Tag Archives: the fuck is this the fuck was that

Review: Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration, #1)Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Yeah…this was definitely not my thing. Both facepalmed and hoity-toity should not be in the same book. “Extra sparkly unicorn fart kind of special” also made an appearance. I use these to illustrate one of the most annoying aspects of the book; the bizarre swings between quasi-Victorian language and contemporary youthful slang. I also found the characters flat and, honestly, the basic premise of girl on zombie kind of grossed me out. I think I can quite definitely say that I will not be reading anything additional by Lia Habel. (Oh yes, did I mention that the series is named Gone With the Respiration. Seriously.)

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Review: The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese FalconThe Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

I began reading The Maltese Falcon with every expectation that I would enjoy it. I have heard so many comparisons of Dashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler that anything else seemed impossible. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Try as hard as I can, I cannot see where the brilliance supposedly lies. All of the ingredients are there: beautiful, lying and tragic woman; hard-boiled detective; copious amounts of booze and coffee; evil men slapping the beautiful women in the face. (Seriously, what is up with all the slapping in noir?) Somehow, despite everything, it came off less compelling than a third-rate Alistair MacLean. What’s up with that?

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