breandthebooks's reviews
159 reviews

Lunchtime Chronicles: Season 6: On the Rocks by Tiya Rayne

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
Waiting for Ty by Samantha Ann King

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challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-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? N/A

2.0

Waiting for Ty was a quick paced but complicated read. The plot of the story felt too short for the subject matter of what it tried to cover, the writing also felt as if certain subject matter was not handled with as much care as it should have been. Keeping in mind this book was released in 2013 (and it shows it is a product of its time) The lack of discussion with coming out..period, But also being disowned by your family was glossed over. 
It was really disappointing to see when it should have been an opportunity to discuss the mental health of people but (in this case especially men) who have to grapple with the loss of their family, especially when religion is envolved and potentially growing up having to deal with internalized homophobia/biphobia due to a religious upbringing.

More description and care was taken with extremely minor side characters than the two main characters themselves. While the two characters had cute banter they did not have discernible voice, therefore I got lost within the story of which character was who I would have hoped the characters were more developed especially since their relationship went from friends to lovers so quickly. I would have hoped we got more backstory on both and more developed characterization for Ty and Landon individually and as a couple.
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics by Marc Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
This is a great read if you are wanting to gain more knowledge on what has occurred in Palestine, the on going crisis in Palestine, and the ongoing occupation. It especially discusses the role the U.S. and its politicians have had an effect on Israel, and its political landscape. While this book was very informative it only scratches the surface of this years long issue. 
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Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced
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Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
Five Days at Memorial attempts to tell the story of doctors and nurses who had to survive in a storm ailed hospital after Hurricane Katrina, and the levees breaking soon after. 

While this books premise is intriging and at times was captivating due to the nature of the story, this book unfortunately fails to deliver on the captivating nature of its subnopsis, Sheri Fink tells the stories of doctors and nurses who made life and death decisions for their patients while also baddling the elements of one of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. Trying to follow the events of this book was difficult due to the author quickly flipping points of views to past, present, and between quotes or alleged quotes from individuals who were there as events unfolded. While usually this would be an interesting literary choice especially when you are trying to give an oral history about events, but in this context it made this book feel very jumbled and not concise once one topic is discussed it quickly shifted to a different piece of the story, or to a doctor or nurse who gives alleged facts about the event. 

This books focus is said to be on the events that had taken place before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina and how euthanasia was allegedly unethically used, but this book majorly focuses on the outside events and how the public reacted to doctors and nurses who participated in euthanasia it especially tries to in some ways rehabilitate the images of the accused doctors and nurses by quoting the public, their colleagues, and family members. Yet that same effort was not given to the deceased families, another major downfall of this book was the inability to staunchly say the failings of the response to the disaster around New Orleans but especially at Charity Hospital was due to Classism, Racism, and Ableist practices. 

While mentioned briefly it was not covered nearly enough how the failings of government agencies failed the people of New Orleans due to faulty infrastructure and Systematic Racism, politicians labeled its own citizens as looters and rioters when they were simply just trying to survive, especially in a situation where they were seemingly given up on. The book spends more time trying to paint lawyers as just money hungry vultures, who just saw an opportunity for a pay day by defending those who were seeking answers to their loved one’s death. 

The authors focus seemed to be more on the euthanizing of doctors and nurses animals versus the families emotions of learning their loved ones had died, there was also little mention and historical context behind the ableist history of and behind merciful death. The families were not nearly as much of a focus as they should have been their stories felt as if they were an afterthought. I would also have liked for the author to go into detail about how in times of crisis the most venerable are not considered and how even in times were there is a dire situation disabled/ and or individuals who need more care are not considered and their lives are seen as disposable. 
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Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

I really wanted to love this, but unfortunately the story fell very short. The pacing seemed very inconsistent, the different points of views of the characters were hard to follow, so at times it was difficult to understand who was talking within the story. I also felt this book was too short for all the characters to be fully developed, and all their nuances and growth to be fleshed out. I left the story feeling as if there was more detail that needed to be added, overall this book unfortunately was not very memorable. 
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Losers: Part I by Harley Laroux

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This was another beautiful installment to
Nick and Charlie’s story. We got to see their story go deeper and dive more into Charlie’s struggles with his mental health, and Nick supporting him the best way he knows how. Alice has found such an beautiful balance of heartfelt love and serious topics, and how it was approached in the story is amazing. You feel for these characters, relate to them, and root for them. I can’t wait to see what’s next in Nick and Charlie’s journey. 
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