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I'm regretting this already

I am trying to tittle each review this year with a book-related pun but I can't think of one for The Snail on the Slope. So instead I've gone with something as baffling as the book itself.

Snail is such a funny book while also being a bit of a slog. It goes off on tangents all over the place and not a whole lot happens. That is the point, though, so don't be put off if you are partial to Soviet satire. I think of it as Kafka with a sense of humour.

@futzle if you want more, we have a pretty big Coupland connection in our bookshelf

Excited to read this, because I absolutely love Roadside Picnic... although as I understand it, this was written by the brothers as a series of metaphors that they then forgot what they were supposed to mean. (I'm reading an English translation)

This was alright - it hooked me well enough to read it quickly but it felt more like a creative writing exercise than anything. I think I was a bit bored with the 1700s feminism and the story was pretty simple.

A birthday present from last year. This will be my first book that isn't horror in some time.

Loved the premise and the beginning chapters, but ultimately HSB avoids all possibilities for something insightfully great. Instead, it's all male gaze, breasting boobily and women suffering. Written in 2007 and aged badly. Joe Hill picked the wrong hero.

Maeve works as a Disney Princess at Disneyland, haunts dive bars on the Sunset Strip and lives with her Old Hollywood grandmother. She's cultivating her misanthropic side but it's not quite enough, eventually settling on going the full Patrick Bateman.

I like how CJ Leede writes (I'm talking the phrasing and such, not the subject matter) but this book seemed a couple of drafts away from being finished. There is too much that doesn't add up, too many loose ends and late/improbable reveals. And I'm taking into account the cartoony, turned up to 11 storytelling.

A lot about it was fun, although it was too sadistic and mean-spirited for me. Guess I'm not ready for this anti-hero.

I already know this is going to be much more fun than my last book

Upsetting but well done, this book is great in how it deals with grief, identity and the migrant experience. It's very scary too. Content warning for dog lovers :(