Reviews – Books: S
RATINGS KEY
0/5 – Terrible. Avoid this book at all costs.
1/5 – Bad. Only read it if you’re a truly hardcore fan of the author/topic.
2/5 – Okay. It’s not bad, but it’s not good either.
3/5 – Average. A decent one-time read.
4/5 – Good. Worth reading and worth buying.
5/5 – Excellent. One of my favorites; a worthy classic.
A Separate Peace by
2/5 | Reviewed 5.25.07
Ponderous coming–of–age stories set in mid–century American boys’ schools are generally trite, obnoxious and dull, and this was no exception. Since this is probably one of the earliest examples of said stories, I should be more forgiving, but to be forgiving I would have to go back and find some good points about the book, and that would necessitate spending even more time thinking about this book, which grows even more boring in retrospect. The movie The Dead Poets Society is not much better, but at least … hmm. Can’t think of anything good about that story, either.
Star of the Sea by
4/5 | Reviewed 8.31.07
This book fell into my lap at the perfect time; I had just finished Kept and was watching The Hanging Gale, and this book fit neatly between those two in both tone and subject matter. Set during the Irish Potato Famine, the main action of the book takes place entirely on a ship, with flashbacks telling the back story and setting up what is obviously going to be some very unpleasant business. As a mystery, it fits together nicely, with all the important players given plenty of depth, back story, and motive. Like Kept, it’s a mixture of narrative, diary entries, and letters; it also shares Kept’s oppressive sense of impending doom, pervasive but not overdone.
