garrettcz's reviews
362 reviews

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

This series is incredible. 

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

The Pale City by Marshall J. Moore

adventurous dark 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

4.75

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book, and I finished it a couple of days ago but wanted to take a couple of days to think about what I wanted to say about it, because I had a lot of thoughts about it. 

 

I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read of Jason Pargin’s, especially the Zoey Ashe novels, but this book is easily my favorite of his. Jason has an incredibly unique way of observing the world, and the way he’s able to condense those observations down into succinct, thought provoking statements that also happen to be hilarious or insightful (or both) is truly an art. 

 

This book takes you on a cross-country road trip with two characters and a box they aren’t allowed to open. Unfortunately for them, for some very wild yet very believable reasons lots of people on the internet begin to investigate and speculate about what it is they’re transporting and what their goals are. It has the oddest assortment of characters, most of which you’d never expect to interact with one another, and their dynamics are amazing and hilarious and genuine. Throughout the story you learn more about each of the characters and why they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing, and every one of the characters feels so real that sometimes it felt like this was a non-fiction story like so much of Jason’s content. At no point will you ever know what’s going to happen next in the best ways. 

 

I couldn’t wait for it to be over to figure out what the hell was in this box, while simultaneously I never wanted the story to end because I was having so much fun with it. 

 

There were so many things that Jason did so well with this novel, but I wanted to highlight a few of them. The first is that the way Jason uses foreshadowing in this book is a masterclass. Throughout the story he slips in little details of things that are going to happen, and yet it never once spoils what is coming. It made the story so much more intriguing and reading the story so addicting. 

 

Without getting too into spoiler territory, I love that while the story is rooted in the mystery of this box, there is so much more going on with it, most importantly commentary on society and culture and how technology has transformed our lives for better and worse. It is about perceptions and expectations and assumptions. It’s about needs vs wants and how we hinder ourselves via short-term perceived happiness and convenience. 

 

So much of the story is told through character conversations about very serious topics, and while many authors would probably come across as hamfisted if they attempted this, Jason pulls it off with aplomb. Over and over again I found myself marveling at how engrossing and insightful these conversations were, while also being blown away by the fact that these conversations all felt very real and genuine. They felt like conversations that could really happen between these very different people with very different mindsets, and the way Jason pulled this off was truly something special. 

 

This story will make you laugh, it’ll make you think, sometimes about some uncomfortable truths. I think it’ll make you think about things a little bit differently than you did before, and I think that’s pretty incredible. 

 

I think you should read this book.

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

I loved this book so much I immediately read the entire trilogy, which rarely happens for me. I Couldn’t put any of them down! This series is really great. Dark as hell, but great. Check the content warnings for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I like the story a lot, and a lot of it really resonated with me. I think it could have been tightened up quite a bit, though. Especially the dialogue. The characters speak oddly a lot of the time, which took me out of the story over and over. One thing that really bugged me was they constantly say each others’ names to a wild degree. Not sure how that made it through editing. 

The story itself was beautiful and emotional and powerful. I really enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

Fantastic ending to this series. Couldn’t put any of them down! This was really great. Dark as hell, but great. Check the content warnings for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

This was the weakest in the series but still great! It’s told in a pretty confusing way that’s very different from the rest of the series, but was still a ton of fun to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail