book review: dark matter

LOVED THIS BOOK. Read it in a single day, which I don’t often do. One of the jacket reviews said something about “this is the book for which the world thriller was invented,” and I have to agree. Edge of the seat! And almost nothing too science-jargony that can make time travel style books inaccessible.

I say time travel style, because there’s no time travel. It’s multiple universes. But I’m not confident that’s an actual sub-genre since I think Blake Crouch mostly invented it.

The fact that the book spends a significant amount of time contemplating the morality of decisions across multiple universes was very compelling, and it makes you love Jason (the protag) for his heart. He is in a terrible place, and you feel for him. You root for him. You want him to win. But then you see glimpses into these other realities and recognize that those are all Jasons, too—Jasons you don’t love, feel for, or root for… and you realize this is more complicated that you thought.

My only (tiny) complaint is that the endless hallway being the way your brain would sort of entrances to multiple universes in a visual way that you could navigate could have been more creative. That feels really expected, I mean, don’t we all even have that dream? And it’s in the Matrix… anyway, small compliant.

There were a few places that the author switched voice to give us Daniela’s (Jason’s wife) perspective, but it wasn’t jarring or disjointed. In fact, the whole book has such a seamless feel even though it’s likely one of the crazier journeys I’ve ever read.

This book was high speed and high emotion. At the end of the day, it was a genuine guy who was really in love with his wife. And I’m never going to not love a book that tells me that story really well. And bonus that this book also included a magic cube and a brain serum and quantum superposition because I’m a geek for that.

book review: project hail mary

Do I despise Andy Weir? Yes I do. I hate him. How can his books BE THIS GOOD? What kind of inhuman storytelling ability does this guy possess? I really didn’t think The Martian could be topped. But this one JUST (just) edges it out. Because of Rocky. Rocky the alien is the best. He’s better than Wilson the volleyball, even.

I have it on good authority that I didn’t get the best experience with the book because I didn’t listen to the audiobook which supposedly has amazing audio effects for Rocky’s voice. So give that a shot if you’re into audiobooks.

This story unfolding from total amnesia, and the reader learning along with Ryland leads to so many fantastic reveals. Delight upon delight, and I’ve seen and read enough sci-fi to be delighted when he follows the right tropes just far enough and then throws in something totally new and unexpected.

The ending of this book…. I cannot possibly hint without spoiling, but this was probably one of the more satisfying endings I’ve ever enjoyed in a book. Fan.tas.tic.

Ryland’s voice is the same as Mark Watney, but it’s a hilarious voice, so I’m not complaining. I just think Weir lives via his characters in a unique way. The thought processes of their decision-making sequences make their mistakes so so so much more gratifying.

No one makes me laugh like Andy Weir. I honestly can’t read the books with other people in the room because they get mad at me for all my cackling and giggling.

book review: where the crawdads sing

This is another in the “Goodbye Earl” series of books that are popular now whose primary message is it a man sexually assaults you, you can murder him. At least the Dixie Chicks made it clear that the wife tried to take the correct course of action through the legal system with no luck? In this book, it was just somehow assumed that no one would have wanted to help the victim. Feels like a lack of effort.

The most disappointing thing in this book was that until the VERY end, it was unclear whether or not Kya (the protag) actually committed the murder of her rapist. Why oh why could the author have not awesomely left it open? Leave us wondering? Leave us curious if it was a fall? By telling us clearly, there’s no empowerment — there’s a discoloration of the rest of the character’s life. So now is she a sociopath who lives with the fact that she murdered someone, or is the rest of her life centered on her guilt as a murderer? Come on. Either’s just a let down. It is not a pro-woman message to make a victim into a murderer. The eye-for-an-eye thing is not empowering. It’s barbaric. I’m just sick of books with this message.

I’m also sick of books that think love is some kind of chess match where you have to try and outsmart each other, and I do not enjoy someone who tries to build tension through creepy touching as children are growing into teens from a very brother/sister style relationship. Meh.

I sound really negative. This was a beautiful, winsome book. Kya’s journey was lovely. I loved the way the author made an obvious path for her to find great success and even financial security in a world Kya otherwise rejected. I just don’t honestly understand why that couldn’t have been the story. Why did the story have to be a sexual assault from a former intimate partner and a subsequent murder? Obviously, I understand that does happen in the real world, and it’s a very authentic part of some people’s stories.

I just wondered in this case why Kya’s journey couldn’t have been about Kya. The author let the other characters be the central force in the story. I wanted Kya to be Kya’s story.

book review: uglies

I didn’t love this book, and I likely won’t finish the series. It felt really weak and expected, considering the attention it’s gotten. People are comparing it to Hunger Games, so I’m just curious what they saw here that I didn’t. I laughed some reading it, but mostly I eye-rolled. And trust me, I am HERE for YA tropes and I am in for the overly obvious love triangle that these books require. But this didn’t do it. And I don’t believe that you can make a BFF you’re willing to die for in like 8 days when that person is cagey and deliberately standoffish.

The good takeaway was the hoverboard riding, and even after reading the whole book, I couldn’t really tell you how high the thing could go or what it looked like or any rules for operating. There was just a lot of journeying (why?) and endless angsty dialogue (bleh) and decisions made WAY WAY too fast with unclear motivation. Oh, and then desperate love after no conversation or connection whatsoever. Just like “then there was a boy and I am deeply in love with him and willing to sacrifice anything.” Is that what men think about teenage girls? Ew.

I’m being mean. Sorry. I just don’t understand book popularity. This concept is creative and has SO much cool potential, and yet this book was just not my jam.

book review: american dirt

American Dirt came highly recommended by friends, and I read it over two days. The action was intense, and the book was emotionally painful to read. There was a lot of violence and particularly sexual violence. I don’t want to shy away from the reality of the world, but the book definitely didn’t let me relax and enjoy the story. I felt constantly on guard, but I believe that was a good partner to the story itself. The protag is just trying to escape the death she’s facing in Mexico (drug cartels) with her son.

On that note, the book has received a lot of criticism for its negative portrayal of Mexico and the Mexican people. I have been to Mexico twice, but only for a week each, so I can’t really speak to its authenticity. As a work of fiction, it was compelling; that’s all I can say.

Lydia was not a wonder-woman style heroine. In fact, she’s downright annoying at times because some of the mess is her own doing. But you really feel for her survival instincts as a mom when it all hits the fan. American Dirt is a creative play on words with the fact that they are just trying to cross the border and get to “american dirt” as well as the author slinging mud at her view of America’s immigration policies as crappy. I see it as a reference to the real needs of some people (like Lydia and her son) being the “dirt” we like to hide and not talk about in the larger immigration story. It’s easier and less threatening, perhaps, to view “illegals” as a group versus individual humans with lives and stories and young sons.

book review: anxious people

I don’t hide that Backman is one of my favorite authors. I would generally say that Beartown and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry are among my favorite books. This one was good, too, but did not quite live up to those two.

The story was an unexpected mystery—lots of little confusing elements you’re trying to unwrap as you go. A character is referred to as a “parent” and pronouns are skillfully avoided so you can’t tell when other people mention the mom or the dad if you know anything about them yet.

There’s a few mini reveals, like the way the police officers on the scene are father and son. There’s also an interesting character that bookends the first and last scenes which makes it feel almost like the credits are rolling. It’s a good, concrete closure.

Backman has a gift for immediate character development. In so few words, he can give you a picture of someone’s depth. It’s like a 3D snapshot in a few sentences.

He is also the master of epic sentences (even though he’s not writing in English) such as:

During some weeks in winter in the central part of Scandinavia the sky doesn’t seem to bother even attempting to impress us, it greets us with the color of newspaper in a puddle, and dawn leaves behind it a fog as if someone has been setting fire to ghosts.

I mean, that is GLORIOUS.

Overall, definitely worth the read, and the book deals with some serious issues. As always, Backman makes you cry and laugh on the same page. The people have so much reality behind them.

The mystery was a little simple if you’re used to reading real mysteries, but that wasn’t his point. So that’s very forgivable. Little bit (possibly) of moral questionability to the final decision at the end, but it was sweet.