The Wasp Eaters is a lovely novel in many ways. It’s deft, well-observed, subtle, moving, and elegiac. It’s not particularly earth-shattering or original, but it’s a fine piece of work that kept me reading.

Subtle, deft, and moving—all while simultaneously being dark, absurd, and funny. My favorite kind of book.

Utterly heartbreaking. And crafted with an astonishingly light hand. You can tell that a documentarian made it.

Absolutely stunning animation and what a stylish film—it really has a distinct character. That said, I do wish the plot had been a little more compelling. I wasn’t completely drawn in by the events of the story.

Yeah… sort of unstructured, like a real life… and just not very compelling. I think this might have been the first time in my life I have been bored by Johnny Depp.

I love it. A screwball murder mystery made modern—very clever, very well-acted, only a tiny bit too ironic. The dialogue is great, and the movie even manages to be a little moving, somehow. Now I need to track down the book it’s based on.

I know who I want to be when I grow up, and it is Michael Shermer.

So disappointing in so many ways—superficial, shallow, slick, misleading, unconvincing, manipulative (but not very successfully), and overall wildly lacking in any kind of deep addressing of the issues and the characters involved, which is ironic since it goes on for so bloody long.

Also, practically everyone needs an accent coach, particularly folks who didn’t even bother trying not to sound American.

Interesting idea, rather poorly executed. Read like Haddix wrote the whole thing in one day; heavy emotional decisions/transitions are glossed over, taken for granted, or happen abruptly. Pity.

I’d read Silverwing, but nothing else from Oppel - and I wasn’t expecting to like this particularly, since I often have a hard time with sort of “historical fantasy” books. But this was a real page-turner from start to finish. I could easily see it as a movie – I wonder if it’s been optioned yet. ;)