bruts_bane's reviews
73 reviews

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

2.0

I didn’t absolutely love this book but the plot is super interesting and not like anything I’ve ever read. It just bothered me how the whole book is just the mc bringing up old memories. I kept waiting for us to get to the present day the whole time, thinking it would all come together in a big way. I suppose I found the book to be kind of lacking. There are so many random memories that seem unimportant
when we could’ve been delving into some far more interesting and impactful parts of her life.
I think there were some plot holes too. Like  why each students acted out they way they did. They all had such different personalities, it would be nice to see why that is.
But overall that was a very unique book!! 
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt

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emotional funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I don’t often read books by men, this reminded me why. It wasn’t a bad book, it was just uneventful. The way it’s done is quite interesting tho. I’ve never really read a book that’s funny like this before, so that’s unique, ar least to me. 
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is the first time in a long time where I’ve had so many emotions when reading a book. I’m going to write everything in spoilers.
Every character has sides to them you can’t even begin to imagine. They’re all very bad people, really. I found it so interesting how the first half of the book is pretty much solely justifying Bunny’s death. Going over how annoying and problematic he was. Then the second half is the complete opposite. Talking about how bad the other five are, and how comparatively, Bunny wasn’t that bad after all. It’s not that Bunny wasn’t a bad person. It’s that everyone knew he was bad, because he never hid it. But the other characters hide their faults and are so secretive. When Bunny was outspoken with his foul comments and such. It makes him seem like the bad guy, which he wasn’t very good at all, but he wasn’t bad enough to have been murdered. The book had such horrible language throughout it which was awful to read. From awful awful language on racism to homophobia and sexism. Honestly the racism was completely unnecessary, I struggle to see why Donna Tart added it at all. I find it hard to decide if I really like the book. I couldn’t put it down, but I also just began to hate characters. And being inside Richard’s mind sucked. I’m rating it 4 stars because of the actual storyline and writing itself, which had me HOOKED let me say! It’s amazing how much I loved the characters in the start, and how much I hate them now. Especially Charles. Awful man. And RICHARD UGH that one line genuinely might have traumatised me a bit. I kept hoping for Bunny to come back to life. And I still sort of love Henry a bit. I KNOW I know. He’s bad, but I liked his character. I found it so interesting how completely obsessed he was with Julian and learning and improving himself that he killed others and his own self in the end. ALSO I wish so bad we could learn what they did in that ritual when they killed the first man. There are a few plot holes like that, that I wish we knew. I never even understood why Bunny ended up going to the woods in the first place when he was murdered, if he was at a party not long before. Also I wonder why Richard is even writing this book? It seems like he had a purpose throughout when he talks directly to the reader, but it isn’t explained in the end. The way the brush off murder in the book is so bad, that’s the first sign to how evil they all are.
Beware of the trigger warnings. It’s a heavy heavy book. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

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challenging funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This was a super easy read. I found the format to be the typical Ali Hazlewood style. I didn’t feel attached to the characters, but I still enjoyed the plot and wanted to know how it would pan out. I’d say it’s an okay book, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue to read any more Hazlewood books since they’re all pretty similar…
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

THIS BOOK WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOOODDD. To be fair I’m a sucker for fairytales, specifically any told by Holly black. But this was no different —it was SO GOOD AHHHHHHH THE ENDING OMGGG!!!! I can’t wait for the next book. 
Twisted Hate by Ana Huang

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

1.0

Um literally hated this book so much. Josh is seriously messed up some of the things he did were so so cruel, but they were brushed off like they were nothing. Jules on the other hand I thought was super annoying at the start but I actually started to like her throughout the book. Some of the actions these characters made were so infuriating to read like it can get so frustrating. I didn’t even like their dynamic cause Josh is so toxic. Also the books made out to be more realistic with the normal day to day atmosphere but then random insane things will happen out of nowhere. Even the fact that her friend is a queen is so random and out of place, I know she has her own book and it’s all apart of the series but that doesn’t mean it will just naturally fit well within this book, cause it really doesn’t. The pacing of the book is also strange. Stuff happens but it doesn’t contribute much to the story which makes it feel like there isn’t even a plot at all if that makes sense. Like a lot of big things will happen but they’re all kind of irrelevant and out of left field that they don’t even contribute much to the story. Just think that’s sort of random, I would’ve preferred more actual plot than many random things just happening the whole time.
Examples are like Josh’s patient dying, which is a huge deal but didn’t end up amounting to anything, same with Bridget’s wedding then the snow trip, Jules’ mum dying, Josh’s reconciliation with Alex etc… Just too many random happenings that don’t all need to be there. She could’ve had fewer things happen then expanded on them.
. (Side note why is Josh a doctor?? I think that’s the last job that man should have, maybe it’s explained in the other books but I thought it seriously didn’t fit with his character). This book is twisted and I hate it. 
Powerless by Lauren Roberts

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adventurous challenging dark emotional lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I REALLY enjoyed powerless. I could barely put it down. I just love ya romance it’s so sweet!! This is one of the best ones I’ve read in a while. 
Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. I had super high hopes for the romance, cause it started off so strong. But I kinda lost interesting after maybe 1/3 of the book. I just found it to be really boring and serious and kind of a hard read, like you really have to pay attention to everything which can get tiring. I’m also a bit confused by the ending, I won’t spoil anything but I don’t think everything was fully resolved. I feel like there are definitely some plot points that weren’t concluded satisfyingly. But still, I think the world is supppper cool and i love Luc. 
Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-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

4.0

I realllly enjoyed this book. It was such a fun read and I’m a sucker for anything pride and prejudice. I loved the characters, they were all so deep and interesting. It was also super funny. I really loved it. There was one thing I didn’t like though that happened at the end, I’ll put it in spoilers. It’s kind of a big spoiler so you’ve been warned!!
I just didn’t like how Khalid changed his appearance at the end of the book. It sort of felt like he gave in to everyone telling him what to do again. He liked wearing his robe and skullcap before, it seems out of character for him to just abandon them. I feel the motivation people had when discouraging his religious outfits were definetly judgmental and discriminatory. So for him to give in to this could be super harmful for readers. Like finally some beautiful representation, then he just stops wearing them?? didn’t like that.
but besides that it’s a super enjoyable book. Love khalid forever omg
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

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

2.75

I thought this book was alright. It’s nice for an easy romance read. I was super into it in the beginning but my interest died down about half way. I didn’t really care for the fmc or the mmc tbh. The fmc made some choices throughout that were so frustrating to read. I didn’t really like her main flaw that was explored the whole time either, I dunno I think it was unrealistic. The whole book didn’t even really have a plot? Like I suppose there was this backline but it didn’t serve much purpose to the actual book. It was also extremely predictable, like other Ali hazlewood books. Also OH MY GOD the amount of science jargon was excruciating to read. I don’t know who this book catered to, cause im literally a physic major and I was super confused by all the science stuff. On a positive note tho I thought it was actually really funny. And I think the mmc was a bit different to the two from the other ali hazlewood books, which was nice to see. The Adam carlsen cameo was so anti-climactic, but I’ll take it. (Please just write another Adam carlsen book PLS)