No one is suggesting censorship.

I will have to look for that one. I have enjoyed a couple of her other books, The Hollow Places and The Twisted Ones. Both also horror, and the Twisted Ones especially; I'd never really run across as effective a jump scare in a book before.

Ah, thanks a lot. I am aware that work is needed, but i thought those books would be useful to be read first, as they gained popularity in this state of society more than ever.

Thanks for the recommendation!

The Angel's Game is next and is a prequel but it gets back to the original story after that.

I think that’s me. 💀 except I indulge myself exclusively to LGBT literature. I can enjoy sci fi and espionage, but anything else is just not amusing for me.

I think at the point where you want a more nuanced review of a book you'll have to do some reading and adding more stars won't make it any more clear. People usually write why they gave a particular rating anyway. Having more stars doesn't make them have to write any less. 37.5 Stars "Ah he finds Hemingway's lack of first hand experience in war blatant compared to Orwell's and thus not as good at writing a story about it, I see clearly now with the right amount of stars."

Yup

I think reading can't be divorced from the written text and that it is not possible to read an audio book.

The Magicians. Somewhere I'd come across something where the author had expressed this deep affection for the Narnia books. I, too, have a deep affection for the Narnia books.

Maybe I misinterpreted something somewhere, but it really seemed like the author kinda hated the Narnia books and was mad about the CS Lewis' use of allegory.

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I never understood the five star rating method anyway, especially when it came to things that are subjective like books or movies. One man's trash is another man's treasure as the saying goes.

Ivanhoe

The Masquerade books are fantasy with a heavy helping of realpolitik, and the Locked Tomb books are sort of a mall goth Science Fantasy, I'd say.

It is interesting to go through this experience of disillusionment. I’m old now, and I’ve gone through what you describe several times in my life. Everything always changes, all the time.

You might check out the book “Experiments in Truth” by Ram Dass. The audiobook is excellent, narrated by the author. He talks about how our mind will always be unsatisfied in its search for understanding, and he talks about how the wisdom of the heart is about loving and accepting. When the mind is out of tune with the heart, it’s a recipe for disillusionment. To quote John Prine, “Your heart gets bored with your mind and it changes you.”

Good luck!

I think it depends on the author.

As for King, I feel he truly excels in short fiction, but struggles with sustaining his longer books.

I had also not heard the podcast but loved reading it. I thought the ending was great. My understanding is:

Old Bret gets off his chest, through telling us this story, that he lied to police about a few but critical details involving his intentions when going to confront Robert. While malicious, I think Bret was acting on good intentions to protect his friends, albeit not with a sound mind. We get presented with the possibility that it was Bret committing murders and/or the attack on Susan/Thom. While I think it wasn't him, I thought it was a great piece of ambiguity and I'm happy to concede that there are things that point towards him being guilty.

Robert is said to be an innocent vicitim of the Trawlers stalking, but I still couldn't understand why he was always going to the house on Benedict canyon? Was it simply because he had access to the house and, if so, wouldn't he have noticed someone using the room and basement? But, assuming I'm just missing something, Old Bret is also getting off his chest that he, through his paranoia and passionate connecting of the dots, was responsible for Roberts eventual death, as Robert was innocent all along.

I really enjoyed how through understanding that Brets imagination and writers intuition had been trusted too much without any real hard evidence, the themes about imagining/daydreaming narratives are clearer. Without a clear line between reality and fiction, Bret looses control and realizes how his made up narrative was deadly. It's sort of a story about story telling. Even the last line mentions dreaming. "...and I would find that record with the platinum-blonde girl on the cover, and turn the volume up, and play it loud, close my eyes and lie back and listen to a song about dreaming."

Thats how I see it. I really enjoyed the book from start to finish. What about you OP?

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ohhh this book! I promised myself to read outside of what I normally do and read this book. It has my heart forever. So increo. Loved every character.

When I was very young, I really loved audiobooks because I loved being read to - even though I could read very well on my own. I used to check out books on tape from the library on the regular until we stopped going to the library as frequently - I didn't grow up in a walkable town (although I did walk everywhere!) so I struggled to get places, even for school.

My 12-year-old LOVES audiobooks, but she also reads graphic novels and text novels. I think it's good to switch up the format every now and again; nothing's off-limits.

I have plenty of friends who also love audiobooks, but I'm hesitant to try again - I tend to tune out spoken word, and I feel like that gives audiobooks short shrift.

For me, it was an okay read. I felt like the horror element was too quickly dealt with. They had such a long windup, but the moment the MC discovers the >!fungi!<, they quickly deal with it and it's over before it even really sets in.

But then, I also haven't read the original The Fall of the House of Usher, so my experience was probably different.

I honestly have no idea what the author's intentions were. The case was, at least in my opinion, heavily written about when it happened. It's not some obscure thing.

Oh happy days, I didn’t even know there was a series!

For me, it was easier to branch out a little bit because my go-to genres are Fantasy/High Fantasy and Historical Fiction, with a smattering of Classics (almost any genre.)

When I want to get out of a rut, I started with baby steps - so, instead of Historical Fiction, I read a Historical Romance (by an author my friend, who has a similar background, likes/dislikes, and sense of humor to mine, recommended; I figured if she'd enjoyed the books, I was more likely to enjoy them as well); instead of a Fantasy/High Fantasy, I tried a Mystery with Fantasy elements; etc.

I never figured out what I thought of this book. On the one hand, some characters were wonderful fun and I was absolutely intrigued. On the others, some chapters were lacklustre and I struggled to retain much from them. I found the pacing to be the most jarring thing about it. I don't think it's just you. It's not a terrible book and I can think of some friends I could lens it to in good conscience but it was nothing special either.