I do not use a five star rating system. I don't agree with it. I will instead use a reference to the book itself.
Most of these will be revised entries from my reading journals. Most of them do not have substantial analysis. This is just for fun.
I don't use Goodreads or any other reading tracker besides my journal. When I feel inspired, I will post here.
Tagging system: All reviews will be tagged with #five is reading and #five's book reviews. They will also be tagged with the book name, author's name, and the name/names of the main characters, as well as the date they were finished by me. For ease of finding each review on this blog, they will be tagged with the number order they were reviewed in and the title of the book. Ex: #0: Placeholder. I'll add those tags to the pinned post for ease of navigation.
i hate that most of their physical intimacy is haunted to the point where i doubt they got to enjoy any of it. they held hands for miracles. they danced but crowley was panicking about the demons outside. he confessed knowing it was doomed. they kissed but it was out of desperation. finger kiss but they are about to die? held hands again but ah too late they are evaporating.
Interesting topics: okay so apparently a "grain" is a unit of measurement of about 65 milligrams that used to be used for very small measurements. So a grain of arsenic is like 65 milligrams. Weird.
Notes: FINALLY I have met Harriet Vane! She is just as cool as I thought she would be. And Peter is FUMBLING! I stg he better get ahold of himself because this was not his best work.
The mystery was very fun. I was compelled the whole way through, and didn't feel cheated by the ending. This book felt like a celebration of women. Harriet's introduction as a fine, clever, witty, and unconventional lady was well done. The fact that a lady who had had a lover still being desirable after it ended, and it not being something she was to be ashamed of was very interesting. That and the escapades of Miss Climpson and Miss Murchison made the book both dramatic and delightful. Peter actually did very little important investigating. The Cattery was doing a lot of the heavy lifting for him.
Peter's character struggle was beautifully done. His personal feelings have never affected him so much before in a case, and his quiet temper never directed itself to his person before now. His internal war was quite a refreshing bit of humanization for the silly sleuth. The feeling that he both didn't want to scare Harriet off, and didn't want to let her go at the same time was overwhelming. His internal hatred for the intensity of his emotions and inability to find sufficient evidence was so incredibly interesting. It seemed that they only thing he was sure of in this book was that Harriet did not do it. Having just finished Have His Carcass, I can easily see his development. I hope he gets ahold of himself.
Can't find my journal but I finished Clouds of Witness and Unnatural Death in the past week so just be prepared. It's joever for all y'all when I find it
"the most unrealistic thing about project hail mary is that a woman is in charge" WRONG look up the glass cliff. women are much more likely to be promoted to positions of power when things are going poorly and people need a woman to blame. she refers to herself as the "world's whipping boy." the person put in the position to have to commit ecological and humanitarian crimes of that scale in order to save the earth would only ever be a woman.
Interesting topics: Speculative alien biology, linguistics, and rocket science
Notes: After I saw the movie (yes I watched it first. No it did not spoil my enjoyment of the book), I knew I had to read the book. Fast-paced without losing detail, carefully plotted without being predictable, informative without being dense, and heart-wrenchingly emotional without feeling hopeless, this book is not only a triumph of writing; it is exactly the kind of story I think we need right now. It is funny, full of heart, and a book that both stresses the significance of our lives on Earth, and is optimistic that in an extinction event, the most qualified people will be on it. It is a perfect and hopeful example of what happens when people realize that all their superficial differences don't matter and work together. What a hopeful and detailed story. What detailed and realistically grounded characters. We can save each other. We are worth dying for. People who are not like us are also worth dying for. Please read this book. I read it in about a week and it would have gone faster if I had less to do.
I appreciate how human Peter Wimsey is. You see him admit he loves solving criminal cases, but he feels guilty for enjoying the "game" when people's lives are at stake, even if they are facing justice for something they committed. And when you see him suffer periods of PTSD that he's had since his time in World War I, his light-hearted banter doesn't look like the careless foolishness of a rich lord disconnected from reality, but a man who is trying to recover a sense of peace or at least trying to cope.
this sucks so bad I need to [remembers suicide jokes only worsen my mental health] investigate a naked corpse that was found in the bathtub of an architect my mother met one time
Interesting topics: Dorothy Sayer's life, the history of the Golden Age of detective literature, and intersectionality between gender and ethnicity. The book was quite Anti-Semetic at times, especially at the beginning, but ultimately the murdered man (who was Jewish) is depicted as a good husband and a sympathetic person. Ultimately, I feel unqualified to comment too much on the complexities of this issue as I do not have enough knowledge on the matter, but I didn't want to leave it unsaid as many reviews I'm looking at seem to.
Notes: This book was FANTASTIC. The mystery, plot, prose, and intrigue were a fine-tuned symphony, but the star of the show was the CHARACTERS. Every single one, no matter how small, or how many scenes they were in, felt so alive I could practically hear them breathe off the page. I found this a sharp contrast to the other Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, who typically used very simple characters but made the mystery airtight. Sayers might take a few liberties with her mysteries, but her character work is impeccable. The murderer was plotting and conniving, but grounded in reality. Bunter (my beloved), the loyal butler was delightful in every scene and kind of stole the show. I love him dearly. And the whole book is built nicely upon the detective, a man as charming and delightful as his name.
Lord Peter Wimsey is such a wonderful character, and a wonderful person. His quirks and eccentricities are paired with a sharp intellect and easygoing humility, all masked nicely with confidence and charm. He was an unusual kind of detective, an amateur who has lots of other hobbies and a whole life outside of this work. I'm used to Sherlock Holmeses who become so entrenched in their cases that they lose themselves in them. They forget niceties and politeness in pursuit of an ultimate goal. Wimsey is not like that. He lies somewhere between Poirot and Miss Marple, being a lover of the finer things in life, getting out on the ground and investigating the scenes personally, and using human psychology and forensic evidence in equal measure in his analysis. I'm in a class about detective literature right now, and he's definitely the hardest detective to categorize into a neat little archetype imo. I cannot wait to read more from him.
The book almost felt like a detective story about detective stories. It was very meta at times. The part about assembling clues into a complete case being like looking at a word scramble was so interesting! Another very interesting thing was the commentary of the ways murderers can reveal themselves, and how either an abundance of caution, fear, or arrogance causes them to make misjudgments that ultimately give away their game. I highly recommend this book if you love detective stories as much as I do.
Minor spoilers for Whose Body? and a pretty big but well known spoiler for the rest of the LPW and Harriet Vane mysteries!
Okay so apparently Wimsey goes on to marry Harriet Vane (DLS's other biggest detective) and they solve mysteries together? And in the essay Feminist Crime Fiction and Female Sleuths by Adrienne E. Gavin she says: "Vane refuses Wimsey's marriage proposals until Gaudy Night (1935), which has been termed 'the first feminist detective novel.'" I LIKE FEMINISM! I LIKE DETECTIVE NOVELS!
Anyway, this book was very good and I fear a hyper fixation is brewing with the potential of become a full blown special interest.
Also, this book has some moments that can be attributed as gay. This is my favorite. The context: Bunter is writing Wimsey a letter after he did some espionage.
...May I take this opportunity of expressing my grateful appreciation of your lordship’s excellent taste in food, drink and dress? It is, if I may say so, more than a pleasure—it is an education, to valet and buttle your lordship.
Lord Peter bowed his head gravely.
“What on earth are you doing, Peter, sittin’ there noddin’ an’ grinnin’ like a what-you-may-call-it?” demanded the Duke, coming suddenly out of a snooze. “Someone writin’ pretty things to you, what?”
“Charming things,” said Lord Peter.
The Duke eyed him doubtfully.
“Hope to goodness you don’t go and marry a chorus beauty,” he muttered inwardly, and returned to the Times.
I mean. There's definitely some potential there. And he was his butler. OMG he was his butler!
Anyway. Good book. Highly recommend. I have the next one on hold at the library and I am having a very hard time waiting.
