crusoe's reviews
183 reviews

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

So This Is Ever After is a really fun fantasy romcom romp and is perfect as a palette cleanser after a tough book because you need exactly 0 braincells to read it. 

The plot, nor the characters are strongly written, and most of the story hinges on miscommunocation but it's sweet and a very fun, light read. I find it especially cute that everything Matt and Arek tried to plan to set Arek up with his friends, ended up happening to Matt and Arek instead. 
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Circe by Madeline Miller

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

4.0

I always love the feeling of when you see how a name or story you heard of long ago fits into the greek mythos. 

Like all Miller books, it took me a while to get into and Circe did not hit me as hard as Song of Achilles did. (Which is mostly because the Illiad is one of my favourite parts of Greek mythology.) However, the nuance in which Circe evolves as a character and takes back control of her own story is brilliant. It was a great read. 
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Spirit 1 – Tunguska by Mara

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

De setting van een 1920's steampunk achtige stad is enorm leuk en ik ga heel erg goed op de tekenstijl. De karakters hebben veel persoonlijkheid en het mysterie is interessant maar het verhaal is zo kort dat als je eenmaal geïntroduceerd bent met het mysterie en de karakters, je al gelijk in de climax van dit deel wordt gegooid. Daardoor voelt het allemaal een beetje gehaast. 
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Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl by Markiyan Kamysh

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

2.75

Stalking the atomic city is already a short book- it could've been shorter. Overall it's pretty solid and the melancholic prose that reflects both the dread and reckless abandon of the post-soviet generation is neat. You have to dig pretty deep to find anything of substance beyond that though. 
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Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

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adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Carry on is a delightful riff on the wizarding world and -while the world-building is anything but sound and you can see the twists coming from miles away- it's really easy to fall in love with the world and its characters. Especially the friendship between Penny and Simon,
and the romance between Simon and Baz
are great. Lastly, I also really like the magic system. 
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Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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

4.5

There's  a lot of things I like about certain dark things; the worldbuilding with the vampire subspecies, the characters and how their personalities are portrayed (generally speaking, except for Ana), etc. This book reallh makes me want to read more dark fantasy realism. 
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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funny hopeful slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Who was going to tell me Austen's work is so funny?? Pride and prejudice is a classic I would've never picked up if not for my quest to listen to a lot of classics in audio form. 

I'm really glad I did, while all interactions are steeped in period formality, the way relationships unfold and the character of different people is described is wonderfully charming.
Fallen Thorns by Harvey Oliver Baxter

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Fallen thorns was not what I expected at all which is okay because it's a fun read anyway. Only in the last 'act' does the story get truly dark and the tonal shift is quite a twist. 

I think the characters and their relationships with each other are very fun as well though Lucy especially suffers from some one-dimensionality, mostly because we aren't given an indepth backstory on most of the characters. (You could read the novellas Baxter is working on but really it should be a vital part of the story.) 

Unfortunately, you can also easily tell Baxter is a first time author. The writing suffers from some growing pains in terms of its pacing, some cliche dialogue and a slight lack of personal style. Nevertheless, these are all things that can only get better over time and I'm excited to see what they'll write next. 

So, in short, the story didn't blow me away as much as I'd hoped but I had a good time reading it!
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I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

For me, this was a case of right book wrong time. It took me 200 pages to get into the story but once it gripped me it was really neat and the way everything comes together at the end was very satisfying. 

I'll give you the sun is a tragic story about loss and rectifying your wrong decisions. It got really bleak at points but once the ball starts rolling with Jude running into Oscar, things get better. I love the throughline of how every little quirk and detail has a connection to some predetermined destiny in which Jude was meant to meet Oscar, Noah was meant to meet Brian and Guillermo was meant to meet the twins. 

I do think, especially in the beginning, that the book could've benefited from shorter chapters. 
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was everything I imagined it to be: a nuanced exploration of what it means to be trans, a mystical historical fantasy with a fascinating (and horrific) structure of power, and a hell of a lot of gore with very little comfort to be found. White has shed the first-time-author things that were less appealing in Hell Followed with us and -in my opinion- presented a story with a stronger plot and characters while keeping the things that make his work unique.

All I'm saying is: if compound fracture is better than this book, Andrew Joseph White has officially broken my bookrating scale. 
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