darryn_gray's reviews
135 reviews

The Twisted Ones by Kira Breed-Wrisley, Scott Cawthon

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Slightly better writing than the first one, but not majorly. What this one was missing was almost some of the creepiness from the first book. The first book at least had the characters wandering around the abandoned pizzeria where as a FNaF fan you only knew that'd mean the animatronics would come to life but you didn't know when, it was a worth while tactic that made the beginning part of the first book really interesting

This one didn't have any of that it was almost more mystery than horror, trying to figure out what these new animatronics are and trying to figure out everything that'd been going on since the last book. 
There are also characters introduced in this book that didn't matter to much to the book, yet came back around towards the end, hopefully they're more important in the next one otherwise that was just a big waste of time to bring them in so many times. 
I feel the book could have been longer in order to flesh out some of the details and ideas more, it is still very tell rather than show

The Silver Eyes by Kira Breed-Wrisley, Scott Cawthon

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

WOW IS THIS BOOK JUST SO AVERAGE. As an older FNaF fan (I was in middle school when the first games came out and I've loved them every since) I remember always wanting to read these books. Now as an adult who still keeps up with them, I got frustrated that the newest game (Ruin) makes it so you need to know the books to even remotely understand the game whereas before they used to just add to them but not be where you got the whole plot.
So I've decided to make a youtube video about reading them and giving all the info I can so nobody else has to.
If all the books are like this, I'm in for a hell of a ride. 
There were phrases in this like "...gasping for breath" and "for what felt like an age" and just the poor way things were described that I felt like I was reading the first draft of my own books.
Plot wise it was whatever, but the writing itself is not good at all. I can only hope it gets better from here.

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

There's spots where this book really lost me. It was an interesting way of being written in third-person omniscient and third-person limited, in a way it'd almost make it confusing, but when it worked it worked. Despite some of that, the story and the mystery behind it really kept me hooked and thinking about it all the time.
AND WAS IT WORTH IT! That ending was amazing for it in my opinion.

ARC provided by NetGalley and the publishers

Pageboy by Elliot Page

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

5.0

There were lots of parts of this book that hit hard, sadly- like a lot of other people in the acting industry- Elliot has gone through some shit, and I knew going into this book that's what I'd hear a lot of, but that was never the part I was interested in. Yes I love seeing people call out shit that's happened to them, but what mattered to me more was everything about their gender. The realization, the always truly knowing but never being able to do anything about it, the final release where you can finally be yourself. 
There was heartbreak and hard times talked about in this book, but the parts that hit me the hardest was the joy. Elliot describing feeling comfortable at the beach for the first time, feeling so grateful for being able to access gender affirming care so easily, things like that. It's rare that media about real people show the joy that can happen in life, and while this didn't focus on it, it talked about it,  talked about it enough that it stuck with me.
As a young trans guy who is only socially transitioned, nothing medical or legal yet, I love Elliot Page so much and I felt truly honored to be able to read a real memoir about a real trans guy.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

adventurous emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I've told people for a good 5 years at this point that this is my favorite classic book, my aunt even made me a green light lamp based on it. But, all of that love mostly came from the movie, I watched the 2013 film in my English class in high school and was instantly hooked. So while in between books, I figured it was finally time I read the real book and I still enjoyed it just as much. 
Hands down favorite classic book

Spellhacker by M.K. England

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Max the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

It's no Freak the Mighty, but this book did capture the heart of the original! Elden Henson as the narrator is a lot older when he did the narration for this one and while its a little off putting the way his voice is trying to sound, there's almost a bit of charm to it. It almost feels like how you would imagine Max to sound once he hit puberty. 
If you're a fan of Freak the Mighty, you'll love this one too. 
There's also a LOT less slurs and general abelism in this book, but this book didn't need to follow that the way Freak the Mighty did.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I remember when people started calling Love, Simon and the book connected to it as something written for straight people and I never understood that. As a baby gay when I saw Love, Simon at the time with my then partner, I was instantly obsessed. It was the first time I saw gay teens being focused on, and the book just opened up this whole new world of the fact that gay people can be the lead in books. To this day, it is still one of my comfort books and movies, I always recommend it to people as a good book to start when it comes to reading queer books.
And I remember this crap getting so bad that Becky was forced to come out- while I appreciate wanting to read books that come from actual queer people about queer identities, I always found it sort of ironic how much Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was about "why is straight the default?", one of the best damn scenes in the whole movie is everyone coming out to their parents as straight just to show how dumb it is.
And yet people took that, heard that Becky was married to a man, had kids, and just assumed she was straight.
And this book perfectly captualizes the pure stupidity of it. There are multiple points of what it means to still be part of the lgbt community even when not being- or not knowing- you're queer, about how even if you didn't realize you were at the end of the day you were the entire time.
I might not have always known that I was trans, but I was always trans. Its not something that just appeared one day. And I love seeing Becky take that rage and write a book about it, to hopefully make people realize how crazy it was. And I hope to see her write more WLW books, they always are some of my favorites of hers.

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow this book. I'm going to be honest, I only listened to it because of Elden Henson. I absolutely adore him as an actor and finding out he did this audiobook I only assume around the same time he did the movie (which I have yet to see), meaning it was around the time of Fulton Reed- I was hooked.
And that's an easy way to talk about it, if you know Fulton Reed in the Mighty Ducks, that is Maxwell. Too big for his age, not always the smartest but sure is one of the strongest. They're very similar characters which makes it even better for at the time a young Elden Henson.
I'll warn there are uses of abelist slurs in it such as the m word directed towards little people, the r slur, and the c word towards disabled people. It is used a lot but other wise the disability rep is done really well. 
Maxwell has a learning disability and Kevin (aka Freak) has a physical disability. Max is better at moving and Freak is better at giving directions. They use their differances to their advantages to make themselves better.

May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Its rare that I hate a main character so much, but that was kind of the point of this book, Jeremy starts out as the biggest piece of shit, he is impossible to root for. But as he grew, it was easier to relate to him and everything he was going to. He still wasn't my favorite guy but like all of us, he's a work in progress