JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN (Dalton Trumbo) - June 30/17

I mean, it's stream of consciousness, so... I liked how grim the story is and the premise is admittedly very interesting, but Trumbo's terrible writing style is annoying pretty much the whole way through. (So much rambling!) ** out of ****

DARKBOUND (Michaelbrent Collings) - June 24/17

Well, it's certainly a bit jarring to go from Sophie's Choice to this. Collings is far, far from the writer that Styron is and though Darkbound is short, it's very rarely engrossing. There are only a few characters and yet Collings does a horrible job of transforming them into compelling protagonists. The thin narrative just seems like an excuse to kill each person brutally throughout. I was gonna give this two stars but I will admit the final twist, that the narrator was also a very bad individual and that the train was literally hell, was quite nifty and unpredictable. **1/2 out of ****

SOPHIE'S CHOICE (William Styron) - June 17/17

Well this was certainly nothing like what I was expecting. This basically feels like one of the longest books I've ever read and though I was annoyed at parts, I was never entirely bored either. It's so well written, which helps. But good lord are there a lot of digressions. It seems like it's mainly about the main character and his friendship with Sophie and Nathan, but Styron delivers all kinds of narrative left turns. It really does go on and on. And I also thought it was weird how Sophie's Choice is super quick in the book (maybe a page or two) AND her choice is revealed many pages earlier. Weird book but I'm glad I read it. **1/2 out of ****