garrettcz's reviews
359 reviews

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-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

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

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hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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

3.0

This is an odd book. The pacing is absolutely bizarre. 

I found the first 25% very boring. It then picked up in a big way, and I couldn’t put the book down until about 60%. Then it went back to very monotonous and mostly boring for the remainder, and toward the end I couldn’t wait for it to be over. 

Henry is a great character. Everyone else feels pretty underdeveloped. You’re still finding out rudimentary details about some of the main characters in the last couple chapters. 

Nearly every character is miserable and pretentious, which gets to be pretty grating. 

I feel like this book could have been A LOT shorter and it would probably have been a lot more enjoyable. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I really liked this, but it felt a little short. Some of the story felt a bit rushed. Awesome characters and great magic and world building. It’s easy and fun to read, and I blew through it. 
Brother by Ania Ahlborn

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

3.0

Maybe this book just wasn’t for me, but I didn’t enjoy any part of it. It wasn’t scary or unsettling or anything, it was just gross. 

The characters were very one-dimensional, so I didn’t care about them, so there was no real tension. The main character’s entire personality could be summed up with: stupid to the point of absurdity and so meek that it doesn’t make a lot of his actions make sense. 

I know a lot of people like this book a lot, so maybe it’s just me. 

Also I’m not going to include content warning because basically it’s every content warning. 
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

These books are truly incredible. I wish Max Gladstone had 5000 books published, because I would read every single one of them. 
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.
I know a lot of people love this book and I wanted to love this book, but it wasn’t for me. 

The prose is poetic and I liked the tone and several lines a lot, but the main character felt completely unrealistic and the entire story was told, not shown. A quarter of the way in I only knew the main characters on a superficial, surface level, so I couldn’t connect to anything going on, so I was extremely bored. 

DNFed at around 25%
The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0