Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 108

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

By Anne Bronte

“This is the story of a woman’s struggle for independence. Helen “Graham” has returned to Wildfell Hall in flight from a disastrous marriage. Exiled to the desolate moorland mansion, she adopts an assumed name and earns her living as a painter.” -goodreads

Published: 1848

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Read: October-December 2018      Reviewed: January 2019

Now I’ve read the three most famous novels by each of the Bronte Sisters. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and now Anne’s The Tenant of...

Ice Cream Man; Vol. 1

“Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, addiction, musical fantasy…there’s a flavor for everyone’s misery.

ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series, featuring disparate “one-shot” tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man—a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats...

Mean Girls

“You know the story–or do you?Cady Heron grew up homeschooled in Africa with scientist parents as her teachers, monkeys as her classmates and the African plains as her playground. But when her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, she finds herself a stranger in a strange land: high school.With no prior research to guide her, Cady’s forced to figure out North Shore High all on her own. Suddenly she finds herself sucked into Girl World as a new member of the social elite dubbed “The Plastic...

The Haunted Vagina

“It’s difficult to love a woman whose vagina is a gateway to the world of the dead.

Steve is madly in love with his eccentric girlfriend, Stacy. Unfortunately, their sex life has been suffering as of late, because Steve is worried about the odd noises that have been coming from Stacy’s pubic region. She says that her vagina is haunted. She doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal. Steve, on the other hand, completely disagrees.

When a living corpse climbs out of her during an awkward night of se...

Before You Break

“As children, Lux and Lena were inseparable–sisters, best friends, soulmates. Until the day their mother committed suicide, shattering their world forever. Now Lena hides her heart behind her camera lens. And wild, reckless Lux will do anything to escape the darkness inside her own head.

When their father suffers a heart attack, Lena rushes home–only to find Lux has disappeared. Devastated, Lena is left to care for her dying father even as Lux spirals out of control. Consumed by their own gri...

Until You

“Together with their families and friends, Paul Auster and Vincent Taylor request the honor of your company at the celebration of their marriage.

Paul Auster and Vince Taylor just want to have a simple wedding. Really, is that too much to ask?

As the big day approaches, they struggle to keep everything from spiraling out of control. From meddling friends and intrusive family, to a certain drag queen’s idea as to what constitutes a normal bachelor party, Paul and Vince have their work cut out...

The Hunting Gun

By Yasushi Inoue

“The Hunting Gun, set in the period immediately following WWII, follows the consequences of a tragic love affair among well-to-do people in an exclusive suburb of the great commercial cities of Osaka and Kobe. Told from the viewpoints of three different women, this is a story of the psychological impact of illicit love. First viewed through the eyes of Shoko, who learns of the affair through reading her mother’s diary, then through the eyes of Midori, who had long known about...

Lulu is a Rhinoceros

“Everyone thinks Lulu is a bulldog, but she knows that can’t be true, because Lulu is a Rhinoceros-that is what she sees staring back at her when she looks in the mirror. But sometimes, being yourself can be a difficult road to walk. And just when all hope seems lost, Lulu finds a small friend that makes a big difference in her life when she realizes that the courage to be herself has been inside of her all along…”

I got an ARC of this book.

Little known fact about me, I was part of a team t...

The Metamorphosis

By Franz Kafka

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly be...

Battle Royale

“Koushun Takami’s notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan—where it became a runaway best seller—Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young an...