arttichokedipp's reviews
214 reviews

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

challenging dark hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.25

This book sucked the life out of me. I never want to read anything like it again. And yet, I couldn’t put it down and I wrote two compositions about it. 

The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

It is rare that a thriller can ruin my cuticles without giving me nightmares, and can hold my attention without pseudo-intellectual technobabble. Well done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Hate crime, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Body horror

Moderate: Xenophobia, Animal death, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Transphobia and Adult/minor relationship

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

challenging informative sad slow-paced

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, Classism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Violence, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.

I just couldn’t get invested in the characters. They seemed like caricatures of real people. Also, Daniel

joking about his behavior being creepy doesn’t fix that his behavior is creepy.

Self-awareness doesn’t make you immune to shittiness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Alcoholism

Moderate: Car accident and Child death

Minor: Racism

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.

I think I’ve grown out of the meet cute circumstance fake date romance stuff. I honestly just found it boring. I was just sitting there two chapters in thinking “why am I reading this?”

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol

We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart

dark reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

First book of the year, first 5-star of the year.

This is everything. Everything I find wrong with YA, gone. Everything I dislike about fantasy, gone. Everything I dislike about scifi, gone. Only the good parts remain and it is so, SO good.

Particularly, for those who have negative feelings about love triangles, never fear.

I hate love triangles because things would be so easy if they ended in polyamory half the time that it would cut the book in half. This one? THIS ONE DOES. Not only does the girl get with both guys, who are totally cool with that, but they get together as well. The triangle is the strongest shape, as you'll see.

My only complaint is there's a sort of "bury your gays" situation, but I'm hoping based on the epilogue that it's not permanent.

10/10, I'm so glad I stumbled upon their YouTube videos and decided to pick up their book when it came out.

(Edited because I messed up their pronouns. So sorry!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Biphobia, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

There is allusion to intersexism, in that it's rumoured that intersex people may exist but they're not taught about and the narrator speculates on how they may be mistreated for being born different.