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72 reviews
The Things She's Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Solid read, wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It could’ve honestly been so much longer so that the story could have had more space to grow.
It took me until Catching’s last few chapters that I realized what had happened, and what her stories truly meant. I was just reading to read, I normally don’t do well with poetry stanza type of writing. I found myself not really processing the words I was reading, kept zoning out and having to go back to re-read. Silly me didn’t think too much into the Catching stories until the very end where I was like….wait is this what I think it is.
I like the delicate way they approached this story. I definitely want to go back and skim what I didn’t pick up on the first time.
I like the delicate way they approached this story. I definitely want to go back and skim what I didn’t pick up on the first time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, and Car accident
Minor: Kidnapping
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Brilliant read. It was so gentle, so beautiful and above all, full of hope. That last chapter had me laughing and crying all in the same moment.
I enjoyed the pace as well as the interpersonal relationships of this group of characters. I did not expect where this book would in the first few chapters but it continued to develop deeper and made me love it.
I still wonder what made Wallace so heartless while he was living. Was it the monotony of his work and everyday routine? I just wonder still why he cared so little. And in the afterlife he displayed a 180 in terms of character. Maybe it was the people surrounding him? He never found his true family in life so he did in death, which allowed him to find himself.
His whole identity was his work so when that was taken away from him, it enabled him to find out who he truly was and what was meaningful to him. I’d like to think that anyways. I love that he was able to make some amends to the people in his life he had wronged with the help of Hugo as a guide.
Their relationship and the way it kept building was so tender and beautiful. Wallace, Hugo, Mei, Nelson, Apollo…such a sweet crew.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
“I’m still here. I’m still here.”
Brilliant read. It was so gentle, so beautiful and above all, full of hope. That last chapter had me laughing and crying all in the same moment.
I enjoyed the pace as well as the interpersonal relationships of this group of characters. I did not expect where this book would in the first few chapters but it continued to develop deeper and made me love it.
His whole identity was his work so when that was taken away from him, it enabled him to find out who he truly was and what was meaningful to him. I’d like to think that anyways. I love that he was able to make some amends to the people in his life he had wronged with the help of Hugo as a guide.
Their relationship and the way it kept building was so tender and beautiful. Wallace, Hugo, Mei, Nelson, Apollo…such a sweet crew.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Terminal illness
Tiffy and Leon's Christmas Letters by Beth O'Leary
lighthearted
fast-paced
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The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Stayed up until 2am to finish this masterpiece. I can’t stop smiling!!!
Funnily enough, I bought this book MONTHS ago and kept putting it off. It is a rare occurrence for me to read romantic stories nowadays. I also could not for the life of me get through the first two pages. It took me a moment to get used to the writing style (also my edition had smaller font which) but I am so happy I finally read this.
The beginning is definitely slow, and Leon’s chapters are VERY hard to read without being a little bored but it picks up fast. And totally makes sense for his character as you get to know him more.
I loved the pacing. A nice slow burrrrn. I may add more to this but time to sleep!!!
Funnily enough, I bought this book MONTHS ago and kept putting it off. It is a rare occurrence for me to read romantic stories nowadays. I also could not for the life of me get through the first two pages. It took me a moment to get used to the writing style (also my edition had smaller font which) but I am so happy I finally read this.
The beginning is definitely slow, and Leon’s chapters are VERY hard to read without being a little bored but it picks up fast. And totally makes sense for his character as you get to know him more.
I loved the pacing. A nice slow burrrrn. I may add more to this but time to sleep!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Medical content
14 Ways to Die by Vincent Ralph
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Really liked this one. Super fast paced, finished it in two days. The chapters weren’t really chapters to be honest, considering they were 1-2 pages each chapter but I like a fast read. I think it was a nice quick YA novel to pick up.
Could definitely feel the heavy inspiration from Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder which is one of my favorites so I loved that. This book wasn’t nearly as dark as I expected it to be but I didn’t mind it.
I do wish the killer was closer to home. Like Jamie’s Dad, her teachers or something. Someone who gave Jessica a weird feeling. I think making it someone we didn’t really even see throughout the book was kinda a let down. I love when you find out the bad guy was there the whole time.
Also Jamie gave me Edward Cullen vibes with him watching Jess so much it made me laugh.
Just ordered another book by Vincent Ralph so I’m excited for that!
Could definitely feel the heavy inspiration from Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder which is one of my favorites so I loved that. This book wasn’t nearly as dark as I expected it to be but I didn’t mind it.
Also Jamie gave me Edward Cullen vibes with him watching Jess so much it made me laugh.
Just ordered another book by Vincent Ralph so I’m excited for that!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Stalking, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
The Amendment by Kiersten Modglin
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
It’s a shame that this book only began to get good around 75% of the way in. Ending was great but…..this series has been a mess.
I read The Arrangement and gave it a 3.5 at the time. The ending twist learning Peter’s secret really disgusted me. I actually had no idea there was a sequel. I wanted to give Kiersten another chance but maybe her style is not for me.
What’s bothersome is that, so much happens and virtually none of it has meaning because in the next page we’re already onto the next phase of the story. And I’m just gonna say it, the main characters are insufferable. The events that happen in this book are so rushed by that I don’t have time to care about any of it.
My biggest question is how are we, the readers, supposed to believe these characters, Peter and Ainsley, able to do all these horrible acts, get away with it all the time, and raise THREE LITERAL CHILDREN? And the children don’t suspect a thing besides mommy and daddy may be getting a divorce? These parents are just able to kill and bury people and not once does a child hear anything, they’re just never home? It makes NO sense!!! Gives no credit to how smart and sneaky kids are especially when things are rocky at home, kids begin to snoop. Peter and Ainsley would’ve had to screw up at this point.
Spoilers review, explicit and harmful mentions & trigger warnings ahead so proceed with caution:
Let’s start with this whole rapist murderer that is Peter. That threw me for a loop in this first book. It was just so unnecessary??? Especially the explicit and disgusting act of rape…I’m profoundly upset that this is even a central topic in this book. We just have to read from the mind of a rapist and what…sympathize with him??? Genuinely. What more does this give to the story? If it had a purpose I could understand it but it feels like It’s a wanna-be completely worse and poor attempt at a Joe Goldberg from You.
But what makes it unbelievable, is we are supposed to believe this WOMAN.. Ainsley just ACCEPTS her HUSBAND and FATHER of her children has been out here being disgusting and raping/killing women…and she still WANTS HIM??? She legitimately has a daughter, is a woman herself and is like oh yeah I love my violent rapist serial killer husband. And I get that that IS possible, but maybe it’s just written terribly?
So already the foundation of this story is all over the place, but these characters kill two people in the span of a few chapters and their deaths mean nothing. All this build up about Jim - mans is dead and forgot about in an instant. What about his little business? What about the fact that cops interviewed him about Peter and now he’s missing too??? Why did he need all those boxes?? Who’s body was in the room???
Don’t even get me started on the Coach sub-storyline. The author really was sitting there like, as if I didn’t make this book deplorable enough, let’s throw in a pedophile for good measure!!! So Ainsley and Peter - the rapist/serial killer wanna team up and kill this coach but oh, Peter never killed and raped children so he must be so much better than the Coach huh?? (can you sense my sarcasm here?)
And to even add in the line where Peter admits to this self awareness….And again, the Coach is dead in an instant and it means nothing. We feel nothing for any of these characters.
Just when it started getting good with the therapy part, Joanna (whom I completely forgot about from the first chapter), and the growing distrust dynamic between the couple, oop the book is over!!
I sincerely wish the whole story was centered on that bit - them seeking out therapy and slowing going against each other until the very end where someone gets killed. At least that would’ve been more interesting than these random side characters who right when you start to feel any sort of emotion for the situation, they are dead and the couple is back to square 1 with their sex filled crazed phase again.
The ending left with a cliffhanger so I’m assuming there will be another eventually. I will say I do like how fast these books are to read and I want to like this author so badly but I am extremely disappointed. Not sure if I’ll pick up another sequel from this series.
I read The Arrangement and gave it a 3.5 at the time. The ending twist learning Peter’s secret really disgusted me. I actually had no idea there was a sequel. I wanted to give Kiersten another chance but maybe her style is not for me.
What’s bothersome is that, so much happens and virtually none of it has meaning because in the next page we’re already onto the next phase of the story. And I’m just gonna say it, the main characters are insufferable. The events that happen in this book are so rushed by that I don’t have time to care about any of it.
My biggest question is how are we, the readers, supposed to believe these characters, Peter and Ainsley, able to do all these horrible acts, get away with it all the time, and raise THREE LITERAL CHILDREN? And the children don’t suspect a thing besides mommy and daddy may be getting a divorce?
Spoilers review, explicit and harmful mentions & trigger warnings ahead so proceed with caution:
But what makes it unbelievable, is we are supposed to believe this WOMAN.. Ainsley just ACCEPTS her HUSBAND and FATHER of her children has been out here being disgusting and raping/killing women…and she still WANTS HIM??? She legitimately has a daughter, is a woman herself and is like oh yeah I love my violent rapist serial killer husband. And I get that that IS possible, but maybe it’s just written terribly?
So already the foundation of this story is all over the place, but these characters kill two people in the span of a few chapters and their deaths mean nothing. All this build up about Jim - mans is dead and forgot about in an instant. What about his little business? What about the fact that cops interviewed him about Peter and now he’s missing too??? Why did he need all those boxes?? Who’s body was in the room???
Don’t even get me started on the Coach sub-storyline. The author really was sitting there like, as if I didn’t make this book deplorable enough, let’s throw in a pedophile for good measure!!! So Ainsley and Peter - the rapist/serial killer wanna team up and kill this coach but oh, Peter never killed and raped children so he must be so much better than the Coach huh?? (can you sense my sarcasm here?)
And to even add in the line where Peter admits to this self awareness….And again, the Coach is dead in an instant and it means nothing. We feel nothing for any of these characters.
Just when it started getting good with the therapy part, Joanna (whom I completely forgot about from the first chapter), and the growing distrust dynamic between the couple, oop the book is over!!
I sincerely wish the whole story was centered on that bit - them seeking out therapy and slowing going against each other until the very end where someone gets killed. At least that would’ve been more interesting than these random side characters who right when you start to feel any sort of emotion for the situation, they are dead and the couple is back to square 1 with their sex filled crazed phase again.
The ending left with a cliffhanger so I’m assuming there will be another eventually. I will say I do like how fast these books are to read and I want to like this author so badly but I am extremely disappointed. Not sure if I’ll pick up another sequel from this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting
Kill Joy by Holly Jackson
Perfect way to lead into A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder or even if you read this after the trilogy, it’s so interesting to see how Pip got into everything before diving into her search into the case of Andie Bell. But oh boy to know what happens at the end of the trilogy then reading this is CRAZY!!!!!! Loved it.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Such a fun short read. A great prequel to the trilogy!!
Super fun mystery, game of Clue vibe. Also reminded me of the movie ‘Knives Out’. I really love Pip from the other books so I searched far and wide to get my hands on a copy of this book. Thank you eBay.
Perfect way to lead into A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder or even if you read this after the trilogy, it’s so interesting to see how Pip got into everything before diving into her search into the case of Andie Bell. But oh boy to know what happens at the end of the trilogy then reading this is CRAZY!!!!!! Loved it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Drug use
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.75
I picked this book up because I saw Neil Caiman’s lil review on it. And I was not disappointed.
I wish I could give it a 5 but the beginning was a bit slow. Then the ending was rushed and I felt deserved more time to hash things out. I would LOOOVE a sequel!!!
This was very different. I had no clue when I started reading it took place in the 1800’s which totally made sense for the subject matter.
With all the medical talk, it makes me wanna look up how surgery really began…I wouldn’t be surprised if in real life there was some type of “resurrection men”.
One issue I had is that, it’s called Anatomy: A Love Story but to be honest, there wasn’t enough romance for me!!! Just when I thought we’d get to see more of Jack and Hazel together, it’d go back into Hazel’s work. Which the medical stuff was just the right about if gore by the way. My imagination was running wild with this one. Very descriptive and easy to build the world in your head. I would definitely read again tbh.
I wish I could give it a 5 but the beginning was a bit slow. Then the ending was rushed and I felt deserved more time to hash things out. I would LOOOVE a sequel!!!
This was very different. I had no clue when I started reading it took place in the 1800’s which totally made sense for the subject matter.
With all the medical talk, it makes me wanna look up how surgery really began…I wouldn’t be surprised if in real life there was some type of “resurrection men”.
One issue I had is that, it’s called Anatomy: A Love Story but to be honest, there wasn’t enough romance for me!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Incest, Grief, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Vomit and Pregnancy
Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body by Martin Pistorius
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
I stumbled upon the book at a thrift store, and the title intrigued me. When I first read the title Ghost Boy I was thinking a mystery or ghost book. I’m not one for non-fiction or memoirs but after reading the summary, I was already extremely interested. I’m so glad I crossed paths with this read.
Martins story is incredibly eye opening, gut wrenching at times but overall absolutely remarkable.
I can’t say much more other than I believe everyone should read this or hear Martins story online, and listen his perspective on life/those who cannot speak out for themselves.
Happy to look on social media to see he and his wife are doing well and they even have a lil kiddo!!!
Martins story is incredibly eye opening, gut wrenching at times but overall absolutely remarkable.
I can’t say much more other than I believe everyone should read this or hear Martins story online, and listen his perspective on life/those who cannot speak out for themselves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
Minor: Vomit
The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl
adventurous
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I actually started this ages ago, got bored very early on around chapter 8 and stopped reading it for months. Finally picked it back up and I’m glad I did because after that chapter is when things start getting more interesting.
The beginning was definitely slow, whereas the rest after Holly kills her Taco Bell manager, which by the way I totally did not see coming and was FANTASTIC, is extremely fast to get through! And MUCH more interesting.
My one main issue was that there’s about a handful+ vampires in this town, we know these vampires feed on adults and teens…..why is no one concerned about all these people dying??!??!? I know this is fantasy but it felt really strange to not mention that???
I felt like a good amount of things happen in this book that make no sense but I just went with it.
I had a feeling when Parker showed up as a vampire at the end I was like OHHH SHE MADE HER OWN HEIRLOOM AND HOLLY BURNT ITTT. I’m sad she didn’t remember Holly but that doesn’t seem like it’ll be an issue.
I would love a sequel to see where the girls go next tbh. More gay and no Elton to be annoying lol
The beginning was definitely slow, whereas the rest
My one main issue was that there’s about a handful+ vampires in this town, we know these vampires feed on adults and teens…..why is no one concerned about all these people dying??!??!? I know this is fantasy but it felt really strange to not mention that???
I felt like a good amount of things happen in this book that make no sense but I just went with it.
I would love a sequel to see where the girls go next tbh. More gay and no Elton to be annoying lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content