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ellieb_reads's Reviews (186)
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Woah this was a ride. I finished this at about 5 am today because I woke up from a book-inspired nightmare and had to know the ending in order to go back to sleep. This is dark, gritty, and deeply layered. On a basic level, this is a mystery/crime novel set in the South. But it also covers themes of racism, cycles of abuse, and grief. It’s not exactly an easy read - these themes are heavy and the mystery itself is scary as hell. But the characters are well-developed, and even though the reveal wasn’t exactly a surprise, Cosby still pulls off a suspenseful ending.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
For a debut thriller (author has previously written YA), I think this is pretty solid. Morally gray main character who goes by many names was an interesting antihero, and I enjoyed the flashbacks to other aliases and her origin story. This was fast-paced and kept me engaged start to finish. Falls short of 4 stars because the big reveal didn’t have the payoff I expected after 250 pages of cat-and-mouse games.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I am too emotional to write a real review, so in short: I loved this, and I don’t care if it was a bit self-helpy or preachy or cheesy because it was also heartbreaking and lovely and hopeful.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This is a really powerful book and a very heavy read. Tommy Orange is an exceptional and creative writer, and There There manages to be profoundly emotional and educational at the same time. There are a lot of characters to keep track of - I’m always a bit skeptical when a book starts with a character list - but each of them taught me something (and just about all of them made me cry). I do wish that their narratives had intersected earlier in the book. It was a little difficult to get into the novel at the beginning with such short vignettes of (at that point) unconnected stories. But when they did come together, I couldn’t put it down. I imagine the ending is polarizing among readers. It’s abrupt and heartbreaking and vague. I can’t say the ending was satisfying the way you normally want a book to be, but I think the Orange’s choice to leave it open-ended has meaning that is both sad and hopeful. Eager to read his latest book sometime soon!
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Ugh I loved this. This would probably be 5 stars if I wasn’t rating it relative to her other books. Can I give this the same 5 stars as Book Lovers? Not quite. But it’s pretty close. I really enjoyed the premise and the small town Michigan setting, and I loved the thread around libraries and love of reading. Miles might be my favorite Emily Henry love interest so far, and the spicy scenes are 🥵
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
The premise for this sounded so intriguing, I couldn’t wait to read it. But I felt like the book couldn’t decide whether it was a mystery or a love story, and because of that it ended up falling short of both - despite clocking in at over 500 pages. It was waaaay too long, and the first 150 pages were very slow. I kept pivoting to other books because it just wasn’t hooking me. The ending also felt confusing and overwrought, like it was trying too hard to be poetic, and instead ended up leaving me unsure of what actually happened. I loved the 1920s Chicago setting, and I thought the main characters were well-developed. I especially loved Sequoia, and Nelly’s arc was great. Cunningham’s writing is really beautiful, and I look forward to giving her next book a try! I think The Mayor of Maxwell Street had a ton of potential, but it just didn’t land for me.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Okay, so this is hard to rate. About 200 pages in, I considered DNFing and wrote out my complaints. I’ve said it in my reviews before, but I don’t need my thrillers to be really elevated writing. I have a pretty low bar for that in whodunnits as long as they keep me entertained and reading. But the writing here (the dialogue especially) was so off that it was continually taking me out of the story - which had thus far been good, but not good enough for me to ignore what was irritating me. BUT THEN this book goes bananas. I flew through the final third of the book, which definitely tipped the scales back in its favor.
Because I nearly DNFed, I’m still going to explain my problems with the writing. Chiefly, the dialogue is just reeeeally bad. For example, in one scene our main character is asked how she met her ex-husband during a casual conversation with a friend over wine. Her answer: “To this day I still think about the way our hands brushed by accident against each other and how, somewhere in the middle of the empty parking lot, I pulled shyly back, but Ben reached for me in the darkness, taking my hand into his, holding it.” NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT OUT LOUD. This is not bad writing per se; if this had been the narrator’s internal monologue, that’s fine. But all of the dialogue read so weirdly formal and prose-y, and it drove me bonkers. This one is more minor and probably personal, but there is a bizarre amount of description about the narrator walking. There are paragraph-long descriptions of the narrator turning left or right/heading east or west and repeatedly naming the specific streets (all of which I recognize because this book is set in my exact neighborhood in Chicago).
All of that said, it was completely worth powering through the weird writing. The plot in this book was awesome, the twist completely got me, and the ending was just wild. All of the characters are suspicious, and main character Meghan’s anxiety jumps off the page and makes this very suspenseful. So, very long review short, a weird 3.5 stars for me.
Because I nearly DNFed, I’m still going to explain my problems with the writing. Chiefly, the dialogue is just reeeeally bad. For example, in one scene our main character is asked how she met her ex-husband during a casual conversation with a friend over wine. Her answer: “To this day I still think about the way our hands brushed by accident against each other and how, somewhere in the middle of the empty parking lot, I pulled shyly back, but Ben reached for me in the darkness, taking my hand into his, holding it.” NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT OUT LOUD. This is not bad writing per se; if this had been the narrator’s internal monologue, that’s fine. But all of the dialogue read so weirdly formal and prose-y, and it drove me bonkers. This one is more minor and probably personal, but there is a bizarre amount of description about the narrator walking. There are paragraph-long descriptions of the narrator turning left or right/heading east or west and repeatedly naming the specific streets (all of which I recognize because this book is set in my exact neighborhood in Chicago).
All of that said, it was completely worth powering through the weird writing. The plot in this book was awesome, the twist completely got me, and the ending was just wild. All of the characters are suspicious, and main character Meghan’s anxiety jumps off the page and makes this very suspenseful. So, very long review short, a weird 3.5 stars for me.
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
A very solid 4 stars for a thriller that elicited a surprising amount of laughter. A com-murder? I loved that Tintera didn’t fall into the recent theme where thriller authors seem to be in a “just how fucked up can I make this?” challenge or something. It was suspenseful and thrilling without overdoing it on the really dark stuff. It’s also a different spin on the unreliable narrator, and one that I enjoyed a lot. The whodunnit was excellent, and the possible suspects were all believable, making it a serious page-turner. But the final reveal (and especially *how* we come to learn the truth) felt so simple that it fell sort of flat for me. I wish there had been just a little more build-up with the flashbacks, but I did still really like the “answer” to the mystery. I’m excited to read more from Tintera soon!
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
There are a lot of WWII historical fictions out there, but this one explores a part of it that I knew very little about. I learned quite a bit, and it’s always a bonus for me when a fiction novel doubles as an educational read. The story is absolutely heartbreaking, and there are a number of graphic and traumatic scenes that were painful to read. But Chan’s prose is gorgeous and the characters were complex and well-developed. Hard to believe The Storm We Made is her debut! I didn't love the POV of the youngest daughter. I understand why her story was important, but I think she would’ve been better as a supporting character only. I’m still torn over how I feel about the ending (which kind of goes off the rails, thanks to said youngest daughter). But all in all, this was a beautifully-written book with a new perspective on the WWII era, and I was engaged from start to finish.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Wow. I’m going to be thinking about this one for a while, and even though it’s only March, I feel quite confident saying this will rank among my favorites this year. Mystery, romance, and magical realism are expertly blended together to create something beautifully unique. I don’t read a lot of novels with fantasy elements, but I’ll be adding more to my list now because this was so captivating. Young’s writing is gorgeous, and this book had me in tears more than once. I loved all the characters, and I won’t say more than that to avoid spoilers. This will certainly be a book I return to again down the road. I loved it!