katewutz's reviews
1204 reviews

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

I don’t know if it’s just that I have read too many copycats, but this….fell flat for me.

I think it might be because I know Feyre doesn’t end up with Tamlin? I didn’t feel the chemistry there, didn’t feel like I understood why she was attracted to him, why on EARTH he would be attracted to her…it didn’t make sense. Plus she did a lot of things that felt maybe true for the character but were not the acts of a person with a functioning pre-frontal cortex.

The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling

4.0

Really fun, and it was interesting how she kept the tension without having any arguments between Bowen and Tamsyn. Shorter than the others, and I would have loved a little more depth to the plot—

Declan’s return felt a little unearned to me, and how the brooch fixed everything was confusing. HOW DID A GHOST PLACE A REQUEST?!??

Overall a fun Christmas-y read. 

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

challenging dark slow-paced

• 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? No

Hoo boy, IDK how I feel about a hypnosis plot! Like…is this the way hypnosis works? Feels fake. Also, did Frank rape them during those lost hours?! But overall I didn’t guess the twist and it was pretty creepy.

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Jaysus SO MANY FEELINGS 

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

No plot, just vibes. Which isn’t a problem, to be clear. 

For the Throne by Hannah Whitten

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

Loved this book…those two deserve each other, though. 

Bad Luck Charm by Julie Johnson

lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Wow, so, domineering men are not my thing in romance! I get the appeal of a teensy tiny smartass woman not taking shit from very tall, broad jerks who turn out to actually have a soft spot for said woman. I’ve seen/read that done well—notably Mimi Matthews’ The Belle of Belgrave Square, though that is slightly different. 

But Graham Graves….wow. With Gwen’s history of violent men and sexual assault, you would think she would run screaming from him. These are not the actions of a guy in love. Is this man Edward Cullen/Christian Grey-coded? Probably. Is “surly bodyguard” a trope I’ve just never encountered before? Yes. And it’s not my thing. Now I know. 

Also…CREEPY THAT

HE FELL IN LOVE WITH A 10 YEAR OLD AT THE AGE OF 15.

 

That said, the mystery was interesting enough (and the spicy scenes were spicy enough) to keep me reading. Not a total loss, and I’ll try the next one—Cade seems sufficiently different from Graham, even though we are probably going to be edging into copaganda territory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Did not finish book.

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious

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

4.5

A tiny bit slow, and I could do with less of Eammon growling about not letting the forest take Red when

CLEARLY IT WAS NOT GOING TO

but I get it. A great read, heart-pounding and romantic. I do love how Hannah Whitten writes her romance and how the couples end up fighting side by side. 

Other things: 

• We love a Shadow Babygirl instead of a Shadow Daddy
• ”I am for the Wolf, and the Wolves are for the Wilderwood” made me want to cry, laugh, and punch the air at the same time. Absolute chills.
• This book had little issues, but honestly I’m so obsessed I want to tattoo both the quote above and the Bargainer’s Mark on my body.  

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

challenging dark mysterious 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

I cannot rate this. It was a mindfuck, and I know I only understood about a third of it. It’s probably genius, and I need to read it again to understand more of it….which is fun, a book that rewards multiple readings. I’m not the best at codes or riddles, so I was focused on the metatextual elements—a labyrinth that constantly points you back to the center, which is the author and the very nature of fiction.

The Navidson Record doesn’t exist, Johnny Truant doesn’t exist, so where did all of this come from? Where fiction always comes from—the person whose name is on the front of the book. It should feel like a betrayal, since we do expect an author to help us suspend our disbelief and to build a world that feels real. But how can something this dense and this deep NOT feel real, even as Danielewski is giving the game away? It’s like the structural engineer in Karen’s “What Some Have Thought” talking about load-bearing walls. Ultimately, it stands because things in fiction stand if the author says they do. The hOuSe exists within this book because Danielewski says it does, until he tears it down. Every time I asked myself “but how is that POSSIBLE?” the answer was always, “Because it’s in a book someone wrote.” Danielewski created a whole world that looks enough like ours—celebrities and all—to fool us, then insists on showing us there’s nothing behind the curtain. It’s a weird kind of nihilism at the end. Like, is the book as devoid of everything real as the labyrinth? I think we have to say no, but explaining why that’s not true gets at the heart of what fiction even is and why we tell stories.

Don’t read this unless you want to be thinking about it for a while… 

Another thought, I think Danielewski proves with this book that fiction itself is less reliant on rules than we think. Readers can take some post-modernism, they can take two storylines happening simultaneously on one page. In a way, this is a more effective demonstration of that than Joyce, who is deeply impenetrable from the jump. Compared to Joyce, Danielewski gives us a story you can dive as deep into as you like and still get something out of it. If you just read this book lightly, skimming the academic parody and not bothering with the appendices or exhibits, you still get an interesting book. You’ll want to go back, probably, and look at all of that, but it’s up to you entirely.