tvislife's reviews
373 reviews

These people are idiots. Seriously they are so dumb. It follows Rune, a blood witch, who must hide who she is from everyone, especially head of the guard, Gideon. Rune spends the novel as a vigilante and Gideon spends it trying to track that vigilante down. 

These two, from the very very beginning, are like “He/She is on to me. Or are they? I wish I could know for sure…” and then spend the next few hundred pages acting in ways that (should have been) sure to get them caught. And then being like “I have to continue to do this dangerous thing even though I’m sure the other person knows, to keep up my ruse (which they aren’t falling for)”. 

Like, I get that there’s tension when it’s like “I think he knows..but does he..best keep flirting and hanging out with him just in case..”, and that worked for a bit. But it got so old so fast. Either the author should have made them each less sure in their suspicions, or done something to change the main conflict. I found this so stupid, these people deserve whatever bad things come their way because they acted like total dumbasses. I also didn’t really care about the romance, neither one if them is very likable, and I found Alex super super annoying too. 

I’m sorry. Not really fun at all imo. 

It was nice to follow Easton and Angus again, but this story wasn’t nearly as engaging as the first. It follows them as they return to Easton’s hunting lodge, where they encounter rumors of a woman that steals a person’s breath while they sleep. 

It took a while to get to the meat of this story I thought (not literally, because the whole novella is only like 150 pages). It just felt like we were waiting for something creepy or weird to happen, and when it finally did, I was just kinda like, is that it? The first book did a fantastic job of creating a creepy atmosphere and slowly building up the horror and tension for us to figure out what’s going on. For this one, it really just felt more like a random story you’d hear over a campfire at sleepaway camp, not a genuine horror story. 

This was okay! It’s a novelization of the show, which follows Sarah and Jan as they try to solve the murder of a teen girl, Nanna. It’s been a long time since I watched the (American version) show, but this seems to follow the same general plot (or close enough). 

I think the story is very compelling, and I love Sarah’s character. I love how bullheaded and one-track-minded she can be, she’s a fantastic crime-drama lead. Jan is a great sidekick to her, with a more childish and mouthy personality. I love their dynamic in the show, and (although it’s different), the dynamic is fun in the book too. 

That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. The author seemed to hear “show don’t tell”, and became obsessed with getting unnecessarily descriptive for every sentence. Like, descriptive in a way that it detracts from the story—it felt almost disjointed and choppy, with more focus paid to sentences rather than the actual story progression. I still liked the story, but it was hard to follow sometimes because of the work ring style, especially in the beginning. 

I hate to say it, but I think Neil Gaiman just isn’t for me. I think this is the fourth book of his I’ve read, and just none of them really have done it for me. This book follows Bod, the sole living resident at a cemetery. 

I guess this was cute. There’s no one thing I can point to that made it so boring to me, like the story was unique and I liked the setting. I actually love the idea of a boy being raised by ghosts and being able to blend in with them. But despite that, I just could not care about the story at all. The whole time I was like “meh”, and really debated not finishing. The only reason I did was because it was so short. This author just is not for me. 

Might be my favorite Stephen King book so far. It follows Ray, a boy who signed up (along with 99 other boys) to walk until there is only one left standing. 

This is one of those stories that’s going to sit with me for a long time. It’s not a super unique plot, or like brilliantly written, or full of twists and turns. It’s literally just a group of boys walking, and if they stop or slow down, they die. No side plots or anything, just the boys walking, with very little hints on what the world outside The Walk is even like. 

That’s it, but that’s not it at all. I don’t know, something about these kinds of stories where you (and the characters) are just wondering “what’s the point of all this suffering?” really speak to me. It reminds me of “I Who Have Never Known Men”. In both books, you see the characters confront their own mortality, through horrific ends mind you, and you’re just left wondering, why did they go through all that just to die at the end? Isn’t there more? There should be more. 

Idk. I loved this. I need more books like this. 

Ok. Now I need to back and actually read Red Dragon. I’ve always loved this movie, and finally got around to reading the book. 

I love how creepy Hannibal Lecter is. Like seriously, he’s so fucking creepy. He doesn’t even have a lot of dialogue in this, but man, he’s a weirdo. The whole scent thing he has going on? I wanna throw up, like for real. Jame is one creepy dude too, but I think Hannibal really takes the cake (mostly because I can perfectly picture Anthony Hopkins’ totally disturbing performance in the movie). Anyway, this is great. 

I mean, look at the cover. Chances are you can tell just by looking at it if you’re going to enjoy this book. It’s cheesy and silly and full of lots of cringey vamp and werewolf stuff—I loved it. It follows Misery (yep starting off strong with the cringe), a vampyre, who is married to the Alpha Were, Lowe, to broker peace. 

Look, I’m a sucker for arranged marriages, it’s one of my many faults. And this book plays into every single trope in the book. Ali Hazelwood is the queen of making hyper-readable, predictable stories, and I will eat them up every goddamn time. Her main character, of course, is a badass computer whiz, in addition to being the center of a soap opera-like romance. It’s exactly what I thought it would be, and I want her to write books forever. 

Jesus, that was a monster to get through. But you know what, even though it was an ungodly amount of pages, it never really seemed to drag in my opinion. It follows various survivors (and includes many vignettes of people that did not survive) of a flu that wiped out most of the population. These people were then sent visions of The Dark Man and a woman named Mother Abigail, and had to pick whose side they’d choose (God vs. the devil). 

It felt like not much really happened in this book, even though it was 1.1k+ pages. And I’m not saying that as a criticism—I actually found it incredibly difficult to put the book down, even though the plot was almost non-existent. I mean it exists, but it can be summed up with “People had to unite under Abigail/God’s guidance, to try and find a way to defeat the evil man in the west”. Like, that was it! The actual big “battle” was barely even a part of the story. 

The real meat of the story, and the reason it was so compelling, was the character arcs of our main characters. Some good, some evil, some just products of their surroundings—but all of them were incredibly well-written, and I loved seeing how all these normal people reacted to such a big tragedy as Captain Tripps, as well as the theological questions that popped up as a result of all the God stuff. It was fantastic. Even the little stories of the random people that died, or the side characters, were all so well done. Stephen King really did it with this one. 

Eerie and kind of icky in parts—I want to visit the Usher house and also never get within a billion miles of it. This follows Easton, who was called to visit an old friend because they seem to be dying. 

Nothing is better than a tight little horror! Some of the Easton stuff got kind of meh, I don’t really care about their military history and that stuff, but I loved the mystery and the stuff with the hares. Super spooky. The thought of being infected by this… yikes. I love a horror that makes me feel like bathing in bleach. 

This was a fine little romance, but not what I expected. Someone needs to do something about these cutesy little cartoon covers, cuz I really don’t think they prepare you for what’s inside (although the story was cutesy I guess). This follows Stella, an economist with autism, as she hires a male escort to help her be more comfortable with intimacy. 

This book got right down to business. To me, what makes a romance novel great is the tension and build up—that was sort of nonexistent in this book. I mean yeah, they had to work through her issues, but they were gettin pretty handsy right away. I need more yearning eyes, accidental finger brushes, etc. This was still cute and had some tension, but I just prefer the slower burn. It also seemed like they were too obsessed with each other right away, like y’all, you just met, chill. 

From what I could tell, the autism rep seemed fine, and I liked Stella’s character. I did not like Michael. There are few tropes I hate more than the whole “I refuse to be my dad but I have to protect you from me, cuz I will inevitably follow his footsteps”. It’s so annoying. Dude couldn’t go 5 seconds without agonizing over how his dad hurt his family and how he is worried he’ll do the same thing. Get over your daddy issues!! Therapy!! So irritating. I guess their romance was cute (when he wasn’t being pushy), but yeah he wasn’t my fave character. I still liked this book though, quick little romance.