tvislife's reviews
373 reviews

Such a fun book. I listened to this on a road trip, and I probably looked like an idiot grinning the whole drive. It follows Fizzy, a romance author, who agrees to be the lead in a reality dating show, which is produced by a hot Brit, Connor. 

I loved this. Normally I find contemporary romances super boring and low stakes, and struggle to get into them. But this one pulled me in right away—I really fell in love with Fizzy. She was hilarious, had no filter, and wasn’t ashamed to say and go after what she wanted. Connor was also a likable romance lead, and I loved watching their love story play out. I think the audiobook really added to the experience as well, both the narrators were fantastic. Highly recommend to any romance fans to listen. 

Not gonna lie, the first few pages made me giggle and are what made me pick up the book off the shelf. This book follows a woman, as she realizes she’s being possessed by a demon. 

I really really enjoyed this book until about the 75% mark. I’m not sure how I wanted / expected it to end, but the actual ending was so anticlimactic. Like for real, I got to the end and I was like ? Okay? That’s it? 

That being said, the rest of the book was very fun. I loved seeing the narrator slowly blow up her life and get pulled deeper and deeper into the destruction. It sounds like it could have been pretty dark, and I suppose it was, but god it was also just funny. I really enjoyed the writing style and thought the characterization was well done, I’d be happy to read another of her books, even if it also kinda falls apart in the end. 

Brilliant and fast-paced. This book follows the slave Jim, from the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and tells an imagining of his story throughout that book. 

I am not someone that typically enjoys literary fiction or a lot of classical-leaning literature, but I loved this. I was honestly shocked at how fast I flew through this book, I thought I’d have to force myself to finish. Everett has a fast-paced and witty tone, and the book never feels slow or boring. 

I loved the idea of Jim, and all slaves, code switching to speak to the whites, and I thought it was done very very well. I’ve seen some complaints about how that seemed “ridiculous” that Jim was seen as simple-minded, while quoting Voltaire and teaching philosophy to his family / other slaves. To that, I’ll just once again say that I think Everett is brilliant. It didn’t have to be “realistic”, it just showed the deep humanity and the capability of deep, rational thought that James had as a human being, regardless of his status as a slave. I really enjoyed this! 

Like every other child alive, I had a dinosaur phase when I was a kid. It never got super intense, but curiosity has always been there, so when I heard someone mention this book, I jumped at the chance to relive my old love. 

This is a very accessible non-fiction book, designed for people like me, who need a joke or little personal backstory every once in a while in order to stay engaged in a non-fiction book. That’s not to say the subject was boring—I really loved it, and learned more about dinosaurs (and that there were a ton of pre-dinosaur animals roaming around, who knew) and their timeline than I could have dreamed. But I also just really liked the author’s voice coming through. The scientific names of the animals, while necessary, could get boring and the author had a great balance of science and just exciting facts / stories. 

Recommend to any adult who wants to learn something new and feel a bit of nostalgia at the same time. 

The book follows Bela, a young girl who used to have a friend called Other Mommy. Other Mommy would come to her at night, talk to her, make faces, and make her laugh. Other Mommy didn’t have a face like other people have faces either, oh no, hers was wrong, looked almost upside down. Her body was grotesquely large, and she doesn’t walk like a normal person, she’d slide around the floor, or hang from the closet. In other words—Other Mommy was fucking terrifying. 

As time went on, Other Mommy got more and more daring with testing her and Bela’s friendship. She’d creep out more often, and asked Bela one question over and over again—Would Bela please let her into her heart? Bela gets more and more confused about her feelings towards Other Mommy, especially since Other Mommy can look and sound like other people, and doesn’t know what she should do. 

Jesus. I’m creeped out just writing this review. Malerman has outdone himself with this novel, making a psychological horror that slowly drags you down into madness, not sure who or what to trust by the end. It reminded me of Coraline, where the other mom kept wanting to sew button eyes onto Coraline—but if Coraline was written for children, Malerman’s novel is written for only the strongest-willed. Might have to sleep with the lights on tonight (but it’s totally worth it). 

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC! 

I really, really loved this story but man do I wish the names were easier. It follows a goblin / elven boy, Maia, who is suddenly thrust into the world of politics as the role of emperor when his family is killed. 

Maia is such a likable and empathetic character. Throughout the whole novel, I just wanted to hold him and be his friend and protect him from the shitty situation he was in. He wasn’t the only interesting character, The politics were cool, but Jesus. I could NOT keep any of the names straight, or the different factions. Maybe because I read it over a longer period of time than most books I read, but man it could be hard to follow. Other than the main handful of people, I had no who anyone was. But it was still fun! The ending was anticlimactic, but the story was sill worth it, and again, I loved Maia. I recommend, but with the caveat that only hardcore political fantasy fans would probably be able to get into it. 

Tax the rich! 

This book was pretty similar, I think, to his previous book about evictions and poverty. Both books follow the intersection of race and poverty and how America fails our most vulnerable groups. 

This book was full of a lot of information that we kind of know, in theory, but it was nice to have all the facts laid out. Like, I knew that people of color, specifically black folks, are more likely to have poorer housing conditions and be living paycheck to paycheck. 

Very enjoyable read, I love his voice and the way he presents information. Highly recommend. 

At the start of this book, I was like “hm, I wonder what makes this grimdark fantasy!”. Y’all. This is grimdark for sure—if you’re even a little unsure if you want to read something darker, don’t pick up this book, because some of these visuals will never leave my brain. It follows Rin, who tests into a war college and has an odd connection to the gods. 

Did I enjoy this book? Yes I did. I think Kuang is an incredibly talented writer, and the stories she weaves are so engaging. I’d want to read anything she writes—but I gotta say, this got to be a little too much for me by the end. The fact that many of the things described in the book actually happened in real life makes it infinitely worse, and I am horrified and disgusted and so so sad that this is the world we live in.

I am very interested to see where the story goes from here, and I want to consume more of Kuang’s writing because I think she just an unbelievable talent—but we’ll see if I can stomach actually continuing. 

Crying at my desk. 

I’ve read very few Star Wars books, and honestly don’t know much about the Star Wars extended universe, but damn was this good. It follows Vos, a Jedi Knight, who is sent to team up with a Jedi-turned-Sith, Ventress, to assassinate Count Dooku. 

I loved these characters. The light side vs. the dark side can seem very hokey and lame, but with these characters, it became so much more real and visceral. I mean, you can really see why/how a character could be lost to hate, because the tiny things just end up snowballing, and by the time you notice it happening it can be too late. These people went through dark shit! 

It was exciting and heartbreaking and moving seeing these characters wrestle with their humanity and what they owed one another. I love them even when I hate them. I am sad. I want more! I’ll for sure be checking out more Star Wars books from this author.