haileyrt's reviews
332 reviews

Something Kindred by Ciera Burch

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

The Black Girl Survives in This One by Saraciea J. Fennell, Desiree S. Evans

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A great collection of YA horror and thriller. A lot of the stories have younger characters (a lot of high school characters) but I think the stories are still pretty interesting and enjoyable. I definitely think the last few stories would be really interesting longer stories or potential novels, and even though this took a bit longer to read than most short story since it was a pretty large collection of stories, I still enjoyed reading them all so much. Some of the stories I will admit were painfully YA, but others were still great with aging the stories too much. I love a good short story collection, and if you want to get into short horror stories for the spooky season, I definitely recommend if you like YA horror!

Out of Body by Nia Davenport

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I was able to meet Nia at the TeenBookCon in Houston this past spring, and she's so nice and sweet! It was a pleasure meeting her and I finally got to read her book. This book was a pretty good read. It has an interesting concept, at first it was a bit confusing but many of my questions were answered throughout the book, mind-swapping being the main focus of the book. I liked Megan, LC, and Jade's characters and seeing them develop throughout the novel, even though I felt like some of the story I was either a tiny bit confusing or predictable. Nonetheless I felt like I still enjoyed reading the novel and it was definitely a quick read to help me get out of a reading slump. Even though I was still confused about Tess and a lot of what Cognitec was doing, a sequel going into more depth of what they're trying to do would definitely be interesting. If you love a YA novel with twists and slight thriller elements, you'll love this book!

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

adventurous emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad slow-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

3.75

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

peak contemporary fictional nihilism 🤌🏽

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

a good, thought-provoking YA dystopian novel that got me out of a reading slump. still is as good as it was when i read it for the first time in middle school 🫶🏽

This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.

DNF @ p.177

I'm sorry to everyone who liked this book but I couldn't get into this 😭

First of all the mc being named Pippa....strike one. 

Secondly I felt like there was no way this was realistic because how tf did she get away with not only talking to Lily or whatever her name was family and friends but Sadegh's family and friends??? Where are her parents and why aren't they more involved with this project and her safety???? 

Thirdly I just thought this book was so painfully YA. I'm 20 and the dialogue and the characters in this book...😬 I haven't been a teenager for almost two years and this dialogue was soooooo cringeeee. 

If you liked this book, good for you! This hook just wasn't a book I was hoping to find out what happened and return to. It put me in a two week slump and it would've been finished by now if I really wanted to finish it :/

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

3.75

This was a decent book about Briseis moving to her descendants old home and uncovering mysterious secrets and uncovering a hidden The Heart plant. People are after this plant and to save her mother, she must find all 6 pieces of the Heart and give them to Hecate. Even though I thought the beginning and middle were slow and took a while to get to the point and explain in greater depth what was going on and the conflict, I felt like the ending happened all at once. It definitely could've been stretched out instead of the main conflict being the last few pages. But I do understand why it was the last few chapters since the next book starts off following the first book's ending. I just wish the beginning and middle were less long and the ending was more spread out, since it did take me a while to get into the book but I found it more enjoyable about 60% of the way through the book. Can't wait to read the next book!