Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I quite enjoyed Divergent. The story was interesting and I never found it to drag or be bogged down in unnecessary description or exposition. Roth tells you what you need to know to move the story forward and build her characters.

It's always heartening to see a popular franchise with a girl lead, and I was impressed to see consent and agency in full force in Tris. I think she's an excellent blend of strength and vulnerability - something that the "strong female character" trope often fails.

I would happily recommend this to a preteen or teen girl, which is more than I can say for certain other popular YA franchises-turned-movies.



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Review: Muse and Reverie

Muse and Reverie by Charles de Lint

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Every time I find a collection of Newford stories that I haven't yet read, it's like a bit like my birthday. Charles de Lint is one of my writing idols, and I love his take on urban fantasy.

Every story in this collection is interesting and different from the next. New characters and old staples of Newford work their way through the stories, and everything is entrancing as always.

It's hard to talk about short stories without giving away the entire story, so instead of reviewing each individual short, I'll just say that the collection is wonderful. If you prefer the recurring characters, you might be disappointed in this collection, as there were many stories with characters I hadn't seen in Newford before. If you just love Newford and seeing its world expand, then you'll likely love this collection.



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Review: The Knitting Circle

The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It took me until 5AM, but I read this entire book in one sitting.

The Knitting Circle was sad but engaging. While some feel that the fact that every one of the women has some sort of tragic past is unrealistic, I think it speaks to the unknown stories of the women in our lives. We all have our secrets and our regrets.

I cried my way through the book, which I believe does an excellent job of addressing grief and loss and the way people express the feelings that come with that. Anger, helplessness, hopelessness.

At times, it almost reads like multiple short stories, as each woman talks about what happened to her. This doesn't completely work - it feels a tad cheesy at times - but it doesn't detract too much.

While not going to win any major literary awards, or going to go down as a classic, The Knitting Circle is still a good story that deserves reading.





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Review: Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Hyperbole and a Half was one of the better blogs I had stumbled across in my journeys across the Internet - clever, funny, and entirely relatable for (I think) a lot of the Internet generation - and Allie's book does a fantastic job of carrying over her blogging style from an electronic to print medium.

Full colour, with each section separated by different coloured pages, and with the same goofy drawings that punctuate her blog posts, "Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened" is one of the best Blog-to-Book ventures I've seen yet.

The book contains a few of the favourites from the blog, such as "The Simple Dog", "The God of Cake", and "Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving", as well as parts one and two of her piece on depression, the driving factor between the sudden lack of new posts on her blog. The book would have been amiss without these included; it's lovely to have them in a print format so you can read them without being online.

However, rather than just transcribing the entire blog to a book, the book also contains new stories not featured on Hyperbole and a Half. They are true to her style and definitely make the book worth having in your hands.

If you're a fan of Allie Brosh and Hyperbole and a Half, this book is for you. If you're a fan of cleverly told personal stories, silly drawings, and sometimes being struck with how sad and weird and hard life can be, than this book is for you. If you have no idea who Allie Brosh is, I suggest you visit the Hyperbole and a Half blog (Google will take you there) to get a taste of what Allie has to offer.



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