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lialeahlio's reviews
358 reviews
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
silly little book about silly girl with silly magical powers struggling with their silly little life and falling in love with their silly magical girlfriend.. also vanquishing a silly little girl from destroying the world.. its so silly~ ya know?
also the first edition naked hardcover is just sooo ~*cardcaptor sakura coded*~
also the first edition naked hardcover is just sooo ~*cardcaptor sakura coded*~
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
4.0
The Haunting of Hill House is evidence of Shirley Jackson's masterful skill in foreshadowing using objects and dialogue to blur the lines of reality. Every detail mentioned by characters and the endless maze of Hill House will lead readers on a chase to find answers about the eery sounds, the delusions, and the questions from ones consciousness. Shirley Jackson will plunge readers into the dark halls of Hill House, deceiving at every turn, manipulating the sanity of every character and readers alike.
There are many moments when the lines completely blurs, leaving me in a state of mental fugue making me question what I was reading. This is due to Eleanor's unreliable perspective as the main protagonist who slips into a state of wishful thinking and delusions to escape from reality. The house takes advantage of Eleanor's habits to misdirect what is truly happening in Hill House. Just like the characters who can't seem to find their way around Hill House, readers will experience the same thing throughout reading up until the ending.
I admire every page Shirley Jackson has written and appreciate the many hints that seem to connect somewhere, sometimes nowhere at all. Using the presence of the house as a passive looming antagonistic threat that slowly consumes the sanity of its victim is just *chef's kiss*. Hill House will stay with me for a long time. It has claimed me.
There are many moments when the lines completely blurs, leaving me in a state of mental fugue making me question what I was reading. This is due to Eleanor's unreliable perspective as the main protagonist who slips into a state of wishful thinking and delusions to escape from reality. The house takes advantage of Eleanor's habits to misdirect what is truly happening in Hill House. Just like the characters who can't seem to find their way around Hill House, readers will experience the same thing throughout reading up until the ending.
I admire every page Shirley Jackson has written and appreciate the many hints that seem to connect somewhere, sometimes nowhere at all. Using the presence of the house as a passive looming antagonistic threat that slowly consumes the sanity of its victim is just *chef's kiss*. Hill House will stay with me for a long time. It has claimed me.
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
dark
1.5
1.5/5 ⭐️
ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A two hundred year old vampire manipulates a twenty one year old girl to give her blood to her ex (that has been dead for decades), just to ignore her ex while she goes on a crazy rampage killing girls in a private school in New England. Yeah, that's it.
The exploration of power dynamics, loneliness, love and devotion didn't meet the standard of what A Dowry of Blood delivered. The structure of the An Education in Malice suffered tremendously when it hits the 50% mark when the story was suppose to amp up. Inserting moments of pleasure for the two young girls (Carmilla and Laura) to be "normal" and enjoy "college life" when there is a wild vampire on the loose is ridiculous. And the pay off for those scenes is to kill off this one minor character that the two main girls spent a whole night with. The plot, in my eyes, seems to be stuck between wanting to be mature and dark but at the same time maintain that girlhood-teenage dream kind of vibe, which led to its whole structure to suffer huge consequences that disengaged me from actually enjoying the story.
There are plenty of inconsistent moments throughout the story that made me eye roll. The characterization of every character can be described as a mood board on Pinterest, they are mere pictures collaged together without glue hoping it would stick and become something more than what it is, bits and pieces of ideas, under developed and bland. Clear motivations and character arcs throw that out the window because we are not getting any of that pay off. Vibes? Sure, but I can't finish a book with vibes that are repeated with every cigarette a character smokes, every bite on white skin, every drop of blood dribbling on a girl's chin, every sway of a coquette-coded outfit. No, it will get old and it did.
Ms. D, the main antagonist, did serve the toxicity of a skilled sociopath manipulator but at the same time her relationship Carmilla creeps me out. The ending didn't help either when she says with her whole chest that Carmilla is like a daughter to her, when she gets jealous and territorial towards her whenever Laura is in the picture. I am not uncomfortable about these topics because A Dowry of Blood also explored the same themes but the inconsistencies (plot, characterization, motivation) made it hard to understand what it is trying to be accomplished here.
To wrap up, A Dowry of Blood did vampires better. An Education in Malice promised us a dark academia version of Carmilla and it delivered a story that was purely aesthetic with absolutely nothing else to back it up.
ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A two hundred year old vampire manipulates a twenty one year old girl to give her blood to her ex (that has been dead for decades), just to ignore her ex while she goes on a crazy rampage killing girls in a private school in New England. Yeah, that's it.
The exploration of power dynamics, loneliness, love and devotion didn't meet the standard of what A Dowry of Blood delivered. The structure of the An Education in Malice suffered tremendously when it hits the 50% mark when the story was suppose to amp up. Inserting moments of pleasure for the two young girls (Carmilla and Laura) to be "normal" and enjoy "college life" when there is a wild vampire on the loose is ridiculous. And the pay off for those scenes is to kill off this one minor character that the two main girls spent a whole night with. The plot, in my eyes, seems to be stuck between wanting to be mature and dark but at the same time maintain that girlhood-teenage dream kind of vibe, which led to its whole structure to suffer huge consequences that disengaged me from actually enjoying the story.
There are plenty of inconsistent moments throughout the story that made me eye roll. The characterization of every character can be described as a mood board on Pinterest, they are mere pictures collaged together without glue hoping it would stick and become something more than what it is, bits and pieces of ideas, under developed and bland. Clear motivations and character arcs throw that out the window because we are not getting any of that pay off. Vibes? Sure, but I can't finish a book with vibes that are repeated with every cigarette a character smokes, every bite on white skin, every drop of blood dribbling on a girl's chin, every sway of a coquette-coded outfit. No, it will get old and it did.
Ms. D, the main antagonist, did serve the toxicity of a skilled sociopath manipulator but at the same time her relationship Carmilla creeps me out. The ending didn't help either when she says with her whole chest that Carmilla is like a daughter to her, when she gets jealous and territorial towards her whenever Laura is in the picture. I am not uncomfortable about these topics because A Dowry of Blood also explored the same themes but the inconsistencies (plot, characterization, motivation) made it hard to understand what it is trying to be accomplished here.
To wrap up, A Dowry of Blood did vampires better. An Education in Malice promised us a dark academia version of Carmilla and it delivered a story that was purely aesthetic with absolutely nothing else to back it up.
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.0
The book is written from two different POVs, one from the vampire in the 1800s and one from the POV of a young mother in modern times. Throughout the book we learn about these two characters as their lives slowly converge. And oh boy.. it was slow. Having the story written in first person made it even more painful to read because it boiled the characters down to basic caricatures that only tells me instead of showing me who they are. It made the story lack believability and rawness from the emotions of the two characters. Their motivations didn't make sense either, I understand the yearning for something new and different, but the story was too bare and simple. I didn't really much care for any of these characters but at least the vampire POV was better than present day single mom.
The story is written in a repetitive and formulaic way made worse by the structure that can be described as whiplash. The marketing blurb promises the "exploration of feminist agency", "consuming power for desire", and "fragile vitality of an immortal" but by writing the story in first person only dampens these expectations. Whatever Thirst is trying to do it didn't meet up to my expectations.
It hurts me that it took 80% of reading to have these two characters to intersect. When they intersect it wasn't as satisfying either. Marketing the book with "echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" is just misleading because it was a very small part of the story.
What made it worse is that their relationship happened out of the blue. Like, ma'am you left your child to be with a vampire you met two minutes ago?? Be fucking for real..
The story is written in a repetitive and formulaic way made worse by the structure that can be described as whiplash. The marketing blurb promises the "exploration of feminist agency", "consuming power for desire", and "fragile vitality of an immortal" but by writing the story in first person only dampens these expectations. Whatever Thirst is trying to do it didn't meet up to my expectations.
What made it worse is that their relationship happened out of the blue. Like, ma'am you left your child to be with a vampire you met two minutes ago?? Be fucking for real..
Another Country by James Baldwin
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
James Baldwin scratches a certain itch in my literary brain whenever I read anything by him.
The techniques he uses to form these passages that convey a deeper meaning about the overarching theme is rhythmically satisfying. His dialogues reads like music, with conversations tip toeing around something unspoken yet screaming with emotion and ticking to explode with every page turn. In Another Country, Baldwin explores the depths of sex and race from the lens of characters who are interconnect by their grief, suffering, and challenges living in New York during the civil rights movement. Baldwin takes us on an emotional journey of self discovery through discussions about masculinity, love, and relationships by comparing the experiences of each character and their relationships with each other.
Personally, if I dissect this whole book I could make essays upon essays on it because its so rich. I will always be in awe of Baldwin's capability as a writer that masterfully mixes music, through lyrics from songs and repetition, in his prose. Once you see the techniques he uses you can't unsee them. It's absolutely insane.
The techniques he uses to form these passages that convey a deeper meaning about the overarching theme is rhythmically satisfying. His dialogues reads like music, with conversations tip toeing around something unspoken yet screaming with emotion and ticking to explode with every page turn. In Another Country, Baldwin explores the depths of sex and race from the lens of characters who are interconnect by their grief, suffering, and challenges living in New York during the civil rights movement. Baldwin takes us on an emotional journey of self discovery through discussions about masculinity, love, and relationships by comparing the experiences of each character and their relationships with each other.
Personally, if I dissect this whole book I could make essays upon essays on it because its so rich. I will always be in awe of Baldwin's capability as a writer that masterfully mixes music, through lyrics from songs and repetition, in his prose. Once you see the techniques he uses you can't unsee them. It's absolutely insane.
The Lady with the Little Dog by Anton Chekhov
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
3.0