Book #80 of 2017: The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North Another wildly inventive thriller from author Claire North, this one about a woman who fades from people’s memory as soon as she’s out of their sight. That concept leans a bit close to North’s earlier novel Touch, since the characters who forget their …
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Book #79 of 2017: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz I mostly enjoyed this sprawling look at three generations of a Dominican family possibly suffering under an inherited curse. I just didn’t have much patience for the title character, who regularly develops crushes on girls, gets close to them as friends, …
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Book #78 of 2017: The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris (Loki #1) A great rendition of Norse mythology from the perspective of its trickster god Loki. Sometimes these tales are in line with their traditional versions and just punctuated by Loki’s droll observations, and sometimes the trickster asserts an entirely alternate course of …
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Movie #3 of 2017: Suicide Squad (2016) A complete mess, squandering some pretty good actors who make the most of the bad material they’re given. I’m not particularly invested in the DC Extended Universe in the first place, but this movie gave me absolutely no reason to rethink that decision. ★☆☆☆☆
Book #77 of 2017: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is basically about an X-Men sort of school populated by the children from creepy vintage trick photography, all of whom have real superpowers. (The actual photos that inspired particular characters or …
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Book #76 of 2017: Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Mark of the Thief #1) I loved Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance trilogy, but this book (the start of a new series) felt really under-baked to me. The main character mostly just reacts to the decisions of others, his relationships nearly all seem plot-driven …
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Book #75 of 2017: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie Completely deserving of its status as classic literature, with an appropriately timeless archetype at its center. I’m really glad I finally got around to reading this; the familiar story is so much deeper and weirder in its original form than I’d ever imagined. There’s a …
Book #74 of 2017: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (The Crossover #1) I’m generally not big on either novels in verse or stories that center around sports, but Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover won me over despite being both. It helps that this is a shorter book for middle-grade readers, but also the author’s characters feel …
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Book #73 of 2017: Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (Inkworld #3) This was an okay adventure story, but it dragged a lot in the middle, and the returning characters felt nothing like the people they were in the first two books. This trilogy has really offered diminishing returns as it went along, so as much as …
Book #72 of 2017: The End by Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13) The A Series of Unfortunate Events books have always made clear that the Baudelaires are only a small part of a much larger story that is playing out mostly beyond our view. That expansiveness isn’t a problem per se, but …
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