Top Ten Tuesday | First Impressions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Books I Loved Less/More Than I Thought I Would', so my list is divided in half with five books I liked more than I thought I would and five I liked less than I thought I would. On with my list!

Books I liked more than I thought I would

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: I know! Considering how much I talk about this book, who'd've thought I wasn't always sure it was going to be for me. I don't know what it is, but I'm never drawn to books set during the '80s so I really didn't know what I was going to make of this. What I got was a fantastic coming-of-age story along with totally unique witchcraft - I love it!

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: I saw Mallory @ The Local Muse mention this and decided to pick it up, but it seems the '80s aren't the only decade I tend to stay away from - to be honest I don't tend to read much fiction set in the 20th century after the 1950s, and I'm not usually a big lover of family sagas because there's always at least one person I don't care about and I get bored, but this debut proved to be the exception. It's written and plotted beautifully and I can't recommend it enough.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn: This is a tricky one in that I didn't realise I had actually really enjoyed it until a couple of weeks after I finished it. When I initially finished I wasn't sure how to feel about it, and I felt little cheated by the ending, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it and the more I think about it the more I realise how cleverly it was plotted.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: Austen and I have a difficult relationship and a couple of years ago I read Northanger Abbey after avoiding Austen for around five years. I actually quite liked it, and I'm tempted to give her another chance.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney: I had a very similar experience with this book as I did with Dark Places. I couldn't stop thinking about it despite not enjoying it as much as I thought I would, and now I think I'd like to re-read it in future so I can fully appreciate it.

Books I liked less than I thought I would

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell: I went into this short story collection full of hope and it just wasn't for me. I liked a lot of the ideas behind some of the stories, but I felt like every single story had a very weak ending that Russell just didn't know how to execute... so she didn't do anything. Not for me, sadly!

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: Unlike Dark Places, I haven't developed a new respect for Sharp Objects since I finished it and I was so hopeful. I don't really have any interest in reading Gone Girl, but I do think Flynn is a fantastic writer and I was very excited to read her debut; I love stories that explore mother and daughter relationships, especially the creepy ones like Carrie and Black Swan, and I'm all for Southern Gothic, but this story and I didn't get along at all. Dark Places felt clever, Sharp Objects felt gratuitous.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik: I didn't dislike Uprooted, but I didn't love it either and I was hoping I would as my lovely friend Natalie @ A Sea Change thought very highly of it. I just felt kind of 'meh' about the whole thing and that was mainly because of the way it was written; I don't know what it is about Naomi Novik's writing in this book, but it felt like a struggle to get through. The cover is beautiful, though.

Among Others by Jo Walton: So many people love this book and I hated it! I really wish it didn't because it sounds like the perfect book, but I had way too many problems with it to enjoy it.

Summer Days & Summer Nights ed. by Stephanie Perkins: I really enjoyed My True Love Gave to Me, but I ended up DNFing this one. So many of the stories were so bloody depressing until it eventually got to the point where I realised I didn't care anymore. I did enjoy Leigh Bardugo's story, so I'm planning to read Six of Crows this year.

Which books made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them', so this week I'm talking about the books I wish had more pages in them!

Woman Who Brings the Rain by Eluned Gramich: This teeny little memoir was my first read of this year, and was also shortlisted for the English-language Wales Book of the Year in the non-fiction category. I've been really into learning more about Asia in this year and I loved the way this little memoir, about the author's time in Japan, was written, so I'd've really liked a much longer book. Perhaps she'll produce one in future!

Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember: This has LGBT+ protagonists and unicorns, so what's not to love? I really enjoyed Ember's debut, I just wanted even more of it.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor: Similarly, the only thing I wanted from Binti was even more of it because the universe Okorafor has created is fascinating.

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue: Something's revealed at the end of The Wonder that I felt was brushed under the carpet very quickly considering the seriousness of it. I would have liked a few more pages so that what's revealed could have been dealt with more than it was.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: Okay so this book, one of my favourites of all time (possibly my ultimate favourite of all time), is perfect as far as I'm concerned, I just didn't want it to end. More please?

St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell: Pretty much every single story in this collection ended in medias res and I found it really frustrating. I think I might have liked the book a little more than I did if I felt as though every story actually had an ending.

Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine Orenstein: I really enjoyed this, and I recommend it if you're interested in the history of fairy tales, but I'd love an updated version talking about some of the more recent versions and adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood.

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig: I loved Heilig's debut, the idea is just delicious, and the only problem I had with it was that ending felt a little rushed compared with the pace of the rest of the book. I'd've been happy for a slower ending, but it didn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the book.

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: I don't think this novella really needs to be longer, it's an ideal size for what it is, but I loved the concept so much that I'd've happily read a full-length novel - especially as I don't read enough horror.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: This is one of those classic Gothic Victorian stories, told in hindsight in a 'tell-don't-show' way that so many 19th century stories were, but the idea is so interesting that I wish it was longer and a bit more, well, more.

What did you talk about this week?

Review | St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

by Karen Russell

My Rating: 

Charting loss, love and the difficult art of growing up, these stories unfurl with wicked humour and insight. Two young boys make midnight trips to a boat graveyard in search of their dead sister, who set sail in the exoskeleton of a giant crab; a boy whose dreams foretell implacable tragedies is sent to 'Sleepaway Camp for Disordered Dreamers' (Cabin 1, Narcoleptics; Cabin 2, Insomniacs; Cabin 3, Somnambulists...); a Minotaur leads his family on the trail out West, and finally, in the collection's poignant and hilarious title story, fifteen girls raised by wolves are painstakingly re-civilised by nuns.

Karen Russell's one of those authors who's been on my TBR for quite a while now. For a long time I'd heard she was a beautiful writer, if a little difficult to follow sometimes, and I was ready to accept the challenge and step out of my comfort zone. Her style has been likened to Angela Carter's, and as someone who, unfortunately, isn't the biggest fan of Carter's work I wasn't 100% sure if Karen Russell would be for me or not.

Now that I've read her debut collection I'm still not 100% sure.

One thing can't be doubted here: Karen Russell is an excellent writer. This collection was published when she was only 25, and her talent is obvious; some of her sentences are just gorgeous and such a pleasure to read, but I think that might have been part of the reason why I ultimately came away from this collection rather disappointed, because at times it felt like more effort had been put into the way the stories had been written rather than the content of the stories themselves. I admire beautiful writing a heck of a lot, but I love stories more.

Some stories I really enjoyed; 'Haunting Olivia', 'from Children's Reminiscences of the Westerward Migration' and 'St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves' were my favourite stories in the collection, but the more I think about this book the more I realise those three were probably the only stories I truly enjoyed. Every other story in this collection I either found really frustrating or I just didn't care about all that much. Yes, her writing style is quirky, but it's just a bit too quirky even for me.

What the stories in this collection all suffer from is the lack of an ending. Russell doesn't finish her stories, they just come to an abrupt stop, and as someone who's a big fan of a beginning, a middle and an end - particularly in short stories, because the ending to a short work can completely make or break it for me - I found it so frustrating. 'Haunting Olivia' and 'St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves' had the most concrete endings to me, which is probably part of the reason why I enjoyed them more than the majority of the other stories in the collection, but even 'from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration' was the casualty of a disappointing non-ending.

The stories were also far too samey for me. So many of them are written in first-person with a precocious child narrator (how many children use the word 'obdurate'?), usually a little boy, and none of these little boys are particularly distinctive other than the narrators of 'Haunting Olivia' and 'from Children's Reminiscences of the Westward Migration' - but I have no idea if I remember them because they're written differently or because I at least enjoyed their stories. I understand that short story collections usually have a theme, but there's a big difference between themed stories and the exact same story over and over again.

Originally I rated this collection three stars mainly because I figured two stars was a bit harsh for a writer who can write, but how can I rate something three stars when, for the most part, I didn't actually enjoy it that much? This is only Russell's debut, so perhaps I'm being a little harsh; I've seen plenty of people who feel the same way as I do about St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves say that Vampires in the Lemon Grove is a much stronger collection. I'll give it a go at some point, but right now the name 'Karen Russell' is giving me a headache.

This Week in Books | 20/04/16

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

NOW: I've picked up Jamaica Inn and so far I'm enjoying it. I love Daphne du Maurier, she's well on her way to being one of my favourite writers, and I think I might be going to the real Jamaica Inn in the summer so I'm looking forward to getting this book under my belt!

THEN: I recently read Karen Russell's debut collection, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and unfortunately I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would. Look out for my review next week!

NEXT: Tomorrow is the release day of Julia Ember's debut, Unicorn Tracks, which I'm very excited to read. I've pre-ordered a copy and I'll be diving into it as soon as it arrives!

What have you been reading recently?

Top Ten Tuesday | Recent TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Books You Recently Added To Your TBR'. For this I turned to Goodreads, and picked the ten books I'm most eager to read from the fairly recent additions to be TBR shelf!

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley: This hasn't been released just yet, but it sounds utterly enchanting. I'd definitely like to get my hands on a copy, even if I keep wanting to say 'magnolia' every time I see the title.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott: When it comes to non-fiction it's history books I read the most, and as someone who loves learning about women in history this book really interests me.

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber: I'm always really interested in stories that combine religion and science, so a story about an intergalactic preacher is right up my street.

This Strange Way of Dying by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: I loved Moreno-Garcia's novel, Signal to Noise, so I'd love to read some more of her stuff and this collection sounds great. Plus I've been really into short story collections lately.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell: I just love how bizarre this story sounds. It has quite mixed reviews - I'm fairly certain it's an extension of a short story in one of Russell's collections, which is something that doesn't always work - but I'd like to give it a go myself purely because I haven't come across anything like it before.

Resistance is Futile by Jenny T. Colgan: I'm a big fan of Jenny Colgan's contemporary stuff, but she also writes sci-fi and I think this book is sort of a combination of science and a rom-com. It sounds really cute, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a copy!

Mosquitoland by David Arnold: This book just sounds really quirky, and I've heard wonderful things about the way it's written. I'm a sucker for a pretty sentence.

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear: This just sounds really cool.

Also

The Princess and the Guard by Marissa Meyer: I love The Lunar Chronicles, and I need my fix before Winter is finally released in November!

Summer Days & Summer Nights ed. by Stephanie Perkins: This won't be released until 2016, but I really enjoyed My True Love Gave to Me so I'm hoping this anthology will be a lot of fun, too. Even if it is missing all the fun of Christmas.

Which books made your list?