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LG

Familiar Diversions

I'm a librarian who loves anime, manga, and reading a wide variety of genres.

Currently reading

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 1
Dojyomaru, Fuyuyuki, Sean McCann
Progress: 103/374 pages
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Jeff Lindsay
Progress: 424/470 minutes
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story
Mary Downing Hahn
Progress: 184/184 pages
Parental Guidance
Avery Flynn
Progress: 40 %
An Offer From a Gentleman
Julia Quinn
Progress: 102/358 pages
The Twisted Ones
T. Kingfisher
Progress: 385/385 pages
Educated
Tara Westover
Progress: 315/730 minutes
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 2
Satoru Yamaguchi, Nami Hidaka
Progress: 24/171 pages
Graphic Medicine Manifesto
MK Czerwiec, Kimberly R. Myers, Scott T. Smith, Michael J. Green, Susan Merrill Squier, Ian Williams
Progress: 26/172 pages
Ao Oni: Mutation
Kenji Kuroda, Karin Suzuragi, Alexander Keller-Nelson
Progress: 30/152 pages

Reading progress update: I've read 106 out of 313 pages.

The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus

This is due in four days. I could probably push really hard and get through it, but I'm not sure I want to. Parts of it are definitely better than the movie, while other parts are...not. It fleshes out a lot of the characters more and makes them more sympathetic, which is nice, except not always necessary.

 

For example, if the plot stays the same as in the movie, there isn't much of a reason to flesh out Lainie, Strickland's wife, the way this book is doing. At best, it reassures readers that she'll somehow manage to be fine after the events at the end. As far as the attempts to make Strickland more sympathetic go, he's supposed to be one of the book's horrible villains. I don't need him to be more sympathetic.

 

Zelda is a stronger character here than in the movie, where the only thing that saved her was Octavia Spencer's acting skills. Unfortunately, Elisa is somehow less sympathetic in the book than in the movie. She's the main character so this isn't good.