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September 3, 2023

Ben Reviews: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season is a book that his been on my radar for quite a while. But whenever it came time to choose a new book, I always found something that I thought I would like more. The Fifth Season sounded a little boring and a little depressing. Most “back of the book” synopses you’ll find are very light on...

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August 19, 2023

Ben Reviews: Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I’ve never read a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky before. I didn’t know anything about him or Ogres before sitting down to read this book. I will admit that the cover did not give me much hope. The version I read had a cover that looked like a giant, poorly-cropped, orc character model from World of Warcraft wearing a top hat...

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August 8, 2023

Ben Reviews: God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

I’m going to do something a little different with this post. I’m going to share my original Goodreads review of God Emperor of Dune from my first reading of the book. This review predates Words About Books. Then I’ll give a short update to that review based on my second reading and I’ll do the rubric evaluation. I’m planning to...

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July 31, 2023

Some Final Thoughts Regarding Hunt for the Skinwalker…

We needed a filler episode on the podcast, and I thought it would be fun to cover Hunt for the Skinwalker. It was fun, but little did I know how perfectly timed the episode would be (or did I? How deep does this go?). One short week after the episode came out the “news” was filled with headlines like the...

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July 31, 2023

Ben Reviews: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

To put this reviews in context, I think you need to know that I went into this book with high hopes and low expectations. I was interested in A Court of Thorns and Roses based on everything I read about it, but its rapid rise in popularity on social media was a bit of a turn off for me. It...

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July 12, 2023

Ben Reviews: Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

As an American man who got married at the age of 29, I’m not the intended audience for this book. So take the rest of this with a grain of salt, I guess. I understand that it began as a series of semi-autobiographical articles that became so popular that a novel was requested. I think I can understand the appeal...

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July 3, 2023

Ben Reviews: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Battle Royale is a gorey horror novel about a junior high school class in an alternate reality fascist Japan. These students are taken to an island and forced to kill each other in a game that would go on to inspire PUBG, Fortnite, Call of Duty Warzone, etc, etc. The book’s political message is paper thin. The real draw of...

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June 3, 2023

Ben Reviews: Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay is a good writer. This novel has a compelling premise. Unfortunately, the theme never quite comes together. The Cabin at the End of the World is essentially about the horror that exists between faith and doubt. A family in a remote cabin is visited by strangers claiming to be messengers of God (more or less), and the family...

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May 21, 2023

Ben Reviews: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

I initially read this book in 2008. I was 20-years old. I remember liking it when I read it. This is one of the most well-read paperbacks I own from all of the friends I’ve lent it to over the years. I never considered it a perfect book, but I’m really surprised how much my opinion of the book has...

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April 24, 2023

Ben Reviews: One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

One of Us Is Lying is a predictable, trope-laden, YA, American high school crime drama. I absolutely loved it. To be fair, though, I’m a bit of a connoisseur of such things. Karen McManus relies on so many tropes and cliches that it is not an exaggeration to say that once I had read each character’s perspective for the first...

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