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coralinejones's reviews
413 reviews
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
4.75
Loved. Dense, intense, intelligent. The various POVs I could've done without, though I completely understand why they were included. I hope this author drops another novel soon
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
4.0
can't help but wish it was 100 pages more. hell, 300 pages more. i love gillian flynn
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
i may have to come back to this. beautiful prose but i'm not in the mood to continue.
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
4.25
Look... I did not think I would give this book anything higher than maybe 2 stars. The beginning was extremely young adult and a bit rough; usually everything I hate about certain books was in the first few chapters. At first, I didn't think this was well written. It's no piece of academic text, but I could look over that considering this felt like a corny teen horror movie from the jump. I didn't pick this book up expecting Frankenstein levels of horror. Something about that was really... Inviting. The same feeling I get when watching a show like "Buffy" or a film like "I Know What You Did Last Summer."
When the horror actually kicked in, and I started to care a little bit more about these teenagers, I couldn't put the book down. You can tell the author had so much fun, and a lot of inspiration, with all of the action scenes. Much of this novel reminded me of Friday the 13th and Fear Street: 1978 (The latter being one of my favorite movies of all time). I believe the beginning was so rough because the author just needed a foundation to get the real good, juicy, horror parts going. I don't blame her.
I will say that the epilogue was kinda meh to me. Some of the plot twists felt a little goofier than expected. I liked the last chapter and how the story concluded there more than what was said in the epilogue. It kind of felt like an unnecessary afterthought.
But, honestly, as a huge horror fan (and as someone who has seen all the classic horror movies, and loves all the campy, farfetched, plot lines and movie magic), this wasn't so bad for me? Like I couldn't be mad at some of the ridiculousness because it felt so on par with horror tropes and cliches.
Certainly not perfect, but crazy entertaining. Worth reading for around the spooky holidays. Absolutely worth a movie adaptation. I would be seated for it.
When the horror actually kicked in, and I started to care a little bit more about these teenagers, I couldn't put the book down. You can tell the author had so much fun, and a lot of inspiration, with all of the action scenes. Much of this novel reminded me of Friday the 13th and Fear Street: 1978 (The latter being one of my favorite movies of all time). I believe the beginning was so rough because the author just needed a foundation to get the real good, juicy, horror parts going. I don't blame her.
I will say that the epilogue was kinda meh to me. Some of the plot twists felt a little goofier than expected. I liked the last chapter and how the story concluded there more than what was said in the epilogue. It kind of felt like an unnecessary afterthought.
But, honestly, as a huge horror fan (and as someone who has seen all the classic horror movies, and loves all the campy, farfetched, plot lines and movie magic), this wasn't so bad for me? Like I couldn't be mad at some of the ridiculousness because it felt so on par with horror tropes and cliches.
Certainly not perfect, but crazy entertaining. Worth reading for around the spooky holidays. Absolutely worth a movie adaptation. I would be seated for it.
In the Woods by Tana French
Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.
main character is annoying. even though i wanted to figure out what was going on i couldn't bring myself to care. i read reviews during this (to see if it was wroth continuing) and someone mentioned that there's giant plot holes at the end of the book so... i just don't care to finish this anymore
The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 5%.
oh my god this book fucking sucks. these characters are trite and obnoxious. the writing style is that of a 5th grader really obsessed with glee and riverdale. this is so bad.
You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation by Julissa Arce
3.0
This was okay.
Very informative, but the information wasn't concise. After a while, the points being made were extremely repetitive and dragged on a bit, kind of like a college lecture that isn't that engaging.
To be honest, I was expecting this book to focus very heavily on how white people view the language that people of color use, and the accents we may have depending on where we are from. I thought this would discuss how we often have to assimilate ourselves to whiteness in order to appear "smart", especially in corporate America. I was expecting more conversations on how POC may appear whitewashed in order to fit in with their white peers. I mean given the title, I can only assume as much.
While these topics were briefly touched on here and there, the book as a whole goes very in depth about the racism and prejudice against Latinx people and is told through personal experiences of the author.
As a black person, a lot of her points I already knew, experienced myself, or saw experienced around me. So, I didn't think everything written was new information or information I personally needed drilled into me.
Those critiques don't make this book bad in any way. I do think there's merit here and it is worth reading. There is a lot to learn and there is new information sewn between the chapters. There are other reviews that critique this book in a way I simply can't, because I don't have all the facts to. Those are also worth reading; either before or after!
Very informative, but the information wasn't concise. After a while, the points being made were extremely repetitive and dragged on a bit, kind of like a college lecture that isn't that engaging.
To be honest, I was expecting this book to focus very heavily on how white people view the language that people of color use, and the accents we may have depending on where we are from. I thought this would discuss how we often have to assimilate ourselves to whiteness in order to appear "smart", especially in corporate America. I was expecting more conversations on how POC may appear whitewashed in order to fit in with their white peers. I mean given the title, I can only assume as much.
While these topics were briefly touched on here and there, the book as a whole goes very in depth about the racism and prejudice against Latinx people and is told through personal experiences of the author.
As a black person, a lot of her points I already knew, experienced myself, or saw experienced around me. So, I didn't think everything written was new information or information I personally needed drilled into me.
Those critiques don't make this book bad in any way. I do think there's merit here and it is worth reading. There is a lot to learn and there is new information sewn between the chapters. There are other reviews that critique this book in a way I simply can't, because I don't have all the facts to. Those are also worth reading; either before or after!
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
3.0
Incredibly sad and disappointed I didn't like this one as much as I had anticipated. 3 stars for the beautiful prose and the entire first part of this novel.
I do see something great in this book, and I completely understand why everyone enjoyed it as much as they did. The prose is genuinely gorgeous and does keep you entertained in this world of grief, violence, famine, etc. I guess, because I'm coming off the high of The Poppy War, I wanted to read something as grand as that trilogy. The very first part of this book, when we meet our protagonist Zhu, had me hooked. I couldn't put the book down and I was growing more and more excited to finish this because I couldn't wait to see her journey from childhood into early adulthood.
I did initially find a lot of similarities between "She Who Became the Sun" and other pre-established works such as Mulan and TPW. I thought this was perfect. Then, suddenly, I was jolted out of my immersion during part 2. This is where my star rating comes into play heavily. I didn't really like Shelley Parker-Chan's storytelling and the pacing that came with the middle part of this book. I thought it became incredibly choppy and all over the place once they introduced other main characters. For example, it was hard to find a connection with Zhu after part one. I struggled to remain engaged in the story and what was going on. I even found it a little hard to figure out what was supposed to be happening. I wanted to DNF this multiple times.
Not to mention a lot of the story actually takes place off screen. A lot of development I thought we should've read about just didn't happen and I guess we were made to infer what happened during those years?!
All-in-all this just wasn't for me. I do hope Shelley Parker-Chan continues writing and publishes something outside of this duology because I would love to continue reading their work; hopefully finding something that sticks with me outside of this novel. As I said, their writing is gorgeous, I just couldn't connect with this specific story.
I do see something great in this book, and I completely understand why everyone enjoyed it as much as they did. The prose is genuinely gorgeous and does keep you entertained in this world of grief, violence, famine, etc. I guess, because I'm coming off the high of The Poppy War, I wanted to read something as grand as that trilogy. The very first part of this book, when we meet our protagonist Zhu, had me hooked. I couldn't put the book down and I was growing more and more excited to finish this because I couldn't wait to see her journey from childhood into early adulthood.
I did initially find a lot of similarities between "She Who Became the Sun" and other pre-established works such as Mulan and TPW. I thought this was perfect. Then, suddenly, I was jolted out of my immersion during part 2. This is where my star rating comes into play heavily. I didn't really like Shelley Parker-Chan's storytelling and the pacing that came with the middle part of this book. I thought it became incredibly choppy and all over the place once they introduced other main characters. For example, it was hard to find a connection with Zhu after part one. I struggled to remain engaged in the story and what was going on. I even found it a little hard to figure out what was supposed to be happening. I wanted to DNF this multiple times.
Not to mention a lot of the story actually takes place off screen. A lot of development I thought we should've read about just didn't happen and I guess we were made to infer what happened during those years?!
All-in-all this just wasn't for me. I do hope Shelley Parker-Chan continues writing and publishes something outside of this duology because I would love to continue reading their work; hopefully finding something that sticks with me outside of this novel. As I said, their writing is gorgeous, I just couldn't connect with this specific story.
The Binding by Bridget Collins
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
not entirely into the plot of this one. i can't put my finger on it but i don't really like the writing style; despite how detailed and lovely some of the paragraphs are. the main character is a little boring and aloof, not worth reading about. at least not right now. not for me.
i'm also not really into "everyone purposefully doesn't say something because the main character isn't supposed to know yet." trope as a means of storytelling (outside of crime and mystery books). that whole element pulled me out the immersion immediately
i'm also not really into "everyone purposefully doesn't say something because the main character isn't supposed to know yet." trope as a means of storytelling (outside of crime and mystery books). that whole element pulled me out the immersion immediately