clovetra's reviews
210 reviews

i can get why the average person would love this, but sadly for me this wasn’t it chief.

easily the biggest issue i had was with the psychology talk. sorry im actually so fucking autistic about the field of psychology and the dialogue used in relation to that was…. cringe imo! all the psychotherapy talk theo implemented felt like i was reading someone’s parody of what they think a psychotherapist sounds like. and it’s not even just an issue with theo. indra also has a bad habit of doing this… like wtf do you mean “I find myself feeling very maternal towards her.” can you sound not like a robot omg. and diomedes… idk i felt like his characterisation was almost trying too hard to be quirky and loveable that i really didn’t care. the only character in the ward that even remotely interested me was christian, and the minute his “mystery” was solved, he became almost formulaic. idk this text almost feels like all the characters are surface level, or all their dialogue are just boxes to check off. i really didn’t care about anyone other than their role as a plot point — i really only cared about finding out the truth of gabriel’s death.

the plot twist was insanely predictable. maybe that’s because i was already sceptical on this book because of its ‘therapy talk’ so i was looking more closer to solve the mystery, but it felt almost too easy? i kept almost second guessing my logic… come to find out my guess of the culprit not even 10% deep into this was correct. sigh. i mean it’s not a bad thing to have ur murder be able to be solved early! it means the breadcrumbs were left well. but idk its almost like this was too clear. i will say i defo didn’t guess the “nuances” e.g. the why of the crime, and i won’t lie and say it made me fully gasp. i’d say until the proper “reveal” i only knew the culprit, but the working pieces were very interesting, and were a good spin on the classic murder trope’s motive. i did have to fully sit and close the book to ponder all the past chapters, and i was impressed regarding how with one line i viewed the entire book differently. i must give michaelides props there 👏👏 i will say tho the actual “ending” itself was pretty anticlimactic. i defo expected more in that department.

maybe ive oversaturated myself with mystery thrillers. or, counter point, i am perfect, and the issue is 100% with this book (/j im trolling). 

idk based on the hype this book has surrounding it, i expected…. More. maybe this is a case of my expectations being unrealistic. or maybe once you’ve read one mystery thriller you’ve read them all. 

oh jiwon…. i had such high hopes for you. were my expectations unrealistic? yeah probably. did i wish i loved this more? yeah.

did i still have a decent time? yeah!

this book is tagged as adult but reads sooooo much like a YA. which that’s fine! but then tag it that way so my expectations are changed. i was expecting something a bit more insane like maeve fly & instead i got she is a haunting. iykyk

the biggest issue of this book is the first half of this book. it wasn’t great. the first half almost acts like a set-up for all the plot in the second half, but instead it feels repetitive and lacking depth. like ok i get we need some time to give a shit about the characters, but when spending the first half developing characters and they still feel boring…. it’s not good. i only really enjoyed jiwon in the second half of the book. almost everyone else felt like a trope or very formulaic, and had one discernible trait. and the minute almost every character was introduced i could predict where the plot was going to take them. 

this book also made several missteps in my opinion.

first, giving jiwon a brain tumour was stupid. it felt like a hail mary. sure it made sense seeing as she was hallucinating, but it felt like it was almost completely random with no foreshadowing and rhyme or reason to it other than to get jiwon to still be in the hospital & get off scott free from george’s attempted murder. also, her relationship with alexis not going anywhere annoyed me. like seriously what was the point of having a subplot about their will-they-won’t they? the story doesn’t end in a way that has any pay off for this plot point, and instead it felt like it was wasted time that could’ve gone to fleshing out the horror elements earlier, or to explore more of jiwon’s family.

i will say though, i really liked the horror elements (once the book actually got to them). the descriptions of the eyes was sublime to read, and god at some points i almost felt a tad nauseous. i really think that point was well done.

i had such high hopes for this. i was really looking forward to this, and this was easily one of my most looked forward to reads of 2025. instead, i got served a big slice of disappointment pie :(

i really don’t know how i finished this. or why. i have never been this baffled by a book. and i mean baffled in a bad way.
the plot is insanely complicated to the point i had no idea what the fuck was happening. isn’t the point of mystery novels to allow your reader to semi-follow the mystery? guess this book didn’t get the memo. the concept itself is neat, but it instead results in way too many players, too many strings to keep ahold of, and by the end, none of them really come together in a nice little bow. instead they come together like when you cut your wrapping paper too short and instead just cut a square and stick it overtop to hide the fact you fucked up your measurements. trying to keep track of not only every character, but every host, every changeable event, everyone’s roles throughout the day, and what has happened for 8 days straight is exhausting. i as a reader should not have to almost make a fucking mind map to grasp your plot. there’s a fine line between interestingly complex and confusing to the point i think sherlock holmes would have an aneurysm trying to solve what in the fuck was happening here for 507 pages.
the characters were boring. nobody interested me. i didn’t care if evelyn was saved, i didn’t give a shit about anna, and i really didn’t care about aiden. cmon now after 500 pages i should care about our main character. but i dont!
the explanation for this time loop is…. boring and under explained. the explanation in general was ok, but it literally was just touched on and we moved on. every single goddamn explanation beyond blackheath sucked.
this book tried to do about 75 different things all at once, and it resulted in 75 underbaked, poorly explained and downright unnecessary plot points. not to mention by the end the explanation of the “murder” did not pay off, and instead i just sat there being like ‘oh…. ok whatever.’ like it was not stupid, i just felt for how much was going on and the sheer complexity, the reveal was so boring and simple. 
this book pissed me off. i would like to come back to it one day in the future to see if i can actually follow what the fuck is going on, but i doubt i could, because you need to literally be a MENSA to follow this plot.
and before anyone asks “why did you give this two stars if you very clearly hated it?” because it still managed to interest me enough to want to find out how the murder unfolded. sue me.

idk im not feeling this one right now ! idk i don’t care about this book at all. i am not interested by it rn. might come back to it later in 2025, might not! 

sometimes i ask myself “clover, why do you keep persisting in reading classics when you fucking hate the entire experience start to finish?” . because occasionally i find a diamond in the rough. that diamond is jane eyre.

usually i just…. Read… classics. like i actively never give a shit about the cast. viktor frankenstein? choke. dorian grey? indifferent. but JANE EYRE. MOTHER. 

i don’t think ive been that invested in a classic main character’s life for a hot minute. she’s fun, she breaks stereotypes of what a woman was in that period, she’s independent, witty, strong in her own right, and super interesting. even though it took me a while to get into this, the minute jane was put in that red room i was ready to throw down for my girl. and honestly thank god i liked jane because if i didn’t this book would be a SLOGGGG. not only does the plot not really exist due to it being a bildungsroman, but as do many classics, what could take a sentence to say instead takes up 47 pages. but because i loved pookie jane i kept coming back.

i think by far the most interesting passage of the book is her as mr rochester’s governess. seeing her go absolutely batshit crazy over this ugly ass 40 year old man, as well as being confused by weird shit happening in thornfield was so fun. i enjoyed jane’s life as a child, but tbh her story at moor house was BOOORINNGGG until st john reads jane the letter. i was actually so bored but then the book picks up again!!! yippee!!!! this book very much was a rollercoaster for me in terms of interest, as it would wain and then pick up.

my biggest gripe with this book tbh is rochester. he sucks. he sucks the life out of the book and jane and i hate him and his stupid face. i do kind of feel bad for him in the end…. but not enough to override my dislike for him. also i know it was a different time but him being 40 and jane being like 19…… VOMIT. he’s a dick to adele, a dick to bertha, a dick to jane, and overall an asshole. he can choke.

idk what else i can say! i defo had a decent time, but godddd i really hate when classics just drag on and on and on and on with the writing style. sadly at points jane eyre did this. me & this book have a love-hate relationship honestly

ouchouchouchouchouch. this book hurt.

god i don’t even know where to start with this review.

for one, this book was HARD. as in emotionally. having a dead dad and reading this……. Pain. literally started sobbing reading ivan talking to margaret on the phone about his dad. too relatable fuck you sally rooney (/j she ate this up). 

usually i’m not the biggest fan of character-driven novels, as i find there are no stakes and tension. and yeah i found that an issue here too i guess. but fuck can sally rooney write characters well. this is my first book of hers so my expectations were pretty all over the place, but i did not expect such superb character writing. like at some points i felt like i had been transported into someone else’s life, watching their days from their eyes. i don’t think in all my reading life i have read characters with such depth as ivan and peter. holy shit.

also side note but i feel like anyone reading this should know that the entire time reading this i imagined ivan as oliver quick from saltburn (obv before he starts licking bathtub water). if this was ever turned into a movie adaptation barry keoghan would devour the role (although ntm for hurting my girl sabrina).

this review has gotten away from me.

like this book.

usually i also often despise stream of consciousness books!!! but!!!! rooney yet again leaves no crumbs!!!! it is like watching a car crash happen right in front of you for 442 pages and you can’t look away because you are oddly mesmerised by the sheer magnitude of what is happening. Yeah. that’s intermezzo in a nutshell.

also how can i not shout out my three homegirls — margaret, sylvia & naomi. i’ll be real and say i didn’t like naomi, and even by the end she felt a bit one-note, but that could be some meta-commentary on how peter views the women in his life blah blah blah. sylvia had a bit more depth, what with her chronic pain (spoonies rise up!!!) and her life outside of peter, and was by far the most interesting out of the main female cast. margaret was… also a bit boring? she also felt quite repetitive with her dialogue and inner thoughts at times, especially surrounding her relationship with ivan. like yeah the age gap isn’t small but homegirl it’s not like ur 78 and ivan is 19 like. take a xanax like ol peter boy over here.

i don’t really know what else to add. this book is a fever dream. i honestly didn’t want to pick this up for dread of what i would encounter, but once i started reading i couldn’t peel my eyes away. the book had some issues for me personally, but they weren’t due to the actual writing being bad or anything, just preferences. like i didn’t mind the dialogue choice but what i did mind is the no plot no tension insanely philosophical thoughts appearing out of thin air. although if you asked me what my favourite parts of this book were i’d have to say the insanely philosophical thoughts appearing out of thin air.

this book is a paradox for me 

fuck. this hit close to home.

i don’t have many words for this because it was incredibly short. not only was this <100 pages, but it was poetry, so there were not too many words.

i did enjoy the actual premise, and the plot was interesting and gritty. however, i felt i couldn’t connect with the characters due to the shortness of the text, and many things were lost on me due to not grasping the subtext (that’s a skill issue on my behalf, but it did affect my personal experience with this book).

i also really liked how signs are used alongside the text, and i would love to see a full expansion of this into a short story. 

this was. ok. i remember i read this in 2018 and i liked it…. but now i have a bit more criticisms i guess. 90% of this review is going to be spoilers because my criticisms of this book focus on very specific plot elements or characterisations. 

the main issue i have with this book is its “climax” so to speak. the big rising tension is that

sana has kissed caleb as she fears jamie is cheating on her with kelsey.

. however, this really annoyed me. for one,

sana is completely raked through the coals for kissing and leading caleb on and kissing him whilst she’s with jamie. ok sweet yes very much deserved. but why tf is jamie’s cheating brushed under the rug??? WHY DOES EVERYONE INCLUDING SANA AND JAMIE IGNORE THAT FACT?? the book makes it out to be that sana is horrible for what she’s done, but yet almost lets jamie get away with also cheating???? wtf???

. this actually annoyed me to no end, and even by the last page this point is never brought up.

another MAJOR ANNOYANCE was sana’s group of friends.

they say “we’re ok with u being gay xoxo” and then push caleb onto her to the point homegirl succumbs to the pressure.

like jesus fucking christ could they be anymore grating? and i’m ngl either every character in this book was actually the biggest asshole ever, or an idiot. or both. looking at you elaine. the characterisations in this book weren’t great, as honestly i didn’t care how jamie and sana’s “will they won’t they” saga ended because i found them, along with everyone else, incredibly mediocre, one dimensional, and downright unlikeable.

the plot itself…. didn’t exist. we follow sana in wisconsin bumming around, then we come to california, and at most she follows jamie like a puppy dog, sneaks out with her friends, and spies on her dad. there is no plot. there is no “oh no prom is coming up!” “oh no exams and ah i have a gf how will i balance it all?” nope! you literally just follow the characters as they vibe for 400 pages.

also, do you know that meme about the voltron fanfic with the bilingual character saying “que pasa? ah sorry it’s hard to switch back sometimes.” that was this book. i’m not saying characters cannot be bilingual and cannot speak in another language in dialogue. what i AM saying is that not only did it feel unnatural in its placement, but there was barely ever a translation offered, so i was just kind of guessing based on my high school knowledge of japanese. at one point a character speaks spanish and ill be honest i think i missed 80% of the conversation there. why oh why would you not offer a translation, or offer more context to what is being said in internal dialogue, context clues, etc.

so what did i actually like about this book, because i seem to be shitting on it to no end?

i really liked the way the social commentary was tackled in terms of racism and japanese cultural expectations. i liked that the author didn’t shy away from the fact that just because you are not white doesn’t mean you cannot be racist to other races. although it was incredibly hard to read about sana’s friends being racist towards latinos for the umpteenth time (not because it was badly written, but because i wanted to jump the characters), i do think it was necessary, and the conversations held in this book are very important, especially surrounding the situation at the 7/11.

i don’t really like that other than sana, no other “racist” gets their comeuppance, or hell even just…. stops being racist! that honestly did annoy me as well. why have them be such shit heads and then just…. only have sana be “redeemed”. like why wasnt caleb actually confronted for talking about how “asians are all the same”, or hanh about how latino students are “lazy”… why does sana go on the most racist rant known to mankind, then have jamie smooth it over, and wow race is forgotten about in the text.</spoiler). the theme of racism is important, but it wasn’t exactly resolved well. 

a theme that WAS resolved well was cultural expectations!!! i loved the continual religion of “gaman”, and where not only sana, but her entire family, change for the better. it was nice to not only see how sana’s family influenced her opinions & decisions, but to also see her recognise it in herself? great stuff.

umm what else can i say. this book was insanely predictable. characters felt flat. plot felt flat. really i only cared about finishing this to see the tea surrounding sana’s dad.

i wrote at 30% i thought he was gay and i was pleasantly surprised with what the text actually gave me!</spoilers>.

tldr; what was my taste in books at 14 yikes

look. i do think this is an important speech. i do think it tackles a subject that is quite important. but i think the conversation held in this book is very surface level. that may be because this book is now a decade old, but i did feel like this book barely grazed the surface of feminism is. i still think this is a good read though for those introducing themselves to feminism.