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1157 reviews
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Knight and the Butcherbird by Alix E. Harrow
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
dark
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.25
a book that awoke the rage that festers in my bones. gnawing away at me each day.
the perfect book for the melancholy that resides within me.
this book is for the girlies who love Wuthering Heights, North & South and of course Carmilla. (Probably Nosferatu as well but I have watched that movie yet - TBD). this is for the gothic girlies. the girlies who relate to Ophelia a little too much. the sapphic vampire girlies. who hunger and want and feel empty all the same.
i just wish Carmilla enticed me more.
Carmilla was a brash, fragile but not gentle and wasn’t as decadent or rich as the original.
Lenore was the apple of my eye <3. she deserves the world.
anyways here is the laundry list of quotes I wrote down because this was a library book. and because I wanted to.
“To be a woman is a horror I can little comprehend.”
the perfect book for the melancholy that resides within me.
this book is for the girlies who love Wuthering Heights, North & South and of course Carmilla. (Probably Nosferatu as well but I have watched that movie yet - TBD). this is for the gothic girlies. the girlies who relate to Ophelia a little too much. the sapphic vampire girlies. who hunger and want and feel empty all the same.
i just wish Carmilla enticed me more.
Carmilla was a brash, fragile but not gentle and wasn’t as decadent or rich as the original.
Lenore was the apple of my eye <3. she deserves the world.
anyways here is the laundry list of quotes I wrote down because this was a library book. and because I wanted to.
“To be a woman is a horror I can little comprehend.”
“I was good for nothing but blood.”
“My body my enemy, and I will use every weapon in my arsenal against it.”
“She is so hungry for so much.”
“A waste. Some things have no end. You pour and pour and pour your soul away, and they are always hungry.”
“ I feel a sudden rush of hatred for this place, for the unending burden of wifehood, of fighting entropy. All things fall apart, and I must expend so much energy each day to hold them in place. I thought marriage freedom when I sought it; I thought it safety. But sometimes, when my control slips, I think there is only safety and certainty in death.”
“I was alone, as in all things.”
“Let this life of mine be about more than pain.”
“I have chosen Carmilla, and I will have her.”
“It is naive to think is owed anything from life. We endure it; we survive it. That is enough.”
“I wonder what you hunger and whether you allow yourself to feel it.”
“No one has loved me for so many a long year, I have done it all from spite. If the world offer me no kindness, then I will take from it amour and sword, create an unassailable fortress for myself and lock the door.”
“I think you are too much a coward to ever risk learning the truth. Easier to die for a delusion.”
“For what do you hunger?”
“I was too much, too loud, too emotional, too clumsy, too self-involved. My existence was a burden to all involved with it, and I resolved to never make any demand if I could help it. Then, perhaps, I could be tolerated. Then, perhaps, I could be loved.”
“All I had was myself, and the weight of that burden was almost more than I could bear.”
“If I were to survive my life, it fell to my own hands to find salvation.”
“Thread and survival. That was all life was.”
“This is the bargain I have struck: to lose my softness in exchange for survival.”
“ There is no state I could exist in that was not a burden in some manner.”
“A dream is a dangerous thing.”
“Disappointment tells us what we truly wanted. And to want is to be alive.”
“I have had no home to be soft in, to want and need and to have those wants met. So what is the point of wanting?”
“I am a mirror for him, and I have learnt how to show the desired reflection.
I have learnt I am no more than that.”
“As always, I am nothing.”
“I am so tired. I am so tired of struggling, of vigilance, of hopelessness.”
“I am not the beginning of it. I am the end.”
“No tears. No weakness.”
“I think I have been wrong about everything.”
“I am mad - I am wicked - I am heartless.”
“I am being murdered, and I am too frightened to do anything about it.”
“Poor Lenore Crowther, so terribly sad about the inconceivable of her own murder.”
“Because to want is to risk disappointment. And life has so bitterly disappointed me.”
“I thought something terrible has been haunting me, but perhaps I have been haunting myself.”
“It is terrible to be alive. But it is worse to be dead to ourselves.”
“I am dying. I am dying.”
“How frightening it would be to die, but how great relief to sleep forever.”
“She has taken me to pieces and leaves me to my ruin. I need her and she left me.”
“I made a bargain in my youth, for safety, for survival, and it has all been for naught. I am not safe. I have never been safe.”
“All I have made is a prison.”
“I am not safe if I obey and reduce and control, just as I am not safe if I rebel and shout and anger.”
“Better be dead beige anyone can come to kill you.”
“What a strange, cruel gift she has given me: to truly know myself, to know pleasure, to know freedom - and to wake and find myself in Hell.”
“I am a horror.”
“I am a woman woken from thirty years slumber, and I would eat the world should it satisfy this empty, keening void where my heart should be. I would cry with grief over my life so unfulfilled and drunk down the salty tears, eat my worthless tongue and impotent fingers, skin this carcass and pick the bones clean.”
“How powerful it felt to do exactly as I wanted.”
“But it is all as it has ever been: I am alone.”
“I was a cold, calloused thing, I meant for love.”
“I am lost. I am lost.
I do not know what will become of me now.”
“If I am mad, it is only because they have made me so.”
“It is not a usual place. I am unusual.”
“It as though, in this awful truth being revealed, every lie I have ever crafted to survive has come undone. The truth is rancid and unpalatable.”
“I am not safe. I have not saved myself.”
“How much better to make them all regret knowing me.”
“I want revenge.”
“I am free, and I am doomed. I have nothing.”
“I am exhausted by my own existence.”
“I have nothing except myself.”
“I do not need to contain my appetites. What is a monster but a creature of agency?”
“I was a tool, not a person.”
“I was dead. I have been dead for so many years.”
“I grieve so deeply for myself.”
“I am so alone and so unsatisfied.”
“I am nothing but want.”
“Perhaps I am not the ghost I thought myself. Perhaps I have always had substance.”
“I want, I want, I want.”
“I want. It is a new and thrilling revelation. I can want, and it will not destroy me.”
“I want, I lack, I hunger.”
I will die like all mortal things.
At least let me taste a little life before I go.”
“Instead, to survived, I must die inside; I must shut down every sense of self, every dream, every weakness.
I killed hope, to live.
Now I must find a way to live again.
Even if it means I must kill.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol
The Crash by Freida McFadden
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Vomit
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
not going to review
this might have taken me 2 months to finish but this was a very important, but dense book that i needed time to listen and process.
highly recommend.
very graphic and includes very big content warnings so please do your research.
this might have taken me 2 months to finish but this was a very important, but dense book that i needed time to listen and process.
highly recommend.
very graphic and includes very big content warnings so please do your research.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Murder
The Poisoner by I.V. Ophelia
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Sexism, Death of parent, Classism
Dynasty of the Wicked by Maham Fatemi
Princess Zhi Ruo is going through it.
This is a story about an 18 year old girl, a princess only by name, abandoned and unloved by her family and her kingdom. Zhi Ruo is bound to a fate of being used for power, as a pawn for powerful men. She isn't allowed a say in her fate, and that fate changes one day when she is kidnapped by the colonisation forces her people are fighting against. She must rely on herself and her cellmate to get themselves out of captivity.
Dynasty of the Wicked is a fantasy romance between two people who find love with each other in horrid circumstances, who bond over their ostracisation from society and are unloved by their families. Feng Mian is blind and cursed with magic that will eventually kill him. As they work together, they start to recognise their own worth outside of their families and the unrealistic expectations and degradation they have faced from them.
As they work together, they start to recognise their own worth outside of their families and the unrealistic expectations and degradation they have faced from them (Australia). I think this depiction of colonisation is important, especially in todays climate of whitewashing and erasure of history.
As the story progresses, Zhi Ruo suffers physically but emotionally. She undergoes a transformation within herself, starved of love and affection, hoping that one day she will be enough for her family and her kingdom. She bends to accommodate others needs and struggles to stand up for herself.
Her journey accumulates in understanding that she deserves to be chosen and to be loved back. She no longer will accept crumbs of affection, but strives to be fully accepted and loved, and to love in return. I was proud that Zhi Ruo stood her ground and confronted Feng Mian on his conflicted allegiances. She deserves someone who will choose her.
Ultimately, this is a fantasy romance about fighting tooth and nail for agency, acceptance, love and freedom. The civil conflict in the middle of a war was enticing and as someone who gravitates towards more political fantasy romances, this and the war was enough to keep me engaged. The romance happened quite quickly but had enough external issues effecting them that kept it interesting and heartbreaking.
I definitely recommend this book.
I also posted my review on my blog ✿
**I was provided with an ARC from Maham Fatemi (via Booksirens) for an honest review <3**
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
"Nobody here would protect her. Nobody here would fight for her. So she needed to do it herself."
Princess Zhi Ruo is going through it.
This is a story about an 18 year old girl, a princess only by name, abandoned and unloved by her family and her kingdom. Zhi Ruo is bound to a fate of being used for power, as a pawn for powerful men. She isn't allowed a say in her fate, and that fate changes one day when she is kidnapped by the colonisation forces her people are fighting against. She must rely on herself and her cellmate to get themselves out of captivity.
Dynasty of the Wicked is a fantasy romance between two people who find love with each other in horrid circumstances, who bond over their ostracisation from society and are unloved by their families. Feng Mian is blind and cursed with magic that will eventually kill him. As they work together, they start to recognise their own worth outside of their families and the unrealistic expectations and degradation they have faced from them.
As they work together, they start to recognise their own worth outside of their families and the unrealistic expectations and degradation they have faced from them (Australia). I think this depiction of colonisation is important, especially in todays climate of whitewashing and erasure of history.
“you will never take what belongs to me. My land, my spirit, my home—they will never be yours.”
As the story progresses, Zhi Ruo suffers physically but emotionally. She undergoes a transformation within herself, starved of love and affection, hoping that one day she will be enough for her family and her kingdom. She bends to accommodate others needs and struggles to stand up for herself.
“Have you been so starved of love that you look for it in places it doesn’t exist?”
Her journey accumulates in understanding that she deserves to be chosen and to be loved back. She no longer will accept crumbs of affection, but strives to be fully accepted and loved, and to love in return. I was proud that Zhi Ruo stood her ground and confronted Feng Mian on his conflicted allegiances. She deserves someone who will choose her.
She wanted to love, but she wanted to be loved back. She wanted someone to love her more than anything else. She wanted … more.
Ultimately, this is a fantasy romance about fighting tooth and nail for agency, acceptance, love and freedom. The civil conflict in the middle of a war was enticing and as someone who gravitates towards more political fantasy romances, this and the war was enough to keep me engaged. The romance happened quite quickly but had enough external issues effecting them that kept it interesting and heartbreaking.
"They kissed again, ravenously. Like two people starved of love. Like two people madly in love, whose futures dangled by a thread."
I definitely recommend this book.
I also posted my review on my blog ✿
**I was provided with an ARC from Maham Fatemi (via Booksirens) for an honest review <3**
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual assault, Torture, Medical content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit