nila's reviews
497 reviews

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I find it so difficult to rate these volumes, because they contain such small segments of the overall story. I'm still intrigued to keep on reading though.

Content Warnings

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An incredible journey through most of the 20th century following one family and their journey trying to survive all aspects of war and its aftermath. The story had twist and turns, and there were many times I had to put the book down because I was so surprised by what I had just read

from the reading journal: There's an abundance of the "innocent young good man/boy being corrupted by the sexual whore who only wants their money material things. Yes the" bad men"-characters are also present, but I feel they are more fleshed out and for some reason, their "flaws" are justified and explained away.

One the other end, the "good" woman is also never good enough. She's too boring or even, not "good enough".Every single woman is described and more or less ranked by their sexual availability and desirability. And almost all the women who are described as promiscuous are punished, either with not being allowed to marry again for love, or being beaten half to death in a car or actually dying. While the men who illicit the same kind of behavior get to grow old, and be surrounded by wealth and loved ones. I understand that this is/was the reality of the society that is described in the book, but then what should one think is the "message" behind the story? Or am I overthinking this? I want to read more Asian literature, but find that the sexualisation of women is a deterring factor.

Content Warnings

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Go to review page

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

Gul bok by Zeshan Shakar

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

4.0

Den underjordiske jernbanen by Colson Whitehead

Go to review page

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

One Day in December by Josie Silver

Go to review page

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Not my cup of tea, I usually like the "random assortment of meetings over a longer period of time"-style romance, but it had so many other tropes I don't like, so it's a miss for me. I felt the main character, Laurie, had no agency of her own, until her life moved to a place where she could no longer be with Jack. And the "obstacles" to their relationship (friends and exes etc etc) were all magically solved, so that they were free to be with each other.

Content Warnings