My last 5 books: 3 disappointments and 2 happy discoveries

1. Tristan et Yseut, by Béroul. The ancient sappy over-dramatic love story that inspired all the modern sappy over-dramatic love stories. I hoped I'd appreciate this more when my university professor wasn't breathing down my neck to finish it in a hurry. I didn't. It's still over-dramatic and sappy and makes no sense. The king is a gullible fool. He sentences Yseut (Isolde) to death by burning for adultery, but she runs away with Tristan and after two years all she has to do to be pardoned is hold a passionate speech about how no man besides her husband has slept with her? So the king accused her of adultery with Tristan. And after two years by his side in hiding all she has to do is make a speech? Like, if the king believced in the accusations enough to sentence her to death... what does he think they've been doing together for the past two years and how is a speech enough to make everything alright again? I know it's somewhere around 700-800 years old and a lot has happened to storytelling over the centuries, but come on!

2. The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black. This is one I got in an OwlCrate and the blurb didn't convince me that I'd like it. True enough, it had its issues but on the whole I came out of it really having enjoyed reading it. Cardan seems exactly like the tortured soul I enjoy reading about and Jude perfectly depicts the desperation in being an outcast longing to belong. I enjoyed reading through the twists of the story and I really didn't see the end coming. So kudos to Holly Black for that. I'm kind of wanting to read the next book in the series but I'm also apprehensive about it, because with the way things ended in this book I can only see the next one going in one of two ways and I'm not really a fan of either of those ways. Still, this was a lot more fun than I expected.

3. Kallocain, av Karin Boye. Första gången jag försökte läsa denna så var jag ungefär fjorton år och jag tyckte att den var fruktansvärt tråkig och jag läste aldrig ut den. Alla dessa år senare så var den kvar i minnet och jag bestämde mig för att ge den en ny chans som vuxen. Den här boken smälter in perfekt i vår nuvarande dystopifokuserade populärkultur. Hade den släppts i år hade den antagligen varit väldigt populär, men istället får den finnas lite i skymundan; undanträngd av större internationella dystopiska klassiker som t ex 1984. Jag hade gärna sett att Kallocain var mer utarbetad med en mer detaljerad omvärld, men det är samtidigt detaljer som inte egentligen behövs. Det hade inte gett mer till storyn att veta hur världskartan var uppdelad i den här framtiden eller vad Kemistaden en gång hade varit för plats. Det enda dessa detaljer möjligtvis kunde ha gett till en redan riktigt bra bok, skulle vara en fastare förankring i minnet; en mer känslomässig koppling till vad som hände i boken.

4. World War Z, by Max Brooks. This book was terrible. It's told after the fact and while it's an interesting take on the zombie story it doesn't fully work. Mostly because it very quickly becomes the exact same story told from several different points of view but in basically the same words and formula. It gets repetitive and boring and I had to force myself to finish the last 150 pages because I really didn't want to, but 150 pages is nothing so I persevered... And felt completely fooled when it was done. So not worth it.

5. Deception Point, by Dan Brown. If you've read one book by Dan Brown you've read them all. I read the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons about 13 years ago, and 16 y/o me absolutely loved the action and the conspiracy theories. This book I got from my grandmother a couple of years ago and I only got around to reading it this year. While the action is still entertaining (although at times completely eye-rollingly unbelievable) the formula for this book is 100% the same as for the Da Vinci Code and because of that I had every single twist figured out before I was even halfway. The shocking revolution of the traitor isn't very shocking when you've known who it is for the past 100 pages... Basically this book got 2 stars on Goodreads because the action is entertaining, but I'm never reading Dan Brown again.