.«

Yes, sure… But that’s not all, superstition abounds…

»The forking of the fingers to divert the path of malchance.«

Then there’s the catholic priest… I despise anything related to so-called “churches” which, to me, are dens of bigotry, hypocrisy and a haven for hostile and misanthropic beliefs and people. And, worst of all, home to any kind of preacher (the child-molesting variety gets extra protection).

So, yes, even in a negative context as in this novel, I don’t want to hear about those male harpies. 

Also, a novel that in all seriousness tells me »Scrying with chocolate is a difficult business.« is beyond redemption. 

The 25% I’ve read were also very, very clichéd with simplistic characters, a heroine that left me entirely and completely devoid of interest in herself or her “illegitimate” daughter and parts that felt so old-fashioned I was afraid of dying of boredom.

When I realised I was actually binge-watching the worst kind of TV show just to avoid reading this one (despite having ample time to read after a minor (but really annoying!) surgery), I allowed myself to let this one go. Since I don’t feel I read enough to give a star rating, I’ll abstain for once.




Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

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adventurous dark tense 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

0.0

Wow, this was bad, really bad. It starts with the reason for this novel’s popularity: It consists of 98% pure violence porn: We get to witness how about 40 15-year-old classmates from junior high school brutally murder each other. 

Actually, they’re more like slaughtering each other and through my reception of the text, I had the very unpleasant feeling of watching a violence-obsessed author act out his most revolting fantasies. Takami almost gleefully presents his sadistical ideas with excessive and gratuitous violence.

While I presume the novel is meant to be a commentary on societal pressures and the dehumanising effects of violence, I felt that the graphic descriptions of bloodshed and gore were used purely for shock value and did little to further the plot or develop the characters.

Speaking of which: The next percent is the characters displaying the character depth of a paramecium, a single-celled organism… Takami tries to give each of them a backstory but I struggled to keep track of them all and found that they blended together in my mind. The main characters, Shuya and Noriko, were somewhat more developed, but their “romance” felt forced and unconvincing. I never truly became invested in their story or cared about what happened to them. 

I also found the writing style to be uneven and clunky at times. While some passages were well-written and evocative, most were either very simplistically or even awkwardly phrased. 

The final 1% is made out of extremely naïve theories, e. g. “A bad person was simply born that way.” And that’s the maximum level of “critical thought” this novel reaches…

Despite not being the worst book I've ever come across, this revolting, violence-glorifying monstrosity still ranks among the top 5.

Zero stars out of five.




Lichtspiel by Daniel Kehlmann

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

Ich habe mich schwer getan mit diesem Roman Kehlmanns: Über weite Strecken, über knapp 75% des Buches, habe ich mich “durchbeißen” müssen.

Kehlmann erzählt episodisch mit Zeitsprüngen über seinen Protagonisten G. W. Pabst sowie dessen Familie und Umfeld. Gleich zu Beginn ließ mich der Auftritt Pabsts fiktiven Regieassistentens, Wilzek, ratlos zurück. Wofür sollte das gut sein? Es klärt sich im letzten Viertel des Romans, aber ich empfand diese Rahmenhandlung, die auch ganz am Ende noch einmal aufgegriffen wird, als wenig hilfreich.

“Freudlos” nannte ich den Roman, und das bleibt er durchgängig: Natürlich - das Sujet lässt keinen Raum für Freude, aber das vollständige Fehlen von Lesefreude hat es mir erschwert, dabei zu bleiben.

Zumal mich Pabst als historische Figur wenig interessiert: Als Hitler Reichskanzler 1933 wird, ist Pabst in Frankreich. Für die Nazis gilt er als "der rote Pabst" und doch kehrt er aus erster Emigration aus den USA für einen Familienbesuch zurück. Er wird gefügiger Mitläufer, der sich instrumentalisieren lässt und Propagandafilme dreht.

»Weder in Frankreich noch in Amerika habe er so ungehindert arbeiten können!\
An diesem Punkt erschrak er normalerweise und sagte, dass es natürlich ein großes Unglück sei, hier festzusitzen.«

Drumherum erzählt Kehlmann Geschichten um die immer fortschreitende Verstrickung Pabsts in das nationalsozialistische Gefüge und die teilweise erfolgreichen Versuche, auch seine Familie zu vereinnahmen.

Dabei schreibt Kehlmann, wie gewohnt, sprachlich sehr schön und verwendet - je nach Anlass - mehr oder minder subtile Bilder.

»Als er einatmen wollte, war da nur eisiges Wasser, und in der Ferne bewegten sich Monster, das wusste er, obwohl man sie bereits sah: schwarz und vielarmig, heimisch in der Dunkelheit. Und bevor er diese Visionen fortscheuchen, bevor er sich befreien und aufsetzen konnte und seiner Frau ins Gesicht blicken, schwanden ihm die Sinne.«

Wirklich interessant wird der Roman, als Pabst gegen Kriegsende mit den Dreharbeiten zu “Der Fall Molander” beginnt. Denn hier wird zumindest der fiktive Pabst vom Mitläufer, der von nichts wissen will, zum aktiven Mittäter: Er lässt Zwangsarbeiter, Kriegsgefangene und/oder KZ-Häftlinge - der Roman gibt hier ambivalente Fingerzeige - als Statisten einsetzen. (Was der reale Pabst getan hat, ist ungewiss; der Film ist verschollen und zu den Umständen der realen Dreharbeiten ist nichts mehr bekannt.)

Hier erweist sich - und das versteht Kehlmann meisterhaft aufzuzeigen - dass Pabst in einen fanatischen, geradezu besessenen Zustand verfällt und diesem alles und jeden unterordnet.

»«Niemandem», sagte er leise. «Keinem einzigen Menschen. Wird wegen uns etwas angetan. Niemand wurde wegen uns … Der Film muss fertig werden.»«

Der Weg bis zu diesem Wendepunkt des Romans ist jedoch lang und steinig und hätte meiner Überzeugung nach durchaus von Kürzungen profitieren können. 

Angetan war ich allerdings auf diesen letzten Seiten von dem Rollentausch Pabsts und seiner Ehefrau Trude: Während er den Verlust seines “Meisterwerks” nicht verwinden kann und in “leidende” Passivität verfällt, wird Trude, die immer ihrem Wilhelm gefolgt ist, aktiv und nimmt ihrer beider Leben entschieden in die Hand.

»«Ich kann kaum was sehen», sagte Pabst.
«Folg mir einfach. Ich bin dir ja auch immer gefolgt.»
Wieder gabelte sich der Gang. Ein Pfeil zeigte nach links.
«Es tut mir leid», hörte sie Pabst sagen.
«Was denn?»
«Alles.»«

Dieses Ende - nicht etwa das der fiktiven Rahmenhandlung - versöhnte mich ein Stück weit mit der gefühlt ausnehmend langen Beschreibung des Weges Pabsts in den moralischen Untergang. 

Für mich insofern kein schlechter, aber doch auch kein wirklich empfehlenswerter Roman. 

Drei von fünf Sternen.




Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

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challenging emotional informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pixels and Passions: A Journey On The Road to Nowhere-In-Particular Through Three Decades


Maybe I’ve grown complacent: I love a good, strong plot; a linear story, told in chronological order. Along comes a book, its plot basically consisting of “30 years in the life of Sadie, Sam and Marx”; told calmly, only partly linearly by an omniscient narrator who retroactively fills gaps.

And: I am not a gamer and this is a novel about the creation of video games. 

On the other hand, just like the protagonists (and the author), I’m from generation X. I’ve played the games Sadie, Sam and Marx would have played. I may never have been a gamer but I’ve been a lifelong admirer of Richard “Lord British” Garriott (a legend of game design) whose immortal claim to fame is his involvement in the creation of the “Ultima” series of games and who founded “Origin Systems, Inc.”. Their slogan was “We Create Worlds” - and that’s what they did.

Gabrielle Zevin did, too: In “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” she creates a world that feels vibrant and alive. Zevin knows her characters intimately - their joy, pain, love. She possesses the enviable ability to bring to life the entire emotional “landscape” and the lived reality of her characters. Many passages have deeply moved me, others were light and clever, enjoyable and relatable.

»She had, he thought, one of the world’s great laughs. The kind of laugh where a person didn’t feel that he was being laughed at. The kind of laugh that was an invitation: I cordially invite you to join in this matter that I find amusing.«

I couldn’t help but fall in love with Sam, Sadie and Marx because in their beautiful imperfection they always felt authentic and true to life. There were points during the story at which I loathed each of them and yet couldn’t help but hope for them getting better or redemption or whatever else they needed. 

The extensive and intensive “world building” that Zevin achieves effortlessly does, however, come at a cost: The narrative style is leisurely and unhurried. At times, passages seemed to drag, but ultimately everything came together to form a magnificent and unique total work of art, which has given me a lot.

In her “Notes and Acknowledgments” at the end, Zevin writes that “»Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a novel about work [...] and [...] equally about love.« - and, to me, she triumphantly succeeds at that. What she leaves out is, that it’s also about storytelling itself: Storytelling should not be rushed, it cannot be forced; it takes time, dedication, work and love. 

The result is a novel that feels long and epic and accomplishes to narrate the feelings of at least part of a generation - the Zeitgeist - like few novels before. At times I rolled my eyes and was annoyed while at other times I felt almost overwhelmed by emotions.

»She had once read in a book about consciousness that over the years, the human brain makes an AI version of your loved ones. The brain collects data, and within your brain, you host a virtual version of that person. Upon the person’s death, your brain still believes the virtual person exists, because, in a sense, the person still does. After a while, though, the memory fades, and each year, you are left with an increasingly diminished version of the AI you had made when the person was alive.«

After having read many reviews I can imagine that this will remain a divisive novel: Many, like myself, can’t help but love it. Others will loathe it or be left irritated. It is the long road to nowhere in particular. I can understand all reactions to it.

When I started writing this, I wasn’t sure what my conclusion would be but despite some lengths, etc. I cannot ignore how strongly this novel appealed to me personally: Five stars out of five. 

And now I’m going to play “Donkey Kong” on original era hardware.