caitlins_bookshelf's Reviews (433)

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love

Lex Croucher

5.0

adventurous funny 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: No

My Best Friend's Honeymoon

Meryl Wilsner

4.0

lighthearted 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

If It Bleeds

Stephen King

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

The Honey Witch

Sydney J. Shields

3.5

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Waste Lands

Stephen King

5.0

adventurous dark 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: No

Spring

Ali Smith

4.0

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

so this is book three of ali smith's seasonal quartet and the first one I've read! they're standalones that can be read in any order but do sort of link together too.

it took me a little while to get into this because it's not a particularly linear narrative. but once I'd got used to it I really enjoyed it! (and everything also slots together nicely by the end). we mainly focus on a man called richard, a film maker mourning the loss of his friend. he's currently considering a project that imagines a relationship between katherine mansfield and rilke. as he reaches a bit of a crisis he ends up meeting the other set of characters we're introduced to part way through. brit, who works at an immigration detention centre, and florence, a 12 year old child with seemingly magical powers of persuasion. both of these sets of characters brought up different discussions and it was really interesting (and satisfying) when they crossed paths.

this was quite a political book and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. one of its main themes was immigration and it took us inside a fictional (though I'm presuming decently, upsettingly, accurate) immigrant detention centre via brit who worked there. I will admit that my knowledge around this topic was very sparse so I found these sections pretty eye opening. and there were lots of more general social commentary as well.

this was a book that really took its time exploring things. it went on weird tangents, it had a lot of literature and history references that I maybe didn't fully understand all of but I enjoyed learning and I guess maybe that's how I feel about the book as a whole? some of the finer meanings may have been lost on me but in general it was an interesting, very poetic, thought provoking read. I liked that it took some quite big topics and zoomed right in. and from what I can tell, the theme of these books in general is the current state of britain shown by a few every day people, which is pretty cool. I'm excited to carry on with the quartet and I'm gonna try find the others second hand in time to read them each in their respective season this year!

Sunrise on the Reaping

Suzanne Collins

5.0

adventurous dark emotional sad 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: No

good god I was so hyped for this book and it absolutely lived up to my expectations and broke my heart just like I knew it would 😭 I will keep this brief ish cause I don't want to spoil it for everyone who's yet to read it !

I adored getting to know young haymitch, and to see the events that led to him being the person we know in the trilogy. I don't think I'll ever be able to read / watch the bits with him in again without thinking about his past and bawling. but I love him a lot. I also really enjoyed the new characters we're introduced to, especially ampert and maysilee !

I'd forgotten until my reread that katniss and peeta watch his hunger games in catching fire, but it was so so fascinating to see how that brief, edited version compared to what actually happened !! and even though you know how it's gonna end, it was still exciting to see how it all plays out and also just a lot of fun (if that's the right word lol?!) to be back in this world.

I loved all the little links to the original trilogy - and all the characters that show up !! - and also the links to the ballad of songbirds and snakes. it was nice to see more of the covey as that was my favourite part from that book, and overall sunrise just did a magnificent job of tying all the books together. it highlighted the slowness of rebellion, the seeds that need to be planted before major change can take place, and added a layer of understanding to why the events in the original trilogy were able to happen as they did

genuinely a perfect book, bawled my eyes out just like I knew I would, and I can't wait to see it on film next year !!!!!!!!!