kt2e56's reviews
116 reviews

The Harpy by Megan Hunter

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dark emotional reflective fast-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? Yes

4.5

More of a twisted fever dream than a fairytale, The Harpy is an unsettling yet cathartic exploration of female rage and anxiety about the roles we find ourselves forced into throughout our lives. Definitely not like anything I’ve read in awhile.
The Hunger by Alma Katsu

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A lot of this really worked for me! It’s clearly very well researched and the horror elements are very chilling. I think some of the different threads get a bit disjointed though and don’t fully mesh together. There’s also some reveals made towards the end that feel a bit like they were thrown in last minute (an example being
Tamsen being in love with her brother. I think that’s something that should have come up way sooner if she was so madly in love with him that she emotionally pushed herself away from other men and used sex to satisfy herself while she couldn’t get her brother. The way it’s presented in the book is very sudden and has nothing to do with the events at that point.
). The ending as a whole felt a bit rushed. Certain characters that we had POV chapters from felt pushed off to the side when I think hearing more from them could have added to the story.
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The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Fairly compelling! Definitely a page turner! I think this fell victim though to the problem I have with most thrillers lately: the author is so wrapped up in preserving their big reveal at the end that a lot of the description about characters feels pretty bland or nonexistent outside of the flashbacks to the past. It’s extra infuriating here because some of these reveals are very easy to guess and the reader picking up on them ahead of time wouldn’t really hinder the book all that much. The characters all feel very lifeless and sort of blend together.

The ending also felt a bit rushed but the plot itself does make up for that. It’s certainly entertaining.
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The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

REALLY crawls right under your skin and stays there. I feel like I need a shower and I immediately need to read anything else Mary Dixie Carter has written.
Gallant by V.E. Schwab

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 43%.
I just can’t get into it. I’ll try again some other time.
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

One of the more fucked up books I’ve read in awhile. There’s a dark sense of humor here mixed in with a macabre, gruesome fairytale that feels oddly fitting in today’s climate with Puritan “Christian” values and fascism on the rise hand in hand with a fear of the “other.”

I definitely recommend this one but agree with others about the bizarre fixation on nipples.
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The It Girl by Ruth Ware

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Ah this one had such a solid premise but really fell apart by the end. The author wanted to seem clever by introducing all of these twists but so many of them relied on completely changing the already underdeveloped characters to suit her needs instead of letting them feel like real people. 

Lots of details actually helped make this fall apart and feel like half assed writing.

Some examples:
-We’re supposed to find Ryan to be a lovable bloke despite him cheating on Emily (a relationship that never once feels believable between two people who almost never interact with each other) even though he has a VIOLENT temper and practically assaults April over one of her more harmless pranks. And he does this in front of people (including April’s boyfriend!!!!!) who all just seem content with standing there. Why did they remain friends with him?
-Hannah is a complete idiot.
With ZERO evidence she accuses her husband of murder and then is shocked when he’s mad about it

-The end makes us feel bad for
John Neville (and even lets him give a whole speech about April and how she was an “it girl” presumably giving the fictional podcast and this book their titles despite him never once speaking to her or even knowing her) as if he’s just some misunderstood weirdo and not a man who persistently sexually harassed and stalked several female students AND assaulted another student. Obviously he didn’t deserve to die in prison but why are we suddenly making him out to be some kindly old man when he has done NOTHING to earn that?

-Will. Another idiot.
I don’t know why him and Hannah are still together. Realistically someone wouldn’t just get over their spouse accusing them of murder and almost getting them killed. Also he did a COMPLETE 180 in personality and laughably so. Hannah is also a jackass for staying with him after he threatened her.

-Not a personality change but something that annoyed me is that there’s no way in hell a prestigious university theater program would allow their actors to walk off with costumes and wigs. Like that would NEVER happen. Ever. That’s all property of the theater department.
-Literally every male character was a misogynist and the female characters were all just cool with it and found it endearing? Okay.
-Why
was it repeatedly mentioned that Dr. Meyers’ door was open and there was a sliver of light shining out the night of the murder if he really was out of town like he claimed?
Another example of a poorly executed, nonsensical red herring.

This was enjoyable enough but considering how long it was, I do wish it didn’t feel so sloppy in its details.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King

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dark fast-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

I’ve seen both movies before so I knew where everything was going to wind up but that didn’t ruin this experience all that much. This story is still horrifying. King does a great job of building dread throughout. Michael C. Hall was also an excellent narrator. I think where this loses a star for me is some of the usual King-isms.
It’s a little hard to take the big confrontation between Gage and Judd at the end seriously or find it terrifying when back-from-the-dead toddler Gage is taunting Judd by saying *checks notes* his wife used to cheat on him and loved taking it up the ass?
Yeah. Kinda kills an otherwise extremely tense moment. I also think Lewis kinda sucks at times. Refusing to get Church neutered because it felt like a slight against his own masculinity is just…lol. But anyway! Really solid book! I have kinda missed reading Stephen King. Maybe I’ll read and reread some more.
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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

This was really fun! I loved the story and characters. It was great to read about a culture and religion that’s often overlooked. I’m not fully sure how I feel about the reveal and the ending (like with most YA books) felt a bit rushed but I really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to more from this author.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

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

3.0

I was hoping this would be a five star book for me based on reviews I’ve read but alas, it’s only a 3. I was really enjoying it at first but it started to become very repetitive and quite frankly, Ove kinda sucks. He has some good qualities! He’s saved lives! He does eventually help his neighbors! But he comes across less like a grumpy old badger who just is lonely and more like an outright bigot. He’s super misogynistic (and never really changes that). He’s racist (and never really changes that). He lets a gay man stay with him after he’s been kicked out of his home which is lovely! But he refers to him as (I’m presuming based off of Pervana’s reaction to the phrase) a slur 80% of the time. And I think the most annoying is that he is (but also quite frankly the author is too) WILDLY fatphobic. Like disgustingly so. And Backman himself also seems SUPER fatphobic as he can’t write about Jimmy at all without calling him a slob, talking about whether or not his clothes fit, constantly making him pester everyone about food, etc. It’s gross. I do like the overall message and there are moments that are sweet here but even in flashbacks to life with his beloved wife, Sonja, I can’t help but wonder why she stayed with a man who belittled her pretty frequently and also was just so nasty to others. His hatred of bureaucrats makes sense! His racism, sexism, and other casual bigotry really does not. None of that factors into his backstory and I feel like it’s odd that the author made certain qualities of Ove so repugnant when he could have just been a crotchety old man and loner who thinks everyone else is incompetent. The story would have been just as impactful. It all ties itself up by the end with a neat little bow but there are portions of this that are genuinely draining to get through.
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