bargainbinkazbrekker's reviews
849 reviews

The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard

2.5

thank you too Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with an Ebook Arc in exchange for an honest review! 

I am the first to admit that Cats and History are two of my favorite all time things so when i saw the tagline and summary for this book, i was excited! in concept, this book is perfect for me but alas, in execution, it fell short.

i think for a book to succeed 9 times out of 10, it needs to establish a main character or narrator that the reader can relate or connect with. it gets more difficult when our main character isn’t human but an animal. i think with an animal being our main narrator, in order to have them be a head the reader wants to be in, a writer needs to establish an connection with another animal or human so we can better get attached to our animal narrator. Unfortunately, our main cat Grimalkin doesn’t really have any genuine feeling connections with anyone, so he becomes a bit of a mouth and eyes for the reader to just peer through. i being in Grimalkins head rather boring and tedious. he felt more like a clueless tour guide than a cat to me. 

as for the history aspect, the choice of having the historical context for each year Grimalkin visited relayed to us via footnotes was… interesting. i personally really didn’t like it, i felt like i was reading a text book and it took me out of the story— like who is adding this footnotes? can Grimalkin also see them? where are they coming from i’m so confused how this works within the story. 

Grimalkin learns about each new year he visits by observing new humans each time (for the most part) but unfortunately, i can really tell that these characters are just there to relay what time period they’re in, what’s changed, and show the passage of time. they don’t feel real at all. (personal preference, but it really irks me when an author overcompensates for a characters accents. like i could handle words like “feeling” being shorten to feelin’  or such but having slavic characters saying things like “vait” instead of wait or scottish one’s constantly saying “wee” every time they speak was getting on my nerve. just say they have an accent, the reader can take it from there).

the actual passage of time being shown from the same general area was pretty cool, and i liked the random cat god/lore, wish he had gotten more of that but i understand why we didn’t. 

there were a lot of stylistic things that didn’t mesh with my tastes, so unfortunately this was a bit of a let down. i wouldn’t discourage anyone from checking it out at least if it sounds interesting to them though! my tastes aren’t for everyone ! 

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

2.0

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

0.5

if this can be a best seller, than the story i wrote at 9 years old is gonna blow the book industry away 

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin

4.0

a very thorough technical look into Oppenheimers life, there’s very little emotion in the writing and we’re told about all the scientific work he did in great detail which can be very tedious. it felt like i learned every book he read, every person he met even in passing, and briefly touched in a very dispassionate way into his personal life. his relationships aren’t really given depth, sure they’re talked about but they don’t feel real, which is bizarre that they’re written that way considering Oppenheimer was a real person? but i do think this is the technical partner to the movie. the movie touches on the emotional aspects much more while this book delves deeply into the history. if one feels the movie didn’t provide enough context historically, this book will make up for it and vise versa, if one feels the book doesn’t provide much emotional complexity, the movie will do that for you. i think they work best as a package deal if one cares enough. 

Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel

3.75

Sing Me to Sleep by Gabi Burton

3.0

it’s giving, darker, more diverse, Ella enchanted (the movie specifically). It ate in some places but lowkey wanted a bit more violence but i should’ve toned down my expectations when i remembered it was YA. it would’ve been cool if we did delve into those darker subject matters a wee bit more imo!
fantastic vibes, even if i wasn’t a huge fan of the romance, i had fun

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

4.5

i am insufferably mentally ill and i enjoy essays so i think this book was written for me.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

3.25

this feels absolutely perfect for all y’all who enjoy/enjoyed Cassandra Clare books, very similar vibes.

Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

3.0

thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for sending me an ebook arc in exchange for an honest review!

i’m sitting at at 2.75 to 3 out of 5.
i see this get compared to six of crows a lot, and while i see it, i think a better comparison would be Court of Miracles by Kester Grant or Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria would be better fits. Court of miracles has the historical fiction and thieves aspect and Beneath the citadel has the found family fighting against a corrupt system vibe. 

i think my biggest issue with this book is none of the main characters felt very fleshed out to me. They all felt like molds that were just thrown in to move the plot along and they weren’t very developed. I could tell that i was supposed to feel for Khalid and Sarra, i was supposed to sympathize with Rosa and her backstory but i didn’t. at all. and Giacomo annoyed me so much, he was such a stereotypical adhd coded quippy comic relief pov and he was so underdeveloped that i couldn’t stand him. 

I enjoyed the atmosphere of the story; the descriptions were good, especially of the city and the settings and i can tell a lot of effort was put into them. The romances didn’t feel organic to me at all either, i was in disbelief every time one was hinted at. 

tldr; the plot wasn’t gripping enough for me, especially for a heist plot, the characters weren’t developed, but i enjoyed the setting and atmosphere. i would recommend if you’re looking for a mostly vibes and atmosphere book and don’t care to much about thinking about the plot and don’t mind some shallow characters. the cover is gorgeous though, i will definitely give it that!

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

2.75

when i tell you i wouldn’t have been able to finish this had i not been listening to the audiobook at the same time. it’s pretty much all vibes with hella slow pacing which is just, not what i need right now. it’s beautifully written and it’s masterfully done so it feels like it could be a fairy tale (brothers grimm/Aesop style) but i was having such a hard time paying attention and i kept getting confused. just not a story for me, especially when i’m digging myself out of a reading slump