Review of The Fellowship of the Ring: Of course this is one of the all-time classics, and one of my favorite movies. Yet this is only the second time I've read (this time listened to) the book. I remember why: The Lord of the Rings are more atmospheric than anything else, I feel like. The stories ...
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At first I was very excited to find what I thought was a hidden gem in the canon of classics: like a new Jane Austen or a Bronte, just by a different author. The writing style and the initial intrigue of romance led me to believe this was what I was in for. Alas... not really. The story was ...
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Such an interesting concept. I picked this one up because I really enjoyed the Scythe trilogy, and I am now even more impressed with Neal Shusterman's creativity. I almost didn't finish the book, because the beginning led me to believe this would just be another high school drama. I'm so glad I ...
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Like the first in the series, this one started off a bit too slow, I thought. But once it got going, I was again hooked. Set in a high fantasy world, this series is nevertheless a lot more engaging to me than most high fantasy because the characterization is so good. Owen, the little boy from ...
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This was a lot more engaging than I expected it to be. I was sucked into the story almost immediately by the peculiarity of the opening scene: a young 20-something girl named Franka ventures into the forest, intending to kill herself, when she comes upon an injured soldier in a German uniform. It's ...
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What a delightful surprise this was! Definitely more than just a Cinderella retelling, though the bare bones of the fairy tale are there. Traitor's Masque has a lot more intrigue and suspense than Cinderella ever did. You never would think it from the cover, though--it made me think I likely would ...
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I didn't know the story of Hamlet at all, other than the fact that there's a famous speech in which he holds a skull. This is a retelling, not done in Shakespearean language, which makes it much easier to follow for me. I'm just not into working that hard to understand what's going on. I'm also not ...
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My husband and I read this aloud to one another, and man, it was a mouthful. Manchester writes beautiful prose, but in a very self-aware sort of a way. He often chooses incredibly convoluted turns of phrase to express simple ideas, compounded by casual references to obscure historical characters ...
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This was great! Really original. The story is told in a series of interviews between a police officer and an ostensibly 12-year old girl named Eve, though we find out pretty quickly that Eve is actually a very advanced AI. Eve explains her history in the course of the interview, but they're told to ...
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I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings as a general rule. I know they're a fad at the moment, and I already know what's going to happen, but I don't care. I love them anyway. I did try the first book in this series (a retelling of the dancing princesses), but rolled my eyes at the concept of a ...
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