haileyrt's reviews
332 reviews

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

3.5

This isn't one of my favorite Angie Thomas books, but it was still a good read. It took my a while to really connect with the story and actually feel myself getting truly immersed into the characters and the story. I did enjoy the story despite it being a tiny bit boring, but seeing Bri defend herself, stand up against the racism and prejudice she faced as a student, and the struggles with her family and her dream of being a rapper was pretty interesting to read about. I feel like I would've enjoyed this if I was younger and a teenager, since this is YA and a lot of the dialogue and characters are younger, but I always find it hard to read teenage dialogue written by adults since it's always a little, I don't know, cringey?? Like it's not necessarily bad, it's just actual teenagers vs. how adults write teenagers are a bit different, and the pop culture references we very much there. 

Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

I actually quite liked this book, even though I'm not a huge fan of spy novels and films. I feel like at the very beginning, it was a tiny bit hard to get carried into the story, but the beginning really sets the groundwork for the plot and the story, so as hard as it may be for some readers to stay interested in the story, it definitely picks up later in the book! I actually enjoyed the story and thought everything as far as the beginning, middle, end, the characters, and the plot were wrapped together nicely, even though it may seem a bit slow the first few chapters. Even though I was rooting for Ross and finding her mom, the ending was pretty unexpected but I feel like in the beginning and throughout the book you can kind of see how Ross' mom feels about her and that the ending definitely does make a little since in the sense that she's really trying to keep Ross under her control and prevent her from being away from her. I didn't really expect the romance element Devroe, but the endingggg....wow. This just proves you should never trust a man 🫣 I would really like to see the next book since there's no way Kayvion would end the book like this LIKE GIRL. SERIES EXPEDITIOUSLY!!

Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

I enjoyed this book despite going into it thinking it was a full fledged body horror novel. Not really much happened as far as "thrilling" until the last 40 pages, but I still thought it was an interesting read. I really enjoyed the narrator's story and following everything she and Helen, Lilith, and the other women in the book went through with Holistik and Victor. Although I had my suspicions of Holistik, I didn't expect the ending to happen the way it did. I really enjoyed the writing of this story and how each character played a roll in the narrator's life. I feel like the flow of the story was well balanced and I didn't feel like it ended abruptly or was too long since the beginning and middle set the tone and the groundwork for the ending. I wished the story was a bit more complex in terms of horror or thriller since it gave more of a literary fiction vibe to me, but I still did enjoy the story. 

We Lie Here by Rachel Howzell Hall

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Initially I thought the plot of this book was quite interesting, however it took a while for me to fully indulge myself into this book. I felt like even though the world building, setting the stage for the plot, the story, and the characters along with the conflict of the book was very much there and done well, however, since I felt like nothing really mind boggling and extreme really happened until 80% of the book, and things didn't really start to get interesting enough for me to not put the book down until 90%. I feel like the ending definitely could've been dragged out a bit longer instead of the abrupt ending were so much was happening all at once. I also felt like the middle was filler for Yara trying to figure things out and things were getting good but the clues and everything going on didn't really quite point fingers to who or what was causing what was happening. I feel like the ending of this book was really good, despite it happening super quickly and everything the book took you through being thrown in your face all at once, but if you enjoy a slow burn thriller novel with twists and you don't really know until the end what's TRULY going on, you'll enjoy this book. 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense slow-paced

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

3.5

After finishing this book, I finally know now why so many people thought that Juniper was very insufferable. I still really have no clear way how I feel about this book, especially since it's satirical, and being used to reading books where the character is purposefully created to be very flawed and have a weird "feel bad for me" thing about their characters, this book is definitely different than most of the books that I typically read. 

Usually a lot of books are made for the main characters to be incredibly well liked, or purposely created to be the unlikable MC. Or, no hate to any authors, they make a character to where they try to make the character likable, but they really aren't, or you have a character that everybody likes or everybody hates, there is no in between. This book kind of in the middle ground of the likable character and the unlikable character. 

In my opinion it wasn't necessarily hard to read, it was hard to root for Juniper for some of the things that she did and how she's portrayed throughout the book. Even though I I understand how it feels to get limelight stolen from you from somebody who better than you all the time, but I think it was really weird that she was trying to reclaim herself multiple times and especially at the end. I also thought it was really childish of her to "clap back" the student commented about what was happening between her and Athena and embarrassed her by commenting on her writing and digging into a literal teenager. 

I also thought that she was feeding into some of the stereotypes a lot, and really played the victim multiple times throughout the story. I also thought it was really weird that the only way she was able to get inspired or finally write about something was if: 1. she got her writing or it was inspired by one of Athena's stories, 2. she was inspired by the kids that she mentored, and 3. she wanted to redeem herself from what had happened to her at the end. She calls herself a talented writer yet she can't really even have her own ideas without having to write a story based off of what someone else around her wrote, which is super annoying because there's a difference between being inspired to write a story and completely ripping off someone else's work and putting your own spin on it and calling it yours. 

I also think it was really weird that after she came out with the novella and someone who will rename nameless because I don't want to spoil the story, release the book based off of everything that happened between her, Juniper, and Athena, and then instead of just coming out in the open, which usually always goes wrong for her, she decides to write a book about her redemption and clearing her name, which I think is incredibly unnecessary and unrealistic. Like nobody is reading multiple books to catch up on author drama that really doesn't matter??? Like I get the idea of where she's coming from but she also has to understand that when she comes out with something it's really boring, unoriginal, and lacks any real substance. 

The problem isn't the fact that nobody cares about white people's stories, it's just that sometimes they lack representation and deep understanding between their characters, or have already been written about. More people want to hear stories from people of color nowadays because the way that they express their stories is a lot more interesting and impactful. Seeing authors and characters that look like us make it easier for us to relate to their stories and enjoy what we're reading. 

I see the way in which Athena was wrong for what she did but let's be honest, this book is one of the books where it's really hard to pick between who's right and who's wrong, and I really don't think that there is a right or wrong answer. It all just comes from different peoples perspectives and it's a really interesting thought peace on how people are treated in the publishing industry racially and provides a decent way to express how a lot of people feel about upcoming diverse voices and how a white woman's perspective relates to this take of only wanting diverse voices to be heard. 

This book is definitely very different from the books that I usually read, and it's unfortunate but I do understand why so many people stopped reading it and it's solely because of Juniper's behavior throughout the book that made it very hard to want to read it more. I feel like this book isn't necessarily supposed to be a literal context, it's supposed to be a satirical take on what's going on in the diverse publishing industry and how a white woman author is dealing with her more successful friend who is an Asian woman, is dealing with the fact that the diverse people around her are becoming more successful than she is, and what she does to redeem herself in a world that is quick to make her seem like a bad person, whether she really is one is the reader's choice. 

Let me say this, I don't condone any of the things that Juniper did throughout the book, but taking account to what's going on in the world right now and her experiences I do understand where she's coming from but I don't agree with her or her beliefs, if that makes sense. This book is unlike a lot of the books that I've ever read from Kuang but I did think it was quite interesting despite how some parts were a little bit boring and hard to get through  

Just a Girl by Alyssa Cole

adventurous funny hopeful tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

“When no one understands, that’s usually a good sign that you’re wrong.”

I genuinely did not go into this book expecting anything I read to happen (I just skimmed the description and went in blind) but as long as it took me to get through the dialogue and pin together the flashbacks, this was actually a good story despite it being a bit predictable.

The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert

emotional hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Not my favorite Talia Hibbert book, mainly since it was solely about Rahul and Jasmine's conflict about their love and friendship with each other and not much else. It was a bit hard to stay interested in this book since a lot of it was pure angst, pining, conflict with their friendship vs. the love they have for each other but not wanting to damage one another, and smut (lol). The plot isn't incredibly present besides two people who've been friends for seven years become roommates after one person's living situation changes and then they get into a friends with benefits situation since one of them "doesn't do relationships" and then conflict arises when both of them realize that they have intense feelings for each other and that's really it. 

Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

I NEED VOLUME SIX NEOW

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

4.0