A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Amy  

fiction

A Little Life is the story of four men who met as college roommates and maintained their tight friendship through adulthood.  Each has survived childhood issues, especially Jude.  His past was so bad that he won’t talk about it and his roommates are protective of him.

I’m always impressed by male friendships. Men seem to be more relaxed and loyal in their friendships than women.  In my experience, men are able to let things slide and are more accepting and forgiving than women. I enjoyed connecting with the tight-knit group of Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm and watching them grow old and redefine their friendships. I find it interesting that this novel was written by a woman.

Warning: This is a very difficult novel to read and, overall, is very depressing.  There is a lot going on and the story is populated with wonderful characters. But the main story is about living through a horrific childhood and surviving as an adult with depression and no formal support system.

Hanya Yanagihara did a great job of informing the reader about each member of the group in due time. The obviously mysterious one was Jude. The mechanics of their friendship with him was unusual and almost unbelievable. Indeed, even Jude wondered why they put up with him. But none of them were free of oddities. I did not understand all the characters’ choices but their lives were certainly interesting. I was drawn to them and wanted to keep spending more time with them through their successes and their tragedies. But, mostly, the pull of the story is to find out what exactly happened to Jude in his childhood.  The early flashes of insight are intense and disturbing.  And then, the more you read, you realize it’s even worse than you could have ever imagined. And then you wonder why on Earth the author went there. And then it gets to be so much and too far-fetched that it made me feel like I’d discovered the wizard behind the curtain and the author’s manipulations were over-the-top ridiculous and took me out of the story.  But then tragedy struck anew and I was again swept into the story despite the fact that the self-pitying sections started to get too long-winded. Jude’s past drove him to succeed but it also destroyed his life.

This book was so emotional. Despite all the shock and horror, the story had hope and happiness and I couldn’t put it down. It was such a roller coaster. It was riveting, traumatizing, despicable, horrifying, sweet, brutal, and gut wrenching.  I laughed, I cringed, I cried, I clenched my teeth in horror, I fidgeted in discomfort.  It was too terrible to read at times.  I stayed up so late reading but then had to make myself stop reading because too much crying would make it difficult to fall asleep and the tragedies would keep my mind too busy to sleep.

Big complaint: I always dislike when authors do not announce whose point of view we are reading and this novel was one of the worst examples. I sometimes had to read several pages into the chapter before discovering whose point of view it was.  This was pure frustration and not nice to the reader. It interrupts the flow of the novel because it provides no basis from which to draw pictures in the reader’s mind. I kept thinking “Who is this?” instead of focusing on the text. A few times, I had to go back and start over once I knew whose experience I was reading.

Smaller complaint: Yanagihara has a really bad habit of interrupting sentences frequenty with tangent  comments. Sometimes the embedded “aside” went on for so long that I had to start the sentence over and read it without the tangent segment to comprehend.  This, along with the big complaint above and the fact that the material itself was difficult to think about, made the experience of reading this novel extremely rough. And yet, it was a great novel that opened my eyes to how fortunate most of us have been in our lives.  Most problems are surmountable and manageable in the end.  For some people, they will never be.

Graphic Novels

Whether you call them graphic novels or comic books, doesn't change that I love reading them.  Here are a few of the ones I've spent time with lately. 
 -Lynnie 

Saga Volume 9, by Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (illustrator) 

Jeez this is tough to review without spoilers, but let me just tell you that I’m a bit gutted after reading these issues. Even more so realizing that it will be at least a year until we hear from Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples again. It’s almost cruel to take a hiatus from this series right now, but I trust them to continue the story that needs to be told. As always it’s riveting and shocking, the artwork is beautiful... and heartbreaking.



Locke and Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill (writer) and Gabriel Rodriguez (artist)

This series has been on my “to read” list for a while, but after seeing a trailer for a show based on this series I was inspired to get to it. I was not disappointed! This is the story of a family already in crisis moving into a mysterious family home and discovering its secrets and the consequences of those secrets.

The story and artwork are both fantastic and I can’t wait to get the next volume to see how much further they take this story. Written by Joe Hill, who does creepy/horror just as well as his famous father and artist Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke and Key is creative, creepy, smart, and captivating.  


Oblivion Song, Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman (story), Lorenzo de Felici (artist), and Annalisa Leoni (artist) 

I'm generally a lover of all things Kirkman, but I did not love Oblivion Song. The story was interesting and I loved the premise behind the story- an experiment casts part of Philadelphia into another dimension overnight, trapping several hundred thousand people in the Oblivion. Unfortunately, I didn't love the execution- the characters were somewhat interchangeable other than Nathan (the main character so far) and the art, particularly within the Oblivion was often just difficult to understand. Buildings, landscape and monsters were nearly impossible to tell apart, in large part because of the color palette within the book and the amorphous shapes of all of them. I'm sure that was intentional, and certainly worked to throw me off balance, but I just didn't enjoy it.

Will I read volume 2? Maybe. I just don't think it's high on my list. 

Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu

Amy   

Lynnie


young adult fiction, fantasy

The fourth book in Marie Lu's Legend series, Rebel, follows Daniel "Day" Wing and his brother, Eden, ten years after the events of Champion.  The brothers try to understand each other and who they have become as they get drawn into a struggle that, in some ways, parallels what they endured in the Republic.  


Amy's Review: 

This finale to the Legend series was an afterthought that was written by Marie Lu (6 years after the final book in the original trilogy was released) because her readers kept asking her what happened to the characters from the trilogy. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to par. In fact, so much time had passed that I did not even really remember how the trilogy had ended. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this novel more if I had remembered more details from the series. Alas, halfway through the novel I almost set it aside because it was, frankly, boring and contrived. The characters and worlds felt like fictional characters and the story conflict was not keeping my attention. The bad guy was simply an obstacle over which the brothers could find common ground and not a real character in his own right. I persevered until the finish which was very sweet. But the novel overall did not impress me. 

Lynnie's Review:

I really loved Marie Lu's Legend series- I gave each book 4 stars on Goodreads. Rebel, however, was the sequel that never needed to be written,  unfortunately. I love the worlds that Lu creates and did find myself fascinated by the Antarctic (Antarctican?) society that she describes. Sadly, though, the story wasn't as interesting as the world it inhabits. The first 50% of the book is, well, deadly dull. Lots of pontificating about how the brothers don't understand each other and that all they want is to be seen and understood but do they say this to each other? No, not until VERY late in the book. I did enjoy the last 20% of the book- I suspect if you just skipped to that part you wouldn't feel you've missed very much. So, it gets a half star for wrapping up well but mostly I was just bored while reading Rebel.

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

Amy  

fantasy, historical fiction

After the death of her grandfather, Anne goes to Ireland to spread his ashes in the loch, per his wishes, and finds herself in 1921 in the midst of Ireland’s struggle for independence.

I love a good time travel story and What the Wind Knows was a great time travel story!  The characters were enchanting, the history was educational, and the setting was atmospheric. I’d never read anything from this time and place nor was I very familiar with W. B. Yeats’ poetry which opened every chapter and tied perfectly to each one. I normally don’t care for quotes at the beginnings of chapters and usually don’t bother reading them. However, I could not do that here because I was listening to an audiobook thankfully.  I loved Amy Harmon’s writing and the structure of the story. I looked for every opportunity to return to the audiobook to find out what happened next. The story was so romantic, poetic, and heartfelt.  The doctor’s journal entries about love had me swooning and the tragedy near the end was so difficult to bear. The ending was just right. I loved it! Then I went back and replayed the very beginning! 😊 I can’t wait to talk about this novel in my new book club.

The novel alternates between Anne’s and Thomas’ points of view.  The audiobook had two narrators. Saskia Maarleveld narrated another book I’d heard for which I had given her an A+.  However, in this story, she often spoke under her breath and sort of whispery as if she was trying to speak quietly in order to not disturb someone nearby. This was not a characteristic which the story dictated. I found it distracting and annoying.  Her accents were marvelous. Her voice acting was terrific. But that tone forces me to give her A- for this one.  Will Damron’s voice seemed so opposite—too loud, too sharp, too choppy.  His accent was great and he softened appropriately when he was sad or spoke of love. However, the rest of the time, I found his voice to be mostly too forceful for this character.  This is disappointing since I loved his narration of another novel.  For this novel, I give him a B.

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Come by Jessica Pan

Lynnie

memoir, non-fiction

What is wrong with me? In 2019 I read 4 non-fiction books (which I think is at least 3 more than I've ever previously read in a year) and I gave 3 of them 4 stars! Am I a non-fiction reader now?

I was drawn to Jessica Pan's book because of the title and the cover (cake!). "Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come" immediately made me think of my family- I am an extrovert in a house FULL of introverts and I have heard similar words before. Pan's book was wonderfully relatable and truly helped me have a better understanding of those things my family members go through when confronted with parties, public speaking, and generally socializing.

I was so impressed at Pan's attempt to come out of her shintrovert (shy introvert) existence and open herself up to things outside of her comfort zone. I have seen first-hand how difficult that can be and I loved that, most of the time, Pan was happy she had at least made the attempt. There's a lot to enjoy about this book. First of all the writing is wonderful and relatable. Pan is a great story teller and she allows us to cringe with her at some of her less successful moments but also to cheer with her when something goes well. Second, she really explains what she's feeling and the science or research behind some of it to help the reader understand.

If you are an introvert, or you love an introvert you will likely get a lot out of this book.

Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane

Amy 

women's fiction

May is a lonely 40-year-old woman living with her 80-year-old father and decides to use her windfall of paid time off to attempt to re-establish connections with her old friends.

I never would have finished Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane if it weren’t for book club.  It was painfully slow-paced and boring. All the plant trivia and details were not appreciated by me with the exception of tree trivia. I do like trees, and already knew about a few of those mentioned, but I wished I was reading the novel instead of listening to the audiobook so I could have skimmed over most of the plant parts. May is the narrator of her own story and she did nothing to make me care about her or anyone else in the novel. She was sad and awkward.  She has apparently always had trouble making friends and she doesn’t appreciate the friends she has at home for what they are. I could not empathize and the pacing of this story did not make me want to understand her issues. I kept hoping something of interest would happen. The mystery around her mother’s demise and death was insufficient to make me want to keep reading. May considers lots of other people’s insights about friendship but, again, I couldn’t get into it. In an effort to say something positive, I did like the actual rules for visiting and travel considerations mentioned in the novel. Thankfully, the novel was short.

The audiobook narrator, Emily Rankin, was fine but the character is so unemotional that the narration suffered. I did enjoy her narration very much in another novel for which I gave her an A+.  So, while I know the novel itself is lowering my opinion of this narration, I still cannot give her more than an A- for this one. In fact, I’d rather give her a B+ but am trying to not punish the narrator for the author’s issues.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Amy      
Lynnie   

science fiction, young adult

In this future version of the world, a gaming legend dies and bequeaths his entire fortune to whomever can win a game he has created.  However, after five years, no one has accomplished the first hurdle and attention to the challenge is largely dimmed. High school senior Wade is obsessed with the game and its creator.  He lives unloved and unfunded in his aunt’s trailer and wants to win the fortune in order to pull himself out of the misery of his non-virtual life as well as to be able to explore more of the virtual world of the OASIS.

Amy's Review

Reading Ready Player One is very much like the experience of playing a long-lasting adventure video game including, unfortunately, the ebb and flow of holding my attention.  Some parts are gripping. Others are slow and take forever to get through. But I really enjoyed it overall! The story itself is engaging, suspenseful, and creative.  And by creative, I mean that Ernest Cline has created his own lifestyles, economies, infrastructures, and worlds.  I believe he also created a few cool gaming ideas but I really don’t know that for a fact. The main character is loveable and has worked hard at his life’s passion and purpose—to solve the game that will allow him to inherit greater wealth than he could ever imagine. And, the fact that the game requires complete knowledge of 1980s pop culture made it enjoyable for me since I was in high school and college in the ‘80s. But the aspect of the novel that really intrigued me was the author’s vision of the future—one in which real life is so difficult that most of the people on Earth prefer to live virtually in the OASIS. No one actually travels any more since nothing compares to the sights and entertainment in OASIS, let alone the ease of “travel”, so hotels are no longer needed.  People spend almost all their time in a virtual world and the real world crumbles around them.  The novel was written over 8 years ago and much of the things envisioned have come to pass or seem extremely likely to happen.  It’s exciting, chilling, and eye-opening in that regard.

Overall, I felt it was extremely well done. Sometimes the reading of this novel felt as clunky as playing video games before computers were able to display visual scenes--limited by reading the amber-colored words on a tiny screen which described the scenery. But I appreciated the future world this author drew and the High Five characters. I also love a story where good triumphs over evil.

The audiobook narrator, Wil Wheaton, was appropriate for this novel.  I kept wondering if he would be mentioned in the novel and was delighted when he finally was! His voice acting was fantastic. I only wish that he had made more of an effort to distinguish individual voices.  I’ll give him an A-.

Lynnie's Review

A future where people are so wrapped up in a virtual reality game that most people choose to live in it rather than the real world that surrounds them because the real world has become such a lost, depressing, and depressed place isn't that far-fetched. In the OASIS, you can be anyone you want to be, build relationships, go to school, even build your own planet if your resources allow. Of course, the fact that most of the OASIS is fixated on the 1980s is the catch and it's amusing (and tiring at times).

When the real game starts--the hunt for Halliday's Egg--to gain control of the entire OASIS, the action begins and the story takes off.  What makes this story fun (particularly to those of us pop culture vultures),its unending references to all things 80s, is also its downfall. Fun at first, it tends to drag it down toward the end. I could live without the blow by blow recaps of some movie scenes that I, too, know by heart or the complete history of some video games that I, frankly, didn't care that much about.

This book was essentially a love note to the 80s with a little sci-fi story thrown in for fun. So, if you loved the 80s, it will definitely make you smile. If, however, John Hughes, leg warmers, and Sarah Jessica Parker in her dorkier days make you break out in hives, you might want to skip this one.