eudaemonics's reviews
49 reviews

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson

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funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson

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emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

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mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

The Taken by Inbali Iserles

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Virtual YouTuber Kizuna Ai: Co-creating human-non-human interaction and celebrity-audience relationship by Xin Zhou

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informative slow-paced

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The Dragon Murder Case by Willard Huntington Wright, S.S. Van Dine

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

While I tip my hat to Mr. Van Dine for penning a fun and challenging mystery that proved to be quite an enjoyable puzzle for my first Philo Vance mystery, I do deduct some points for finding his detective the titular Philo Vance obnoxious and rather insufferable. While detectives in fiction are pretty well-known for these traits, I simply thought that Vance's portrayal was too grating for me to sit through much of the time. It was hard to tell when Vance was his own character and when Vance was acting as a mouthpiece for Van Dine-- I mean, Willard H. Wright's interest in fish and aquariums in this novel. I found him so aggravating to read that it really knocked my review down .25 points.

That said, if you can get past Vance's demeanor or heaven forbid you somehow find him tolerable, the mystery itself and the setup was very intriguing and it's refreshing to see a Golden Age mystery set somewhere besides the UK. I also managed to work out the who and why, but not the how before the end of the book, so it was a very fairplay mystery if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into.

Content Warnings

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

Take a Nap! Change Your Life.: The Scientific Plan to Make You Smarter, Healthier, More Productive by Sara Mednick, Mark Ehrman

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informative relaxing fast-paced

4.75

Nice and informative book on the importance of napping and how to practically implement it into our modern world written by a professor of mine.

うみねこのなく頃に紫(2) Forgery of the Purple logic by 珠洲城　くるみ

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Shi - Forgery of the Purple Logic Vol. 1 by Ryukishi07

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dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

A fun little forgery to read after reading all of the Umineko VNs