Last October I read The Psychopath Test, I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away. And Goodreads being the amazing place it is, I had peopleLast October I read The Psychopath Test, I had no idea what to expect, and I was blown away. And Goodreads being the amazing place it is, I had people recommending me to read this one.
It sounded very interesting, so, I went and bought it straight away!
And let me tell, I maybe liked it even more than I did the Psychopath Test? It might be due to the fact that I already read Jon Ronson's book, and it made more sense this time around. It was easier to see how it all connected. Plus, I already knew it was not a fiction story. (Yeah, I had a bit of dumb moment with the Psychopath test.)
The story was great; I have to say that I generally stay away from Twitter because I always get angry there and/or disappointed with the world. So, I did not know any of those stories the book mentioned. It was all new to me. I'm honestly thinking about reading up more about some of them because it will be very interesting to compare the initials feelings which I had after reading about them in this book with those I'll have then. I felt sorry for several people. I wanted to ask what they were thinking. One broke my heart. Some "culprits" were not exactly sympathetic to me. And I had a very hard time feeling anything toward them. Then, they were those people who inspired me a bit. They looked the shame in the eyes and remained unbowed.
“As soon as the victim steps out of the pact by refusing to feel ashamed,” he said, “the whole thing crumbles.”
“I suppose that when shamings are delivered like remotely administered drone strikes nobody needs to think about how ferocious our collective power might be.”
I liked the complexity of the story. How those people were shamed. How they dealt with it. What's behind the "public shaming mentality". Also, how differently men and women are usually shamed, which I never really realised but thinking now about it, it's pretty terrifying truth. And I have to say that I enjoyed the little tidbits where Ronson explained how he identified with those who shamed them.
"I consider myself a social justice person. It was my people, abusing our power,[...]"
It was not a crucial part of the book. But it's still my favourite.
Anyway, the important question is which Ronson book I should read next?
Yeah, well, it took me some time to finally and officially finished cause I stopped reading for couple months.
Anyway, before I get into it, I have toYeah, well, it took me some time to finally and officially finished cause I stopped reading for couple months.
Anyway, before I get into it, I have to say that I did enjoy this, just to make that clear. Because sometimes I feel like I have more to say about the aspects which were not great in my opinion and I forget to speak about the things that I actually enjoyed.
I've always enjoyed geography, and always stared at maps for way too long. The only game I use on my phone is a geography game when it gives you country/city in the world and you have to locate it on a blind map. So, of course this book was something I had to buy. However, I have to say that I would appreciate if the book worked more with the maps it included. And I wanted more maps. It often felt like the maps were just slapped into the book and rarely worked with. I would love this to use old maps of first settlement and compare them with the current one. To SHOW how geography influenced the evolution of the area rather than just TALK about it.
That would be really awesome; however, I can understand that it may have not been possible in a book which has some odd 300 pages. Maybe an extended version? Or separated into several books?
I'll have to edit this review later on, cause I marked several quotes from the book I wanted to add here; however, I already lend the book to a friend. So, later.
I really liked the separation of the book; however, I would enjoy if it was more... logical in a way? It went from Russia to China than the USA, then Europe and then in a couple of chapters it went back to Pakistan and India and later to Korea and Japan and then it jumped to Latin America again. I believe that the flow would be better if there were more sense and order in how the chapters followed each other. The three chapters which were probably the best were Russia, China and the USA. Can you see a pattern there? All were chapters focusing only on one country, not a whole continent. But at the same time, I will say that the one which I enjoyed the most was Africa, which deserved more pages because it felt rushed and somewhat oversimplified.
And with finishing reading the chapter on Africa I also realised another issue. The author had a tendency to introduce ideas he did not mention until then. Which is a shame because those seemed to be the most interesting thoughts.
What I do not understand why there was a chapter on Western Europe which spend like two or three pages on the topic of Greece. Either it should have been Europe chapter or European Union chapter. Probably the former.
Also, where is Australia and New Zealand? Is one chapter missing? The author did acknowledge that he did not write on Australia or Canada and Indonesia. However, I have to say I do not feel like the book reached its limit. 300 pages is not that many and the glaring lack of the whole continent is just strange.
Messieurs Lunard, Queudver, Patmol et Cornedrue spécialistes en assistance aux Maniganceurs de Mauvais Coups sont fiers de vous présenter. LA CARTE DU MARMessieurs Lunard, Queudver, Patmol et Cornedrue spécialistes en assistance aux Maniganceurs de Mauvais Coups sont fiers de vous présenter. LA CARTE DU MARAUDEUR
I have to say that after all this time I have a bigger appreciation for the third book than I did before. And it was sadder than I realised. Knowing what's going to happen. No matter how many times I read this, it's still amazing.
Je jure solennellement que mes intentions sont mauvaises....more
Okay, so, since I re-read the second book, I thought it might be fun to continue with this one. I still think that the second book wEdit (10/10/2020):
Okay, so, since I re-read the second book, I thought it might be fun to continue with this one. I still think that the second book was the best in the series. However, I have to say that I enjoyed the mayhem Feyre caused at the beginning of the series was just so much fun to watch. Plus the meeting between the High Lords was also quite entertaining.
I don't have much to say other than that I need more of Helion and probably controversial opinion, but I need more on Eris.
Original: Well, this was a weekend full of A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I can say that I have never read that many pages that fast.
Yeah, I surrender, I liked this whole series.
I'll again have several points:
-Can people, please, stop vomiting in this series?! Seriously, I could not count how many someone vomited or said that something made them vomit or that they wanted to vomit. I get it; it's hard, but... not a fan.
-Where I usually say that the second book in a trilogy is the weakest, I don't think this is a case of this series where I believe the second book is the strongest.
-Because this has 700 pages and where it was fun to read, I think 100 pages should have been cut because sometimes it was just repetition and prolonging it. I don't really think we need to be reminded that Feyre and Rhys are mates. We. Get. It.
-I loved Rhys in the first book, so I'm a bit disappointed. I wanted him to be more wicked!
-(view spoiler)[You are going to hate me a bit but... the ending was a bit of just too much happy, sloppy unicorns riding on rainbows. (hide spoiler)] Just a bit.
- The SURIEL deserved BETTER!
- IANTHE deserved WORSE!
- Can I say that I'm a bit in love with Helion? I would love to see more of him. And actually, of the other lords, I had so much fun reading about their meeting. This kind of politics I like.
- One of my problems were Feyre's sisters. Where I finally started to like them in the last book, I really disliked them in this one. Especially Nesta, can someone stuff her in a Cauldron? I get it, she had a traumatic experience and everything, but her behaviour was not okay even before all that. So a hard no for me.
- (view spoiler)[I really disliked the revelation about Mor and Azriel. She let him hope for 500 years? Not okay. Which leads me to a sudden surge of LGBT characters. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with having those characters there but them suddenly surging in the third book makes me wonder. First two books nothing and now Nephelle, Helion, Thesan and then Mor. It just seemed strange that it was not even hinted anywhere in the rest of the series... Since I did not follow SJM before, did she got some backlash for not enough diversity in her books? (hide spoiler)]
-Yeah, I still dislike Tamlin, nothing has changed from the first book. And honestly, I had so much fun with Feyre's little revenge at the beginning. He deserved all of it. (view spoiler)[Because he's seriously abusing partner. And that's never alright. (hide spoiler)]
-I liked that SJM included all of that. Showing that it's normal that you may fall in love with someone who seems to be a prince charming only to turn into an abuser.
-Where I liked Lucien so much in the first book and disliked him in the second, I don't have much of an opinion on him in this one. Somewhere in the middle.
-Don't know what to say about Elain. Only that (view spoiler)[I don't get her being Lucien's mate. Azriel would make so much more sense. (hide spoiler)]
-Is it wrong that I would like to see more of Eris? I sort of like that guy. Yeah, he's a cruel, power-hungry brute but... there is a certain appeal to him.
-My favourite moment? (view spoiler)[The WTF moment where I had no idea if Tamlin is on the good side or Jurian is. I was speechless. But, I wish that one of them was the bad guy. Sort of disappointed that all of them turned out to be low-key supporting the good side. Let someone be a traitor. (hide spoiler)]
- What happened on page 666 is sort of poetic that it happened on that page. Wonder if it was done on purpose.
- I liked Amren and Varian.
Tarquin cringed. “We’ll alternate who has to deal with them on holidays.”
-I would like it if the Ouroboros was more. That it had a bigger role in the story.
- I know that the series is getting three more books, but I do not know what I think about that. When a series is extended, I'm usually left disappointed. So, I'm not exactly certain if I want to read it but... I guess I'll have to wait and see. But because I thought that this is just a trilogy, I expected it to be resolved in this book. This... I'm not entirely okay with it. But as I said, I have to wait and see....more
This was so much fun reading this in French! I was a bit anxious from at first if I would be able to understand everything, but it turned out fine.
[iThis was so much fun reading this in French! I was a bit anxious from at first if I would be able to understand everything, but it turned out fine.
[image]
And the funny thing is that after all these years I find it extremely stupid how Gryffindor (or Gryffondor) won in the end.
I loved how some things were called differently in French, very interesting! Here are few to mention. Poudlard Madame Guipure Drago Malefoy Neville Londubat Severus Rogue Gryffondor Poufsouffle Serdaigle Serpentard...more
I thought that I was obsessed with Jackal after the first book. Well, if that was an obsession, I don't know what is it now!
4/5⭐
So, a couple of notes:I thought that I was obsessed with Jackal after the first book. Well, if that was an obsession, I don't know what is it now!
4/5⭐
So, a couple of notes:
-I think that this one was better than the previous one. Especially the beginning was very strong. -First hundred something pages I could not stop grinning but then chapter 8 came, and it went downhill. -I love Jackal even more than in the previous book. -Jackal and Allison have amazing dynamics between them. So much fun. -Where I was so happy that Zeke was nowhere to be seen when the book started, I was certainly unhappy when he showed up. (view spoiler)[And it seems a bit like deus ex machina that all of them suddenly went to the exact same city. Or that Zeke even knew where the city was. And honestly? There was nothing that would even hint that Allison was going there! (hide spoiler)] -Where there was a lot of action when it was only Jackal and Allison with Zeke it turned into a talk show. They are in the middle of danger but he needed to talk! -Stick did not deserve any better; he is a coward and backstabber. -The whole "cure" thing seems to be a bit confusing, hopefully, it will be explained in the next book, cause I don't buy it. (view spoiler)[Also them not giving the cure blood to Jackal is a pretty awful thing to do. Without him, they all would be dead. Idiots. And since, I'm already in the spoiler thing; how much of the infected blood is needed to infect a vampire? Because Zeke was coughing up blood and when Allison kissed him, I would expect that she swallowed some of the blood. But then she should feel the side effects, right? Or is there some quantity? Or did the author overlook this? (hide spoiler)] -Jackal is right, Kanin and Allison waste their time on stupid things when they have no time to waste. -Is it wrong that I sort of like Sarren? He's the type of a villain I love. -And I knew that the end was too good to be true... And the Epilogue had to give it away. I want to scream because that would be the best plot twist in a long time! (view spoiler)[Sorry, I really don't like Zeke, and I got a bit too excited when I thought he was killed. But now I wonder if he may be the cure for the rabidism, he has the cure for the Red Lung virus which was now mixed with him being a vampire. (hide spoiler)]
"And here I almost thought you weren't a complete bastard."
So, where to start? I had this book on my shelf since 2012 or 2013, but I never had time to read it. And toI am absolutely obsessed with Jackal!
3,5/5⭐
So, where to start? I had this book on my shelf since 2012 or 2013, but I never had time to read it. And today I finally did. Right away I have to say that if I read this six years ago, I would have been ABSOLUTELY ecstatic. I would have freaked and asked for more... And where now it was a pleasant read, it was lacking. Somehow. I would say this is 3,5 stars for me.
So few points:
- I love the whole world - At first, I thought that a rabid was a typo for a rabbit. Dont's ask me why. - I was actually pretty okay with Allison; she was an interesting main character. - I want to know more about Kanin. - I am obsessed with Jackal! He's just thy right character for me. - Stick is a useless idiot. - Can someone, please, explain to me how Jeb's group survived that long? Because that's absolutely beyond me. They have zero survival skills, and it seems like pure luck until Allison joined. And you want me to believe that they were okay for over three years? - The Ruth disliking Allison was pretty cheap. (view spoiler)[As was killing her off. Made zero sense. (hide spoiler)] - These people, including the children, are running for years but they still have no idea when to keep quiet? - I hate Zeke! That guy is useless and boring as Monday morning. It reminds me about books I've read when I was younger when the good guy was way too good, way too perfect. I hated that, always rooted for the bad guys. And Zeke is just that. - I'll definitely continue the series because I like where it's going. Especially with the promise of Zeke not being there for a while.
“Strange how a few short hours could change your view of the world.” ...more
I never thought I would find some to hate as much as I hate Dolores Umbridge. But Sheridan came close. Hope they're going to share the same corner in I never thought I would find some to hate as much as I hate Dolores Umbridge. But Sheridan came close. Hope they're going to share the same corner in the Hell!...more
♥“If I was drunk, I wouldn’t be here at all. And really, this is pretty good for four White Russians.” “White what?” I almost sat down but was afraid t♥“If I was drunk, I wouldn’t be here at all. And really, this is pretty good for four White Russians.” “White what?” I almost sat down but was afraid the chair might dematerialize beneath me. “It’s a drink,” he said. “You’d think I wouldn’t be into something named that—you know, considering my own personal experience with Russians. But they’re surprisingly delicious. The drinks, not real Russians.” (Side note, White Russian is really a great drink!)
This was amazing! I'm pretty sure that I'll die before I get Fiery Heart! You know, after the second book I was really afraid that the whole begging of this book would be WITHOUT Adrian. So I was really happy, that he was there almost all the time! And he was charming as always. Sometimes I was almost sorry for Sydney because she had really too many problems going on. Anyway, I'm really glad that she finally became confident with the whole situation, it's such a relief! Then since the whole Marcus think I was so afraid that Richelle will put a love triangle in this story. (view spoiler)[ She didn't, really good decision (hide spoiler)].
There is also one difference between VA and Bloodlines, Rose could work without Dimitri, and you still enjoyed the book so much. I love Adrian since the first time in VA, and I wanted him to be with Rose, but now I'm happy that he didn't. :)
I'm still curious what's going to happen with whole magic thing storyline :) The end of this book almost killed me!
Love it so much! - Pretty sure that what I'm saying is 100% confusing the book kept me reading for hours, and I was re-reading the best parts again and again :D
And the Zoe thing? Kill me, that's going to be epic, well there is like hundred other things which going to be epic, but whatever :D
♥“You're not as much of a lost cause as she was. I mean, with her, I had to overcome her deep, epic love with a Russian warlord. You and I just have to overcome hundreds of years' worth of deeply ingrained prejudice and taboo between our two races. Easy.”
♥“Adrian looked over at me again. “Who knows more about male weakness: you or me?”
“Go on.” I refused to directly answer the question.
“Get a new dress. One that shows a lot of skin. Short. Strapless. Maybe a push-up bra too.” He actually had the audacity to do a quick assessment of my chest. “Eh, maybe not. But definitely some high heels.”
“Adrian,” I exclaimed. “You’ve seen how Alchemists dress. Do you think I can really wear something like?”
He was unconcerned. “You’ll make it work. You’ll change clothes or something. But I’m telling you, if you want to get a guy to do something that might be difficult, then the best way is to distract him so that he can’t devote his full brainpower to the consequences.”
“You don’t have a lot of faith in your own gender.”
“Hey, I’m telling you the truth. I’ve been distracted by sexy dresses a lot.”
I didn’t really know if that was a valid argument, seeing as Adrian was distracted by a lot of things. Fondue. T-shirts. Kittens. “And so, what then? I show some skin, and the world is mine?”
“That’ll help.” Amazingly, I could tell he was dead serious. “And you’ve gotta act confident the whole time, like it’s already a done deal. Then make sure when you’re actually asking for what you want that you tell him you’d be ‘so, so grateful.’ But don’t elaborate. His imagination will do half the work for you. ”
I shook my head, glad we’d almost reached our destination. I didn’t know how much more I could listen to. “This is the most ridiculous advice I’ve ever heard. It’s also kind of sexist too, but I can’t decide who it offends more, men or women.”
“Look, Sage. I don’t know much about chemistry or computer hacking or photosynthery, but this is something I’ve got a lot of experience with.” I think he meant photosynthesis, but I didn’t correct him. “Use my knowledge. Don’t let it go to waste.”
♥“The future of our relationship hinged on advice from a fifteen-year old girl, a probably untrue story from a one-eyed Chihuahua trainer, and me unromantically – yet skillfully – kissing you on top of silverware and china?”
♥“Look at it this way," Ms. Terwilliger said, after several moments of thought. "The callistana thinks of you two as its parents.”
♥“Adrian sifted through the bags and pulled out a slice of coconut cream. "If I were a dragon, this is what I'd go for." I didn't argue, mainly because that statement had no logical argument.”
♥“I tried to dredge up the same reaction other girls had around Marcus, but nothing happened. No matter how hard I tried, I just didn't have that same attraction His hair was too blond, I decided. And his eyes needed a little more green.”
♥“Adrian: Sometimes it’s worth lingering on the journey for a while before getting to the destination.” Metaphors. This was the cost of making out with an artist.”
Really good idea to put Rose and Dimitri for a while into the story :D...more
I still think that the book would have been better if the first third was cut short. I was not really enjoying Eugenie doing... nothiEDIT: June 2020.
I still think that the book would have been better if the first third was cut short. I was not really enjoying Eugenie doing... nothing.
The funny thing is that with every read I'm angrier and angrier with Eugenie. She does terrible things and then tries to excuse her behaviour. But at the same time, she punishes everyone for the smallest things. I'm starting to wish that there was more of character growth for her.
Sigh, this series really needs something. I'm not asking for a whole book; a novella would be enough or even a short story. Just to give this story a real closure it deserves. The ending Dorian deserves! And yeah, I still have fingers crossed that this would be Richelle Mead's COVID-19 project. It is probably unlikely, but the hope is all I have.
EDIT (11/4/2017): Wow, the ending made me angrier than the first time around. Dorian deserved so much more!
I loved the book/series. But the ending killed me. This book came out in 2011, and I have no hope that Richelle Mead will return to this series which kills me.
The beginning was kind of slow < spoiler> I know; she was pregnant. But the book could start later in the pregnancy. .
I still hate Kiyo and that Maiwenn monster!
I like how Richelle found the solution for Storm King heir. < spoiler> I knew that those kids were Dorian's. I just wish that Maiwenn would let it go so that Eugenie could take them to Dorian .
I guess I am going to just keep hoping that one day Richelle will write at least a novella where someone kills Kiyo and Maiwenn. < spoiler> And Dorian will meet Ivy and Isaac. <3 I cannot wait for that!
Btw, it's just me or did Kiyo's, and Maiwenn's daughter went from Luisa to Marta?...more
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