atomic_tourist's reviews
353 reviews

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

Heartwarming and heartbreaking!! Gabrielle Zevin knows how to make readers (well, me at least) care deeply for her characters and connect with them on a deeper level. A.J. Fikry doesn't exactly reinvent the novel, but Zevin's prose and character development is incredibly pleasing to read. Could have spent all day reading this one, except I loved it too much and hence read it in just a few short hours, much less than a whole day ;) 

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

Really really liked this ~magical~ romance!! Mika is a fully fleshed main character, as are her love interest and all of their sidekicks. The central messages of the book - learning to trust yourself and others, the value of opening up, etc. - are relayed with delicacy and Sangu Mandanna doesn't hit us over the head with them.

This was just a purely cozy read, but the characters were utterly loveable, the setting was gorgeous, the plot pacing was spot on... Was just what the doctor ordered :-) 

Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

My least favorite Christie as of yet, expect for maybe the first Tommy and Tuppence novel. Oof. 

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

Prepare for an onslaught of books that I mark as read (did a lot of procrasti-reading this week) :-/

Enjoyed this follow-up to A Deadly Education more than the original!! Not a huge fan of Novik's writing style - it is pretentious, overly familiar, and lacks in context - but the Scholomance books have got a certain charm to them nonetheless. 

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

dark sad medium-paced

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

Ugh. Strong dislike. Not for me. 

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

A magnificent recommendation from Oshani!! Strong, complicated characters, a plot that flows, and a refreshing take on queerness in fiction. 

Solar Storms by Linda Hogan

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

Finished reading Solar Storms over a month ago and still thinking about Linda Hogan's prose, which flowed naturally and was full of beauty & emotion. Some of the best YA I've read as an adult. Parts of the writing were dated, but nothing so serious as to detract from the artistry of the writing. 

The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

challenging 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

 First of all - to all of my fans (hehe) I am so sorry for the months-long backlog of Storygraph content!! Work/school/life has been tough so I am wayyyy overdue on updating this account.

ANYWAYZ - this book really sucked imo. Patting myself on the back for trudging through it. Will not be subjecting myself to the end of this series. Sympathies to anyone who has it in them to keep going, I guess. 

Survivor's Guilt by Robyn Gigl

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

Survivor's Guilt was off to a stronger start than Gigl's previous novel, By Way of Sorrow. I could really start to see how Gigl found her footing writing the characters, dialogue, and getting the pacing right. It was gratifying!

Like By Way of Sorrow, I have an overall favorable impression of Survivor's Guilt. It's compellingly readable and gets the balance right between being plot-driven and character-driven. The solution to the mystery was a tad obvious, but that didn't detract much from my experience as a reader; to me, in Gigl's books, the mystery of 'who did what and why' is secondary to the bigger question of 'what will happen in trial?'.

That said, I did have some other issues with this book. They are as follows:

- There's a Lisbeth-Salander-esque character in Survivor's Guilt. In fact, she is so reminiscent of Salander that I'd be surprised if Gigl didn't model her after the original. I have mixed feelings about this, because reading Survivor's Guilt felt (a bit - Gigl is not at Stieg Larsson's level) like reading the Millennium Trilogy, in the best way. The stakes were high, the characters were interesting, and the book was hard to put down. But ultimately, I was disappointed because it feels like Gigl just plagiarized from Larsson, and I know she can do better than that. This is a pretty big caveat for me.

- The one other thing that seriously impeded my enjoyment of the book is all of the copaganda. I am a mystery fanatic, so by necessity, I have made my peace with a certain level of police propaganda in my literary diet. I'm not happy about it, but I've accepted it, and I don't believe it matters too much since I can see through the BS and trust most other readers can, too. However, Gigl takes it a bit too far here... What was hardest for me to accept is that the Salander-esque character was in Fallujah and is described as 'serving her country.' But in general, there are just too many good cops in this book and also in its predecessor.

The Erin McCabe books are making history because there truly are not many other OwnVoices novels on trans women getting published. So it's disappointing that Gigl chooses to portray a false reality where trans & queer safety is contingent on the police when a simple Google search reveals that this is incorrect, both historically (Stonewall being an obvious example) and still to this day (I think this Vox article is a decent intro to the topic). 

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

Such a fun romance!! McQuiston did a fantastic job rendering the leads' chemistry - you can practically feel it coming off the pages of the book. The plot is ambitious but balanced, and everything comes together in a satisfying conclusion, in typical rom-com style.

This is definitely a 'queer romance' and falls into (what I consider) the downfalls of the genre - too much astrology (lol it's true, I'm sorry!!), overly quirky characters, and quite a few cringey one-liners. But I'll take what I can get, and even with those annoyances, I was still completely absorbed in Jane and August's love story. I was kind of embarrassingly into it, actually. I think I even yelled at the book a few times, haha. In my defense, McQuiston teases the readers a lot with this one, so there is lots to yell about.

This book would have been perfect if it had been edited to be a bit more refined: I'm thinking of the style of Emma Straub's incredible time-travel novel, This Time Tomorrow. That said, it wasn't hard to meet the writing where it was at. The characters were loveable and the chemistry was palpable. A great comfort book!!