abiiorsamantha's reviews
22 reviews

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

this book was fun, after reading romances like the switch and the flatshare (these were the last romances i read) i was just really put off the genre and just hoping for something to get me back into it, and this book did that. i think it was a fun, easy read with a cute romance in it, although some things that josh and lucy say i cringed at, it was pretty good overall.
honestly i struggled giving this a rating so i may go back and change it but at the moment i think 3.5 is too harsh and 4.5 is too high so i'm going to go in the middle and give it a 4 because in my opinion i enjoyed it and it wasn't bad.
i would say i was quite shocked at how fast the romance sparked i thought it would have more of a slower burn that it did and i was slightly like woah.
also

i predicted that josh's brothers wife was his ex from the beginning really, so it didn't come as much of a shock to me when it was revealed, but still was really good

i would recommend this book to others because personally i think it's such a quick an easy read, and it's a book that encouraged me to delve back into the romance genre a bit more now rather than stray away from it due to romance books i've read in the past.
edit: so i've changed it to 3.75 but honestly lets just say i cannot rate books

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Honestly, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would, at the start I didn't really know where it was going to go, but as I carried on reading it I grew to love the characters, like Kya, Jumpin', Tate, Jodie etc.

the plot twist at the end made so much sense, especially that she was the poet, when reading the poems I was thinking, how are they so accurate to Kya? And then it all pieced together at the end. Also when Kya died, I was really sad, however I didn't end up crying but my heart-ached for Tate and just the fact that Kya was gone because I loved her so much <Spoiler>
This wasn't a very anticipated read for me, but I ended up really enjoying it so I'm really glad I picked it up. I will definitely recommend this to others!! 

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Okay so I think the problem with Beth O'learys books is that they're very middle-aged, and not for a teenager?? I read the switch and it was okay nothing special like the reviews were saying, but I just don't think that middle-aged romance kind of books are really that something that interest me.
Also the middle of the book was very slow in my opinion so i really had to try and power through that even though i couldn't really be bothered to keep reading, however the last 50 pages were the most interesting compared to the whole of the book.
Personally after the switch and the flatshare i don't think i'll be picking up any more books by this authors, not because her books ae bad, they're not, i just don't think they're the genre for me necessarily, which is all based down to personal preference.

Verity by Colleen Hoover

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

- as a person who likes to read and watch a lot of thrillers i must say this was really good, the problem for me is that i think everyone rates this five stars or more is because they're usually big fans of colleen hoover and mainly romance readers?? i could be wrong but as someone who has read quite a lot of thrillers this was amazing but not above and beyond five stars like a lot of people have been saying. don't get me wrong it was a great book and i could just be being really harsh but thats just how im feeling right now.
-

i think that verity must've killed harper and lied in the letter because she said that jeremy was the one who drove into the tree with his seatbelt on but wouldn't he have some damage too??? and why did verity write up the letter after she found out jeremy was sleeping with lowen and she realised that lowen was becoming to be suspicious of her???

-

also i felt as though lowen judged verity for being so obsessed with jeremy and then at the end i felt like she started to portray those characteristics and aspects of behaviour also, like she ate some parts of the letter to protect jeremy???? like what.

- oh and i kinda predicted that

verity killed harper, i just had a feeling and then when i got to it i was like yep i kinda figured which was annoying because i feel like thats one of the things that shocked people so much??

- overall this book was really enjoyable, the reason i gave it 4 stars, even though i feel like the plot twists weren't as shocking as i expected them to be which is why i gave it 4 stars.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

- this book was so so so fun, i loved it so much, im not going to lie the end was quite unexpected

that julia was the author, honestly it just didn't come to mind who the author was or that there was going to be a big plot twist at the end but i should've figured as in seven husbands of evelyn hugo the authors dad was harry's partner, so im guessing the books usually relate back to the authors??? maybe its just in these two books

-i felt as though i was a groupie with fleetwood mac or something hahah it was just all so well portrayed in my opinion.
- also

i am so sad that karen and graham did not end up together, i mean i think we all knew they weren't but i just had this little space in my heart for them and wanted them to be together, baby or no baby.

- <kinda a spoiler??> at times eddie infuriated me i mean billy did not treat him right all the time but i just wanted them to get along as a band so bad that i just wanted eddie to shut up and billy to stop acting like he's better than everyone else and just get along, but then again without that there would be not much to the plot and i feel like it did add that kind of irony that this was all going to go downhill either way. (even though the whole book is about why they split up if that wasn't disclosed to the reader i feel like you would get that vibe anyway that they're just not going to stay together forever <kinda a spoiler??>
-

camilla camilla camilla it really hurt when billy was talking about how bad her chilli was but she thought it was amazing so would keep making it, how good of a mum she was. and then she died. wtf. ouch. she deserved so much better from billy, but then again i didn't agree with the way she treated daisy at the end, but that could just be my opinion. like she obviously got her point across but some things were quite harsh i guess, but i think again thats because i just sympathized with daisy so much, whatever she tried she would go down a spiral again and would hate herself for it

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

okay, so i'm not sure where to start with this book.
as soon as i read the ending i had to re-read it once again to make sure what i just read was the ending. personally, i was disappointed in the ending like what now? what happened? is that it? all that build up for zero reward????
i honestly found it really enjoyable waiting for what was going to happen, why the boy archie was ill, what the noises were but had nothing explained in the end.
i feel as though this book would've been a way better book if the ending was different, still could've been a cliffhanger but not that. that ending gave us nothing.
i see why people really enjoy it but i think the ending was a let down to the enjoyment i experienced reading the book in the start and middle.
also i wanted to comment on some parts that made me uncomfortable, i'm not sure whether it's because it was written by a male author, and i don't read many male author books but some of the scenes with the 16 year old boy archie, and intimate scenes between the two parents felt so out of place and not needed in the story line. there was even, near the end of the book, after they were hungover the father, clay, was taking a shower and it mentioned his burning asshole?? what was the need.
i mean it wasn't the worst book i ever read i enjoyed most of it but the ending was a real disappointment for me unfortunately, which is why i gave it 3.5 stars.

Bunny by Mona Awad

mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

okay, where to start. i initially picked up this book as everyone said it was a book that you have to search theories up about and now i understand why. at the end i was like huh? is this it? and then i went and read theories and it all clicked. my rating immediately went up.
i didn't understand samantha's mind during reading and as most people say it feels like everyones on drugs in the book and so are you, totally get  it now.
but when i found out that

ava was the swan, and that the swan came back after she died, head exploded.

personally i wouldn't class this a horror maybe, i understand why due to some goriness however i didn't find it very horrory if that makes any sense.
this was a very fast read for me seeing as i have school and read it in around four days straight after a little life so it really helped getting me back into reading faster which was great, and the text was quite large also.
honestly there isn't too much i want to say about this book except it was crafted SO thoughtfully and everything that went into it, the only thing was i personally would've liked a tiny bit more clarity at the end but to be honest i did like searching up theories for it.
also i bonus points for the main character being called samantha ;)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Honestly the only way for me to summarise this book is heartbreaking.
When I first bought this I struggled to understand why anyone would want to put themselves through a book 720 pages long, but now I understand, and I understand why it was 720 pages long. If it was less than 400 pages there's no way the amount of detail in this book would be achieved and my connection with the characters would not develop as much as it did, which is why it made the end even more heartbreaking.
I was quite hesitant at first that it might put me in a book slump, but actually quite the opposite happened, I wanted to know what was going through the boys minds, what happened in the past, how they develop or if they even develop at all. 
I read this in eight days which some may say is a long time, but due to work and school I anticipated it would be much longer however I found myself trying to make time for this book. I'm so glad I finally read it, although it's not a book I would necessarily recommend to others, I think that if you genuinely are in a healthy and good headspace and are ready for what this book encloses by checking all the trigger warnings etc, you should consider reading it if you want to. But although it is not for everyone I think the book was an absolute masterpiece, and to write a book that keeps you gripped and connected for 720 pages definitely deserves 5 stars.
However, I will never forgive Hanya Yanagihara for the pain she caused me at the end of the book haha.

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

• I finished this book in less than 24hrs and I loved it, so far I've only read two Colleen Hoover books but both were very fast paced (great if you need to get out of a reading slump!!).
• I personally loved to see the development throughout the book and really connected with the characters in it and grew to care for them both tate and miles although at times
  miles wasn't my favourite due to his actions and how he messed tate around as if it was nothing, then when tate was upset miles was confused and acted like he didn't do anything *cough cough* curtain shopping.

  but it was all needed due to the character development over time.
• I really enjoyed the perspective of miles in the past and anticipating what actually happened to make him emotionally unavailable to be with tate
  when it was uncovered what happened with his and rachel's baby and I looked back at the cover. ouch.

   
• Surprisingly, I didn't cry, I didn't cry at "it ends with us" either, they're both sad books don't get me wrong but unfortunately I didn't cry.
• I would recommend this book to anyone, its a really quick read which I loved and the whole story idea was great although <possible spoiler> I wish miles would've just gone to therapy about what happened between him and rachel and then he may have been emotionally stable and in a better mental state and tate wouldn't had to have gone through all that. But then again its called ugly love, that was the point. <possible spoiler>

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

• I really wanted to love this book which I think lowered the enjoyability of the read for me personally, I went into it having really high expectations and unfortunately I don't think this book met them, but not to blame the book in anyway as it was not a bad read at all I just went into it with a set standard which made me disappointed in the end.
• Many people may critique that the book is too slow paced and the first half of the book is pointless, however I have to disagree as I think that the first half is vital to the book to show how the main characters mental health changes as we read.
• There were so many quotes in this book that I could relate to and tabbed, but for some reason overall the book wasn't my favourite for some reason. I feel I might be being a little harsh so I'm definitely going to re-read it as I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy it overall but enjoyed some sections if that makes any sense?
• okay this is an edit but after looking back i think i was just in a reading slump and all the books i was reading were just abit slow paced and i didnt enjoy them as much so the 3.5 stars i rated was definitely too low and im gonna up it to 4 stars, im going to re-read this in 2022 definitely so i can appreciate it a lot more cause i was WAYY too harsh 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt