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arys_library's reviews
84 reviews
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Uh wow. Why did I love this book. It was so entertaining I read it in one sitting. Of course the fact it’s only 100 pages helped. But still what? It wasn’t what I fully thought, it was gross and gory but not nearly as dark and emotionally grueling as I expected. Instead it shows just how far someone will go, how evil and crazy someone can become with a small push from someone else. There are only two things I didn’t like about the book. First, the main characters talked to eachother so weirdly in the beginning. (No spoilers don’t worry) in the beginning I get that they were more professional but still in every email they sent it felt like they worked together or something. But when they chatted on messenger it was completely different. I don’t know if I just wasn’t getting the point of that or if it was just weird. And the second is kind of hard to explain without spoilers. But it was so strange how Agnes so quickly agreed to everything Zoe asked her to do. These things she did with ty out question or deeper thought, or even proof that Zoe would follow through. Unrealistic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit
Fated by Alyson Noël
adventurous
medium-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
3.5
I liked it. I’m rereading it as an adult because it was at my local thrift store and I remember being so obsessed as a kid. And it still lives up to the hype. However I’m not as crazy about it now which is fine. I love the storyline, I love the relationships between daire and everyone she meets. But when it comes to the magic systems, it can be confusing. Everything is in the middle, as if the author wanted to be completely original, but these new magical systems weren’t described enough for me to completely understand. For example daire is asking about telekinesis and shape shifting to her grandmother and her grandmother only says that what she does isn’t either of those, it’s instead the middle. And then there’s barely any description of what that truly means. And the other reason why I didn’t like it as much is it really lacked depth. I know it’s a ya and it’s supposed to intrigue younger audiences and depth isn’t as necessary as other genres, but it lacks depth even for a ya. And explanation. For example, (no spoilers) during all of daires trainings, her grandmother tells her how much she’s improving in her craft and as a person and how she’s ready for the next thing, but besides hearing her grandmother say those things, there’s no proof.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Blood
Minor: Gore, Murder, and Alcohol
Verity by Colleen Hoover
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Absolutely loved this book! I went into it thinking it’d be a life changing extremely scary thriller book. Although it was a really good thriller book, it wasn’t nearly as chilling as people made it out to be. And that’s fine! Not all thriller books have to have you scared to go to sleep and still be a good book. I read this at night and had no trouble with it lol. It was really good just less mysterious and tense as I was expecting. But besides that, i was hooked. I’m still stunned by the ending and want to know the truth (if you know you know).
Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Just wasn’t for me. I feel like someone could really like it it has a good storyline but I couldn’t get into it. I tried to make it to at least 100 pages but I just couldn’t. I think I could get into it if I were a little older with different, in the same way teenagers don’t want to read the same books their parents love.
Flock by Kate Stewart
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Yeah I don’t even know what to say. It was amazing, I read it in almost one sitting (but I had to sleep). The first half of the book I was so frustrated. There were so many red flags that were ignored and it seemed like the way the author was writing it made it feel glamorized. But when you get to the ending you realize why everything happened. And it doesn’t excuse these red flags but it makes it make sense. I went into the book blind and only read the blurb on the back which also told you barely anything about the book. But you should go into it blind. It’s a great book and I’m so confused at the end of it and I’m waiting for the second to come in the mail so I can continue. But just know it’s a great book, a romantic erotic suspense and look at trigger warnings. And then dive right in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Taylor Jenkins Reid really knows how to write a book! She really knows how to make you feel like you in the book, like you are standing next to the characters. Like, him think of a celebrity who you’ve known of for years. Watched them start their career and take off and maybe even the end of their career. You get tingles through your body. It feels like you were there with them theough the ups and downs, even though you were only looking through a screen. But these celebrities are real people that you watch and feel like you know. That’s how I feel about Daisy Jones and the Six. It felt like I had watched them through this ten year span, and had been there with them. On your, in recordings, in interviews. It’s beautiful how you can feel that way with a book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Abortion, and Dysphoria
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
adventurous
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I really liked the book. It was a very cute contemporary romance. I don’t know if I’d ever read again, I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. It was just a little boring at times. I don’t fully know why, the whole book was about the two main characters adventures, but I found it predictable in a boring sense. But it was cute, there wasn’t anything that I hated about the book. Although the reasoning behind why poppy and Alex stopped seeing eachother for two years was kinda dumb. Like they didn’t even try to fix things they just stopped talking and I feel like that’s an extreme reaction to such a small thing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Cursing and Toxic relationship
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Amazing! Second favorite in the series now, mist and fury being first. It is more plot and war based than character based which I didn’t think I would love as much as I did. I’m not one for battle scenes, reading them can be tough to get through, but I loved these. They were so descriptive and made me feel like I was watching it through a screen. Didn’t think war would be one of my favorite things about the book but the writing was just perfect. And the character building; even with less character building focus, it was amazing. It was found family mixed with actual blood family and it was beautiful. Amazing
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Biphobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, and Alcohol
The Sun Is Also a Star Movie Tie-In Edition by Nicola Yoon
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
It was a cute book. I found it hard though to connect to the characters as much as I do with other books. I loved the multiple povs with Natasha and Daniel; but also with seemingly random and unimportant people for a page or two. It shows how much a small interaction can change someone’s day or life. Going back to me not connecting with characters, I think it’s because of how the author showed their personality traits and beliefs; Natasha specifically. It’s said she doesn’t believe in love or fate or things happening for a reason. Instead she believes that everything has a scientific explanation. And that is extremely valid, but she brings it up in every conversation and every time the book switches to her POV. So it gets really annoying and repetitive and makes it hard to like her character. The only other main thing that made me rate this book 3.5 was the idea of fate. Daniel believes in fate and it’s obvious the author does too, or at least favors it in this book. But the amount of fate and things happening for a deeper reason in this book make it really unrealistic. So many small things that the average person won’t remember some how become these big events in the end. And yeah, sometimes these seemingly coincidental events happen, but in the book these events happened more in one day than probably an average persons lifetime, making it really hard to relate to the story and making it less believable
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Infidelity
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Amazing! I’ve heard mixed reviews on this book about it being good in the beginning but getting worse as it ends but I disagree. I kept having so many thoughts on what really happened in the book, so many theories and I kept being wrong, which I liked. The book kept me on the edge of my seat, kept me second guessing any information given. I still can’t believe the twists in the end, it was honestly something I would have never guessed and I loved that. It was so easy to read, so easy to get into the mind of the narrator. Amazing
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug use