amshu's reviews
264 reviews

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

 i don't think i've ever been as devastated as when she said "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper, as I did?"

 
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

never have i been so vividly suspended in somebody's literary narration
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

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adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

first and foremost, i support women's wrongs

this novel was so incredibly riveting and immersive, which quite rarely happens to me. mary, as a narrator, was compelling without being exhausting, and everything about this extension to the Frankenstein universe felt so well executed. while being respectful of the original text and its essence, it still manages to have a voice of its own right. never have i thought that someone could put a paleontological twist on Frankenstein even when it seems so obvious now in retrospect
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No

2.75

still formulating my thoughts but i found the collection somewhat lacking (?) not sure what exactly id expected from Murakami but the collection definitely pushed me to read his longer works despite not particularly connecting with the stories
Flawless by Elsie Silver

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funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

definitely had fun with this book while i was reading it, a lot of people complained about the banter being annoying but it genuinely made me laugh a couple of times and that gives it some brownie points in my book. i liked that the characters were quite fleshed out, they had pretty compelling reasons to behave the way they were (plus a decent amount of self-awareness about their flaws) but there was way too much telling, and not enough showing of their personalities. the book takes place over a barely 2-month timeline so everything is extremely rushed and felt improbable. summer, as a character, i definitely enjoyed a lot more than rhett, who very much so gave man-child energy for the majority of this book. again, if the pacing was better, most of this book could've easily been fixed.
 
 
also, i was curious about how the author would address the he spilled my most complicated secret very publicly bit, and idk i found the whole i was doing it cause i wanted to protect you rationale really annoying. I'm glad that she was very vocal about not being okay with it, but you can definitely tell that the maturity in communication skews in one direction primarily. again, given the gravity of this back story, i didn't like the way he kept playing "protector" in a way that completely undermined her agency and kept slashing her into the victim position (which she is) but the way he went about it felt very white knight-like and i genuinely couldn't deal with that





In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

i generally never rate memoirs but this book is simply a masterclass in writing, every page left me sucker-punched and wanting more. i imagine ill be thinking about it for a long time now. 
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 it's been so long since i had been so thoroughly immersed in a book, everything felt so visceral and real and oddly tangible. it may have been "predictable" so to speak, but that predictability is what it made it all the more tragic

 
A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

 oh to love someone as tenderly as poppy loves roisin. found my new comfort novel with these characters and this prose, what a little wonder of a novel



The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

still overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of this novel but holy shit, wow
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

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adventurous reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

there is such a profound sort of desolation present throughout this book that makes reading it so frustrating yet decidedly not. the writing is simple and so it is the subject matter that makes it so haunting and imposes so many questions on the audience, who even is a person when they are stripped of everything else? the foreword by sophie mackintosh talked about how the female identity is deeply rooted in this book while also being entirely incidental which was something that stuck with me throughout this story