Reviews

Fantastic premise, gorgeous setting, marvellous atmosphere, interesting characters – and no plot. Here’s why I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed this reread (hints: Scotland! Run-down mansion! Horses! Politics being adressed!) …

As someone madly in love with Ireland, I just had to pick up this book when I first came across it, expecting a funny, joyful, maybe even educational read. Unfortunately, in the end, it wasn’t for me …

There are books, and then there are books. You know, the ones that have turned into part of your DNA. This is one of mine, so it’s simply impossible for me to write an unbiased review. Instead, I give you my rave-y ramblings on the first instalment of one of my all-time favourite series …

I’m not quite sure what the point of this book is apart from milking the Hunger Games cash cow. I must admit that I was a mite interested when it was first announced – not because I wanted any kind of additional book, but I have a very tight knit bond with this series. After all, I kind of owe it my bachelor’s degree. When I found out it was about Snow, however, that mite almost died down entirely and I became extremely wary. Well, I wasn’t wrong …

Wow, this was a wild ride. I feel like I only understood about 10% of what I read. Still, I enjoyed reading this collection a lot – at least in the beginning. The last couple of stories unfortunately didn’t connect with me quite as well as some of the previous. But the writing is very beautiful, incredibly intricate and complex and there’s more happening between the lines then what’s on the page …

Where do I even begin? To quote one of our great poets (never thought I would draw Goethe into this): “Two souls alas! are dwelling in my breast.” So what’s the deal? Well, I know for a fact that naive 16-year-old me would have loved this series. Not-quite-as-naive-and-a-lot-more-sensitised 28-year-old me not so much. There’s common ground though: it’s just my kind of fantasy world. But while 16 is swooning about just her type of (male) characters, 28 is screeching at her that these characters, their relationships, and some of the concepts are totally fucked up and toxically romanticised, and 16 should just get lost in the past where she belongs (you see, it’s always fun living in my head). Wondering what has them so worked up?

World War II is a piece of history that interests me a lot. I have watched numerous documentaries and like finding out more about stuff that went down back then. Being from Germany, my point of view courtesy of history lessons in school, documentaries, and the media has mostly been German-centric, so I really like taking on different points of view and exploring what happened in other countries. This book is one of those that provide insight into something I had never heard of thus far: I had no idea that Russia was the only country that allowed women to fly and become fighter pilots in the war. And what an incredible story they shared!