isojem's reviews
15 reviews

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, and Physical abuse

Barbed Wire Heart by Tess Sharpe

challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

3.75

I did really quite like this, and I'm glad I read it, and I feel like she used all the space really well and I just, I really do like how she tells stories in a non-linear fashion. I do think this book walked so that The Girls I've Been/The Girl in Question could run.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racial slurs

Close Your Eyes by Nicci Cloke

dark 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? Yes

2.0

It's a fair twist, I'll give you that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gun violence, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

The Rules of Royalty by Cale Dietrich

hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

2.75

Really liked the main character, Jamie, a lot. He's very kind and sensible and I just loved that. Princess Diaries comparison doesn't hold up, though - not fleshed out enough, humorous enough, and there's only one mention of his cat.

Tangled Up In You by Christina Lauren

hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this, it was a cute riff off of Tangled and Ren (the MC) very much had Rapunzel energy and I just loved her.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gun violence

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

Honestly wonderful, no notes. 

Ending was perfect, even if it did make me go ‘fuck off!!!’ Out loud.

Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Really liked this, though it was fast in the beginning and fast at the end, and kind of sagged in the middle. No idea how to describe this. Had a lot to say about the humanity. Very peculiar in some ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Infertility, Xenophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Rape, and War

The Shelf by Helly Acton

hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.25

High-concept in a contemporary sort of way. Fun and fast-paced. Felt a bit too ... on the nose, at times, I guess? And like things were being done to path the way for the MC. Still, it was a relaxing read, and I like it when contemporary doesn't have romance at the centre. A re-read from a book I read in 2021.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

IDK, I like this one the less I think about it, but in that way where you feel kind of bad about that because the writing was technically good and I was relatively invested? I can't pinpoint why I felt let down.

Unbreakable by Mira Grant

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I really, really liked the concept of this, I liked all the detail, I thought it had a lot to say, and some good quotes, but I think it didn't really read like a novella? Like, it sort of read like the author was telling the story to herself to think it all through and get the bones down, and then didn't really fill it out? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death