Is it me? I don't at all understand why this is a bestseller and why other people love it so much. It's maudlin, trite, and boring. The characters are stock cliches. It has the undertone that is common with stories about the psychiatric abuses of the past - that it's bad this is happening to the main characters, because they are not actually crazy! Which suggests it WOULD be ok if they were. I found the writing clunky, but possibly that was the translation.

In Defence Of The Act by Effie Black

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This subject matter is hard to handle well and I don't think this book managed it. I suspect it was meant to be challenging, difficult, and ultimately affirming but I found it borderline glurgy and cliched.

Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this. It's marketed as a thriller, but I think people expecting straight-forward thriller tropes will be disappointed. I's more about how grief and trauma breaks a person and what it would be like to be the real person at the centre of the public fascination with true crime.

Cloister Fox by Verity Holloway

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.

The Invention of Childhood by Hugh Cunningham

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informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

very interesting and educational - written in a way that laypeople can understand. Good insight into the creation of childhood and how it's usually more about adults than children. I would have liked more detail about the political and social use of 'childhood'.

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

I liked the art, but the narrative parts - the life and death parts - were cliched and annoying

The Great Post Office Scandal: The Fight to Expose a Multimillion Pound IT Disaster which Put Innocent People in Jail by Nick Wallis

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.75

Understandably and rightfully focuses on the victims, but the effect of this is that a significant amount of its 480 page time is spent watching the same suffering happening to a variety of different people, which can make it an extremely difficult read. Enraging, infuriating. An intense injustice happening to normal people because no-one at the top wanted to admit they'd wasted money on something not fit for use.

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caitsidhe's reviews 983 reviews

caitsidhe's reviews
983 reviews