3 Mini Reviews: Fiction

Hi guys, I hope you are all well. Today I have some mini reviews of three fiction book to share. I enjoyed all of these books and wanted to share some thoughts with you guys. I don’t think I have anything else to say so I’ll just get straight onto the reviews :).

 

The Help / Kathryn Stockett / ★★★★ 

This is a fantastic historical fiction standalone. I first read this as part of my GCSE English literature course. It is set in the 1960’s in Mississippi and is told primarily from the point of view of three women. One of the main strengths of this book are the characters. The main characters of this book are so well written and you come to really care about them. It is also such an important book to read, in terms of its focus on racism and what black maids had to go through at the time. Having said that, I think it’s also important to note that there is a lot more to it and that this is a historical fiction, but perhaps it’s a good place to start if you don’t know alot about this time in history.The writing is easy to get into and it is engaging throughout. Overall I think this is a great book and I would definitely recommend checking it out.

 

The Bees / Laline Paul / ★★★★ 

This is unlike anything that I’ve read before and I really enjoyed the uniqueness of it. Initially it was a little tricky to get into but after a few chapters I was really intrigued by the story. The world building, character development and level of detail are all fantastic. There is also some pretty good action in this book too. You can tell that the author did her research and really knows her stuff. If you are interested in bees than this may be something you enjoy. This will definitely not be to everyone’s taste (I think it has quite mixed reviews on Goodreads) but I personally really enjoyed this. If you are looking for a unique read with bees as the main characters, then you may enjoy this book.

 

Snow Country / Yasunari Kawabata / ★★★ 

This is quite an odd one. I appreciated it as a good book, more than I enjoyed the plot. It just didn’t quite work for me – somehow it didn’t speak to me, if that makes sense. That is entirely my personal preference and I do still think this is a good book. I thought this was very well written and the setting is so well done. The characters are all interesting and complex – they are definitely one of the main strengths of this book, but I didn’t really care about any of them. I did still find them intriguing. For me the main strength of this book was the setting and the atmosphere. If you are not fans of books with little plot than this probably isn’t for you, but if you are interested in reading Japanese literature and enjoy complex characters than you may enjoy this. I am definitely interested to try out something else by this author, but so far I haven’t decided which of his books to read next.

 

I recently saw that Laline Paull has another book coming out soon, so I’ll definitely be checking that out at some point. Have you guys read any of these books? What did you think? I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.

 

Pippa