Maha
really really weird but I vibe with it.
reminded me of myself in some uncomfortable ways.
Sometimes you just read a book that pushes all your buttons, and mine are lesbian necromancers solving riddles and kicking ass apparentely. Not that I'm surprised by that.
The book was well-written and the story itself very suspenseful, but I still kind of hated it if I'm being honest.
Everytime the book changes perspectives, in an attempt to flesh out all the characters, the author delves deeply into their psyche, mostly over at least five pages and describes in detail every thought process and what lead them to this exact point of the plot. I can understand the reasoning behind it and it was sometimes interesting but it interrupted the flow of the story for me. I found my eyes glazing over more than just a couple of times, and I started skipping sentences, even though the main plotline gripped me a lot and I was initially very immersed in the book.
This might be more of a personal problem, but I also had no connection to the main characters whatsoever, no opinion, no feelings, nothing. I would have preferred the time spent describing the side characters going into the development of the main cast.
(Maybe some research about League of Legends too? Ask someone actually playing video games? The game is being described so weirdly and plain wrong many times in the book. “Press magic or you'll fail” Really?)
I enjoy reading about the policework behind murder cases a lot, and in this aspect the book definitely delivered, so that kind of saved the book for me.
The worst thing is that so many things were new to me, not because I didn't notice, but because I simply accepted them as the way things are.
Even the stupid crash test dummies? How hard can it be to make female crash test dummies?
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - A book you picked because the title caught your attention
this was really funny but mostly just him making fun of clichés in horror movies. I had fun reading it but now I want a book that actually tells me how to survive in horror-movie-like situations.
high school me is screaming.
I would've been obsessed with this - just the right amount of toxic and angsty with good character development and growth.
O.W.L. Readathon - Charm
read a book with a white cover
Warcross was thrilling and engaging and fast-paced and most importantly really really fun. I had a great time reading it, loved the setting and especially the fight scenes.
My only complaint is the boring af romance and the main character, that had no personality other than “stubborn but still really nice and selfless girl, thats supposed to be morally grey and a criminal but never actually does anything morally grey and when she does its for a greater cause” which I feel like I've read about in a thousand other books now.
But I still hat a lot of fun reading this, so who cares!
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name
This book was amazing and the audio book was even better.
I loved the setting, I loved how Taylor Reid managed to have so many characters featured but have them all have a distinctive personality. I was instantly hooked.
I do think that without the audio book I would've only given 4 stars, but the full cast made the experience incredibly immersive and fun. The voice actors were amazing and fit the characters perfectly. I loved everything about it!
Well-written villains with a fleshed out personality > boring one-dimensional heroes any day.
This book probably just wasn't for me.
Most of it felt like a murder mystery, but a murder mystery with very lackluster investigation.
The twist was decent and did take me somewhat by surprise, but it didn't make up for the slog the rest of the book was.
The diary entries were plain weird to me, most people don't write about their day like a fleshed-out novel, with lines of dialogue and long descriptions and I think simply writing Alicia's POV would've been more immersive.
It's listed on goodreads as a mystery or a thriller but to me it was neither thrilling nor particulary mysterious, I mostly felt nothing while reading it.
I am officially obsessed. this book was the best thing I experienced this ridiculous and awful year and I will read everything Tamsyn Muir writes, 10/5 Stars, will read again, probably more than once.
O.W.L. Readathon - Defence Against Dark Arts
read a book set at or in the sea
This is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses and I don't know what to tell you, I loved the Barbie movie and loved this book. It was gothic and creepy and amazing and yes, the main character had the personality of a shoe but to be honest, just like in Warcross I had too much fun to care.
Still would love to actually have an interesting main character sometime soon.
This was a YA fantasy through and through, enemies to lovers, banter, yearning, the whole thing.
Ridiculous amounts of sarcastic back and forth, but I was into it, mostly because I really get into the ‘you'd hate me if you knew who I really was' thing.
The plot was pretty mediocre overall, but I flew through the book and enjoyed every second of it, so I didn't really mind.
I hate dual POVs though and this didn't change my mind, they both sound exactly the same too so that didn't help either.
But I got my romance fix with a fun world built around it and that's all I ask for!
This book surprised me so much, because not only was it an amazing read, it was consistently, from beginning to end, FUN! I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly and continuously invested from the first chapter on.
There is nothing I despise more than a boring thriller that only gets interesting 80% in.
Imagine this plot out of Vivian's perspective, but as an unreliable narrator, I would've been so much more into it
This has to be what being a mindreader feels like: very interesting but also very unpleasant?
Young humans can be impulsive. The trick is to keep them around long enough to become old humans.
Not one, but two sarcastic AIs trying to keep suicidal humans alive, all that I needed today!
Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - A book with a three-word title
This book suffered from something I feel like many books do: a slow, almost boring start with a lot of exposition and introduction and a plotline that really only picks up speed about halfway into the book.
Normally that would warrant at most 3 stars, but with the exception of the pacing of the beginning I loved everything about this book.
Celeste Ng managed to give every character a distinct personality. Everyone felt incredibly human and real, noone seemed to just exist for the plot, not even short appearances and side characters. The relationships and family dynamics were amazing as well. When the plot picked up speed, I was fully immersed, I felt every emotion, I even sympathised with characters I disliked a lot and that never happens. Never.
I really look forward to read other books by Celeste Ng, her writing really blew me away.
Between this and Big Little Lies I seem to also have a thing for suburban drama, so that definitely helped.
I'm sure now that we had our infernal dramatic scavenger hunt we can go back to the awesome urban fantasy academia that I loved in the first book! I will ignore that this book happened actually.
The Darlingtons POVs?? Never happened. I refuse.