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16nnovs's reviews
42 reviews
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
4.0
arghhh i accidentally deleted my review T_T anyways i love everlark nobody loves them more than me. the ending was great idk why people say it was rushed, after everything katniss went through she deserves a happy ending and a quiet life. there is nothing wrong with her becoming a mother and having children and giving them the life and she, prim, rue, and many others deserved.
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
3.0
I enjoyed this book ahhh i haven’t ready fantasy in a while and this gave me a rush of nostalgia! i am looking forward to the next book, the only thing that kind of threw me off was the adult scene between Tau and Zuri ?? lmao kinda random and the book could have gone without it 100% felt like smut just for the sake of smut, good book overall
Circe by Madeline Miller
4.0
absolutely loved it :,) loved circe as a character and watching her grow as a being. I've read it like twice and listen to the audio book version reguarly. i love greek mythology :p
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
5.0
“I just feel . . .” I press the heels of my hands into my thighs. “I can’t lose the thing I’ve held on to for so long. You know?” My face twists up from the pain of pushing it out. “I just really need it to be a love story. You know? I really, really need it to be that.”
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it?”
I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide-open empathy.
“It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life.”
my dark vanessa explores the unsettling and complex relationship between 15-year-old vanessa wye and her 42-year-old teacher, jacob strane. the novel shifts between two timelines: vanessa as a teenager in the early 2000s, when she first meets strane, and vanessa as an adult in 2017, when strane is accused of sexual abuse by other former students. as readers, we witness the chilling process of vanessa being groomed and manipulated, while her older self struggles to come to terms with the trauma she endured as a teenager.
reading this book left me with a profound sense of sadness, as though a deep pit had formed in my stomach. just reading it made me feel helpless. kate elizabeth russell masterfully captures the complexity of vanessa's inner turmoil as she navigates the abuse and the haunting memories of her abuser. the novel illustrates how deeply traumatic experiences shape a person in unexpected ways. not all victims recognize their victimhood; some find comfort in their abusers, some struggle to come forward, and others wrestle with the denial of their own pain. the deep psychological grip an abuser can hold over a victim makes it nearly impossible for them to see themselves as worthy of rescue. russell brilliantly portrays how complicated it is to intervene when the person at the center of the abuse believes they were a willing participant in their own trauma.
this raises the question: how do you save someone who does not believe they want to be saved? my dark vanessa forces us to confront this problem head-on as we watch vanessa defend her relationship with strane, even though her own mind, her own body was telling her otherwise. recognizing abuse isn’t linear and it could take years, like it took vanessa, and sometimes it may never happen.
“But they’re just girls.” My voice cracks, a sob chokes out, and it feels like observing someone else cry, a woman playing the role of me.”
i was kind of pissed off reading some of the negative reviews that are completely shitting on vanessa, saying that they were waiting for her to “wake up” or that the ending was bad. hello??? do you think she's going to turn into superwoman overnight?? especially with the extend that her abuse went??? (not that the abuse the others girls suffered was any less) trauma is heavy, as heavy as mountains. it can stay with you for life, and vanessa held onto that shit until the very end. this is the reality for so many victims—abuse can cut so incredibly deep, and i wish people could understand that a little better.
“With the sun on my face and a dog at my side, I have so much capacity for good.”
this book was so life-changing, and russell touched my soul. this is going to stay with me for a long time, and i can only recommend it to those who can handle it because it was a hard read. please please please check the TWs! overall, incredible.
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it?”
I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide-open empathy.
“It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life.”
my dark vanessa explores the unsettling and complex relationship between 15-year-old vanessa wye and her 42-year-old teacher, jacob strane. the novel shifts between two timelines: vanessa as a teenager in the early 2000s, when she first meets strane, and vanessa as an adult in 2017, when strane is accused of sexual abuse by other former students. as readers, we witness the chilling process of vanessa being groomed and manipulated, while her older self struggles to come to terms with the trauma she endured as a teenager.
reading this book left me with a profound sense of sadness, as though a deep pit had formed in my stomach. just reading it made me feel helpless. kate elizabeth russell masterfully captures the complexity of vanessa's inner turmoil as she navigates the abuse and the haunting memories of her abuser. the novel illustrates how deeply traumatic experiences shape a person in unexpected ways. not all victims recognize their victimhood; some find comfort in their abusers, some struggle to come forward, and others wrestle with the denial of their own pain. the deep psychological grip an abuser can hold over a victim makes it nearly impossible for them to see themselves as worthy of rescue. russell brilliantly portrays how complicated it is to intervene when the person at the center of the abuse believes they were a willing participant in their own trauma.
this raises the question: how do you save someone who does not believe they want to be saved? my dark vanessa forces us to confront this problem head-on as we watch vanessa defend her relationship with strane, even though her own mind, her own body was telling her otherwise. recognizing abuse isn’t linear and it could take years, like it took vanessa, and sometimes it may never happen.
“But they’re just girls.” My voice cracks, a sob chokes out, and it feels like observing someone else cry, a woman playing the role of me.”
i was kind of pissed off reading some of the negative reviews that are completely shitting on vanessa, saying that they were waiting for her to “wake up” or that the ending was bad. hello??? do you think she's going to turn into superwoman overnight?? especially with the extend that her abuse went??? (not that the abuse the others girls suffered was any less) trauma is heavy, as heavy as mountains. it can stay with you for life, and vanessa held onto that shit until the very end. this is the reality for so many victims—abuse can cut so incredibly deep, and i wish people could understand that a little better.
“With the sun on my face and a dog at my side, I have so much capacity for good.”
this book was so life-changing, and russell touched my soul. this is going to stay with me for a long time, and i can only recommend it to those who can handle it because it was a hard read. please please please check the TWs! overall, incredible.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.5
updated review 1/14
i read dan simmons’ hyperion for the first time a year ago, around october 2024, and dnf’d it one chapter in. a friend of mine had recommended it to me (yes, it was a guy), and with the way he hyped it up, my expectations were high. so you can imagine my disappointment when i realized how much it bored me. recently, i decided to give it another try, and (surprise!) i hated it.
i read dan simmons’ hyperion for the first time a year ago, around october 2024, and dnf’d it one chapter in. a friend of mine had recommended it to me (yes, it was a guy), and with the way he hyped it up, my expectations were high. so you can imagine my disappointment when i realized how much it bored me. recently, i decided to give it another try, and (surprise!) i hated it.
to preface, i am not a sci-fi kind of person and don’t usually go for sci-fi reads. the idea and themes of the story itself were fine and left so much room for potential, but what automatically threw me off was the dialogue and descriptions. they felt flat to me, but i wasn’t going to base my review too much on that because i assume that, around the time it was written, this was considered fine. (i’m trying to be nice)
that doesn't stop me from saying that reading this felt meaningless. i have never had to force myself through a book so much. it was agonizing, and i am aware of how dramatic this sounds. this book felt bloated and heavy, carrying way more than it could handle. how much info-dumping can one gal take?? it was just TOO much. 500 pages crammed into 6 chapters—are you out of your mind? nothing stood out to me, nothing caught my attention. I could read a dictionary and feel more emotionally invested. the excessive explanations were mind-numbing, as a writer, surely there are ways to allude to your world-building/plot without babbling away?? surely??? oh, and the references—don’t piss me off, you’re already bleeding me dry.
that’s whatever. one of the major things that ruined this read for me was the way he writes women. or better yet, the way he describes women. it fucking REEKS! has this man never interacted with one before??? why is it that breasts are described almost every time a woman is introduced? what are these odd and freakish sexualizations of female characters? the sex scenes were hard to read, and with the added violence, it made me squeamish. what did bro have going on when he wrote this?? safe to say, i did not like this book—just like many other women—simply because it was not written for us. it’s written for men, everything about this is male gaze-y. and ok, cool, do that all you want, but at least make the rest of the plot salvageable. 0.5/5 stars.