To see Robin go from this child full of hope to a young adult full of despair was just heartbreaking. He deserved everything and more. His final ending absolutely shattered me. But, like other reviews have stated, this was an ending that was ultimately inevitable. For it to end in any other way wouldn't have felt plausible, as painful as it is to admit. Ramy's death was the end of his world, and Griffin's later on was the true breaking point. The final conversation between Robin and Victoire hurt so much to read. Neither could save the other, and both had to live with their choices, alone. Just the thought of Victoire after the events in the book, forever running and alone breaks my heart. I hope she finds others and has a community and a place to call home again. She deserves it so much.

“Be selfish," he whispered. "Be brave.”

And the fact that Robin never got to read Griffin's letter to him... just.. God. That he most likely had other siblings, and he'll never know.

Ramy, Victoire, Griffin, Robin, Anthony, everyone; you meet them, learn more about them, fall in love with them, root for them to make it - and they don't. It felt like whiplash to see these beloved characters die with no final moments normally bestowed to such characters in novels. One second they're there, the next they're gone. I wish so badly things could have ended differently, despite everything. They all deserved so much more than what the world gave them.

These characters may be fictional, but the reality of their situations and their world mirrors our own. The brutality of colonialism will never not make me sick to my stomach.

On a different tangent, the way we never learn Robin's name....that just did something to me. The final page of him remembering his mom and her calling his name. And Robin feeling like he had known Ramy his whole life, and Ramy replying it's because he listens and understands. Because he's a good translator.

“That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”

Typing this out is literally making me cry so I'm going to stop right here.

We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra

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emotional hopeful sad fast-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

1.0

i need the book blurb to take aristotle and dante’s name out of its mouth right now. immediately.

like….idk. i am not a gay teenage boy so maybe i have no right to speak on this but how this relationship was depicted just felt very weird. like you know how a badly written gay couple will have the manly tall muscle and then the like tiny fragile feminine one? this is exactly how these two are depicted. kurl would wax poetic about jo’s tiny wrists and how fragile he looked and his collarbones and SNIFFED HIS ARMPIT?? and that was a whole kink i didn’t need to read about.

there was A LOT happening. kurl is a super senior who is being abused at home, which is very poorly handled. jo is a 15 year old out boy who is constantly harassed and bullied and assaulted and it’s painted like it’s his fault a lot??? i didn’t like that. he also has a dead mom who was addicted to drugs and became a hooker and died from an overdose.
oh and kurl’s brother is home from war and is dealing with PTSD and honestly it’s just way too much for this book.

jo’s sister sleeps with kurl, who she thinks is dating jo, and honestly it was very close to if not rape, which really is so odd because earlier in the book there’s an entire conversation with said sister involved in the conversation about how drunk people can’t consent and how it’s not fun. it was just a very very weird scene to add because it did nothing for the story. and having the sister do something so vile and never come back to is ??? she never acknowledges or apologizes for what she did.

this was just a very weird book.

Content Warnings

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

I had a lot of fun and mental anguish reading this book. I listened through an audiobook because the narrator helped deliver a lot of the Shakespearian lines in a way that I understood some or even all of the context of what was happening in a scene. If I was reading on my own my brain would have absolutely fogged over lol.
That being said, this book is probably one hundred times more enjoyable if you've read Shakespeare's works and understand the underlying context that is going on on and off the stage. I've only read like two or three plays, and they were so long ago that it was basically useless. I had to google a few of the plays to get an understanding of the type of cast our characters were playing.

I did love how the progression of Shakespeare plays also progressed the plot. What went on in one play was foreshadowing or metaphorical for something later on. The consistent comparison of James and Oliver with Romeo and Juliet had me screaminggggggggg.
These two were SO ANGSTY with one another oh my god. I thought I was just being delusional when I first thought James might have had feelings for Oliver, but then the most heartbreaking angst and yearning between the two plays out and you just want to scream at them!! Just fucking kiss already oh my god!!! I wish they could have been happy together. They really and truly deserved some inkle of happiness together, good God.
Also this shouldn't have been funny, but how like... obviously in love were Oliver and James? Because everyone except Oliver seemed to realize they were constantly giving one another heart eyes. Like James popping up in Ohio at 2am at Oliver's house because he was lonely?
"In tens years I have not found an adequate word to describe us."
THEY'RE KILLING ME YOUR HONOR!!!!!!!

Oliver is a very selfishly selfless person. He seems to think he's no one special, but in my opinion the entire plot of the book takes place not in spite of him, but because of him.

I didn't know what would happen until the nearing end when Oliver found the hook. After that, it became pretty clear to me that Oliver would do absolutely everything in his power to ensure that his friends remained clear of any crime. And how his stance answered Meredith's question from earlier in the book: "Are you jealous of me or him?". And then the letter at the end, once again showing that Oliver loves James more than anything. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I really love Filippa and her love and dedication to her group of friends. Truly a found family moment. And the way she didn't tell Oliver for years about James' death because she didn't want to lose him, too. I can't imagine the sorrow she felt over that.

We'll never get it but I NEED ANSWERS. NOW.

Content Warnings

The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

The characters were really hard to like, which made it difficult to root for them. Loved Quinn though!!!

The info dumping could have been handled better, and the book’s magic system explained more.

There was too much action and I think it held the book back. The scenes where the characters are just having genuine dialogue with one another were the best parts of the book. There was little life elsewhere to be found.

Rune didn’t feel like a fully fleshed out character and neither did his companion Brand. They were very bland.

The rape scene felt out of nowhere and I’m not sure how I feel about how it was handled.

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ayuming_reads's reviews 66 reviews

ayuming_reads's reviews
66 reviews