ghiblireads's reviews
491 reviews

Home by Harlan Coben

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Harlan Coben never misses. This was an amazing thriller and probably one of my favourites in the entire series. It was dark, twisty and heartbreaking. I loved getting some of Win’s POV - he is my favourite character and so much fun to read about. Myron actually took a backseat in this and in my opinion Win was the star of the show. The writing was great, it was fast paced and a definite page turner. The plot was quite complex and there were some twists that I wasn’t expecting. I had a lot of theories but none were exactly right - I loved the reveal and what it ended up being. The last few chapters were intense and the ending was very emotional. I loved the final twists in the epilogue and the ending in general was amazing. 

Chlorine by Jade Song

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Wow… this was an amazing book. It was less of a horror than I expected and more of a beautiful, dark coming of age story. There were so many things that I loved: obsession, sapphic romance, mythology and quiet horror. I loved the way it was written and the letters from Cathy added another layer to the book. It was reflective and melancholy in tone which I adored. All the talk of swimming was really interesting and I enjoyed learning about the sport. The toxicity of the competitive world was hard to read about - I felt for Ren and hated Jim. I enjoy when characters are passionate about something so seeing Ren’s love of swimming and mermaids develop into an obsession was something I loved. Ren was a good character to follow and I loved seeing her story. The body horror was fantastic and made my skin crawl a little!! Yes there could have been more but I actually think there was the perfect amount. The final chapters were shocking and disturbing yet almost beautiful. I think there were a lot of important messages in this book - about race, love, growing up and being who you want to be. 

In the Dark by Cara Hunter

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I bought this book randomly because the name and synopsis interested me - it turned out to be a fun little sci-fi read that I liked! It was written in a bit of a strange way that took me a while to get used to but I did love the humour in it. The characters were actually really good; I especially loved Annie and Ed but even the side characters were well written. Annie was such a unique character which I loved. The plot was slow moving for the first half - nothing much happens but I did enjoy learning about the town, the spaceship and the characters. Once things did start to happen it was a little stranger than I was expecting and I’m not convinced that I fully loved it. I’m not sure if I would read the sequel or not. Overall, I did enjoy this book. 

Small Game by Blair Braverman

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This was an interesting book. I can definitely understand why people don’t like it - I think it was marketed wrong because it is definitely not a mystery/thriller. It was a slowish paced survival story that focused a lot on the people and it turned out to be something that I loved. The writing was really good and I loved the descriptions of the nature. The set up was great: a group of strangers left to survive in the woods. The reality TV show part was fun and I liked just following the characters during their days. When the crew went ‘missing’ it got a lot more tense and exciting. Mara was a really good character although I didn’t love her relationship with Ashley - it could have been better developed. Bullfrog and Kyle were interesting too. It was a really atmospheric and strangely beautiful story about humans and their survival. This book did ambiguity really well and I personally loved the ending. It left me with questions but I still felt satisfied with it. 

The Gathering by C.J. Tudor

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Oh my god this book was so good. C.J. Tudor always manages to write books that are the perfect amount horror and thriller. This book was no exception: it was so well written, atmospheric and very hard to put down. I absolutely loved that it had literal vampyrs in it. It was so interesting to learn about the Colonies and to see a world where humans and vampires co-exist. It added a whole extra layer to the story. Instead of a murder mystery this book was so much more - it was both exciting and at times scary. There were some twists that I didn’t see coming and I really enjoyed all the reveals that the mystery had. I loved the characters; Barbara was a great, strong female lead and I also liked Tucker too. Athelinda was interesting and had a tough backstory. The ending was heart-racing and quite shocking too - it left me with some questions but also the hope that there could be a sequel…. I REALLY hope there will be because I literally loved this book so much. An easy 5 stars. 

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was so much better than Mr Mercedes and i’m glad that I decided to continue the series. I really enjoyed that this was a book about books and I loved the exploration of obsession. It definitely has a Misery vibe to it at the beginning! The way it’s written isn’t like a traditional thriller and it isn’t the fastest paced either. There weren’t any twists or mysteries that the reader needed to solve. I did like watching Hodges, Holly and Jerome work things out and once the action started it was really exciting. I love the characters and their relationships with each other - Holly is definitely my favourite and I can relate to her the most. Even though I did enjoy this book, I still think King writes better horror than thrillers. Overall it was a very good book and I will be picking up the third in the series. 

The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I bought this book randomly because the name and synopsis interested me - it turned out to be a fun little sci-fi read that I liked! It was written in a bit of a strange way that took me a while to get used to but I did love the humour in it. The characters were actually really good; I especially loved Annie and Ed but even the side characters were well written. Annie was such a unique character which I loved. The plot was slow moving for the first half - nothing much happens but I did enjoy learning about the town, the spaceship and the characters. Once things did start to happen it was a little stranger than I was expecting and I’m not convinced that I fully loved it. I’m not sure if I would read the sequel or not. Overall, I did enjoy this book. 

The Noh Mask Murder by Akimitsu Takagi

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I feel the same about this book as I did about the authors previous one - it was a really interesting, well crafted mystery. It was written in quite a unique way which I really enjoyed. I loved following along with the mystery and learning all the secrets at the same time as the detectives. The mystery itself was a little ridiculous but a lot of fun to try and figure out because of all the layers it had. It was very dark and sad at times. The characters were all interesting in their own quirky ways. The locked room aspect was fun and I definitely would have never figured out the solution. There was also a twist at the end which I loved and wasn’t expecting AT ALL. It was short, fast and a really great book. 

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

It took me a long 4 days to read this book - it’s dense, complicated and takes a lot of effort to read but it was definitely worth it! The world that the author has created is so immersive and interesting to read about. It is incredibly well written, deta and atmospheric. The translator did an amazing job and the footnotes were really helpful at times. One of my favourite things in this book was the characters: Luo Ji’s character felt so real and he was easy to root for. The first part was a good way to set up each of the characters to make their arcs more impactful. The plot was intricate and expanded on the first book a lot. There were some good themes on humanity and I liked seeing how different people react in the face of alien invasion. Escapists, Defeatists, the ETO, Wallfacers and Wallbreakers were all great and interesting groups to read about. I especially loved the third part - it had more action and a beautiful ending. It was a little slow at times and I did skim some of the technical talk but overall I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see how the final book wraps up this series. I could honestly talk about this book for hours because there are so many conversations that it sparks.

Out There by Kate Folk

dark mysterious

This was a pretty good short story collection - they were all really strange but beautifully written. I loved the themes of womanhood and I enjoyed the female characters/narrators. Although some of the stories were five stars and great, I would say that overall this isn’t my favourite collection. There were a lot of really interesting concepts and ideas that maybe just weren’t executed perfectly. My ratings were:

• Out There - 4/5 stars
• The Last Woman On Earth - 4/5 stars
• Heart Seeks Brain - 3.5/5 stars
• The Void Wife - 3/5 stars
• Shelter - 3/5 stars
• The Head In The Floor - 5/5 stars
• Tahoe - 2/5 stars
• The Bone Ward - 5/5 stars
• Doe Eyes - 3/5 stars
• The House’s Beating Heart - 5/5 stars
• A Scale Model Of Gull Point - 4.5/5 stars
• Dating A Somnambulist - 5/5 stars. 
• Moist House - 3/5 stars
• The Turkwy Runble - 4/5 stars
• Big Sur - 5/5 stars