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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Retros_x" data-source="post: 9831823" data-attributes="member: 7033171">I've also read a few books in the holidays (technically most of them still 2025, but who looks in that old thread anymore, right? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />):Spiral, the sequel to Ring by Koji SuzukiThe meta media horror of Ring gets elevated to a new level. Unfortunately the first half is almost a repitition of the first book and has no stakes, no tension. It was very boring. But the writing is still the same immersive realism that I liked in the first book. And than a really nice twist happens that pulls you right in, brings back the dread and adds a new layer to the media meta narrative of the Ring. The second half left me quite satisfied after the boring first half. I really hope he does not another long recap in the third book.The Great Hunt, WoT#2 by Robert JordanSaid everything in the last thread. Overall a disappointment after book 1 and I am surprised that this book has a much higher rating than book 1 on storygraph. But the finale was way better than the finale in book 1, maybe thats why. And I realized I am already kinda attached to the characters and the world and I am really happy to have a long series that will accompany for the next months and years to come.I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline HarpmanThis is less a novel with a standard plot structure and more an existentialist meditation of loneliness and the human condition. The setup feels very artificial and constructed and less like a coherent scenario. It feels like a setup for a parable or simile, but you never get an argument by the author, neither explicit nor implicit. Its more a projection space for your own feelings and thoughts.While I can appreciate this I couldn't help thinking at the end "thats it?". I think it could've helped if the scenario would be less mysterious. I feel like my reflections on the topics and themes of the book were distracted by thoughts about "what happened, what is going on" but these never get answered and are ultimately not the point of the book.I did enjoyed reading it and feeling the despair and loneliness of the characters but ultimately I don't think it fully deserves the retroactive TikTok-Hype that unburried this book out of obscurity.What Moves the Dead, Sworn Soldier #1 by T.KingfisherHad books by Kingfisher for a long time on my TBR and finally gave the horror series a go. The biggest surprise for me was the humor. Appereantly Kingfisher can't write without making jokes and ... I kinda love it? I think the great part is that the events and the plot were not funny at all and dead serious. But the protagonist copes with a lot of humor as do the other characters - many of them war veterans, which completely fits ( I know veterans and emergency responders and people of other professions where you experience horrible stuff - they all use quite dark humor to cope). It makes the characters honestly feel very real. But of course it also liftens the mood, so if you want to read really scary horror, this is not the book. Its spooky at best and sometimes disgusting, but never really scary due to the jokes.The protagonist is non-binary, but Kingfisher invents a full nation with a tradition of the soldiers getting a new pronoun "kon" when they get sworn in (I use "they/them" in this post for simplicitys sake). I honestly couldn't see why that was necessary. Couldn't they be just non-binary? Why the need for a fantasy nation with fantasy pronouns and according lore drops in the book when it had nothing to do with the story? It felt like she had just this idea and shoehorned it in. But as a reader you just go with the flow and accept it, she doesn't dwelve too long on this topic (its a short read in general). Plus it generated an interesting reading experience: Because it never gets established what pronouns they used before they were sworned in as a soldier, my inner image of them warped and changed between more male read and more female read appereances.  Also the hero so damn likeable. They are nice, smart, funny and feel human. Its a nice change after all the books with moody, gloomy, depressive protagonists or anti-heroes I've read. You just want to root for them.The resolution kinda destroys the gothic in this "gothic Horror" IMO. But I loved the characters and their banter so much, that I forgive the author for that overexplanations that makes it all feel mundane.</blockquote>

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