sarah2438's reviews
1045 reviews

I liked it but didn't love it. There are so many characters that are interconnected and it gets difficult to keep track of everyone. To make it more disorienting, the point of view also changes sometimes. And the big event we spend the entire book building up to is so brief, with no resolution at all. It just felt unfinished at the end. With all of that said, I did overall enjoy the writing and it was interesting to get a small sample of so many different lives. I just wish they had between more fleshed out. 

I think I need some time to digest this and then come back. I read this VERY quickly because I was so caught up in it. The writing is so well done! I'm glad I decided early on to annotate because I was constantly underlining sentences. Opening to a random page for example, I underlined "He wants to extinguish us-- we are the ones who remind him that he's not that smart, not that good-looking, that there's nothing particularly special about him." Another: "For weeks, I'd been a wave cresting, searching for a shore on which to break. I immediately dissolved into my mother's arms." These are just a couple of random quotes but they get to the heart of this novel. It's so much bigger than a murder mystery.
And, I have to say that at times that was to it's disadvantage. I think what holds me back here is that the book tried to tackle too much. It was destined to be more than a murder mystery, I wholeheartedly agree with that. But there were so many topics the author wanted to cover all at the same time, that I think it did a disservice to them. These topics include: familial homophobia, victim compensation in legal cases, unethical prosecutorial/investigative practices, buried trauma, internalized homophobia, and more. These are explored through several different perspectives that also take place at different times, to the point that I started to get confused which character was narrating-- "is this Ruth in 1974 reflecting on her relationship with her mother, or is it Pamela in 2021? Was it Pamela's dad that died or was it Tina's or Ruth's?" It's ambitious to try to pull off such well rounded characters over several decades with alternating chapters, and I think it just didn't quite work as well as I wanted it to. Still, I think this was a phenomenal read and I'm looking forward to a re-read after some distance. Highly recommend.

Stunning. Devastating. Heartwarming. I highly recommend.

Really interesting collection! Overall average rating is 3 stars but I'm bumping up to a 4 because I thought the whole thing was really neat. Favorites were The Other One (Violet Allen) and Your Happy Place (Terence Taylor). I'm interested in checking out the authors I was less familiar and I think this is a great jumping off point for exploring more diverse reads. Great pick for this spooky month!

I tend to struggle with the pacing on these cozy fantasy books. It's not their fault but there's just not enough going for me to focus on. That said, once I really focused in on it, this one was very sweet and enjoyable. Mika's desire to belong but fear of putting herself out there resonated an uncomfortable amount. I recommend.

Chef's kiss. A perfect romance. I recently read Carrie Soto is Back and this is like a much, MUCH better new adult version. I couldn't care less about chess but that didn't even matter because I had such a great time reading this.

Gave it a shot for the spooky vibes this month but I just don't think I'm a fan of Reid's work. Too vague and abstract. I think other people will love that about it, but it's not for me. I like to have more plot, more answers.

Liked it but didn't love it. I wanted it to be spookier.

Finally finished this one! Just like with Kaikeyi, Goddess of the River is very beautifully written. And as referenced in the author's note at the end, it does an excellent job of condensing a massive epic tale into a 400 page novel. With that said, there were times that I got a bit disoriented with all the different characters and side stories. This novel is wonderfully done but fleshing some of these stories out a bit further would've helped distinguish the characters a bit more, even if it meant sacrificing brevity. Overall, while I LOVED Kaikeyi, this was still a very strong novel, even if it didn't quite reach the level of Kaikeyi. Still highly recommend.
**I received a digital ARC of Goddess of the River (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.**

The main of the book was beautiful, hopeful, and interesting. The epilogue by his wife is, of course, all of those things plus devastating.