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Book reviews and reader log for Literary Genre

Poor Things

★★★★☆
A retelling of the Frankenstein mythos, with the beautiful young Bella Baxter brought back to life with the brain of an infant

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The Help

★★★☆☆
Two black maids in segregation era Mississippi write a book about their experiences with the help of a young white college graduate.

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Lessons in Chemistry

★☆☆☆☆
Elizabeth Zott is a serious, no-nonsense chemist and a single mother. But she finds herself hosting a cooking show on daytime television, a show where she galvanizes the oft-downtrodden American housewives into self-respect.

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Where The Crawdads Sing

★★★★★
Marsh girl Kya Clark has been left to fend for herself in a rundown shack outside Barkley Cove. Most of the village treats her as an outcast and pariah, while she grows up all alone into a young woman, and a sensitive, artistic naturalist. When rich kid Chase Andrews is found dead in the marsh, the locals immediately suspect Kya.

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Never Let Me Go

★★★★☆
Kathy H, a carer for donors, reminisces about her time at Hailsham, a private institution where she spent her formative years, and her friends.

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A Gentleman in Moscow

★★★★★
A Russian nobleman is sentenced to life imprisonment in a luxurious hotel in Moscow. But the indomitable Count takes his circumstances in his stride, never losing his spirit or deep humanity.

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Chocolat

★★★★☆
A fable with magic, passion and chocolate, and how it all comes together to awaken a straight-laced village in the South of France.

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Eileen

★★★☆☆
For subdued Eileen, life holds little charm. Dead-end job. An abusive, alcoholic father. But when the vivacious Rebecca joins her workplace, the doors of her imagination open...

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The Haunting of Hill House

★★★★☆
A scientist studying the paranormal ropes in a few people to live in a "haunted" house. All is quiet, until the house starts acting up...

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Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

★★★★★
A deeply moving tale of a scientist forced to confront the ethical and moral implications of his research, and pay the price for disregarding those implications.

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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

★★★★☆
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in the slums of 18th-century France, with an extraordinary gift of smell. Working as a perfumer, he starts the grisly task of bottling up.. the essence of women.

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An Artist of the Floating World

★★★★☆
Set in post-war Japan, the story explores the rapid modernization of the country and the resentment held against the older generation for thrusting the country into a needless war.

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Cloud Atlas

★★★★★
A thought-provoking tale spanning generations and eons, from the distant past to a post-apocalyptic far future, and examines how souls drift across time, and how the souls are interconnected

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American Psycho

★★☆☆☆
Patrick Bateman is the archetypal yuppie. Rich, handsome, charming, excellent taste in music, art, food and all things fine. He is also a psychopathic killer.

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All Quiet on the Western Front

★★★★★
A young soldier in WW1 recounts his moving story of horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

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Slaughterhouse-Five

★★★★★
Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, the story follows the life of Billy Pilgrim. as he reflects on the events of his life across time and space.

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