I always love falling back into a world of Tolkein’s invention. These worlds seem to exist fully formed in Tolkein’s mind, so fully formed that he can write essays about the history of these fictional places. The version I read included the original fairytale, an essay that Tolkein wrote about this fairytale, the last work Tolkein published before his death, and a few other materials related to the work. I enjoyed this first read of the year.
A book this large and expansive nearly defies review. The second book in the series holds a much tighter plot but definitely still covers a wide expanse of history. I continue to marvel at Liu’s deft handling of something this epic. I enjoyed the first forty-ish percent the most with its tight alternating timeline tied together with two characters, one a “holdover” from the first book, the other new and intriguing. Reading a book this massive via audiobook
could (and did for me) cause a little confusion when different interludes placed periodically. That being said, I still look forward to the final two books which I will read soon thanks to r/fantasy.
Shortly after starting my read, the text felt familiar, as if I had read it before. I know that I have read this text prior, in Spanish, but that was years ago. Also, it was the English phrasing that felt familiar. All of my records, however, indicate that i have never read it before. Although I have reread book, I do so sparingly and only with all-time favorites like Lord of the Rings. Once I started to think about this, I found it difficult to engage with
the narrative in a way to write a review. I think that this is a needed narrative about the attempt to overthrow the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. However, I just struggled to engage with it.
Wow. This is incredibly powerful. I knew going into this read that this narrative came out of the real life experience of one of the co-authors, Salaam, an innocent man unjustly convicted of murder. Zoboi did a masterful job with the narrative, showing the humanity of this boy and the raw reality that many face.
I found this book to be an enjoyable but mid book. The main character had more depth than I expected but all of the side characters, save the love interest, lacked any depth whatsoever. Once the plot got going, something that took a little while after a rather intriguing opening scene, I enjoyed the twists and turns. Unfortunately, “mid”-ness makes it difficult to find much to say about a book.
I really enjoyed Jackson’s adult debut. I will say though that the narrator’s choice in how she voiced the main character’s best friend, Billy, made it more difficult to keep in mind his age – 28 – because he sounded so young. Jackson created a compelling premise with an engaging search for the killer of a woman – the main character – who’s not quite dead yet. I would, however, have rated this book a little higher had the motive for the killer made just
a little bit more sense. I understood the reason Jackson gave the killer but I do not agree that such a motive would have realistically prompted the murderer to commit the act or show the remorse that they did when the main character survived a week past the initial act.