julianaslater's reviews
30 reviews

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

adventurous informative mysterious tense 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

5.0

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

dark mysterious tense

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

5.0

Daughters of Atlas by Tyler Art

relaxing fast-paced

2.0

Too many characters and not enough time. Overall, this book would’ve benefited from fewer perspectives swaps and fewer characters to balance. The main cast is 7 different girls and because we spend time with all of them, none of them really get enough time for us to understand or care about them. This leads to similar issues with the romance aspects where neither Kennedy/Torry or Kennedy/Becca have any natural build up or reason for us to root for them. Same applies to Martha/Anil who get next to no on-page time together outside the hate crime. Overall, equally as chaotic as a real first year of college and not in a good way.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, and Suicide attempt

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

reflective 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

214 Palmer Street by Karen McQuestion

dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

A theoretically interesting book, but the mystery loses all steam by halfway through. The characters aren’t particularly compelling and the book feels bloated with unnecessary chapters. It’s worth finishing if you start it just to find out the mystery, but ultimately I wouldn’t recommend it.

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun
Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%.

DNFed this because the main characters weren’t really engaging and its romance just reminded me of better books. Would call this a hallmark romance for the taylor swift gays. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely not my thing

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

5.0

Can't Resist Her by Kianna Alexander
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but despite its interesting premise, the characters and their romance fell flat. The dialogue between the two romantic leads was clunky and awkward, but my main gripe was the choice to have the main characters have a romantic history from high school. It ultimately bogged down the interesting parts of their relationship and felt like a contrived excuse to have them start dating (something which could’ve easily occurred w/o that aspect). Strong start but the novel completely fumbles it’s titular romance to the point where I just couldn’t make myself read more.