Jan-e > Recent Status Updates

I'm not certain this book is my "vibe". So far, all of the protagonists give me a strong feeling of... well, not dislike, but a sense of unease, of not relating. Like talking to a person and finding you've got nothing to talk about, despite similar interests. Pretty damning for this kind of novel, but I won't give up yet.

Before reading this, I feared for the worst: not just a lazily re-skinned Harry Potter/Handmaid's tale fanfic, but "sexy bad boy" BS. Neither proved true, to my pleasant surprise.

I want to love this book, but cannot. It's like a bad date: the sex feels mechanical and joyless, the conversation is stilted and feels like a constant membership test for cultural capital as it existed in the queer scene thirty years ago, and things are just aimlessly meandering without showing any kind of direction or plot. I wanted contemporary Orlando, but no: just sex interspersed with pop culture trivia.

Ich mag die Prämisse, aber finde keine Spannungskurve. Die Handlung mäandert gleichförmig dahin, ohne zu überraschen. Selbst größere Ereignisse plätschern so dahin.

The novel found its stride and has me thoroughly invested. Like most of Kuang's protagonists, Alice and Peter are complex (and not always likeable) characters.

Erudite, intertextual - but I feel that the scathing commentary on academia takes precedence over plot and characters to a certaon degree

It doesn't re-invent the vampire genre, but it's a genuinely good, queer meditation on mortality, norality and much else; reminiscent of Anne Rice's early "Vampire Chronicles", before they became filled with bizarre detours about hell and Atlantis.

This is such an important testimony, especially for a perpetually half-cracked egg like me, but I still stumble at the constant reference to "ketchup chips". It reads as if this was Elliot's whole diet in his childhood and youth.

I have a confession to make: I'm not thrilled by Sanderson's storytelling. Not just regarding this novel, but generally. His worldbuilding is interesting, even clever, but unless you make that your special interest, it cannot detract from 95% mediocre storytelling with 5% rewarding twists at the very end.

I would never even glanced at this book if I had just seen the cover and title, by the way: it looks *exactly* like the sort of generic paint-by-numbers fast food that I avoid like the plague. (We call them "Groschenroman" in German, roughly akin to "penny dreadful".)
Never judge a book by its cover!

I rarely visit the Romance genre (despite a persisting appreciation for some classics that could be shelved in this section), but when I do, I stop for delightfully witty and queer romps such as this one.

Chapter 14, and Zhao lets her protagonists dismantle the perennial "but the economy"-cries of reactionaries everywhere by pointing to the cyclical recessions that leave capital owners richer than before. So much love!

Twelve chapters in, and there's a Marxist workers' revolution on the menu. I love it!

Clearly, this fanfic shows that the snobbish distinction between "real literature(tm)" and fanfic is mostly artificial. There's plenty of successfully published material that cannot live up to this one.

Okay, a few pivotal events have made this novel a lot more entertaining after all!

NGL, this feels as if the author is trying to cosplay Donna Tartt while being utterly overwhelmed by the task. It doesn't help that the audiobook makes it almost impossible to distinguish between the protagonists because they sound exactly alike (both on the page and as voiced).

Manche Bücher altern wie Wein, andere wie Meeresfrüchte. "Die Elfen" liegt irgendwo dazwischen: wie ein alter Käse, der schöne Aromen aufweist aber langsam eine Ammoniaknote bekommt und möglicherweise bald nicht mehr genießbar ist.

The grind is a modern invention. Hunter-gatherers spend a maximum of 19 hours per week on average to get food, the rest of the time belongs to crafts, art, sharing time with friends and family. No ticking clock.

I love it, only the quasi-German place names keep almost pulling me out of the action. Real-world Essen is not a very fantastical place by reputation.

I find the teacher too self-aware and deliberate in his manipulations. It'd be even more effective if he believed his own bullshit instead of obviously maneuvering the minor. It'd make the novel even more uncomfortable.

Barely through the first chapter, and this already feels *extremely* uncomfortable

1. This novel is incredibly HORNY.
2. The second half is SO much better.

The only part I don't care that much for in Leigh Bardugo's novels is the straight romances . but I can ignore them in light of the awesome developments that take place otherwise