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coralinejones's reviews
374 reviews
All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters
3.0
Okay this was... cute. I have more cons than pros, so I suppose I'll start with what worked for me:
The last quarter of the book was the most interesting and the least obnoxious. When Tara, our main character, began understanding what was going on with her, and the mystery started to reveal itself to us, it really kicked off and was fun to see where the book ended up. The "twist" was amusing; I think overall this would work better as a family horror movie or a mini series on Netflix or something.
What I disliked was quite literally everything else. Tara was beyond annoying. I feel like the "but this is YA!" excuse doesn't work here because these are college aged students. Tara being self-deprecating is understandable, albeit one of the worst aspects of the novel, but I would argue that a girl with as much trauma as Tara would learn to mature quickly. She was able to graduate early and damn near took care of herself and her mother her entire life. She lives on her own! Tara acting like a six year old just didn't feel realistic to me, but hey, not my novel.
All That Consumes Us is also really cliche. Someone on Goodreads had mentioned it felt like the author wrote this for an audience of Tumblr users and TikTok readers and, honestly, that rings true to me as well. It was just a tad corny and already outdated with the social media references. This is considered a gothic tale but none of those elements came together for me.
In my opinion this novel reads as "Baby's first dark academia book". Corny, cliche, juvenile despite the setting. House of Anubis meets The Secret History (Disney edition) meets Big Hero 6 meets Inside Out.
Was fun! Just nothing special, really.
The last quarter of the book was the most interesting and the least obnoxious. When Tara, our main character, began understanding what was going on with her, and the mystery started to reveal itself to us, it really kicked off and was fun to see where the book ended up. The "twist" was amusing; I think overall this would work better as a family horror movie or a mini series on Netflix or something.
What I disliked was quite literally everything else. Tara was beyond annoying. I feel like the "but this is YA!" excuse doesn't work here because these are college aged students. Tara being self-deprecating is understandable, albeit one of the worst aspects of the novel, but I would argue that a girl with as much trauma as Tara would learn to mature quickly. She was able to graduate early and damn near took care of herself and her mother her entire life. She lives on her own! Tara acting like a six year old just didn't feel realistic to me, but hey, not my novel.
All That Consumes Us is also really cliche. Someone on Goodreads had mentioned it felt like the author wrote this for an audience of Tumblr users and TikTok readers and, honestly, that rings true to me as well. It was just a tad corny and already outdated with the social media references. This is considered a gothic tale but none of those elements came together for me.
In my opinion this novel reads as "Baby's first dark academia book". Corny, cliche, juvenile despite the setting. House of Anubis meets The Secret History (Disney edition) meets Big Hero 6 meets Inside Out.
Was fun! Just nothing special, really.
Coming Home by Brittney Griner
5.0
How terrifying. I learned so much. I couldn't help but think how privileged Griner was to have such an expensive support system on her side; that doesn't change the conditions she experienced, her identity, racial politics, and how absolutely horrible her imprisonment must've been. A great, educational, read.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
3.5
My cat is laying on my arm so I can't write much. I hate to use terms like "mid" to describe anything but that's truly what this novel is to me. It's a bunch of almost's and eye rolls. The romance truly killed what eerie feelings I had while reading. So corny and gag-worthy. None of that felt believable or enough to warrant Opal's reactions to him. All the trouble she got herself into for NO reason. So annoying.
I only liked her brother and her landlord in this.
I only liked her brother and her landlord in this.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
3.5
What a great character study. This is my first James McBride novel and I can admit, this man CAN write the hell out of a story and has created some realistic characters to sit and think about. You know when a fiction book is so beautifully written you sit and consider who, in the authors life, may have inspired these people? Almost, in a way, that the fiction transforms into non-fiction and you're reading about the real lives of people that came before us? That happened to be whilst reading.
Beautiful descriptions, interesting scenery; lots of moments that'll make you think, frown, sigh, and even smile despite the darker tones. However, this concept is dragged and doesn't make for an engaging read thus my three star rating. The mystery should be tighter and doesn't round up until the very end of the book. My interest kept failing, but my interest in how this ties up in the end ultimately kept me going.
I'm not a fan of how McBride writes women, too many "she's breasted boobily down the stairs with ample breasts."-like descriptions for my amusement. I'm also not keen on these lengthy descriptions for characters I don't necessarily care for, of which are side characters that don't do much for the main plot of the novel, whatever that plot may be. Despite the praise for this very notion at the beginning of this review, I do think that if this was a homework assignment where an aspiring author needed to create a bunch of characters in one world to tie together a plot, this would get an A+. But as a story, that has a beginning, middle, and end, I think it fails at that task. At a certain point while reading I had little clue as to what's happening and just didn't care until the last few pages.
Beautiful descriptions, interesting scenery; lots of moments that'll make you think, frown, sigh, and even smile despite the darker tones. However, this concept is dragged and doesn't make for an engaging read thus my three star rating. The mystery should be tighter and doesn't round up until the very end of the book. My interest kept failing, but my interest in how this ties up in the end ultimately kept me going.
I'm not a fan of how McBride writes women, too many "she's breasted boobily down the stairs with ample breasts."-like descriptions for my amusement. I'm also not keen on these lengthy descriptions for characters I don't necessarily care for, of which are side characters that don't do much for the main plot of the novel, whatever that plot may be. Despite the praise for this very notion at the beginning of this review, I do think that if this was a homework assignment where an aspiring author needed to create a bunch of characters in one world to tie together a plot, this would get an A+. But as a story, that has a beginning, middle, and end, I think it fails at that task. At a certain point while reading I had little clue as to what's happening and just didn't care until the last few pages.
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
2.0
I only read this for the protagonist with OCD. I was recently diagnosed and was itching to read a novel with a character who had what I have or, at least, had similar thoughts/experiences. I don't know what I was expecting considering this is a John Green YA novel of all things. Maybe if I had read this at 16 I would've liked it more.