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elderlyemo's reviews
84 reviews
Does It Hurt? by H.D. Carlton
fast-paced
4.0
I didn't have high hopes going into this book and don't get me wrong, it doesn't manage to evade the usual dark romance tropes of possessive annihilation and inconsistent theming, BUT the reason this book scored so highly amongst so many others is simply for Sawyer's character. She was hilarious - like laugh out loud funny, and so grounded in an otherwise ludicrous plot line that it made it almost impossible not to keep reading.
Enzo is problematic, right up to the end I didn't really like him and I don't think he had the same character arc that Sawyer did, but he complimented her well and even his dry humour and wit had me laughing and turning the pages even quicker.
Yes it's spicy, and yes its also a lowkey haunted light house horror story, but if you manage to suspend your disbelief early into the story, I think for readers of dark romance, this one will be a breath of fresh air. Would have been an easy five stars if Enzo hadn't been such a dick.
Enzo is problematic, right up to the end I didn't really like him and I don't think he had the same character arc that Sawyer did, but he complimented her well and even his dry humour and wit had me laughing and turning the pages even quicker.
Yes it's spicy, and yes its also a lowkey haunted light house horror story, but if you manage to suspend your disbelief early into the story, I think for readers of dark romance, this one will be a breath of fresh air. Would have been an easy five stars if Enzo hadn't been such a dick.
They Came with the Snow by Christopher Coleman
2.5
First of all - this is a pretty cool concept. I love me a post apocalyptic-the-government-did-it-trust-no-one kind of vibe, really I do - I just thought that this was TOO short. I think it came in at 57 pages on KU and even if it had just 20 more pages to flesh out some of the really big ideas it had, I think I would have been more blown away. I've read stories of a similar length that leave an aching intrigue in my soul, and whilst this one almost flicked that switch - it just wasn't strong enough.
I will keep the author on my radar and see if any of their more long form content manages to achieve what this short story did not, as like I said - really cool concept.
I will keep the author on my radar and see if any of their more long form content manages to achieve what this short story did not, as like I said - really cool concept.
Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
2.0
This author is fast becoming my most read author of the year and up until this Heartstopper novella, I don't think I've given anything they've written less than four stars. However, this one was a just a little meh for me.
I found Charlie, a character I usually really love and empathise with, overbearing in his neurosis about Nick going to university, which really isn't that big of a deal. Their relationship has always been built in these stories around their ability to talk to each other about things that they struggle to communicate to other people, so the entire novella being about Charlie hating Nick for going to university whilst simultaneously hating himself for hating Nick was just - exhausting.
It's a quick read and the art as always is beautiful, but this novella just didn't feel right.
I found Charlie, a character I usually really love and empathise with, overbearing in his neurosis about Nick going to university, which really isn't that big of a deal. Their relationship has always been built in these stories around their ability to talk to each other about things that they struggle to communicate to other people, so the entire novella being about Charlie hating Nick for going to university whilst simultaneously hating himself for hating Nick was just - exhausting.
It's a quick read and the art as always is beautiful, but this novella just didn't feel right.
This Winter by Alice Oseman
3.0
This was a cute and quick snapshot of a turbulent Christmas Day in the Spring household. Any lovers of the Heartstopper series will be happy to add this novella to their holiday reading lists, but it lacks a lot of the depth and weight of the longer stories by the same author.
The Vanishing by Tim Krabbé
4.0
I first read this book ten years ago and I didn't remember an awful lot about it but it had sat on my shelf for a decade begging to be reread. Its super short and the author utilises those pages really well. It's interesting to read such a concise and horrifying story translated from a different language (I can only assume effectively as I don't speak Dutch) as amongst an extensive collection of horror novellas, The Vanishing has a definitive voice and a life long place on my shelves. Definitely worth a read.
Intimacy by Hanif Kureishi
4.5
This has to be one of the most highlighted books in my collection. A brief glimpse into a stale marriage, told through the eyes of an unfaithful husband as he convinces himself to leave his disenchanted wife with hopes of a better life, this story has read differently each and every time I've read it as my life has changed and I've seen the story from both perspectives. Brutal in its honestly, laugh out loud funny and gorgeously written, this would be an easy five star if there weren't some more than problematic depictions of women and what it means to be one that just leave a bad taste in my mouth.
But then maybe, like marriage, it's not supposed to be perfect?
But then maybe, like marriage, it's not supposed to be perfect?
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
4.5
This was my fifth time reading this cult classic and I can say with my full chest that I think I'm now FINALLY running out of stuff to highlight. The authors writing style divides opinion but personally I love how it snapshots a story and moves quickly through these brief and brutal moments in the characters lives, rather than dwelling on the mendacity of life like weather and how many different types of green the leaves in a particular tree are.
This is another book that grows up with you, and now that my child is older and the world is a lot greyer, different things jump out at me that I never used to notice and I love those kinds of stories, that are written for every person you have been and will be - it makes them, the definition of timeless.
So, why isn't it five stars? I HATE the ending! It should make me cry, it should cleave my soul from my body and leave me as desolate as the titular Road the characters walk throughout the story, but it's so anticlimactic and...calm? that it just pisses me off. I wanted to be wounded, not patted on the back.
This is another book that grows up with you, and now that my child is older and the world is a lot greyer, different things jump out at me that I never used to notice and I love those kinds of stories, that are written for every person you have been and will be - it makes them, the definition of timeless.
So, why isn't it five stars? I HATE the ending! It should make me cry, it should cleave my soul from my body and leave me as desolate as the titular Road the characters walk throughout the story, but it's so anticlimactic and...calm? that it just pisses me off. I wanted to be wounded, not patted on the back.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
3.0
I feel like writing anything about this book that isn't overwhelmingly profound is like cocking a loaded gun to your temple, but peer pressure made me read and I swear down that peer pressure isn't going to dictate my less than stellar review.
First of all - this is an important book, I get it. It's really well written and for an author to make 800+ pages of really heavy material EASY to read is a feat worthy of 3 stars all in itself, and yeah, maybe as a result I'll pick up other books that they write in the future but this one just wasn't it for me.
It just didn't make me feel anything that I think I was supposed to feel, and whilst I too wanted to rescue Jude from his horrible life, by the end of the book I was just kind of pissed off that no one else had already? There was an awful lot of enabling behaviours from friends, hell, even from professionals, that just kind of pissed me off. I get it right that sometimes terror is relentless and there really is such a thing as an unhappy ending and no sometimes just because you're a good person doesn't mean you're immune to the absolute treachery of the human heart - but SOMEONE PLEASE help this man, because he isn't helping himself.
Maybe the parallels between Jude's life and my own feed into the frustration I had with this book. Maybe I spent so long screaming at him to get up and fight that I missed the point, but when I wasn't pissed off I was, quite frankly - bored.
Could I even name the other characters in this book? Probably not.
I'm happy that this book exists and that it forced a lot of people to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations about their own lives and lifestyles, but this will never be the kind of "voice-of-a-generation" soul bleeder to me that it is to so many others.
And I'm kind of disappointed in that.
First of all - this is an important book, I get it. It's really well written and for an author to make 800+ pages of really heavy material EASY to read is a feat worthy of 3 stars all in itself, and yeah, maybe as a result I'll pick up other books that they write in the future but this one just wasn't it for me.
It just didn't make me feel anything that I think I was supposed to feel, and whilst I too wanted to rescue Jude from his horrible life, by the end of the book I was just kind of pissed off that no one else had already? There was an awful lot of enabling behaviours from friends, hell, even from professionals, that just kind of pissed me off. I get it right that sometimes terror is relentless and there really is such a thing as an unhappy ending and no sometimes just because you're a good person doesn't mean you're immune to the absolute treachery of the human heart - but SOMEONE PLEASE help this man, because he isn't helping himself.
Maybe the parallels between Jude's life and my own feed into the frustration I had with this book. Maybe I spent so long screaming at him to get up and fight that I missed the point, but when I wasn't pissed off I was, quite frankly - bored.
Could I even name the other characters in this book? Probably not.
I'm happy that this book exists and that it forced a lot of people to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations about their own lives and lifestyles, but this will never be the kind of "voice-of-a-generation" soul bleeder to me that it is to so many others.
And I'm kind of disappointed in that.