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hardcover_hazel's reviews
175 reviews
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes & The Hunger Games Mockingjay By Suzanne Collins 2 Books Collection Set by Suzanne Collins
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a masterpiece!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
Jack And Anna - Back To Winnipeg by R.S. Penney, R.S. Penney
adventurous
medium-paced
3.5
Thank you to R.S Penney for the ebook in return for an honest review 🥰
Jack and Anna are part of a series but diving into this book as my first one was quite seamless.
I think what really helped was reading the annex first - about the world's, the weapons, and the different elements. After that, the writing flowed and it was easy to adapt and dive into this world.
I loved seeing the obvious love Jack has for Anna, and how independent and badass Anna can be. I really enjoyed resolution and the mystery in this story 🤩 I highly recommend it if you're into sci-fi or if you don't mind a bit of supernatural mystery and some really cool action scenes ✨
Jack and Anna are part of a series but diving into this book as my first one was quite seamless.
I think what really helped was reading the annex first - about the world's, the weapons, and the different elements. After that, the writing flowed and it was easy to adapt and dive into this world.
I loved seeing the obvious love Jack has for Anna, and how independent and badass Anna can be. I really enjoyed resolution and the mystery in this story 🤩 I highly recommend it if you're into sci-fi or if you don't mind a bit of supernatural mystery and some really cool action scenes ✨
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Abandonment, and Alcohol
The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I wish I had these books as a pre-teen/teen. This YA series would have hooked me with the adventure and Greek lore.
It still does as an adult, but you definitely feel the lack of character development, emotional connections, how most of the plot feels a bit rushed, and how easy it is to predict the twists.
It still creates a lighthearted adventure full of magic, wild turns, and old Greek god themes and weapons in a modern setting. Highly recommend ✨
It still does as an adult, but you definitely feel the lack of character development, emotional connections, how most of the plot feels a bit rushed, and how easy it is to predict the twists.
It still creates a lighthearted adventure full of magic, wild turns, and old Greek god themes and weapons in a modern setting. Highly recommend ✨
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Girls of Little Hope by Sam Beckbessinger, Dale Halvorsen
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
"The living room is empty. Empty as a ditch a girl might have fallen into."
Girls of little hope had me intrigued. Three girls disappear into the woods and only two come back, covered in blood with no memory of what happened.
"All she knows for sure is that one of her best friends is missing, and the other wants her to lie about it"
We travel across different thoughts with each chapter the perspective of a range of characters. The missing girl, Kat, has diary entries from the past we follow along with.
"Sometimes it seems that's all getting older is: just a slow accumulation of damage"
This book is listed as horror fiction and the twist (and a scene or two with gore) is so. good. Please check the trigger warnings before reading as lots of blood tends to be mentioned 🩷
"Even the trees, she feels, are aware of her footsteps pressing the soil against their roots"
I didn't expect the twist. Starting out as a murder mystery, it expands into something more, something wild, that forever changes the town of Little Hope.
"Blood mixes with her saliva, creating a perfect map of her"
I loved this so much 🥰 thank you to Johnathan Ball Publishers for the giveaway I won with this book 🩷✨
Girls of little hope had me intrigued. Three girls disappear into the woods and only two come back, covered in blood with no memory of what happened.
"All she knows for sure is that one of her best friends is missing, and the other wants her to lie about it"
We travel across different thoughts with each chapter the perspective of a range of characters. The missing girl, Kat, has diary entries from the past we follow along with.
"Sometimes it seems that's all getting older is: just a slow accumulation of damage"
This book is listed as horror fiction and the twist (and a scene or two with gore) is so. good. Please check the trigger warnings before reading as lots of blood tends to be mentioned 🩷
"Even the trees, she feels, are aware of her footsteps pressing the soil against their roots"
I didn't expect the twist. Starting out as a murder mystery, it expands into something more, something wild, that forever changes the town of Little Hope.
"Blood mixes with her saliva, creating a perfect map of her"
I loved this so much 🥰 thank you to Johnathan Ball Publishers for the giveaway I won with this book 🩷✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Death of parent, and Murder
Zombie ZA: Living as the undead in South Africa by Lee Herrmann
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.0
Have you ever wondered how to blend into society as a zombie before the apocalypse comes? How to build your hoarde and strike when the time is right? If there was a union to fairly represent you?
This guide to being a zombie will help you navigate all this.
This had me chuckling, from South African flavors like cooler boxes gathered by the braai to ridiculous congratulations of enjoying the apocalypse as your hard-earned reward 😂
I love zombies, and this was a quick, fun read by a South African author. It was great seeing the apocalypse from a light-hearted opposite perspective ✨
This guide to being a zombie will help you navigate all this.
This had me chuckling, from South African flavors like cooler boxes gathered by the braai to ridiculous congratulations of enjoying the apocalypse as your hard-earned reward 😂
I love zombies, and this was a quick, fun read by a South African author. It was great seeing the apocalypse from a light-hearted opposite perspective ✨
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Cannibalism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Rock Paper Killers by Alexia Mason
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book takes forever to get anywhere, and anything spooky is solved with a rational explanation so quickly. The "plot twist" at the end wasn't even shocking. I did love how the rock, paper, killers was incorporated in one of the last scenes.
Rupert made this book, he was hilarious 😂
Rupert made this book, he was hilarious 😂
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Scarlet Vol. 1 by Chiri Yuino
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Yuri vampires and werewolves?! 14 year old Hazel is happy 😂 also the art is just 😍
Savage Island by Bryony Pearce
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Squid games but it's unaware teenagers on an inaccessible island ✨
We follow a group of 5 teens who enter a 3 day competition to win a million pounds each (that's like 22 million rand). The rules are simple: navigate to a geocache box on the island, solve the puzzle, replace the geocache with something of equal value.
It seems like a fun, challenging vacation with the potential to win money. Until their first geocache is a tooth. The second a finger.
The characters were well developed, and I enjoyed exploring with them. The start felt really rushed as they were applying and then 💥 acceptance letter on the next page and suddenly they were flying out 😂
The writing was good, even if it was written as YA. The story had massive potential. I feel like it could have been written in a way that could have been a lot more shocking and intriguing to the reader.
I decided to read a chapter before bed and ended up finishing it and I disliked how the ending was written 😂 not the idea of it, just how it was done. I feel cheated out of sleep for that so it's getting 3 stars 🤣
First spooky Halloween month read done 🎃✨
We follow a group of 5 teens who enter a 3 day competition to win a million pounds each (that's like 22 million rand). The rules are simple: navigate to a geocache box on the island, solve the puzzle, replace the geocache with something of equal value.
It seems like a fun, challenging vacation with the potential to win money. Until their first geocache is a tooth. The second a finger.
The characters were well developed, and I enjoyed exploring with them. The start felt really rushed as they were applying and then 💥 acceptance letter on the next page and suddenly they were flying out 😂
The writing was good, even if it was written as YA. The story had massive potential. I feel like it could have been written in a way that could have been a lot more shocking and intriguing to the reader.
I decided to read a chapter before bed and ended up finishing it and I disliked how the ending was written 😂 not the idea of it, just how it was done. I feel cheated out of sleep for that so it's getting 3 stars 🤣
First spooky Halloween month read done 🎃✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Abandonment
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ghostwriting. Ghosts. Girl Dinner.
Because I CONSUMED this book! This book was easily a 5 star read and allllmost took the best book of the year title for me 😂
This book follows a romance ghostwriter, who believes romance is dead. And un(luckily) enough it actually is - in the form of a literal ghost.
Our MC is awkward, has low self esteem, has figurative and literal ghosts but SLAYS at dead puns. Queer rep in side characters. Humour and hard topics combined.
This book had me SOBBING so of course it's a 5 star. There are a lot of elements surrounding death of a loved one, confronting your old fears, and moving on but they're all done in a natural, soft, understanding way.
This felt like a healing journey because it serves as a reminder that life is a multitude of different colour's on your painting pallete, but there are always soft colours and reminders that you can get through it. It hurts but you grow and you learn and you carry pieces of everyone and everything you've loved with you, because you're a kaleidescope.
I chose this book because I wanted a spring romance - something new and fresh, that left the dead of winter and brought the change of season to life. And lucky for me this WAS a Spring romance 😂 it deals with death in a beautiful, natural cycle type of way. Because no matter how contrasting life and death is, they're entertwined and similar and need each other to survive.
"because endings were just new beginnings."
Because I CONSUMED this book! This book was easily a 5 star read and allllmost took the best book of the year title for me 😂
This book follows a romance ghostwriter, who believes romance is dead. And un(luckily) enough it actually is - in the form of a literal ghost.
Our MC is awkward, has low self esteem, has figurative and literal ghosts but SLAYS at dead puns. Queer rep in side characters. Humour and hard topics combined.
This book had me SOBBING so of course it's a 5 star. There are a lot of elements surrounding death of a loved one, confronting your old fears, and moving on but they're all done in a natural, soft, understanding way.
This felt like a healing journey because it serves as a reminder that life is a multitude of different colour's on your painting pallete, but there are always soft colours and reminders that you can get through it. It hurts but you grow and you learn and you carry pieces of everyone and everything you've loved with you, because you're a kaleidescope.
I chose this book because I wanted a spring romance - something new and fresh, that left the dead of winter and brought the change of season to life. And lucky for me this WAS a Spring romance 😂 it deals with death in a beautiful, natural cycle type of way. Because no matter how contrasting life and death is, they're entertwined and similar and need each other to survive.
"because endings were just new beginnings."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent
A Million to One by Adiba Jaigirdar
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A sapphic love story? A heist with skilled women? The TITANIC?
I have some really weird obsession with the titanic 😂 I was drawn to it as a 6 year old and would watch the movie on repeat. My mom thinks that in a previous life, I was a passenger on board.
So having a sapphic love story on the titanic was something I didn't know I needed 😂 this book GAVE. It gave strong, confident women in an era that didn't believe in it. It has POC main characters. It has found family. It has heisting. It has a sinking ship!! It made me SOB (always a good thing in a book imo).
It was a bit of a slow build up to the sinking drama, and some of the writing needed intense googling and staring at portholes on the ship to figure out what happened. But it's a book I will treasure close to my heart that I didn't know I needed. Please be aware, if you don't have a strange obsession towards the titanic you may not enjoy it as much as me 😂
Also - the author thanks you for reading it! Extra points will always be given for this.
Now if only I could find the love of my life without the cold embrace of the Atlantic, that would be great.
I have some really weird obsession with the titanic 😂 I was drawn to it as a 6 year old and would watch the movie on repeat. My mom thinks that in a previous life, I was a passenger on board.
So having a sapphic love story on the titanic was something I didn't know I needed 😂 this book GAVE. It gave strong, confident women in an era that didn't believe in it. It has POC main characters. It has found family. It has heisting. It has a sinking ship!! It made me SOB (always a good thing in a book imo).
It was a bit of a slow build up to the sinking drama, and some of the writing needed intense googling and staring at portholes on the ship to figure out what happened. But it's a book I will treasure close to my heart that I didn't know I needed. Please be aware, if you don't have a strange obsession towards the titanic you may not enjoy it as much as me 😂
Also - the author thanks you for reading it! Extra points will always be given for this.
Now if only I could find the love of my life without the cold embrace of the Atlantic, that would be great.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexism, and Grief