L. Lawson > Recent Status Updates

Oddly compelling.

An extremely solid story now gets magnetically compelling!

Moby Dick + Murderbot + sex.

If you’ve read Moby Duck (I have), you’ll enjoy this quite a bit more than if you haven’t. But it’s still the type of book that if you’re down for its voice, it’ll grab you and not let you go.

Just entertaining as fuck.

Thanks to Net Galley and Macmillan for the advance read in exchange for an honest review.

So far: spectacular. Voice of Murderbot, depth of Gideon the Ninth, and sex of—name a romantasy.

Narrator, for me, is really rough though. No dynamism to the voice. It’s like it got squished with a compressor and everything is exactly the same level.

Book is fantastic so far though. Funny as hell.

Definitely got the Humboldt redwood forest vibe.

Disciplined writing and well-drawn characters.

Sparse but oddly compelling.

So far, the description of being in nature in Humboldt is spot on. Some unnecessarily vulgar language so far (and if that’s a critique from me, that’s saying something), but the short chapters getting to know the characters and area are working for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books for the pre-release access in exchange for an honest review.

So far, instantly engaging.

So far, funny and accurate portrayal of living in Ukraine as a foreigner.

The novel is slowing coming together. I have a feeling the last 200 pages are going to be impactful—but it has taken a very long time to get here.

The scope creep represented in this book is tremendous.

Struggling to hold on to the thread in this one. Lots of world building and slight (but slowing building) plot. Time to switch to the audiobook for a long drive, so hopefully that’ll propel me into the heart of this beast.

DNFing this one. Reads like literary fiction paint-by-numbers. “Establishment readers expect x, y, and z, so I’ll stuff these stories full of those things.” I’ve only read 2.5 of these stories, but enough to know these have been done to death and aren’t for me.

The first story, though light on details and that discussed her father’s role in Charles Manson’s ring, was unsettling. I purposefully avoid stories about real-life murderers (including folks related to them) and I was not stoked to have been blindsided by one, however well-written and tangential. Kinda fucking mad about it tbh, but I’ll give the collection one more story to be fair to the rest of it.

Another “have had this on my shelf forever and now it’s time to read it” books. So far, immediately captivating.