joannemae's reviews
206 reviews

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton

emotional sad 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? No

2.0

This is an important story to tell, but between the simplistic telling-and-not-showing writing style and the fact that it’s based on the author’s grandmother who was uncomfortable with the story being told… yeah it’s a pass for me.

It’s hard to criticize a book so heavily based on real people. Who am I to criticize someone’s thought process? Writing wise, the author did not make it easy to connect with the characters. The writing was lackluster, but I felt compelled to finish because overall story was important. The beginning of the book definitely shines, but it starts dragging endlessly in the middle and stops way too abruptly at the end.

Anyway, it was a solid 3.5 before I read the author’s note. There’s something so odd to me about blatantly sharing that the subject of your book did not want this story to be told…

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

lighthearted fast-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? It's complicated

3.0

Nothing like mindless fluff to give you the dopamine boost you need to keep living <3

Until, of course, the book disappointed me and slapped on a

miscommunication trope. Are you kidding me? They’re both in their 30s like… get a GRIP. I have never EVER looked a child in the eyes and thought, yep, this is a trustworthy source of information.

The False Flat by Melissa Collings

hopeful sad medium-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

Since she likes numbers so much, Pen gets a 0 which, coincidentally, is how much I cared for her. Normally, I can’t stand a book with an MC I hate this much but… idk this book makes it work.

Everything else is very decently solid. It’s sickeningly sweet, tragic, and made me cry PLUS features a found family.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Made my tummy hurt. I had to take a tums and lay down after finishing.

This book was haunting, eerie, and devastating in a very resigned way. This book was definitely hard to read but equally hard to put down. It's truly the slowest of all slow-burns, so if you're expecting anything else, you'll be disappointed. But the way Ishiguro writes is so subtle and understated and it creates such an odd atmosphere... it's like you know you're supposed to be deeply uncomfortable, but you can't quite figure out why.

"[We've] loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever." *heavy breathing* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

In Our Likeness by Bryan VanDyke

mysterious medium-paced

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

1.5

A beautiful cover and interesting concept just wasted on an unsatisfying and dull book.
 
Graham's weird obsession with manic pixie dream girl Nessie being referred to as a "crush" is so creepy and off-putting (

especially in his role in the company... he literally looks up her passwords and MEMORIZES them and then later looks up her address. JAIL TIME!!!

), it makes me truly wonder why I bother with male authors.
 
This book truly had so much potential-- kept waiting on it to take a horror/thriller approach.

I mean, this Elon/Zuckerberg/Bezos freak of a man is rewriting the world to his image!!! How insane and cool is that???

but it kept letting me down over and over. The author could have said so much about AI but ended up saying nothing at all. The universe really gives the coolest ideas to the lamest of men.
 
The best part about this book is when

I'm-a-nice-guy-boohoo-why-won't-girls-date-me Graham doesn't end up with really-only-here-to-be-sexy-and-fix-men's-problems Nessie.

 
Also, why is he calling his mom by her first name... Sorry if you do that, but consider stopping. 

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

challenging reflective slow-paced

4.0

Difficult and feral. I felt more than I understood.

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

I usually love a dual timeline story, but Melina’s parts were a drag to get through and I often found myself praying on her downfall.

Hide by Kiersten White

adventurous 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

2.5

I would never trust anyone who takes me to a secondary location, but maybe that’s just me.

More thriller than horror.

The Will of the Many by James Islington

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Is the main character a Mary Sue? Yes. Is Vis absolutely deranged and unlikeable? Yes. Does his convictions make any sense???? Barely.

In fact, here's a list of the book's crimes:

• Daddy Tellimus is dumb. Like straight up dumb. Grief makes you do insane things, but he's dumb.
• So you're telling me Ianax is THE best swordfighter in the whole nation and Vis is not only new to this style of swordfighting, but also only had minimal amount of prep. And yet... Vis... didn't... get... crushed??? And I'm supposed to believe that this is... believable? Okay.
• So you're telling me not-chess is Belli's thing and yet she's easily tripped up by a little goading?
• ALSO, Vis is able to beat Belli in not-chess because he promises to pledge to Governance... but why??? Why does that matter? Why would Belli care about that when she's in Military?
• Vis is actually really dumb, honestly. For someone supposedly so smart, he's just... not.
• The exploration into themes of power and classism is very shallowly explored. Okay so the lower class stays lower class while the upper class get stronger day by day? Are we in Intro to Capitalism 101?
• I'm not saying that a white, male author can't be aware of social issues, but the way this was written makes it abundantly clear that he has a very, VERY narrow perspective on this.

But whatever magic Islington put into this book has absolutely bewitched me and he made it work 100%. For whatever reason, I was hooked and devoured this book the way I devoured books back in middle school (aka the good days) and for that alone, this warrants a decent rating. Because he wrote a book with such a genuinely amazing and well thought-out plot (AND insane world-building. I haven't felt this engrossed in a book's world since Hunger Games), it's easy to gloss over everything else that's wrong with the book. Needless to say, I'll be reading the rest of the series.

Vis, I'm praying on your downfall tho.

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

funny lighthearted 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? Yes

3.0

For a book containing drug dealing, drug addiction, death, kidnapping, a divorce, and *gasp* gifted child burnout, you'd think this wouldn't be a cozy book, but it is. And it balances being cozy while discussing all of the above with a decent amount of tact and poise.

This book is very cozy and very very very quirky which could a plus for some, but wasn't really hitting for me. Towards the end of the book, it even transcended quirky and landed straight into absurd territory.