freethefrican's reviews
254 reviews

If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense

3.0

That was a cheap ending. I knew it was coming but it was still cheap. Maybe if I had read it 10 years ago when it came out, I would I have felt all the feels but unfortunately, it just annoyed me. 

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

There was too much going on and too many POVs fighting for my attention. I would have preferred not to know what almost all of them were doing.

A major problem for me was the role and importance of the magic council. You would think having a magic council meant there were people the magic council was presiding over, that there was a community of magic users who needed their leadership but there was no indication of that. It felt like they were just a group of people who decided to give themselves titles. Hell, the main characters hardly new anybody outside of their family who did magic. So what was the point?? 

Another question I have is was I meant to root for the magic users? They were portrayed as people who were about to be “unfairly” regulated by the government and unfortunately, I found myself being on the government’s side a lot because almost all instances where magic was used was to seriously harm someone else. Either to physically hurt, take away free will, or even kill. It was very difficult for me to get behind the magic simply because of this.

The characters were prone to being a little excessive in their actions, the absence of adults in charge of the protagonists was LOUD, the murder mystery was boring, and the writer had a tendency to get carried away with descriptions.

In the end, this amount of stuff happening in two weeks was just very ridiculous to me. There’s enough for two well fleshed out books crammed in here, stuff that could have been drawn out over weeks to months.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This is about an author who steals his MFA student's plot, writes it, and becomes insanely successful after the stolen story gets published. However, all his new-found fame and comforts are being threatened by someone who knows his secret and wants to expose him. Having read a ridiculous but wonderful book with a similar premise in the past (About the Author by John Colapinto), I was very excited to pick this up but boy was I disappointed.

The protagonist was boring. He was dull, gave me nothing to root for or even hate, and honestly felt like a blank sheet the author just used to tell THIS story. I don't know if it was intentional but I couldn't even picture him because of how little information about his physical appearance was given, talk less of the other attributes that make a good character.  
The story itself, as he tried to find the person who knew his secret, was boring. The great and best-selling plot that caused all the trouble was not that great, even with its "shocking plot twist".

So, I found myself reading a book about a book that was supposed to be ridiculously good and both books were dull. It was also easy to guess the villain because the secondary characters were so bloody few and the mystery wasn't that deep. 

The writing and pacing were okay and I liked that it asked some questions about plagiarism and who really owns a plot. I liked how it showed that despite getting all he thought he wanted, he was still rather unhappy, unfulfilled, and for the most part didn't know how to make good use of all his new access. Sadly, I found myself struggling to care for or be invested in him and that, more than anything, harmed my enjoyment of this book.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

informative inspiring

4.0

Nice and easy reread. It was nice to remind myself of some of the the lessons I learnt the first time I read it.

That Weekend by Kara Thomas

challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I was very annoyed with the last 20-30% of this book because everything was set up so well, and then it just crashed and burned. It was all made even worse by the last-minute plot twist that, frankly, was unnecessary and felt like it was just added to justify a secondary character's actions. That character didn't need a reason to be a piece of shit and I was ready to take it as that but the author decided to pull that "twist". I would have liked more from the protagonist's relationship with her mother because it was shown to have problems in the beginning and then the mother just disappears after about 20%.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Oh, this was awesome. I had my doubts initially, especially after about the 5th time she jumped back in time with only scraps of information, and I started to worry the payoff wouldn't be good but it wrapped itself up pretty nicely in the end.
Was the crime she was trying to solve particularly interesting? No, but the journey to her solving it was interesting and well paced. I felt the love she had for her son and her husband, and I felt her fear and worry. Thrillers that make you genuinely care about the characters are definitely always better.

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I enjoyed this and especially enjoyed the petulant and childish tone almost all the gods and supernatural creatures had. It made sense the way they interacted with humans, showing their complete lack of understanding of human pain and suffering and their general lack of interest in trying to understand. Almost everything that didn't serve their agenda was a bother, they were easily insulted, and very vengeful. I liked how the author portrayed these attributes with the gods making all their emotions clear and known because what was the point of holding back and mincing words when practically no one can counter you?

Sadly, while this was supposed to be Medusa’s story, we didn’t get as much of her as I would have liked but I think it still worked well enough.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.

I couldn't get into it.

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I can't explain it but this worked really well for me. I enjoyed the writing, I enjoyed the story, and I will be picking up more from this author.

Blackout by Angie Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, Ashley Woodfolk, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Tiffany D. Jackson

3.0