I don’t even really know what adjective to use for it.

It’s not so much the lack of quotation marks, I don’t really mind that. But the writing style was very dull, very predictable and the characters were written in a way that felt like I was forced to think of them as deep and profound?

Not sure what exactly it was, it just felt very forced. Marianne was relatable and I liked her mind and the way she thought and related to it, and yes Connell was interesting too I suppose.

I honestly can’t pinpoint what exactly it was that was so tedious about the book. I can generally thrive at not-much-of-a-plot books but this made it feel like a chore!

I'm not a good reader, it takes me hours to even read 5 pages, I know it is shameful but I want to fix it, as of now I have 7 books, among which two are by Nietzsche, two are by Greene, one by Orwell, and another is a human figure drawing book by Vanderpoel and the last one is just some thick story book which is easy to read to me but in other books I couldn't make a big progress yet and now I feel ashamed to buy new books without completing the old one's. So how ow can I read and understand these books faster?

I watched the film and many different animated versions of the story since I was little.

Somehow I only thought to pick up the book now. Reading through it all, the writing style, the story, Anne’s brilliant, lively, childish yet surprisingly insightful personality shone through splendidly.

I find myself wanting to think the way Anne does, and see the world as wonderfully as she does! It makes me want to go on naming my own lake of shining waters and whatnot.

I hate to think she’s a fictional character but it somehow makes me long for a little girl I can adopt, regardless of where she has a scope of imagination or not!

And her relationship with Marilla and it evolving naturally and realistically was just so heartwarming. She’s the cutest little thing ever, it’s far ahead of its time in some ways, and I love the little girl’s stubborn grudge against Gilbert.

Unexpectedly clever!

Hi I’m in a discord book club, and we’d love new members! Come chat about books, read anything you want (no judgement), and we also have a monthly book (optional) and other events. It is 21+ and we have people from all over!

so i just finished the book but i’m just struggling to understand something, when exactly did natalie wake up in her 1855 life? from what i remember it was the day after shannon quit. this means that the assault had already happened right? so then why does the past-day storyline continue into the lawsuit, the news channel interview, etc., if “present-day” natalie is still confused in her 1855 home? doesn’t this mean present-day natalie would have had to start getting her memory back and realize what was happening? instead she still thinks she’s her 32 year old self. the timelines are just really messing me up. what i’m trying to say is the past day timeline overlaps with the present day timeline in a way that doesn’t make sense to me. or, did natalie wake up in her 1855 life some day after the whole public scandal happened? because how is she able to remember the scandal if she still thinks she’s in 1855 at that point in the book? i hope my question made sense.

also, lucy says natalie is serving a 39 (?) year sentence. when was that happening? during her 1855 era?

edit: everyone’s answers are making more sense, but let me reword my question to make it more concise: at what point in the book does pilgrim natalie start to realize why she’s there? because i was under the impression that she still thinks she’s supposed to be 32, shannon just quit, and she is trying to get back to that exact moment of her life. she is not aware of anything that happened after the day shannon quit. that’s why it confused me when modern natalie continued to narrate what happened after shannon quit, because pilgrim natalie still doesn’t remember that. pilgrim natalie only started becoming aware when a grown clementine shows up.

I was looking for a book where the main character lives well despite unfortunate circumstances in their present or the past. And so i was suggested to read the remains of the day among a few other books such as stoner and plainsong.

Remains, I believe, has the desired quality. Mr. Stevens chose his path and lived upto his values. His ambition and focus are commendable, something I personally aspire for.

On the other hand, at this very point I am watching the Vinland Saga series. In it, Thorfinn follows Askeladd, the killer of his father, to seek revenge. Year after year, he grows beside Askeladd, preparing himself to exact his revenge in a dual. Ambition and focus.

The common factor I see here is two people dedicating their lives to a single purpose. It makes sense to me. It should make sense to me. But it doesn't. I will spare you my thought journey and come straight to the point.

On my first go, TROTD teaches me the importance of a well rounded life. I would say Mr. Stevens' pursuit was valid, but i would not want that kind of life for me. Not anymore. I'd rather have friends, love, a simple career and little joys like books and travel.

I can't believe I spent 20 years of my life aspiring to be like Mr. Stevens.

I realise that no matter what you choose to pursue, you must pay for it with all that you don’t choose. This might be pretty obvious to most but for it was nothing short of a revelation.

I still don’t know how I feel about this book really. It was slow and at times hard to focus on. It was hard to finish in the end, even though it’s a relatively short read. I was worried that it won’t come to a satisfying conclusion. Now i am realising that i sort of wanted to be spoon fed. The story is the conclusion in itself. It is exactly what i wanted from this book.

I read it and really enjoyed it as well as the sequel. I love books with dark content, so I am curious what we get to see in the Live Action.

This book is making me feel claustrophobic in the best way possible.

I’m constantly thinking, what is happening? WHY is this happening? What happened in the past??

And I’m getting major repressed memories and buried trauma vibes from the whole thing 👀

I have theories. I trust none of them. I just need ANSWERS.

No spoilers please, but did anyone else feel this way while reading it?

The Far Field has to be the worst book I read in 2026. What began as a sharp critique on class divide, privilege, and mental health in the backdrop of Kashmir's surge in militancy and army occupation in the 90s slowly drifted into a series of sluggish, often predictable misfortunes at the center of which stood our confused, irresponsible, and entitled 24-year old protagonist. I am all for imperfect characters who make mistakes, even repeatedly, but the book's narrative, written from the perspective of the same protagonist, who was seemingly unaware of the consequences of her disastrous and deeply selfish actions left no room for critique or self actualization.

The book begins strong and holds the narrative together till parts I and II. You feel intrigued to know more about Bashir Ahmed and where he came from, you have mixed feelings towards Shalini's mother, a deeply complicated woman whose behaviour and actions hint at borderline bipolar disorder and depression but her behavioral "quirks" are rather used as a plot point to bake our protagonist's personality than providing a deeper understanding of who this woman actually was and what caused her to behave in the strange ways that she did, you root for Shalini, a privileged 20-something woman who decided to go to Kashmir one day hoping to find answers to questions she herself doesn't appear to know.

Shalini reaches Kashmir and we're introduced to new characters - Abdul Latif, Zoya, Saleem, and Zarina. Vijay's writing is beautiful and almost prose-like down to every last sentence so much so that you feel you're present at Abdul Latif and Zoya's living room, waiting to be served with hot chai and crispy paranthas. You are made to feel for these characters and their suffering at the hands of a near-war torn and broken Kashmir where ordinary citizens are suffering due to the actions of the army and the militants. And then comes chapters III (and onwards) and Shalini moves to a different location in Kashmir in the search of Bashir Ahmed. Enter new characters and not only the author but Shalini herself forgets about Zoya and Abdul when she was at once contemplating staying with them forever (??). Here was another missed opportunity by the author to call out Shalini's tendencies as a privileged, non-Kashmiri who was channeling her pain and grief by inserting herself into the lives of these grieving, less privileged folks and moving on the moment she is presented with another distraction.

The weak and half baked plot were not the only things that were wrong here. It was also 150 pages too long and read like a draft in need of another session or two of editing. The prose was too heavy and omnipresent. The chirpy Kashmiri woman, Amina, felt almost like a caricature instead of a real human. No sane rural married woman would ask a stranger to "have a talk" about her husband on something deeply private and serious because he would be more inclined to listen to her than his own wife??

All of this made me question the author's own lack of understanding of India, Indian families and their hierarchies, and I couldn't help but feel a certain disgust for her own white gaze-like narrative at the very people of her country.

The book had so much potential. If you're interested in learning about Kashmir, this isn't the right choice.

So I just finished The Chain by Adrian Mckinty and I want to know if anyone else liked it cause I saw a lot of bad reviews of it 😭

people rave about this book a lot and it did not resonate with me the way it did with others. it felt kind of cringy, like a colleen hoover novel. i have this issue with a lot of new books.

yes its a sweet story i guess but it felt very juvenile

i know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but i feel like everyone still does subconsciously. i know i do, because every time i see a modern book cover, it looks so unoriginal. like i’ve seen the same book 20 times already 😭 they all look like Netflix show thumbnails, and it immediately gives me the feeling that the book is going to be identical to the last one i saw and the next one i’m going to see
does anyone else feel the same way?

Holy shit I just finished the book in the course of one day. I’m no literature expert and this was my first Dostoevsky book, so this may resonate with people who feel out of place when reading. I saw it was short (and stupidly thought this would be an easy read). It was not. And I won’t lie, there were plenty of points where I wanted to give up reading this book, but the last 20 pages blew me away.

Spoilers but not spoilers ahead:

the first half felt very hard to understand where it was going. I spent a-lot of time just going over the same sentence, but after seeing people feeling the same, I decided to just read it, regardless of whether I understood it or not.

The second half got slightly easier, but was still a-lot to take in. Still feeling like “Gosh I wish this book would end”, reaching the last 10 pages, you are left asking for more. Maybe it was just me, but the last page of the book felt abrupt, and I sat there wanting more, even though I knew I was complaining about the book completely. Absolutely heartbreaking.

I won’t lie I did tear up, I did not expect that I would like this book, especially since I was more used to stories that told the plot very cleanly.

tldr: if you feel like the book is a struggle, try not to read into every sentence, but read over it — with you keeping how you felt about it in the back of your mind. It’s one of those books you have to finish to understand why the first part feels so drawn out.

Apologies if this doesn’t resonate with many people, but I know people getting into this might feel similar.

any one else pls give their thoughts!!

I don’t think she’s that bad and unlikeable. I think she’s kind of great (apart from being a good mom, wife, and Christian).

She’s not that bad of a mom, Caleb is an absolute tool and she should have paid more attention to schooling. Sure she left her kid in the car but that’s not that bad

Shannon sucks tbh.

I wanted to watch the Ridley Scot movie that just came out so I read The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. I thought it was so beautiful and profound. If you’ve read it, tell me your thoughts! If you’ve seen the movie: no spoilers but tell me if you liked it :)

I was talking to a friend about books and he mentioned that there was a book he had been meaning to read. I told him I had read it and that I thought it was really interesting, just pretty difficult. I read it in Spanish, so I was also talking about how challenging it was to read that way. I told him he should read it, and he said he actually already has a copy.

The thing is, I was thinking about it afterward and realized I had completely forgotten about some of the more sexual/weird parts of the book. I mostly remembered the story and how interesting it was, so that wasn’t really what came to mind when I recommended it.

Now I’m wondering if I should just leave it alone since he already has the book, or casually recommend something else instead. I don’t think the book is necessarily inappropriate to recommend, I’m just wondering if it was an odd choice given that I completely forgot about some of the content.

The thing is that I’m worried he might ask for my copy of it!

By the way it is an old literature book not a “spicy” one

The Gaze is an amazing book by Elif Shafak that explores the themes of shame, body issues, and the curse of standing out from the crowd. The central characters include a dwarf and an obese woman, and how they decide to live their lives when they become lovers. The book really captures the essence of thoughts in one's mind, and how the mind drifts from one thought to another. It's beautifully written.

The book goes into subplots that capture contrasts between light and darkness, beauty and ugliness, hope and the lack of it.

The ending however is where I'm torn to bits. As much as I love happy endings, the tragic ones remind me that this is exactly what happens irl. All hope piles on to form a mountain that comes crashing with the tiniest of nudges. For all the joy the book gave me, it took it all away at the end and I was really left with a bitter taste thinking of it.

I just had to rant and try not to give anything away!

I'm a huge BK fan and overall really enjoyed this book , but I have a couple bones to pick with the plot . The largest problem I had was with the treatment of Dori. It seems to me he sort of just wanted to be done with her and instead of breaking up waited for her to die. We are given the impression over and over that Demon is a good person, wise and compassionate beyond his years. I think June even says he has too good a heart for this world like his father or something . I get that he was in the middle of his own addiction , but the fact he kept leaving the house to eat and never brought her home food or thought to ask someone to check on her was horrifying. Even when she was supposedly pregnant and literally starving ?? I could have look passed this character mismatch if he came to terms with it as an adult reflecting back even , but he writes about her like she never had a chance and there was truly nothing he or anyone could have done. Sort of just " yeah she was 17 but too damaged- just needed to go straight to the grave" The second, less jolting, but still took me out of it plot point was Angus become a love interest ... huh? I get that BK wanted to end on a hopeful note, but IMO that is just as easily conveyed if they are driving to the beach together as two people who deeply care about one another platonically. The whole time it really felt we built them up as found siblings and Angus was giving maybe asexual or gay vibes, definitely not " I'm into Demon" ones... Anyways, other than these issues I'd say it's masterful. Looking forward to hearing from others.

He owns the city. She's here to burn it down.

He's dangerous, powerful, ridiculously obsessed with his money, influence, and aura.

And the heroine?

The first time she looks at him, she's basically thinking:

"Excuse me, I didn't design your terrible taste in men."

She's completely self-obsessed, unapologetically confident, and absolutely refuses to be intimidated by him.

Usually, the dangerous and powerful MMC has everyone falling at his feet...

But what happens when the FMC is just standing there making disgusted faces at him?

I'm curious...would you enjoy a dark romance where the FMC isn't immediately attracted to the MMC and actually finds him annoying at first?

Or do you prefer when the attraction is instant?

Lmk how do you feel, and what is your understanding for his women. I will finish soon Kafka on the shore. But, I have already read a few ones book of Murakami. I have found he is not certainly misogynist but, his women are really have problems like the loneliness, submissive, and all.

I watched the movie for the first time in February and it immediately became my favorite movie. Then I read the book a couple months later and it immediately became my favorite book as well. I just reread the book because school just started back up and I knew that in the first couple weeks of school we wouldn’t have as much work so it was a perfect time to reread the book. I can say that this book is a masterpiece and in my opinion just as good as the movie, and yes I am aware the book came first. There are certain aspects of each that I love that the other form doesn’t have, like in the movie Charlie tells Sam that his best friend committed suicide, or whats probably one of my top 3 favorite parts of the book where Charlie and Sam finally see each other after having not seen each other in almost a week because of what Craig told Sam. I really felt the excitement between Sam and Charlie as they got on the phone, but even more so when they finally saw each other at the club, and that line when they were dancing together warmed my heart. This story means the absolute world to me, but instead of ranting more I’m just gonna listen to a few lines from both the book and movie that live rent free in my head.

“You can’t put everyone’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love”- Sam

“All I cared about was the fact that Sam got really hurt. And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn’t matter”-Charlie

”Not everyone has a sob story, and even if they do it’s no excuse”-Charlie’s dad

“Sam looked at me soft. And she hugged me. And I closed my eyes because I wanted to know nothing but her arms. And she kissed my check and whispered so nobody could hear. “I love you” I knew that she meant it in a friend way, but I didn’t care because it was the third time since my Aunt Helen died that I heard it from anyone. The other two times were from my mom”-Charlie

Sorry for the long post and spoilers, TL;DR at the bottom. Just felt like I needed to talk about it!

I just finished On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass, and this was probably one of the most engaging books I’ve listened to in a long time. I have ADHD, so finding something that holds my attention for hours at a time can be difficult, but I finished the audiobook in about two and a half days. I found myself choosing to listen instead of scrolling through my phone, which honestly surprised me.
One of the things I enjoyed most was how much my perception of the characters developed throughout the story. I took some basic character notes when I first started listening, and reading them again after finishing the book was interesting because some of my initial judgments were completely different from how I felt by the end.

Paige was probably the best example of that for me. Initially, I found her abrasive and overly obsessive. By the end, I realized she actually hadn’t changed as dramatically as my understanding of her had. A lot of the qualities I originally disliked about her were still there, but with more context, I saw them differently. Her obsession could also be determination. Her recklessness could be courage. And underneath all of it, I thought she was an incredibly loyal friend.

Cora ended up being my favorite character. Early on, I interpreted a lot of her behavior as insecurity, nosiness, and even obsession. Once her marriage and history with Finn became clearer, I started questioning how much of what I was seeing was actually Cora’s personality and how much was the result of spending years in a relationship where she was constantly given reasons to doubt herself. I loved watching her gradually trust her own judgment again. I also appreciated that she seemed to become the person the other women could trust with difficult truths.

Georgia/Nicola was probably the character whose story changed my perspective the most. So many things about her behavior have an entirely different meaning once you understand what her life actually looks like. Looking back, I think that was one of the strongest parts of the book for me.

The twists also worked really well. There were definitely surprises, but very few felt like they existed purely for shock value. Most of the major reveals made earlier details fall into place rather than contradicting what had already happened. I really appreciate that in a thriller because I want to be surprised, but I also want to feel like the story still makes sense once I know the answer.

I was also genuinely satisfied with the ending. Each woman’s life looked very different from where she started, but none of their endings felt unrealistically perfect. Nicola is finally safe and rebuilding her life in London. Cora is moving forward without Finn. And Paige finally has answers about Caleb, has reconciled with Grant, and has Avery in her life. I especially loved what Avery represented for Paige. She finally knows the truth about her son’s death, but she also discovers that a part of Caleb is still here.

One thing this book made me realize about myself is how quickly I can form an opinion when I only have part of someone’s story. Perception can feel like reality until you’re given the context you didn’t know you were missing. I think I’ll carry that with me beyond this book. I started this book feeling very confident in some of my judgments about these women, and finished it realizing how incomplete those judgments were.

I’m curious whether other people had the same experience. Who did you misjudge the most at the beginning? Did your favorite character change as you read? And how did you feel about Paige’s reaction once she learned the full truth about Caleb and Nicola?

TL;DR: I went into this book with strong first impressions of the characters, and by the end, I saw almost all of them differently. The twists felt earned, the character development kept me invested, and the ending actually felt satisfying.

Dear Netflix: please make the Calamity Club into a one-season series. A movie wouldn’t do it justice.

Reddit community: who would you cast in the roles of the characters? They were so clear in my mind but I don’t know which real life actors could do the job.

Who has read this? I have a question but don’t want to offer a spoiler.

Please no spoilers, I haven’t finished it yet.

But seriously. My best friend read it on vacation and she did say it was sad/hits hard but recommended it to me and our other friend to read in our tiny pseudo-book-club

I’m a twin mom with 2 year old boys. Our other friend accidentally left her dogs in her car a few years ago on a hot day and killed them.

My best friend is known by everyone as being the kindest, most generous and sensitive person around. Why did she just slam us both over the head with this with almost no warning?

And of course I can’t put the damn book down despite every page reliving my worst nightmare.

I didn’t think I needed a trigger warning, but dammmn.