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danigc's reviews
70 reviews
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ana ❤️❤️ Through a Watson-Holmes style pairing, “Drop of Corruption” explores another fantasy bio-horror ‘whodunit’ with dark twists. The read rewards us with more delicious lore on the deeper mysteries of this leviathan-haunted world, in incremental and cryptic clues that invite us to deduce alongside the detective protagonists.
An intellectual, emotional, engaging mystery with an expanding mythos!
An intellectual, emotional, engaging mystery with an expanding mythos!
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
This audiobook was beautiful ✨ The whimsical writing style supplemented with immersive song and sound made for a brief enchanting escape, easy to get into 🎶🩷
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An extremely unique narrative structure - A family matriarch recites an epic folk tale, her words reflected in a magical theater that absorbs the listeners so wholly that the legend manifests. Blending of worlds, a performance within a performance showcasing the power of storytelling. Storytelling reveals truths of reality that can’t be seen through reality alone. Storytelling is the magic of teleportation, through space and time and minds. Storytelling forges empathy and breaks the shackles of life which bind a person (may be depression, injury, illness, isolation, poverty, whatever form those chains take), freeing us into another world.
In this enchanted proscenium, two unlikely men ferry away a goddess. The lyrical writing and dreamlike prose is a blend of mythology, love story, anti-imperial jailbreak, and fantasy w a series of epic battles.
The ingenuity comes at a cost. Three layers of story, ever-changing time and place, plus the use of all three POVs (1st, 2nd, 3rd) would’ve been clearer with the markings and font signals that are in the print edition. In the audiobook, my ADHD was holding on for dear life. Still, once its pattern/rhythm clicks, audio does provide the magic of oral storytelling that the novel celebrates.
In this enchanted proscenium, two unlikely men ferry away a goddess. The lyrical writing and dreamlike prose is a blend of mythology, love story, anti-imperial jailbreak, and fantasy w a series of epic battles.
The ingenuity comes at a cost. Three layers of story, ever-changing time and place, plus the use of all three POVs (1st, 2nd, 3rd) would’ve been clearer with the markings and font signals that are in the print edition. In the audiobook, my ADHD was holding on for dear life. Still, once its pattern/rhythm clicks, audio does provide the magic of oral storytelling that the novel celebrates.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Sherlock Holmes” with botany-based magic 🌱 set in a fantasy world reminiscent of “Attack on Titan”
A gruesome murder escalates into darker, greater mysteries investigated by a brilliant, eccentric, sardonic detective. Like S. Holmes, she’s aloof, sarcastic, cerebral, and odd - these qualities paradoxically make her lovable to the reader. Not to be dramatic, but I would die for Investigator Ana! (I. Would. DIE!!!!)
Given its inspiration, I expected a nested mystery expanding in scope, but it just kept growing!! A conspiratorial bloom of never-ending intrigue. 🌺
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Omg yum 🔥
VE Schwab captures the essence of both historical fiction and gothic vampire literature but thoughtfully twists some of their typical traits. Imagery that evokes painful lack, hunger, transformation, and rage buried beneath beauty. The varied ways that wears on the soul/mind. And of baring teeth against a world that rejects women’s wildness.
Could’ve been a smidge shorter for what it was. The flowery, poetic prose - like the characters - was emotional, enchanting, alluring, but at times seemed eternal.
TLDR; toxic lesbian vampires 🥀
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An ash-filled allegory on the climate crisis, capitalism, and cultural division. Dives deeper into the roots of pain on a personal, generational, societal, and planetary scale.
This story cleverly and fantastically mirrors our IRL history and modern world. In a society built from exploitation, where volatile violence-inciting hate speech is “free speech”, and where cowardly, rapacious elite see the talent and power people possess + all the resources of the Earth as theirs. Something to claim and control and pervert for their selfish desires. The misery of millions to sustain the luxury of the few; Stone Sky explores the pressurized resentment this creates.
Jemisin writes on the poison of hoarded power and the courage of those who still sow harmony in soil scorched by hatred. This is a narrative of survival, but it’s ALSO a story of choosing to build, to bear, and to bloom anyway while enduring grief, pain, fear, hopelessness, and rage. A reminder of our adaptability and that - through careful, prudent, persistent cultivation - even fractured ground can be fertile.
“She is metamorphic. Transformed to withstand unbearable pressures.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Slavery, Xenophobia
dark
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A smoky, sapphic, spell-soaked noir. Set in a 1940s Chicago of back-alley magic, devils, murder mystery, and love that wont let go. Polk subverts the typical down-and-out detective tropes in rly fun ways. An easy, entertaining reset read
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Haunting messages on slavery, generational trauma/inherited pain, and the mistreatment of people and planet alike, set into a dark fantasy/sci-fi dystopian backdrop. How habits and personas/masks manifest when the priority is survival.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Hard fantasy w a detailed magic system, curiosity-inducing unreliable narration, dark themes, and eerily beautiful descriptions of how the earth and minds break. Captivating stories that together create a grander narrative. And THE TWISTS. THE REVEALS. THE COHESION.
Unapologetically black, well-written polyam relationships, effortlessly lovable queer and trans characters, a heartbreaking allegory that mirrors and elucidates the hard truths of modern society.
Unapologetically black, well-written polyam relationships, effortlessly lovable queer and trans characters, a heartbreaking allegory that mirrors and elucidates the hard truths of modern society.
Every bit of hype around this book is warranted. Honestly not enough hype. More hype is needed. I’m sleeping with this book under my pillow tonight.
adventurous
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fun sci-fi novella! Within limited pages, it asks good questions about the process of scientific discovery and the costs of the pursuit of knowledge. And offers simpler themes on found home and family. It occasionally read like a YA novel by falling into the immature “try-hard badass” and “everywoman” tropes. But there is growth, which fits well.
The ethical dilemmas, the imaginative biotech and ecology, and the fantastic hard-science descriptions of them, made it a worthwhile read.