hellokatya's reviews
169 reviews

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

this was a very good read - super easy to get through, and felt like a palette cleanser. 
only complaint is it felt a bit too YA for the mature topics that were in it, hence the lower rating, but overall i thoroughly enjoyed it and the ending was really nice! 
highly recommend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Dementia, Car accident, Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Blood

Outlawed by Anna North

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

i absolutely adored this book. a beautifully written and developed story of love, loss, friendship, and family. please please read this book. definitely one i’ll be recommending to anyone who will listen.
bring some tissue though
3.75★ upon reread

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Abandonment

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, War

Sundial by Catriona Ward

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

the only reason this doesn’t have a 5 star rating is because it did have some lulls in it — otherwise, this book is beautiful. would highly recommend. 
beautiful tale of mother and daughter, of sisters, and escaping the path that’s been laid out for you. so gorgeous please read it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Pregnancy

Minor: Kidnapping

In the Miso Soup by Ryū Murakami

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.25

i really enjoyed the guide and introduction. it felt like a friend giving u inside information and really helped my understanding of the book. 
i do wish it had focused more on the relationship, more intimately, than it did. it felt very glossed over and not the focal point of the story. definitely should’ve been a longer and more thorough story. 
overall, i did it enjoy it, but it was a bit hard to comprehend at points - had to reread numerous times - but i think that’s also a skill issue as i’m not used to this particular style. 
would recommend

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Abandonment

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

i had really high hopes for this book, but it kind of fell flat. 
it felt like he was trying too hard to put as many plot twists as he could possibly make into the book, and the big reveal muddied the plot a lot. it took a bit for my brain to catch up with the new info and it ruined the reading experience for me. 
too much of a “gotcha” for my taste. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting

Minor: Child abuse, Misogyny

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

thank you ms britney
i loved this book and getting to hear what happened from the source. must have felt so liberating to put this all out there and behind you. i love u happy healing 

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.5

i wanted to like this book; i went in so excited but it really just fell flat. i had read in someone else’s review about the blog posts being out of place, and considering there wasn’t much done with them — and it spoiled the biggest twist — i am also not a fan. i feel like the story being told on chronological order, through the unreliable perspective of an 8 year old would’ve served the book a lot better. saddened to see the loss of the potential it had.
 try hard to pick back up once i’d put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body horror, Vomit, Grief

Minor: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

this book took me a long time to finish, i just could not get myself to pick it back up once i’d stopped. 
around the 60-70% mark it got a lot better, but its a fight to get there.
i’ve read some grady hendrix before, and i’d definitely say he has much better books to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting

Minor: Emotional abuse

Black Ambrosia (Paperbacks from Hell) by Elizabeth Engstrom
Did not finish book. Stopped at 24%.

i wanted to like it so badly, but i just could not get into it. 
maybe one day i’ll come back to it, but for now, it’s just not what i’m wanting