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kt2e56's reviews
116 reviews
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Creepy and unnerving but a bit too brief. I think I get what the ending was going for but I wish there was just a bit more of the story. I don’t need things spelled out for me. I just would have liked to get to know the characters a bit more.
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Part love story, part Cronenbergian nightmare, I think I’ll be thinking about this book for a very long time. I’m still not sure if I fully understand what happened but I can still feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
2.5
This is the second book I read from this author and I have some of the same problems with this that I had with The It Girl.
Again, Ware is good at setting up a plot but she gets so wrapped up in making sure there are twists and turns that her details don’t always pan out and her characters don’t seem believable or worse, she makes up new traits or details that she mushes in last minute to fill in the holes but make zero sense with the characters we’re trying to get to know and invest ourselves in.
Speaking of the characters, all of them (sans Tom) are AWFUL. I really stopped caring about what happened to any of them because they were all just the worst.
Her writing of Flo also felt mean spirited and fatphobic. Like we get it. She’s wearing clothes that would only look good on apparent waif goddess Clare. You don’t need to keep talking about Flo’s “rolls” or “excess skin.”
Nora as a POV character was frustrating because she really wasn’t sympathetic. Yes, getting pregnant and having an abortion and being dumped all at once as a teenager but must suck but the author (I guess in an attempt to seem more progressive on her handling of abortion which I can’t fault her for, it IS a healthy attitude) kept insisting to us that the pregnancy and abortion weren’t a big deal, she was happy with her choice and had zero regrets about it so then why still fixate on a stupid teenage boy who did a stupid and cruel thing that teenage boys frequently do? For TEN years!? Like I could understand that level of trauma over a breakup of James was abusive but up until she believed he dumped her…he was fine? Annoying and a try hard. But fine. Again…just a typical “edgy” teenage boy who seemed to at least treat others very well.
I also don’t buy for even a second that Nora was ever an actress let alone the understudy for the lead role in a play like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Whether she was up Clare’s ass as a teenager or not, there’s no way someone that shy and awkward and who HATED attention would have even auditioned. This sounds like a petty gripe but I’m pointing it out because it seems like the author liked the idea of Nora and James falling in love while starring in the school play together even if it made ZERO sense for the characters. This is far from the only instance of this but it’s a noticeable one. That’s a problem to me. An author should have a better grasp on characterization.
Another example is that Nora is supposedly a successful crime novelist. Okay, fine. But this is only briefly mentioned once at the beginning of the book (and again if she was so successful, you’d think the other characters would have heard of her or her books), she shows ZERO signs of being able to solve any kind of mystery or be good at reading people (or having really any other kind of skill that you think would make for a successful mystery author) until suddenly at the very end when the explanation for everything is shoe-horned in and the killer is revealed.
The “how” and “why” of the murder at the center of all of this also feel a bit messy. There’s some gaping plot holes in how the killer was able to pull everything off and the reasoning behind it just also feels weirdly childish and doesn’t line up with the character we met (despite the author insisting on it by having characters go “Ah, yes! Of COURSE!” again and again at each reveal).
I know it sounds like I hated this book. I really didn’t. It was entertaining and a breeze to get through. I just am disappointed when I see an author with such potential sort of flounder a bit. I’d say this is a good Beach read or cozy rainy weekend read but I don’t think this book was memorable enough or good enough for me to ever really think of again once I’m done posting this review.
Again, Ware is good at setting up a plot but she gets so wrapped up in making sure there are twists and turns that her details don’t always pan out and her characters don’t seem believable or worse, she makes up new traits or details that she mushes in last minute to fill in the holes but make zero sense with the characters we’re trying to get to know and invest ourselves in.
Speaking of the characters, all of them (sans Tom) are AWFUL. I really stopped caring about what happened to any of them because they were all just the worst.
Her writing of Flo also felt mean spirited and fatphobic. Like we get it. She’s wearing clothes that would only look good on apparent waif goddess Clare. You don’t need to keep talking about Flo’s “rolls” or “excess skin.”
Nora as a POV character was frustrating because she really wasn’t sympathetic. Yes,
I also don’t buy for even a second that Nora was ever an actress let alone the understudy for the lead role in a play like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Whether she was up Clare’s ass as a teenager or not, there’s no way someone that shy and awkward and who HATED attention would have even auditioned. This sounds like a petty gripe but I’m pointing it out because it seems like the author liked the idea of Nora and James falling in love while starring in the school play together even if it made ZERO sense for the characters. This is far from the only instance of this but it’s a noticeable one. That’s a problem to me. An author should have a better grasp on characterization.
Another example is that Nora is supposedly a successful crime novelist. Okay, fine. But this is only briefly mentioned once at the beginning of the book (and again if she was so successful, you’d think the other characters would have heard of her or her books), she shows ZERO signs of being able to solve any kind of mystery or be good at reading people (or having really any other kind of skill that you think would make for a successful mystery author) until suddenly at the very end when the explanation for everything is shoe-horned in and the killer is revealed.
The “how” and “why” of the murder at the center of all of this also feel a bit messy. There’s some gaping plot holes in how the killer was able to pull everything off and the reasoning behind it just also feels weirdly childish and doesn’t line up with the character we met (despite the author insisting on it by having characters go “Ah, yes! Of COURSE!” again and again at each reveal).
I know it sounds like I hated this book. I really didn’t. It was entertaining and a breeze to get through. I just am disappointed when I see an author with such potential sort of flounder a bit. I’d say this is a good Beach read or cozy rainy weekend read but I don’t think this book was memorable enough or good enough for me to ever really think of again once I’m done posting this review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder
Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Minor: Fatphobia, Abortion, Pregnancy
A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Ugh. Admittedly, romance really isn’t my thing but this came highly recommended to me because I’m a mythology nerd so I thought I’d give it a shot.
It just was so, so bad.
First of all, the author did zero research about Greek mythology. She knew the bare bones (Hades is God of the Underworld, Persephone is Demeter’s daughter, etc.) but wasted so many opportunities to incorporate mythology and instead just kept reaching for the lowest hanging fruit. This extends to her world-building which was just so unbelievably dull and also didn’t fully make sense. It’s mentioned like ONCE that Hades owns a coffee shop called I believe The Café. Why would Hades own a coffee shop? Aphrodite has a competing nightclub to Hades’ called La Rose. Groundbreaking. They live in a city called New Athens. Yawn. Everything feels like a shapeless gray blob instead of full of life or originality.
The biggest issue of the book was of course, Persephone. She’s whiny, needy, and just so deeply foolish but because she’s a Mary Sue, we’re supposed to think she’s perfect at everything and so brave! and headstrong! and a bad bitch yas queen slay! There’s zero chemistry between her and Hades (more on that later). She’s both a student (who never goes to school) and has an “internship” at a news outlet where she’s literally told she can write whatever and get top billing with zero critiques or limits. I don’t think the author knows what an internship is…or what a journalist does. Also WHY is Persephone a journalist? Is it just because that’s the romance heroine job du jour? Because she’s awful at it. Her first assignment and she’s sleeping with her subject and allowing her feelings for him (good or bad, depending on her mood) to cloud her abilities to tell an honest story. And again, she is PRAISED for this. We’re supposed to believe she’s this phenomenal “investigative journalist” (who has the savvy and investigatory senses of a doorknob) even though she had literally no idea what she’s doing. Also apparently she has a passion for baking that only comes up like once. Which is wild because that makes more sense for the Goddess of Spring! Baking and creating things is a more logical career choice than “investigative journalist.”
There are zero real stakes here because the magical elements (including gods and goddesses’ true forms) keep being neglected until necessary for the plot. So many of the gods and goddesses seem pretty powerless. Why set your story in “a modern Ancient mythological Greece” if you’re not going to do literally anything with that aspect of your story?
Also what IS the setting? Real world places and people don’t exist in this world but both Clash of the Titans movies do? What?
And Persephone can only become a true goddess and unlock her powers after being dicked down by Hades? How is that empowering for this allegedly plucky, brave heroine who keeps insisting she doesn’t need him or his help yet literally can’t accomplish ANYTHING unless Hades (or his dick) does it for her?
I truly could go on and on and on about why this book is such a hot mess. I guess the sex scenes were okay? Standard and no different than what you’d find on r/dirtypenpals but they’re not Fifty Shades level awful.
Idk I wanted to like this but I’m just going to reread Lore Olympus (which I can not overstate was what this book is almost a direct copy of only well written and with a genuinely beautiful love story at the middle of it).
It just was so, so bad.
First of all, the author did zero research about Greek mythology. She knew the bare bones (Hades is God of the Underworld, Persephone is Demeter’s daughter, etc.) but wasted so many opportunities to incorporate mythology and instead just kept reaching for the lowest hanging fruit. This extends to her world-building which was just so unbelievably dull and also didn’t fully make sense. It’s mentioned like ONCE that Hades owns a coffee shop called I believe The Café. Why would Hades own a coffee shop? Aphrodite has a competing nightclub to Hades’ called La Rose. Groundbreaking. They live in a city called New Athens. Yawn. Everything feels like a shapeless gray blob instead of full of life or originality.
The biggest issue of the book was of course, Persephone. She’s whiny, needy, and just so deeply foolish but because she’s a Mary Sue, we’re supposed to think she’s perfect at everything and so brave! and headstrong! and a bad bitch yas queen slay! There’s zero chemistry between her and Hades (more on that later). She’s both a student (who never goes to school) and has an “internship” at a news outlet where she’s literally told she can write whatever and get top billing with zero critiques or limits. I don’t think the author knows what an internship is…or what a journalist does. Also WHY is Persephone a journalist? Is it just because that’s the romance heroine job du jour? Because she’s awful at it. Her first assignment and she’s sleeping with her subject and allowing her feelings for him (good or bad, depending on her mood) to cloud her abilities to tell an honest story. And again, she is PRAISED for this. We’re supposed to believe she’s this phenomenal “investigative journalist” (who has the savvy and investigatory senses of a doorknob) even though she had literally no idea what she’s doing. Also apparently she has a passion for baking that only comes up like once. Which is wild because that makes more sense for the Goddess of Spring! Baking and creating things is a more logical career choice than “investigative journalist.”
There are zero real stakes here because the magical elements (including gods and goddesses’ true forms) keep being neglected until necessary for the plot. So many of the gods and goddesses seem pretty powerless. Why set your story in “a modern Ancient mythological Greece” if you’re not going to do literally anything with that aspect of your story?
Also what IS the setting? Real world places and people don’t exist in this world but both Clash of the Titans movies do? What?
And Persephone can only become a true goddess and unlock her powers after being dicked down by Hades? How is that empowering for this allegedly plucky, brave heroine who keeps insisting she doesn’t need him or his help yet literally can’t accomplish ANYTHING unless Hades (or his dick) does it for her?
I truly could go on and on and on about why this book is such a hot mess. I guess the sex scenes were okay? Standard and no different than what you’d find on r/dirtypenpals but they’re not Fifty Shades level awful.
Idk I wanted to like this but I’m just going to reread Lore Olympus (which I can not overstate was what this book is almost a direct copy of only well written and with a genuinely beautiful love story at the middle of it).
Head On by John Scalzi
adventurous
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? No
2.0
This took me an absurdly long time to get through because it was just SO dry. An interesting premise (and based on the synopsis was supposed to function as a standalone?) that was bogged down by a ridiculous amount of exposition. None of the many characters we’re introduced to are even remotely interesting or unique (which could maybe be the fault of the monotone voice actor?), the worst example is the completely bland protagonist/narrator, Chris. This was just so hard to focus on that it wasn’t until I was 65% of the way through that I could finally pay attention or even care about what was going on. This whole book I think really needed a sense of personality or identity because as it stands, it just fades away amongst other mediocre sci-fi books. Exposition and “world-building” means nothing when there’s no interesting characters to inhabit said world.
Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moves a little too fast but it’s Vol. 1 so I’ll forgive them.
Definitely sucks you in and makes you want to read more! A very inventive way of handling time travel and other sci-fi cliches.
Definitely sucks you in and makes you want to read more! A very inventive way of handling time travel and other sci-fi cliches.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
3.0
Not as good as the original trilogy, but a good read regardless. I think my biggest issues are with the fact that its central character is someone we already know from the future. I
t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy.
I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).
The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.
BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny.
Let’s talk real world for a second and how commonplace it is for alt-right young men to be drawn to their worldviews because of an innate sense of entitlement not only with wealth and the economy but with women as well. A big part of fascism is controlling women. It’s never a surprise when an alt-right extremist has a history of domestic violence. Never.
And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh. This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it.
The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.
All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not…
t seems like Collins had to go back on quite a bit in order to make this narrative fit in with what she already told us in the original trilogy.
I’d say that some other issues with this book are that most of the characters are just…flat. Dr. Gaul with her ridiculous nursery rhymes is too cartoonish of a villain, Lucy Gray is a manic pixie dream girl (which on the one hand makes sense because we’re seeing her from Snow’s POV, but that doesn’t make her any less grating), the rest of the Covey and their weird country bumpkin way of life are equally as grating and Snow himself has zero shades of gray. He’s awful all the way through (I’ll get back to this).
The most interesting characters by far are Sejanus Plinth and Dean Highbottom, both of whom I kind of wish had been the POV characters for this prequel.
BUT I will say that in terms of politics and big picture ideas, this book is way more ambitious than the original trilogy. Yes, Snow is a bit one note but I *do* actually appreciate that. He’s a fascist, point blank. He’s an elitist bigot whose family has fallen on hard luck but we don’t ever have to feel sympathy for him because he STILL clings to that bigotry even though it’s glaringly obvious that The Capitol is to blame for his family’s trauma. It’s also VERY interesting that Collins doesn’t even attempt to hide the links between fascism and misogyny.
And Collins making it abundantly obvious that Coriolanus doesn’t truly LOVE Lucy Gray but seeks to own and possess her is actually really great. There’s no love story here. We know Lucy Gray is doomed from the moment she’s in his clutches. He wouldn’t have done ANYTHING for her if he didn’t want to fuck her so badly tbh. This was so obviously going to end one way and I’m glad that Collins didn’t chicken out and went for it and avoided giving him a change of heart although I wish she wasn’t so ambiguous with it.
The ending as a whole was another issue for me. It felt a bit rushed and convoluted and I wish Snow’s meeting with Highbottom was stretched out just a little more as opposed to stuffed into the epilogue.
All in all though, this was a solid read and I’m sure I’ll be seeing the movie in the Fall. I’m curious if Collins will be expanding even further on this world or not…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Trafficking, Gaslighting
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
WOOF. Okay this started out as a really promising satire. I liked the plot. I initially liked the footnotes and flourishes such as the commercial breaks but the author clearly had no idea what she was doing and had no editor to reign her in so the book became overstuffed with all kinds of unnecessary nonsense that wound up taking away from the story at hand. The characters are all completely one dimensional stereotypes and even though literally the point of the book is to break and subvert those stereotypes that never happens. The dialogue is awful and the equivalent of a bunch of ten-year-olds just shrieking at full volume after binging on candy all day. There’s spelling mistakes galore. Plots that lead to nowhere. Plots that are unnecessary. The book is allegedly feminist and we’re supposed to root for the girls to find independence and save themselves but there’s a deus-ex-pirate ship of hot dudes that each girl is shoe-horned into a romantic relationship with. The ending is so rushed. There is literally no point at all for the dictator character to exist. Honestly this whole book felt like the author couldn’t decide what book she wanted to write so she threw spaghetti on the wall and just ran with it. I think the worst crime here though is that the book starts out fairly funny in the first couple of chapters but very quickly loses steam and there is nothing worse to me than a satire that’s just not funny. All of the jokes wind up falling flat.
Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was fun! A very intimate glimpse at New York sapphic culture in the most bawdy and bizarre way. Also a VERY honest glimpse at the current state of the New York artsy influencer scene. I also like that this is a queer book that is so obviously made for queer people. This book was not softened and toned down to attract the straights. And we need more books like that tbh. I’m kind of over reading “queer” books obviously written by and for straight women (looking at you, Evelyn Hugo). I don’t care if this book isn’t perfect or if the characters are all different flavors of self-absorbed. They feel like real people and that’s more important to me.
You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really can’t describe what I just read. It was deeply unsettling and uncomfortable and a great exercise in “less is more” style horror. Definitely recommend if you need a quick scare.