dowsa's reviews
38 reviews

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

omg when i tell you the ending of this book literally shocked me like wow the author knows how to write some twists and turns! after finishing the story i’m still unsure about how trustworthy theo’s reasoning is, and the lack of chronological order really added to the jumbled mess that he created oh wow 
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Sula by Toni Morrison

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dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

“We was girls together,” she said as though explaining something. 
They were girls together 😭 Toni Morrison has written one of the most tender and painful narratives of womanhood in Sula. From Nel’s journey growing up feeling so stifled (the scene when she was praying to God to make her wonderful oh 🥹) to the women in Sula’s family and their relationships to men…to Medallion and what it meant to be black and live up in the Bottom, it was so powerful in such quiet ways. i loved it and it broke my heart.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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

2.0

booktok…u will be dealt with 🤣 the story really had me in the first half but then everyone started making terrible decisions, i’m really not sold on feyre and tamlin’s “love story” and the direction of the story just felt really juvenile and young to me 🤷🏾‍♀️
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
Didn't like the book style... Quotes and behind the scenes were nice though
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.75

wow…imma need to start the sequel IMMEDIATELY. extremely sad and kind of messed up but i believe in Rin and i think she’ll pull through eventually 😭
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Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

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Did not finish book.
scary and really graphic 😭 i liked a few short stories but feel like some themes were lost in translation 
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

why couldn’t achilles just go fight for troy omg? clearly he didn’t care abt the greek or his little kingdom like what was the point 😭 the prophecy coming true because he put his pride over the people he cared abt was so frustrating!!!
but also this was such a beautiful and tragic love story…damn  
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

a dark academia classic, oh wow. I read this partly for the aesthetic but I was shocked at how interesting this story was - most of the characters were not likeable at all, the main character richard reminded me a bit of Cady from mean girls and nick carraway from the great gatsby, the horrible justifications for their actions followed by the immediate consequences was reminiscent of a greek tragedy (which makes sense). I do think the book is summarized a little incorrectly, since the professor does not play as huge a role as you think but overall it was the perfect dark and twisted book to start the Fall
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Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

very good, and also very scary and uncomfortable. which i think was the whole point 
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
“You never got what you wanted; you just learned to get by without it.”

On the surface this book is about grief but underneath that, it’s about so much more. It’s a study on families and expectations and what it means to love unconditionally. How fair is it to want more for your children than what you had? I saw myself in so many of the characters and the way their dynamics were so warped due to insecurities and things left unspoken. A really wonderful read.
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