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Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated Art Something in Books

Jun 6, 2019

Art Something (Strange Art #1) by Devon Layne is the first instalment of the Strange Art series, in which the main protagonist, a teenager called Arthur Étrange, lives in his own world where he expresses himself through his art. This causes most of his school mates to think him a little odd, hence his need to escape from the social side of life and immerse himself in his art.

His older sister, Morgan, not only loves and truly understands Art, but guides and protects him through the teenage trial and tribulations of life. So when she is due to go back to college Morgan worries how he’ll cope without her. Her answer? She decides to introduce Art to her friend, Annette, in the hope they’ll hit it off together. They do!

Although it’s not high on action, there is conflict in the form of issues teenagers can relate to. For example, Art’s lack of self-confidence and insecurities are exposed to the reader via his innermost thoughts and feelings. The threesome also provides that key support system to help Art overcome these obstacles with the love and understanding of two girls who have his best interests at heart.

This coming of age story is also my first ‘taboo’ book which explores a very loving and highly erotic, consensual polyamory relationship between brother, sister and their friend. Admittedly, this is not something I’d usually read, having said that, Devon Layne is a talented writer and this is a beautiful and sensual story encompassing a controversial subject. I’m looking forward to seeing how this series develops.

Kudos

Sarah (126 KP) rated Facebook in Apps

Jul 12, 2018

Facebook

Communication, Entertainment, Events, Social Networking

7.6

(435 Ratings)

App Rating

Great for keeping in touch (2 more)

Nice way to share news, photos

Groups are a great way of sharing hobbies, finding like-minded people with similar interests

Updates are hit and miss - often a lot of problems with the app (2 more)

Bullying is poorly controlled

Standards are applied in a very hit and miss way

Has Its Good & Bad Points

Facebook has its uses - it's a good way to keep in touch with people you wouldn't ordinarily hear from very often, it's handy to send photos to people around the world and it can be a lovely way to brighten up your day with funny memes, jokes, and nice messages from people.

The App itself can be quite hit and miss - updates seem to be rolled out before they're properly ready, so you have issues where timelines don't update, comments don't load, etc. Whenever there's an update, while it may resolve one problem, it typically brings a whole host of others.

There are also the problems with Facebook itself, not least the prevalence of cyber-bullying that goes unchecked, the fact that Facebook seems to apply its rules in an incredibly haphazard way - allowing violent images to remain while removing those which, while perhaps "provocative" in the sense of being thought-provoking, are not indecent, obscene, violent or really in any way outrageous, and the rather concerning issues around the security/privacy of user data and increasing number of adverts on the site/app.

While not having yet run its course, Facebook is going to have to come up with newer and newer ideas to remain relevant, and have to improve its security and "policing" structures to keep users happy.

Kudos

Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Frankenstein in Baghdad in Books

Jul 23, 2019

This book won at least two awards; the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and France's Grand Prize for Fantasy, and the author had previously been named one of the 39 best Arab authors under the age of 39. I picked it up to read for the Year of the Asian Reading Challenge, since the Middle East is all-too-often neglected in regional groupings like that. People don't think of it as Europe or Asia. I also try to read translated books on occasion, in an effort to diversify my reading. So this hit a number of my interests - I wish I had actually liked the book more!

It's an interesting retelling of Frankenstein - which I haven't actually read, and now feel like I really should. But it bounces around between several viewpoints. It's not too many to keep straight, but it's definitely too many to truly care about. And it suffers from an unreliable narrator - it's written as several stories told to an author from multiple people that he's woven together into a single narrative, and while he does that well, it suffers from contradictions between how different characters recall things, scenes that don't play a part in furthering the plot but the characters thought they were important, and no authoritative "this is what REALLY happened" to draw it all together.

And I very much dislike unreliable narrators, so that alone is enough to make me dislike the book. If you like ambiguous narratives and vigilante stories, however, you might enjoy this, and the writing style itself was quite engrossing.

You can find all my reviews and more at http://goddessinthestacks.com