booktribe's reviews
584 reviews

Rebekah Weatherspoon has been becoming one of my favorite authors over the last year, however this book wasn’t for me. I really love the female main character, but the male main character & the story as a whole fell flat for me. I took a break from reading it at 30% in with the intention of coming back to it later, but I just don’t feel the urge to continue. I don’t really care how the story ends. I still look forward to reading more by this author in the future though! This one just couldn’t hold my attention. 

As a Black woman who loves astronomy, I was so excited to read a Black romance with an astronaut love interest! The cover is absolutely adorable & it has my favorite trope, fake dating. So, I thought there was no way that I wouldn’t enjoy this. However I’m giving up reading it after 18%.

There is so much telling and not enough showing. It feels so info-dumpy. Every single scene is described in such vivid detail that it gets boring. Here’s an example: after bumping into the love interest, here is what the main character thinks: 

“After catching my footing, I'm grateful the lids have held and neither of the cups in my hands spilled. As good as the coffee is, some of the baristas are notoriously awful at putting the lids on, so I always make sure to snap mine tightly before grabbing them.

Foresight and planning for the win.”

All she had to say was “luckily the lids didn’t pop off”… 

(but maybe that’s why I’m not a writer idk🤷🏽‍♀️)

And all the main character does is think. She thinks about the same things over and over again, so it feels very repetitive. And this romance isn’t dual POV, so we only get her thoughts. The most annoying thing to me is when I realized that after every piece of dialogue, a paragraph of her thinking about what was just said would follow. I don’t have to know every single thought in your head. Sometimes people can just have a conversation. If there’s a paragraph in between every piece of dialogue, that’s a problem. And also, I don’t understand why Amerie dislikes Vincent so much. All he did was try to tell her a fun fact and now she gets annoyed at anything and everything he says. 

This book is just frustrating to me to no end. It was one of my most anticipated romance books EVER and I just can’t finish. Disappointing. But, I’m glad so many people love it! (I’m literally the only person I know who doesn’t) So if the things I mentioned won’t bother you, try it out!

Before I started this book I said to myself “I can tell this book is gonna become my whole personality”, and my prediction was correct! This book was perfection from beginning to end and I loved every moment!

The writing was ADDICTING! I could’ve highlighted the entire book because the prose was so beautiful. The writing was so descriptive without feeling long winded. I got so lost in the story and in the writing that I flew through this novel and didn’t want to read anything else.

This book was highly creepy! The descriptiveness of the writing added so much atmosphere to the story. I loved the descriptions of all the monsters. And apparently, I am a huge fan of botanical body horror! It will become my new obsession. The forest horror was definitely my favorite part, but every aspect of the story was so creepy and mysterious!

Andrew was such a great main character to follow. I absolutely loved being in his head hearing his chaotic thoughts and feeling his intense emotions. His endless frustration with dealing with other people was very me. And the asexual representation was amazing! He said several things that resonated with my experience. I also want to mention how much I loved Lana and Chloe as side characters! They must be protected at all costs!

I also LOVED the way this book ended! It was the perfect ending to a beautifully heartbreaking story.

This is definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year, and possibly one of my favorite books of all time! It’s a story that you can really just get lost in. The writing, the characters, the creepy body horror, just everything was perfection. I need everyone to pick this book up when it comes out in October!

TW: Blood/gore, body horror, panic attacks, grief, eating disorder, bullying, self-harm, child abuse

This book was everything. I feel such a genuine connection to Miss Major now. I not only learned history, but I learned so many life lessons from her words. I got so inspired from reading this. This should be regarded as a classic and I need everyone to read it!

Sapphira is dead. And after being wrongfully cast down to the deepest depths of Pandemonia (aka hell), she decides to take her fate into her own hands and escape. But can she travel The Path of the Damned and make it back to the land of the living? The Wiz meets Dante’s Inferno in this Black, queer, horror novel!

The world building in this novel was amazing. I could picture every single part of hell so vividly. The body horror & the gore in this novel is WILD! This book is not for the faint of heart because there is so much torture and savagery! And as a horror girlie, I loved it, but it even had ME stressed out (in the best way)! And oh my god, the characters!!! I loved them so much! They all had such great chemistry. My babies Astra and Luquin must be protected at all costs! (not that they need protection lol) Astra is literally my favorite character of the year! I haven’t loved a character this much in so long! I loved all the main characters though and hated the villains! There weren’t any characters that blended in the background. They all stood out and evoked emotion in me, whether it was love or hate!

My only complaint is that the story felt a little repetitive at times. The recurrent thoughts about Dante mainly. Also, the last couple of fights in part 1, but, once I got to Part 2 of the book, I didn’t want to put it down! 

This was such a dark, fun ride! The characters were everything, the gore was everything, and this has solidified Amanda B. Weaver’s place as one of my fave authors!

Thank you to the author for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: drug and alcohol use, violence, anxiety, depression, torture, gore, cannibalism, emotional and mental abuse, and murder

First of all, let me just say that this is one of the BEST book covers I’ve ever seen! It encompasses the dark, gothic vibes perfectly! It’s gorgeous! The book was creepy and mysterious. I always love a family curse and a sentient house! But, I feel like the book lacked a certain atmospheric quality. I think the writing could’ve been more descriptive. All these creepy things were happening, but I wasn’t enveloped in the story enough to really feel the haunting atmosphere. I also feel like there was more telling than showing. I think some of the reveals to the mystery could’ve been shown in a creative way rather than just said. 

But, overall I think this is a book with a great premise that could’ve been expounded on more. I absolutely LOVED the way it ended and though it had its problems, I enjoyed the ride.

Thank you DarkLit Press and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

TW: mentions of suicide, death of family members, car accident

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, but sadly, I’m disappointed. I stopped reading at 54%. 

First, let’s start with what I enjoyed. I really enjoyed the characters! Both Ava and Grace are characters that I care about and want the best for! The rivals to lovers trope can be hit or miss for me, but I enjoyed it in this novel! 

But, I feel like this novel just isn’t for me. It has such a slow pace. Nothing is happening in the story. All the characters do is trade longing glances and think about each other from afar. I’m a person who needs action in my romance. I need a central plot & subplots. I need cute dates and adorable moments. I need them to have interesting conversations. And none of that was given in this novel. I also feel like the characters didn’t have chemistry. They’re having thoughts like they like each other, but I can’t FEEL it. Chemistry between characters in a romance novel is something that I take for granted until it’s not there, and it wasn’t there. And the last problem I had was a character saying that they “didn’t have the spoons for this”. That term is specifically used for the disabled community when pain/illness/fatigue keeps us from being able to do activities we need to do. This term isn’t synonymous with the word “tired”. 

I think this book will be better for someone who enjoys slow burn romances with more pining than action. It just wasn’t for me.

TW: cancer, drunk driving, death of a parent

I wanted so badly to love this. Gothic novels are my favorite thing to read, especially a non-western gothic novel, so I was excited! But sadly, I couldn’t finish. The writing is pretty in this, but it’s just so long-winded. It feels like one long soliloquy that isn’t adding any value to the story. Even the dialogue is long-winded and filled with lots of superfluous sentences. I would love to give this book more time to get good, but since I have an issue with the writing itself, I can’t continue.

Thank you to Viking and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own. 

Tananarive Due is my favorite author of all time, so I look forward to all of her new releases! But, sadly I can’t finish this one. Partly because of the pacing. The story is moving incredibly slow. I got 39% in & I feel like everything that has happened could’ve happened within the first 20% of the novel. But, I wouldn’t mind the slow pacing much. My main problem is that the book is too triggering for me. As a Black woman, it can be hard for me at times to read Black trauma, and it’s especially hard to read trauma happening to Black children. I knew going into this novel that there would be racism, but I thought it’d be balanced out by the ghost aspect of the story. But, there were barely any ghosts, just racism and trauma. 

I still feel that this is a great book and that this story needs to be told, especially knowing that it is based in truth. I’m just not in the headspace to handle the content at this time. I may come back to it when I’m more mentally prepared. 

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own. 

TW: racism, recurrent use of racial slurs, death of a parent, cancer, sexual harassment, child abuse