sicksadlit's reviews
493 reviews

The story follows 18 year old Ji-Won, the eldest sister of two who are left to pick up the pieces when their father walks out on their mother for another woman. When their mother brings home her new boyfriend George - a middle-aged, racist and repugnant white man - Ji-Won begins a gruesome and bloody spiral.

On the surface this book presents as a horror, but actually when you lift the hood and get into it you realise it’s a much more complex story with layers detailing the Asian diaspora experience, misogyny, fetishisation, racism and grief.

The horror scenes were truly horrifying. I cringed and gagged delightedly as it is rare that a book manages to elicit such a reaction from me and I rooted for Ji-Won every step of the way.

This is the perfect read if you (like me) love female rage, an unreliable narrator, and a Good for Her ending.

Content Warnings

Daydream by Hannah Grace

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Just when I think my snobby lit-fit ass has moved on from romance, Hannah Grace has the audacity to drop a banger like Daydream.

I could not tell you the last time I read a 400+ page book in 3 freaking days. I went in skeptical and found I just could not. put. it. down. It was that good.

She fell just short of five stars for me, so let’s break it down into 2 parts: What I liked and what I didn’t like, LOVE.

What I liked:

The characters were just so damn wholesome, my god. I wish this fantasy world was real where college-aged boys understood how to talk about their dang feelings and aren’t afraid to tell their mates they love them.

Yay for no third act break up!!! The story did not need it and also it just would not have made sense for the characters to make that decision but I was super happy about that anyways.

Our MFC Halle battling through writing her first book was so real, omg.

Henry being auDHD was deeply relatable as an auDHD girly myself.

Very diverse range of characters with good representation!

What I didn’t like, LOVE:

There were some weird jumps in storyline a few times that had me flicking back through previous pages to see if I’d missed some key detail. I hadn’t, it just appears to either be an odd choice by the author or an oversight.

There were actually too many characters, I couldn’t keep track of them all and they weren’t fleshed out enough to really provide much to the story.

I thought it was weird the Halle never officially met both of Henry’s mums ??? Ever? Also, weird that neither of them ever went to his games when they apparently lived right around the corner from Halle??

Halle’s family is truly terrible!!!! Honestly!!! Even right at the end. Without spoiling anything, they straight up owed her their loyalty and they couldn’t even offer her that ultimately. They did her so dirty and that honestly she would have been well justified in fully disowning them.

I wished that Henry would take a bit of responsibility for finding solutions to his own learning requirements. It’s so weird to me that Halle should be his tutor just indefinitely until he graduates?? Like, pay someone instead??

And her sister too! She literally has two mums and a dad!!!! Why aren’t they the ones going through her essays with her!!! I think it sends a super weird message that neither of these characters seemed to truly take responsibility for their own education. Especially Henry. Dude, you’re an adult and also your mums seem like the type who would have sussed a tutor for you in childhood? How are you in college and this lost?

But anyway! Overall I enjoyed it and it made me feel happy and hopeful. Cami was absolutely the star of the show though and defs needs her own spinoff.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for gifting me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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sicksadlit's reviews 493 reviews

sicksadlit's reviews
493 reviews