Stark Twain

Twilight with better world building

Reviewed: 02-17-25

Should have read the reviews more closely, because this is yet another ‘young adult novel’ rendition of Beauty and the Beast, and I was looking for something more original. It’s not bad for what it is, but more juvenile and derivative than I was expecting. The character development falls flat, and the romance narrative feels tired and trite. It’s hard to get through. Narrator does a good job, though.

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Not my favorite

Reviewed: 05-22-24

It’s an unpleasant read full of nasty, horrid men and the idiotic women trying to marry them. Even the lesbian couple are overwrought by man-centered drama

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1 person found this helpful

Struggling to keep going

Reviewed: 05-06-24

Only partway through and I’m fighting the urge to return this. The protagonist is excruciatingly unprofessional, consistently makes bad choices, and lacks dimension and believability. I’m hoping the action picks up enough to make up for what a snooze this has been so far.

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Unrealistic, weird, and gross

Reviewed: 11-12-23

I did not like the characters. The kid is basically Holden Caulfield. The professor is a generic perfect love interest.

I did not like the story. The first 75% of the story takes place almost entirely in the kid’s head. Nothing happens, the kid is just angsting and obsessing and being passive aggressive the entire time. The final 25% is one part affectionate romance and sixteen parts strange gross interactions.

There are a lot of weird kinky things that happen in this book.
- It’s an underage kid and a professor.
- Women and teenage girls are treated as cock sleeves.
- Kid cums in a peach. Several hours later, professor eats the peach and makes out with the kid. This is treated as an extremely sexy, sensual, romantic act.
- They bond over shitting in the toilet. The professor rubs the kids tummy while he shits. This is also presented as a sexy intimate experience.
- The parents “can tell” what’s going on and not only approve, but fund a romantic hotel room for their trip to Rome. How young can you be and still be a professor? 27?

I haven’t even finished this book yet. God it’s awful.

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One of my absolute favorite Vorkosigan books

Reviewed: 10-28-23

Profoundly rich characterization, tremendous room for redemption, complex personalities, and a gripping, action-packed plot.

Mark makes some terrible choices, and grows into himself in a way that I find truly likeable in the ways Miles is not.

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Outstanding story, read with a lot of whining and overwrought emotion

Reviewed: 09-05-23

I love this book. It’s classic, engaging, and still relevant.

I did not love this particular narration of it. Jamie Bell made the stylistic choice to read all the dialogue with a lot of drama and overwrought emotion, and it just makes the characters whiny and unpleasant to listen to. The book is already written in very feeling, complaining words that become excessive when amplified by indulgent narration. think this book is best read with simple, calm intonation, which helps counter the flowery language.

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Actors are great, but the story isn’t quite there

Reviewed: 08-22-23

This is well-acted and gripping, but the story has a lot of holes and what on earth is up with the ending? The pacing starts off thorough and detailed, but in later chapters it ricochets off the walls and can’t seem to keep up with itself.

The protagonist’s character is inconsistent in a way that suggests sloppy writing rather than deliberate nuance. For example, throughout much of the story, she carefully establishes her professionalism. Part way through the story she throws that out the window and starts seeing underage patients unofficially and without their parent’s consent. She consistently pushes away responsibility for her own child until she feels threatened and unilaterally reverses her decision. While that could very well be plausible, the way things play out it just seems like a ploy to increase the drama when she’s unable to fulfill that promise.

The beginning of the story was very carefully constructed and engaging. As the narrative tension increased, a lot of the characters lost their dimensionality and became flat plot objects that either obstructed, aided, or diverted the storyline. The story became hasty and scrambled in favor of a cliff hanger, instead of bringing together or resolving any of the dangling plot threads. There was a lot of promise at the beginning and I enjoyed listening to the story, but the ending was so badly done I no longer want to know what happens next.

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Excellent for its target audience (I am not the target audience)

Reviewed: 08-15-23

This was not my cup of tea, but I think it holds value as a chaste romance novel for young adult christians who want to read stories with likeminded protagonists.

The plot sort of hung together, but I think the second half of the book needed stern editing. It reads like a second draft, not a finished piece. Towards the end, the story devolved into multiple disjointed tropes barely stitched together. There are a lot of different dramatic plots that are meant to come together, and it isn’t done particularly well. There are many themes and messages that come up at various points, but never seem to come together. The story seems to lose focus partway through and become distracted by everything it’s trying to accomplish. I feel like the narrative tries to do too much, and instead of creating an intense climax and resolution, things just become sloppy.

The ruined young woman trope, bestfriend seamstress servant cliche, perfect prince charming boyfriend cliche, wicked family cliche, gothic horror ghost trope, and perfect loyal servant cliches all fell flat for me. Entire swathes of the story felt trite and contrived, and the characters were cartoonish and unbelievable.

I found the protagonist sneaky, foolish, petty, and judgmental, and could not reconcile her behavior with the narrative’s characterization of her as virtuous, kind, intelligent, generous, unworldly, and honest. I wanted to see her acknowledge some of the damage she had done and take responsibility for it, but instead everyone who criticized her was wicked or evil, and every mistake and harmful decision she made was glossed over as the right thing to do.

I did enjoy the murder mystery plot, and found it compelling and convincing. I also really liked the resolution of the “Lady Jayne” mystery and thought it was nuanced and well done. I think this story had a lot of potential, and with a firmer editing hand it could have been a powerful piece.

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Feebly written

Reviewed: 10-04-22

Feebly written and read in a news-announcer voice, this short true crime story is moderately interesting because of the sensationalism of the crime, but you’d be happier reading a brief article. This took the contents of a short newspaper article and stretched it out by adding adjectives and sensationalizing commentary (e.g. “this was a disturbing event”).

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Turned my stomach

Reviewed: 01-12-22

While fascinating and beautifully written, the story itself is disgusting. The women are property, and must bow to their husband’s every whim. The men are lascivious, indolent, cruel, and devoid of empathy.

While there is some touching tenderness between mothers and daughters, relations between women are often scheming and malicious. Fathers consistently value their own pride over their daughter’s wellbeing.

The writing itself is beautiful, and the narrator does an excellent job. I just wish the content wasn’t so repulsive and vile. I feel sorry for the protagonist, but she is so brainwashed it’s painful to read about her. The story embodies most negative stereotypes about the middle east. I wish it was satire.

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