garrettcz's reviews
362 reviews

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad 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

5.0

I really enjoyed this book! It’s very fast-paced and action-oriented. I really like that it showed a bunch of references to other places and things in the Cosmere, which made things feel a lot more connected and integrated.

I liked the characters a lot, although I wish we’d have gotten a bit more detail about some of them. I did like how much we got to explore the main character, though.

I will say I’m a bit nervous about how the advancements in technology are going to affect things in the Cosmere. I’m nervous that as it becomes more of a science fiction story, we’re going to lose a lot of the cool elements and pieces of the individual magics as ubiquitous technologies homogenize things. I’m hoping this isn’t the case, though.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

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

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a very different Sanderson book. In a good way.

It feels so much like an anime and I really enjoyed how character-focused it was. I do wish there had been a bit more magic in it, but that’s a personal preference thing and not a detraction. I don’t have anything negative so say about it.

It’s heartwarming, inspiring, and lovely. The characters feel real, as do their struggles. I can’t ask for more in a story.

10/10

Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick by David Wong

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

I doubt there was a single page of this in which I didn’t feel an emotion, typically anger, sadness, dumbfounded confusion at investigatory ineptitude, or some combination thereof.

I couldn’t put this book down. It’s a tragic story, but very well told. 5/5 easily.

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I really struggled with this book for the first half. It felt very cliché and dragged, and I was very close to DNFing. Once I got to the middle it really started to pick up and was a lot more enjoyable.

Overall I ended up enjoying it, but I wish it’d gone more into the magic and worldbuilding. I also would have loved some more depth to the characters. I think overall it could have been tightened up a bit in the revision process, especially the first half.

The Darkening by Sunya Mara

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced