Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 December Reading List

The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri – Montalbano is getting old, and softer, and there’s a bit of metaphysics involved. What annoyed me was the lingering feeling that the story felt familiar despite knowing for sure I hadn’t read the book before. Then I figured out it must have been one of the episodes from the Italian TV series I watched a couple of years ago. I look forward to the next book in the series. 4/5 stars

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare – Simon isn’t one of my favorite characters, though he is fun. The stories kept wandering and only occasionally remembered they were supposed to be about him. I enjoyed the last one the least and the one featuring Magnus and Alec the most. 3/5 stars

The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz – Infodump galore. The plot did make sense in the weird, twisted way this series does, but the way it was delivered didn’t work for me. Not as good as the original trilogy. 3/5 stars

The Serpent by Claire North – Most books play like a movie inside my head while reading. This one played like a theater play, which I found distracting. There’s constant distance between the heroine and the reader, and it’s hard to keep track of all of the secondary characters. The intelligent plot might have saved the book if it hadn’t fizzled towards the end. Language alone can’t save it. 3/5 stars

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine – Not a subject I would normally be interested to read about, but the lady writes so well it completely captivates the reader. 4/5 stars

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace – The story takes too long to get going, we spend too much time inside the MC’s head, which keeps us away from the outside world and makes the worldbuilding make little sense, and there are too many dream/flashback sequences that also don’t help understand things. As a whole, the story feels like a badly constructed puzzle with several important pieces missing. We never get to know the characters or care for them. The writing isn’t very engaging either so I had a hard time finishing it. A disappointing read. 2/5 stars

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho – It’s playful, but the story drags and some things come out of nowhere. The hero is supposed to be the sorcerer, but the real hero is the girl, and she’s one of those strong headed persons who would drive you mad in less than a day because of her well intended but less thought out initiatives. 3/5 stars

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