carleesi's reviews
740 reviews

She Gets the Girl by Alyson Derrick, Rachael Lippincott

4.25

Everything I could want from a YA romance. I really enjoyed the blossoming friendship and the way the characters dealt with very serious things respectfully and carefully. 

If everyone cared enough: her voice reclaimed by Margaret Tucker

5.0

Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades

4.5

I’ve never read anything like this book. It was so interesting to read this story about so many people and no singular person. To be taken through collective experiences while never feeling like their lives were the same. Really beautifully crafted.

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales

3.0

I enjoyed the overlapping of so many tropes to create a cheeky story.

I found it hard to accept the “magic” in this world - it felt like magical realism to me which I don’t vibe with. It just wasn’t explained well enough.

The tone completely shifts in the last few chapters, it went from silly rompy teen fun to thriller and it kinda lost me.

Always Will Be: Stories of Goori Sovereignty from the Futures of the Tweed by Mykaela Saunders

4.0

Really cool spec fic collection. I loved the connection to the land that was a strong thread through every character and story. The structure and narrative that links all the stories together was a surprise that made me engage even deeper with the stories. All of a sudden I was seeing all the links and travelling back through the stories.

A Fire Endless by Rebecca Ross

4.5

I love the lore in this duology. Such a beautiful weaving of magic and the mundane. I often find myself trying to solve mysteries in stories, but I really enjoyed that I didn’t actually realise there were mysteries to it until they unfolded in the story, made for a very peaceful enjoyable read.

The romance got a bit too sappy for me in this one. The narrator is wonderful, well worth listening to this one!

The Shape of Family by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Did not finish book. Stopped at 26%.

100 page rule - just not my type of book

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

4.5

I loved the lore in this story, made all the more magical by the audiobook narration.

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay

5.0

A heavy but important read. I expected to find it hard to get through but I demolished it. Reading words from survivors in all sorts of stages of trauma processing was beyond empowering.

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

4.0

I really enjoy Alice’s writing, I was drawn in by her storytelling throughout and felt buoyed along with her as she was tossed about in the waves of her young life.