lighterthaneyre's reviews
152 reviews

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

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dark reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I like the way this book turned over themes in its hands, looking at different angles. It's slow, introspective. The main character is as defined by her flaws as she is by the hurts she's received. The ending is satisfying, the way pressing on a bruise can be satisfying. I don't think it's happy, but it's better than it could have turned out
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

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dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The Wife Upstairs by Freida McFadden

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

I found the twists at the end. Irritating. But the build up was pretty good, with some good clues, but also some intentional Dumbing of the characters.
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0

Dust by Hugh Howey

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3.0

A good, if not strong, ending to the trilogy.
Shift went into a lot of the mechanics and how events unfolded. I think Dust was meant to address some of the motivation, and conclude the series.
I found Thurman's motivation extremely confusing, and weak. He's at once a control freak, power hungry, set himself up to live forever while dooming others, and also never expected to make it. The artificial lone surviving silo never felt grounded in the other decisions being made by those "in charge".


For the Juliette plot lines, that felt much more interesting and developed. Her growth and the journey taken in those plots were satisfying.
There was a half attempt at a mystery solving angle, but if I set that aside and focus on her internal narrative, the part I always found strongest from Wool, it feels more complete.


The references to church and religion seemed extremely left field, since they were barely touched on in previous books.
I think an attempt was made at a point along the lines of "religion is sometimes a strength and sometimes an excuse for poor behavior" but it never came together well.


Narrative wise I like it as an ending to a trilogy, but the themes were floundering more than in previous books. 
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

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  • 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

2.5

A real nice sense of tension was built. The trickle feeding of information to the reader was a bit heavy handed (ex: one POV referring to the victim exclusively as 'the guest' to obfuscate who died), but the slow characterization build worked well. Less impressed by the build of the myster itself - lots of mood, little in the way of clues.

Honestly annoying that the flaws and conflicts between the characters wasn't the spark of the crime. It doesn't count as red herrings if Everything is a red herring and the real enemy was communism personality disorders all along
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The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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reflective tense 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

3.0

I've heard repeatedly that this book is amazing from lots of men whose opinions I respect. 
This is a very dense, hard sci fi book. I found it a little tedious from a pacing perspective, and I found the main character an irritating emptiness. He is often an excuse for other characters to contemplate upper level physics.
The descriptions of the physics, and the extremely human reaction to the ideas ka fascinating. This book presents a lot of ideas that were interesting to think about. This might not be on any of my "all time best" lists but I absolutely want to hear the author expand on the ideas he has set up.

Also it's so refreshing to get a very un-American/non-Western voice for sci Fi. Another reason to look forward to the next book
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Wool by Hugh Howey

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dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

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dark tense medium-paced

4.0

And Then There Were None meets cheerful children's book author. Extremely fun read, builds a good level of suspense and weaving family history and drama.

I did call the twist ending, the narrator being a ghost, but it was still fun to guess how and when as the story goes on. And guessing WhoDunnit.
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The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No

2.75

I really loved the "time loop + WhoDunnit" premise. Unfortunately the way the ending played out, it felt like less than the sum of its parts.

TBH I don't think Anna got much personality defined, so the end wasn't a payoff. Also weird that they pulled "war criminal" out as a justification. Also weird that they made Old Anna and Evelyn the Murder so similar? Idk with so few women in the cast it felt weird
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