caroline_mclaughlin's reviews
58 reviews

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

This book had some useful advice but felt about as informative as a single one of those creative writing classes King seems to despise. Nothing groundbreaking in the text and, unfortunately, by now most of the content, especially about the publishing industry, is outdated. Although I appreciated some of the memoir aspects, the shift from one type of content to another felt abrupt and seemed to lack enough purpose. Perhaps King’s writing just isn’t for me!

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

dark mysterious 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? No

2.75

The cover is the best thing about this book. The pacing is a mess, the characters are so stagnant and underdeveloped, and the plot jumps all over the place. The romance feels shoved in to make it “a love story” despite there being no real reason the characters should’ve bonded as passionately as they did from what we are shown. Overall, the book was incredibly boring until about the last 20%, where random things started to come together, but barely even were explored in the text. This led to an ending that felt so disjointed from the rest of the book, especially since it felt like it took over half the book to reach the actual plot.

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Good collection of fairytale retelling, though I’m not sure why they take place in the grishaverse. It feels unnecessary and out of place but thankfully didn’t take away from the stories themselves.

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

4.75

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

4.5

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

2.5

This book suffers from many of the same problems as the first, but I found this one to be even less heartfelt. I also found myself getting more and more annoyed by the repetitiveness of the prose and the over explaining done by narration in regards to both the rules and just simple actions/emotions. I’m so confused by the purpose of some of the rules, like the ghost woman, and what they really tend to add to the story overall. I think this book would be better as a TV show or even a video game, so maybe it’ll be worth checking out if it gets adapted.

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler

informative slow-paced

2.75

I found this book incredibly slow. It is probably best for those who already have a lot of interest in WWII who appreciate the finer details, and not those like me who were looking for less specifics and more of an overarching look. For the audiobook, the narrator sounds a lot like Armie Hammer, which made this an odd experience. I would also not recommend listening while eating as, although descriptions aren’t graphic, they’re absolutely unpleasant at points. Overall it was interesting to hear what a loser Hitler was, but that’s about all the intrigue I found in this book.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

emotional reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

2.75

This book was fine, but nothing that special. The prose was very basic and it was hard to tell if the language was so underwhelming just because of the writing or due to mistranslation. It also became very repetitive which is unfortunate for such a short book. I didn’t love the way women were portrayed and I’m pretty sure the portrayal of Alzheimer’s was also pretty odd. Overall, the book just felt very simple and wasn’t very engaging.

The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

While this isn’t a terrible book, it’s clearly only a companion to a series. Each story feels more like a summary, and I think I would’ve found it easier to get through and more enjoyable if the stories had been longer and more developed, or simply incorporated into a larger story. It also felt a little odd how similar to “real saint stories” some of these were, right down to quotes from historic Catholic saints. Overall, I just kinda found this tedious and underdeveloped. My favorite  story ended up being the saint of the book. I wish more of the pieces had been more like that!