kay_ne's reviews
77 reviews

Cress by Marissa Meyer

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adventurous emotional sad 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? Yes

3.75

The romance was not better than the second book, but I found that the pacing was. However, the age gaps between this and the other two pairings so far were concerning made me rethink this series (along with previous pairings) but have to keep in mind that this was written in the early to mid-2010s. Will be continuing for plot, but I hope the pairing in Winter will be better.

I found Cress to be annoying at times when she's daydreaming and her reactions and fantasies with Thorne, but she is young and naïve due to having been imprisoned on a satellite for nearly half her life. She may seem smart and mature with her hacker skills, but she's, I believe 16, years old and social environment was small until she was saved by Thorne and crew. 

Other than the uncomfortable and annoying romance, plot was good. I liked how things played out and when the crew reunited
minus Scarlet
after readings their povs. As always, Levana and her crew sucks and the ending was good. I found Kai's reaction
to being kidnapped funny and wonder what part he'll play in the next book.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Stars listed is the overall rating rounded down... below are individual ratings for each short story.
Spoiler for each reading is just so this review isn't a long block of text. 
Don't worry, spoilers are nested in the spoilers.

Overall: 4.375 stars

Note: I tried to list the content warnings but I can't remember all that happened in the short stories. So read when you're in a good place to. 

The Head | 3.75 stars
Really was not expecting how it ended
with the new self shoving the old self into the toilet like what the heck
and it was an interesting read for the first story of the book. It was also sort of humorous(?)- was not feeling any creepy or horror sort of vibe through it until the end. I was also not vibing with the concept since it's waste and the woman's family not taking her seriously like it's normal, but story as a whole was okay.

The Embodiment | 5 stars
This was a sad read. The ending really hit when
the driver (who was her first date) came to the room too late. If they kept in contact then maybe the baby could have been saved and she cried. But it wasn't his fault nor hers either, it's the weird dystopian world they're in needing a father instead of being able to raise the child on their own. :(

Cursed Bunny | 4.25 stars
The short story that the book is titled after! Beginning was very interesting with how families have their own profession that they specialize in. The main character's family's specialty is in the
occult- they call the objects they make as cursed fetishes, which I found weirdly worded. I assume it is because of translation. I'm not sure what would I could describe it.
The story does create tension/suspense on what would happen next to
the CEO's grandson after taking the cursed bunny lamp and once finding out about the symptoms this would've happened to the CEO himself and no one would've batted an eye because they would blame it on his old age.
The ending was interesting, sort of confusing as well since the grandfather (storyteller's not the CEO's)
is dead and would reappear to the storyteller. I think it has to do with not making the cursed objects for personal reasons which the grandfather did.
It was also sad with what happened to the
CEO's family (his son and his grandson), their lives been taken because of the lamp.

The Frozen Finger | 5 stars
The story was really good in my opinion. I am assuming that the protagonist is
the teacher that had an affair with Teacher Choi's ex-husband and then that lead Choi to commit suicide
. And the story is about
the weight of her guilt in causing it. There was also the ring, so I guess Lee marries Choi's ex-husband after they divorced and then something happened. It is sadly a cycle that happens to Lee.

Snare | 5 stars
This was a good read- really had me on the edge of my seat in what was happening and the way it was written reminded me of Grimm fairytales because of the subjects that the story has which can be upsetting to some. Much greed on the father's side and his children and wife were victims.

Goodbye, My Love | 5 stars
This made me tear up ;-; 

Scars | 4.75 stars
The story was much longer than the previous ones, about 50 or so pages. It was sad
the the village's fate lied in the hands of a crow monster and when reading it I thought it would be like the village's fate did not actually depend on the crow, but it did. I feel for the protagonist and wish him luck and hope he can find a place of his own in that world.

Home Sweet Home | 3.25 stars
The story was okay and there was a creepy factor with the
deaths of the people that wronged the landlord. Sad that her husband was cheating on her and threw away all of her hard work in the past seven years. She probably knows that the child was the one that caused the deaths though, and I think the child is a ghost? Or some being that the woman had decided to take care of as her own.

Ruler of the Winds and Sands | 4.75 stars
This was a cute story and I liked the ending. The
sorcerer is such a nice dude and the princess (grass plains) tried her best in doing what she thought was right. The prince (desert) really was a dick in the end :( glad she didn't end up with him.

Reunion | 3 stars
It was an okay read and it was sad. For me I did not understand or know how I felt about it when reading but it was an okay story to end the book. Though,
the bondage thing was a quick turn in the story. I was not expecting that but his reason for getting tied up was to feel like his been given permission to stay alive and that was heartbreaking to me.
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Aivali: A Story of Greeks and Turks in 1922 by Soloúp

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This was a great read and I teared up at some parts. It shows and depicts the pain on both sides.
The Shining by Stephen King

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

First time reading a Stephen King book and went in without any knowledge about The Shining (never watched the film and didn't look for a blurb before reading as it was difficult to read the back of the book I own). 

The first few chapters were a slog to get through- was not really feeling the book until ch. 5 - Phonebooth where, for me, it got interesting. At the beginning it starts in medias res and then are given a lot of info and some background on Jack Torrence and the following chapters give insight to the Torrence family and their struggles. The middle was a lot, but it did build up the tension for the fast action at the end. 

Given when this was written and also with what I know up to know about the world, I  didn't understand the references made such as that fastball thing and W. C. Fields' sentiments about children (that was really something to look up and be surprised at when one of the first things that pops up was a quote - "Children should neither be seen or heard from - ever again."). But quick searches helped me understand the context I suppose but that was only sometimes. There were also uses of the N-word to describe Hallorann which threw me off when reading. 

My favorite characters were by far Danny and Hallorann. By the end I also liked Wendy, but not Jack. Though, I suppose he is an easy character to hate/dislike because of his flaws. I did like how SK wrote Jack's character and how he's been affected by his alcoholism. Halfway in the book and towards the end, I didn't like him and would skim or skip whenever he has inner dialogue and would go paragraphs about things which I found boring and unnecessary at times.

On that note, in my opinion, this book could've been like 300 pages as there are pages of inner dialogue (which I sometimes enjoy) but some I found wasn't necessary and could've been shorted into a couple sentences or not have been included at all.

The epilogue was really cute.

Tldr;
- 2.75 stars
- Plot was okay, some parts I liked and other parts I didn't. Skipped a lot of the pages in the middle and end because of the long winded descriptions. (There is unfortunately uses of the N-word in describing Hallorann which for me knocked this book down from a 4 star etc that I was going to give)
- Favorite characters are Danny and Hallorann with Wendy at a close second.
- Would I read this again? No it's too long and quite boring even tho I liked the plot. 
- I'll give the movie a watch when I have the time. Also will give the book's sequel, Doctor Sleep, a try because Danny. 
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The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

First foray into reading something from H.P. Lovecraft and not knowing anything about him so why not read about Cthulu- well the story was good but honestly was not expecting
the racism and the members of the Cthulu cult to be minorities -- quote is from when Legrasse and his men bring the cultists back to headquarters, "..., the prisoners all proved to be men of a very low, mixed-blooded, and mentally aberrant type. Most were seamen, and a sprinkling of negroes and mulattoes..." -- I really don't know a lot about Lovecraft and currently can only chalk this up to times being different.
Was not really sure what I was expecting when I started reading it, but I guess it made me disappointed. Other than that, I'll try reading his other stories to see if I want to continue readings his works.
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Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

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

3.5

Parts with Cinder and Thorne were nice as well as
finding out about Scarlet's grandfather and how her family fits into the Lunar plot
but I could've done without the
romance between Wolf and Scarlet. It felt too forced and too quick. Out of the blue- I guess you can blame it on Wolf being an alpha and mutated wolf genes or whatever from Luna- but yea I was not invested in their romance compared to the first book with Cinder and Kai
Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0