I found this to be quite the marvel. There is so much care and attention to every word, and it was really inspiring to me to read this simply for the craft behind it. I think the book reflects what the narrator has to say about the titular painting, "It’s there in the light-rinsed atmosphere, the brush strokes he permits us to see, up close, for exactly what they are—hand worked flashes of pigment, the very passage of the bristles visible—and then, at a distance, the miracle, or the joke," the seeming pains taken with every word, like a visible bristle of Fabritius' brush, all to serve, in her case, a sprawling coming-of-age story with a bit of crime to color the character-driven narrative. I was certainly hooked by the plot throughout, but ultimately, it was those brushstrokes, her choice of words, and careful construction of prose that I will take with me.

Reviewed on Saturday, January 6th, 2024, 6:14am.

As memorable and entertaining of a reading experience as I've had in years. Shocking, funny, absurd, but also very thoughtful and hard-hitting as satire. I think it's a rare turn to be able to not completely lose the message inside such an outlandish scenario, but the novel is very focused despite being seemingly all over the place. The Sellout brings up questions of ownership, not only of property but also of culture and lifestyle in a "post-racist" America that offered a new perspective to me personally by bringing into focus the fact that no longer talking about something doesn't make it no longer exist, and in fact, can tend to make it even worse.

Reviewed on Wednesday, October 25th, 2023, 7:40am.

As expected, the ‘reset’ brought some big stakes back into the picture and Vaughan decided to really hammer the reader at the end with a massive blow-off and tragic end. I was actually not expecting just about anything that happened here, and getting a chance to explore Phang was cool, as well as the little creatures who joined us for the collection.

Reviewed on Wednesday, January 18th, 2023, 9:43pm.

Another great continuation of the story. I didn’t quite expect to fly through it like this but it’s exactly what I was hoping for to kickstart my reading again. The story is building nicely to a big emotional payoff, and there are nice, smaller emotional payoffs throughout so far. Vaughan, and through the excellent art of Fiona Staples, has created such a rich collection of colorful (literally) characters, and they’ve gotten me to care about them all in one way or another: whether it’s affection or hate, sometimes both in one.

Reviewed on Sunday, January 15th, 2023, 3:03pm.

I really enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about the Robot Kingdom and how they introduced this political unrest element in the form of Dengo and his actions. The entire volume set itself up nicely by giving it the ‘splitting up’ point to reach, and it achieved this very well and in a way that I can’t stop reading to see the reunion.

Reviewed on Sunday, January 15th, 2023, 5:48am.

I can definitely feel this comic shifting into a real classic like all of the critical reception and accolades would suggest. I had been in a real reading funk for the last few months and this thing has really set me back on course. Just the fact that all in basically one day I’ve now read three full volumes, about 20 issues, says a lot. Super easy to breeze through and get invested in characters from all sides of the conflict, the art is fantastic, and the story is very engaging. One aspect that I really love is whenever Hazel cuts in and they use that really striking handwritten font. It adds a lot of weight to whatever she’s decided to interject on. Onward and upward!

Reviewed on Saturday, January 14th, 2023, 7:11pm.

If the stakes were high in Nemesis Games, they are to the moon (no pun intended) in Persepolis Rising. It's really starting to feel like a massive culmination of all the stories, and though it was shocking at first, it was a great move to jump forward in time. I can't imagine where we go from here.

Reviewed on Monday, October 17th, 2022, 12:00am.

This story is, of course, terrifying, heartbreaking, and incensing, but the thing that Kate Moore accomplishes the best by the end of it is drawing out how inspiring these ladies were. I cannot imagine going through what they did, let alone going through it with faith intact, regularly finding things to relish in a life that, from such a young age, brought them such unspeakable, unfair, hardships. Moore writes these women with such care, highlighting the things they find bright in their dark lives, that it wasn't even so much the horrific descriptions of their physical traumas that most got to me (though those were tough to read, over and over and over), but it was the descriptions of the way their emotional heartbreaks were rendered in some of the hardest moments -- thoughts of not seeing their children run through the house playing anymore bringing them to heaving sobs in a courtroom, having to express fears their husbands would leave them due to their death sentences -- that most humanized their stories.

Reviewed on Friday, January 19th, 2024, 8:26am.

This was an interesting work that blends the worlds of fact and fiction pretty masterfully; the layers of the story stack atop one another and reach an almost frenzied climax, where I, and I think the narrator, cannot distinguish between those worlds. I found it very thought-provoking in that sense. Keeping with the frequent theme of an action ceasing to exist when its intent turns out to be misguided - the example that comes to mind is the author brushing Alex's hair back and giving their night together huge amounts of meaning due to an impending superstorm, yet when the storm falls flat, that night together might well have never happened for its lack of guiding tension - the Author's intent seemingly changes throughout, leaving the reader to wonder if what they are reading is the novel they had thought it to be. It's also very funny, and the neurosis of the narrator being portrayed in such humorous ways really helps when some of the more obtuse material springs forth.

Reviewed on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024, 2:54pm.

As the series marches into its climax, I am struck most by how, for a story as vast and epic as The Expanse has become, its greatest accomplishment continues to be the development of its characters. There were moments here where I couldn't help but pump my fist as I read a long-known and -loved character showing their culmination of strength and courage. We are essentially in Star Wars levels of scale at this point, which feels so far from where it started, but by tying the reader to the characters and having them grow so much, it almost feels natural. I am very excited to see how the authors end this thing. I have a feeling we're about to get real weird.

Reviewed on Wednesday, December 6th, 2023, 10:20am.

David Grann accomplishes no small feat here in bringing history to life in a way that it unfolds like a fictional mystery. I appreciated his storytelling abilities here which both paid tremendous respect to a disturbing bit of American history and kept me enthralled to see how things would unfold. I certainly had never heard anything about this story, these people, and their hardships, which is ultimately the whole point: the country had created such a culture that they could be put through immense tragedies so easily and unencumbered -- often facilitated. I appreciate Grann shining a light on their stories.

Reviewed on Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, 1:14pm.

About halfway through this, I was convinced that Franzen had once again hit me with a perfect 10 of a book, but for some reason, the characters took a turn for me where I could no longer relate to their experiences in any way. I think the first section, where you're reading Patty's "memoir," is super effective because you can truly get a sense of her interior life and those around her, from her perspective, in a very real way. She and those around her are relatable because of their flaws and how you can see her grapple with them, but once we go to a higher perspective of Walter, Joey, and Richard, you're kind of just watching these very flawed people make their terrible decisions without much regard for self-reflection on them. It's still fantastic, and his style and humor propel the novel as blistering paces.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:52am.

This one felt like a bit of a restart or a clear beginning of a major chapter within the overall story, and so maybe felt a little exposition-heavy in trying to set the table back up. I didn't get a firm grasp on the refugee angle they were going for, and didn't necessarily feel the drama or danger there, but it all had a really nice payoff. Some new characters were introduced, some old ones returned, and I think we're off to the races for a really interesting part of the story. I almost wonder if it'd be better to simply review the Saga comic as a whole once I'm done, because it can feel a little unfair and almost like I'm logging and reviewing the chapter of a book.

Reviewed on Monday, January 16th, 2023, 9:26am.

Enjoying how things are paced in this series so far, where each issue is a major page-turner while still being somewhat of a slow boil so far. Great backstory on Marko and his family/race while introducing some new characters and really setting all the major players on their trajectories towards one another. I really enjoy how any given page could have a wild new creature/character and just how inventive the whole thing is.

Reviewed on Saturday, January 14th, 2023, 2:38pm.

Great start to the series and I am pretty thoroughly hooked. Each issue felt like it ended way too soon, which feels like a great sign. I really enjoy the wild character designs and concepts; it already feels like absolutely nothing is off-limits. If I had a gripe it’s that so far the dialog feels a little clunky, but it’s a pretty minor gripe given the genre, and will likely just require some adjusting.

Reviewed on Saturday, January 14th, 2023, 8:17am.

It was a big risk to split the crew of the Rocinante as the authors did in this novel, but it paid off in huge ways. Each of the four "branches" of the story is deeply compelling and action-packed, and the stakes feel absolutely massive in this installation. Amos' section in particular might have been my favorite as it was so close to the devastating catastrophe brought on by the Free Navy, but Naomi's zero-suit space jump probably takes the cake as the peak of the novel.

Reviewed on Wednesday, June 1st, 2022, 12:00am.

This was definitely a breeze of a novel. I enjoyed the concept of a kind of classic literary concept of a grand house being central to the story, while being somewhat modern. It was cool to see the brother and sister grow through time but everything being tied to their past, and seeing how they grow out of it and move on (or don't). I really grew to love the characters, and Patchett's style is very nice to read. A lot of subtle humor.

Reviewed on Monday, October 23rd, 2023, 10:46am.

A tiny step back from the heart-stopping drama of Nemesis Games, but a great continuation of the action here. It's nice to get Marco and Naomi's relationship, and in turn, Filip, fleshed out a bit more, and to see how the authors paint the picture of the political and human aftermath of the rocks hitting Earth. The end feels slightly like a cop-out, but they do a good job of building up the "erasing" of the Free Navy throughout to where it doesn't feel out-of-nowhere.

Reviewed on Sunday, August 7th, 2022, 12:00am.

I thought it would be a little bit deeper, but ultimately it defintiely feels like a mid-level HBO series in the making, or a Netflix movie or something. I did really enjoy the descriptions of the marshland; you could tell that the author is intimately familiar and brought me right into this unique place.

Reviewed on Saturday, August 27th, 2022, 12:00am.

I finished this book basically in one sitting, which is somewhat rare. It was well-written and a unique perspective on gender that I am admmittedly pretty unfamiliar. I think I learned a little bit here.

Reviewed on Sunday, June 19th, 2022, 12:00am.

Really starting to enjoy the Invisibles comics as I kind of get my bearings on what Morrison is trying to say and accomplish with these stories. The action is insane and by now I'm pretty hooked on the messed-up world he's building.

Reviewed on Sunday, February 13th, 2022, 12:00am.

Since this is the de facto beginning of the second trilogy within the Expanse series, a lot of work is needed to be done in order to establish the next direction, and the book does succeed in that. However, it just feels entirely too removed from everything that had happened before, and even though it ties in the Protomolecule with how Ilus operates, it's a bit confusing to see the full picture right now. Of course, by the end of it, it's a bonafide page-turner.

Reviewed on Thursday, February 3rd, 2022, 12:00am.

I really did not enjoy this book. The narrator was deeply unlikeable and I really didn't care what direction her life was going or if she would actually write a play.

Reviewed on Saturday, June 18th, 2022, 12:00am.