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ClareR (6256 KP) rated Days of Light in Books

Nov 23, 2025  
Days of Light
Days of Light
Megan Hunter | 2025 | Fiction & Poetry, LGBTQ+
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Days of Light tells the story of Ivy, from 1938 when she’s young and inexperienced, up to the 1990’s in her final years. Each time we step forward in time, we see Ivy on the same day. We see the consequences of her life choices, her losses and how she matures.

After the initial chapter where Ivy’s brother dies and she decides to marry a much older friend of the family, time jumps forward in decades to begin with, and longer periods of time nearer the end. Ivy joins a religious order as a nun, but I think this is largely because of the unresolved feelings she has for her friend, Frances.

There is a very spiritual feel to this novel: from the first chapter and the light that Ivy sees that distracts her from her brother drowning, her religious awakening, and the light she sees at the end of her life.

This was a lovely, gentle and thoughtful novel. It was an absolute pleasure to read.
  
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2019)
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (2019)
2019 | Drama, International, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The film reminded me a lot of the Mexican Leap Year, despite being a more pop version, as its Latin counterpart is rawer, denser and sadder. It doesn't mean that this film doesn't have its moments of rawness, density and sadness, but it is aesthetically more beautiful, it has a certain American film standard. The scenes of Juha trying to hold on to his wife's memories are very sad. The actors make the movie work, the duo, as strange as it may seem, managed to forge a nice chemistry. There is a lot that was left open and that could be better worked on in countless points, Juha's relationship with her daughter is just one of them. The ending left me with mixed feelings, but I got into the mood. The film only gets lost when it tries to emulate some points of Hollywood cinema, otherwise it made a good film. Krista Kosonen steals the scenes in which she appears, an actress who deserves much more than being an extra in Blade Runner.
  
In Darkness: The Shark
In Darkness: The Shark
L. Diane Wolfe | 2022 | Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance
5
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
It is clean and there is no violence
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

I'm going to struggle with this review, and I apologise for that. The reviews for books that do not garner much of any feelings from me (either positive or negative) I find the hardest to write.

I liked the tale, I did, it just came across a bit sappy for me. I liked the twist as to who/what Clarence really is, although I kinda saw something along those lines coming at me.

It is clean, there is no violence, save for the shark getting caught in the fishing net. I've tagged it Young Adult, because I think this is probably more suited to an upper teen (14-18) than for me.

First I've read of this author. Will I read more? Not of this series, no. Possibly something else, though.

I DID finish it, so that's why I gave it. . .

3 stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding
Amanda Svensson | 2022 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I gave up reading it twice, but something kept pulling me back. I still can’t work out what the system is that’s so blinding, but I did like how quirky the whole novel was. It’s surreal, everyone in it has some sort of mental health issue, and is muddling their way through a life that they can make no sense of. Honestly, I couldn’t make sense of their lives either.
There are some really quite beautiful descriptive passages of London and Easter Island, and I found myself googling one of the photographic artists that was mentioned and falling down a rabbit hole for a while.
Should this win the international Booker prize? I have no idea, and I wouldn’t want to be the one that had to choose. Am I glad that I read it? I’m still not absolutely sure on that one. It’s left me with more questions than answers, and I don’t know as there even are any answers!