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koiketto's reviews
142 reviews
Squire by Nadia Shammas
adventurous
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
In: A Graphic Novel by Will McPhail
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
2.0
I'm gonna be honest - the ending kind of saved this book. I mean, it freaked me the fuck out, but at least it did SOMETHING. The majority of the time, reading this book felt like nothing. There's this girl named Cady, and her family is super rich and well-established, and every year they go to the family island in Massachusetts to hang out and be cool and perfect together. Except last year, she conked her head on some rocks in the water and suffered really bad brain damage, so now she has migraines and can't remember anything from last summer. (Which, I'm not gonna lie, that sucks.)
Cady then promptly spends around 70-80% of the book sitting around on the island doing absolutely fuck all. She gets drunk and lays around and listens to her aunts and her granddad bicker, and moans over and over and OVER again about how much everything sucks.
A majority of this moping time is spent with the two cousins her age, plus her aunt's husband's kid who she's kind of been having a fling with and is also very notably Indian and not white. She calls the group of them the Liars, and the Liars don't do much but lay around and mope and talk about everything that sucks. Yeah, eventually they do something about it, but still. Watching a bunch of rich white people sit around and bemoan everything while the one non-white person occasionally calls them out is not particularly enjoyable. Occasionally, the one non-white person (who, btw, is called Gat), will be like, "hey guys, your granddad sucks and everything about your way of life sucks," and everyone will be like "why are you so mean :(((((" and then just kind of go back to whatever they were doing before.
Again, this is why I say the ending of the book kind of saved it. I don't want to give any spoilers, but it was nice to see that they finally did SOMETHING. Even if it didn't turn out great, it was still SOMETHING. So yeah, two stars instead of one, just for having an ending that kind of tied everything up.
Oh, and before I end? The writing style SUCKED. It was so weird, and at times there were passages that would be interchangeable with a semi-popular fic on AO3. Seriously, not it.
Cady then promptly spends around 70-80% of the book sitting around on the island doing absolutely fuck all. She gets drunk and lays around and listens to her aunts and her granddad bicker, and moans over and over and OVER again about how much everything sucks.
A majority of this moping time is spent with the two cousins her age, plus her aunt's husband's kid who she's kind of been having a fling with and is also very notably Indian and not white. She calls the group of them the Liars, and the Liars don't do much but lay around and mope and talk about everything that sucks. Yeah, eventually they do something about it, but still. Watching a bunch of rich white people sit around and bemoan everything while the one non-white person occasionally calls them out is not particularly enjoyable. Occasionally, the one non-white person (who, btw, is called Gat), will be like, "hey guys, your granddad sucks and everything about your way of life sucks," and everyone will be like "why are you so mean :(((((" and then just kind of go back to whatever they were doing before.
Again, this is why I say the ending of the book kind of saved it. I don't want to give any spoilers, but it was nice to see that they finally did SOMETHING. Even if it didn't turn out great, it was still SOMETHING. So yeah, two stars instead of one, just for having an ending that kind of tied everything up.
Oh, and before I end? The writing style SUCKED. It was so weird, and at times there were passages that would be interchangeable with a semi-popular fic on AO3. Seriously, not it.
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.25
On an emotional level, I would normally rate this much higher, but on a technical level, there are a few things in this book that are a bit lacking.
I picked up Patron Saints of Nothing because I wanted to learn about the Philippines through a human, narrative lense rather than an informative one, and Randy Ribay did not disappoint. It's pretty clear even from this book that he's still really early in his writing career, but this book provides a good bone structure for what his writing could become. There's a passionate sense of prose and deep, emotional characters that Ribay really put everything he had into exploring, but some parts about it just felt a bit...corny. Like, the heart was there clearly, but the delivery was just a bit like, "okay, I've read this same sentiment at least eight times before. No need to get melodramatic." I don't know, maybe that's just the YA speaking.
Anyways, Patron Saints of Nothing follows Filipino-American Jay Reguero during the spring break of his final year of high school. Jay hasn't been back to the Phillipines since he was eight, but when he gets notice that his favorite cousin, Jun, died under suspicious circumstances, he goes back to the Phillipines on a mission to discover what really happened to his cousin.
The entire book functions a bit as an elegy to the lost. It speaks on the Filipinos swept away as faceless casualties of the war on drugs, on the cultural and identity crisis faced by our protagonist, Jay, and a country that most Americans tend not to think about. It's a very soulful book, and I can't wait to see what Ribay puts out next.
I picked up Patron Saints of Nothing because I wanted to learn about the Philippines through a human, narrative lense rather than an informative one, and Randy Ribay did not disappoint. It's pretty clear even from this book that he's still really early in his writing career, but this book provides a good bone structure for what his writing could become. There's a passionate sense of prose and deep, emotional characters that Ribay really put everything he had into exploring, but some parts about it just felt a bit...corny. Like, the heart was there clearly, but the delivery was just a bit like, "okay, I've read this same sentiment at least eight times before. No need to get melodramatic." I don't know, maybe that's just the YA speaking.
Anyways, Patron Saints of Nothing follows Filipino-American Jay Reguero during the spring break of his final year of high school. Jay hasn't been back to the Phillipines since he was eight, but when he gets notice that his favorite cousin, Jun, died under suspicious circumstances, he goes back to the Phillipines on a mission to discover what really happened to his cousin.
The entire book functions a bit as an elegy to the lost. It speaks on the Filipinos swept away as faceless casualties of the war on drugs, on the cultural and identity crisis faced by our protagonist, Jay, and a country that most Americans tend not to think about. It's a very soulful book, and I can't wait to see what Ribay puts out next.