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livsinbooks's reviews
166 reviews
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
5.0
I listened to this audiobook and I thought I was going to lose my mind 99% of the time. I don’t know if it was the guys voice or the story or both but I was FREAKED. I read outside mostly and I read at night the first half of the book and let me tell you. I started it in the light or I would’ve DNF’d reading through the prologue. My jaw was dropped the whole goddamn time.
That being said I was disappointed there wasn’t much of a callback to the prologue in the meat of the story. The terror of hearing that parrot in the middle of the woods. I was waiting for it the whole time and I did feel a little let down at that. Other than that I really really liked it. I think this was my first true horror book and I don’t do a lot of critical reading and I am not able to picture things in my head well very often but I saw this book vividly; the doors being knocked on, the dark, the shapes in them, the dreamcatcher that wasn’t and was, her crawling and running around unnaturally… I saw all of it and it was terrifying.
There were a couple times I just had to pause the audio and go inside and do something in the light because it was just too much. My family has lived in this house for decades and my windows have been unlocked since the dawn of time and I really had to fight not to lock them over this book. I am a horror movie girlie. I go to conventions and the whole nine. I don’t know why I haven’t read horror like this before. It was such a different experience.
Reading the reviews after did make me realize I am a white piece of shit 0/5 stars for me and it did make me glad that I read it for free and didn’t pay money for it. While I will not turn into a critical reader, I will make a conscious effort in future books to watch how the underrepresented are being represented and not just that they are there to be slaughtered as they usually are in horror. Im always the first to say this isn’t a white country and then this kind of cultural abuse frankly just goes right over my head. Jesus. There’s always room to grow and always room to fall. I’m sure the author has grown with this experience as well.
C 9
Would’ve been a 10 if the parrot would’ve come back.
A 10
Was freaked out of my gourd
W 9
I wish there would’ve been more in the cabin and there was a lot so not too much. I wish I knew native people to know if they are offended by this or not.
P 8
Lots of things fell flat in the end but it was such a wild ride to get there.
I 10
I think about this book more often than any other book I’ve read in years.
L 6
Eh. Why not? Again. I don’t know any native people to know if it makes sense or not but if it does make sense it’s still and eh.
E 10
Eerie fun.
That being said I was disappointed there wasn’t much of a callback to the prologue in the meat of the story. The terror of hearing that parrot in the middle of the woods. I was waiting for it the whole time and I did feel a little let down at that. Other than that I really really liked it. I think this was my first true horror book and I don’t do a lot of critical reading and I am not able to picture things in my head well very often but I saw this book vividly; the doors being knocked on, the dark, the shapes in them, the dreamcatcher that wasn’t and was, her crawling and running around unnaturally… I saw all of it and it was terrifying.
There were a couple times I just had to pause the audio and go inside and do something in the light because it was just too much. My family has lived in this house for decades and my windows have been unlocked since the dawn of time and I really had to fight not to lock them over this book. I am a horror movie girlie. I go to conventions and the whole nine. I don’t know why I haven’t read horror like this before. It was such a different experience.
Reading the reviews after did make me realize I am a white piece of shit 0/5 stars for me and it did make me glad that I read it for free and didn’t pay money for it. While I will not turn into a critical reader, I will make a conscious effort in future books to watch how the underrepresented are being represented and not just that they are there to be slaughtered as they usually are in horror. Im always the first to say this isn’t a white country and then this kind of cultural abuse frankly just goes right over my head. Jesus. There’s always room to grow and always room to fall. I’m sure the author has grown with this experience as well.
C 9
Would’ve been a 10 if the parrot would’ve come back.
A 10
Was freaked out of my gourd
W 9
I wish there would’ve been more in the cabin and there was a lot so not too much. I wish I knew native people to know if they are offended by this or not.
P 8
Lots of things fell flat in the end but it was such a wild ride to get there.
I 10
I think about this book more often than any other book I’ve read in years.
L 6
Eh. Why not? Again. I don’t know any native people to know if it makes sense or not but if it does make sense it’s still and eh.
E 10
Eerie fun.
A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick
5.0
Oh my god! I listened to this while cleaning out my garage and let me tell you!!!!!! I love them. I love them both. They’re beautiful. It was SO cozy! The side characters were exactly what was needed when they were needed. The grumpy/sunshine of it all was very well balanced. I didn’t feel overwhelmed by either. The “quests” had stakes. There felt like there was resolution to the situations. Mad props to the narrator who had a lovely voice and brought these characters to life so well. Very sweet little story and I would highly recommend to anyone trying to get into cozy dnd type stories. It feels like a books Jester would recommend but warn there are not enough dicks.
C 10
A 10
W 10
P 10
I 9
L 10
E 10
C 10
A 10
W 10
P 10
I 9
L 10
E 10
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
5.0
I read this book in third grade in the library for Halloween. We had boogers and snot ice cream which was vanilla ice cream with pistachios and green marshmallow swirl. It’s one of the only vivid memories I have of my childhood. It was also my first poetry book. It doesn’t spark a love but a fond appreciation.
C 10
I still remember some
A 8
I remember these less
W 10
P 10
I 7
for the nostalgia.
L 9
Quirky guy
E 10
Thanks for the memory, Shel.
C 10
I still remember some
A 8
I remember these less
W 10
P 10
I 7
for the nostalgia.
L 9
Quirky guy
E 10
Thanks for the memory, Shel.
A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
1.0
If you want to read a child be tortured for hundred of pages and believe it’s true only to find out the guy may be a liar may be not who knows what to believe, this is the tale for you! Far fetched no one can survive that kind of stuff. Idk. I just remember it was big on Oprah when I was young. My mom read it and cried. I read it in my later teens, having been an abused child, and thought no way. No one writes about those bathroom moments. No one admits no one ever helped them and just how close they get to ALMOST helping you. No one does those things when you’ve been tortured for your entire life. I’m 30 now and I know better. You write about it after therapy. Whether this book is his truth or not, that’s not for me or the rest of his family to judge. It’s between him, his mother, his therapist and god and I hope to be where he is with my trauma one day.
Still fuck this book. I don’t like it for all of the personal reasons. 5/70 cawpile no enjoyment no intrigue.
Still fuck this book. I don’t like it for all of the personal reasons. 5/70 cawpile no enjoyment no intrigue.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
5.0
This is not the book that has the lady with the head that falls off. This is a misconception that has occurred around me multiple times when the movie was coming out. I checked this out of the library so many times and I truly couldn’t tell you a single story in here now. I do know it’s fantastic. I do know it’s well written and scary. My brain just sucks. That’s all. I also didn’t watch the movie. I remember there being one I always skipped but idk what it is.
Glass by Ellen Hopkins
3.0
I read this somewhere between my freshman year and the year after where I did my sophomore and junior year at the same time. I don’t remember when exactly but I remember liking it a little more than the first but for vastly different reasons that holy shit 15 years later I can’t remember. Jesus. Fifteen years. There’s no review I can write to do this justice. It was a follow up. If you liked the first, this is more of it.
Night by Elie Wiesel
4.0
We read this for freshman history but didn’t learn about the holocaust in history until senior year. #murica
That made it harder to connect to. It would have been better if I had more understanding of the scope of it all. This was sad. Obviously. You can’t have a book like this without being sad and hard to get through. It does exactly what it’s meant to do. It didn’t mean what it should have at fourteen and I can’t imagine the last couple decades haven’t changed the kids these days. I don’t know that it’ll affect them much at all these days.
That made it harder to connect to. It would have been better if I had more understanding of the scope of it all. This was sad. Obviously. You can’t have a book like this without being sad and hard to get through. It does exactly what it’s meant to do. It didn’t mean what it should have at fourteen and I can’t imagine the last couple decades haven’t changed the kids these days. I don’t know that it’ll affect them much at all these days.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
1.0
If I hear the word bar one more time I’m going to grab the first bar I can find and brain myself with it. Make a less fucking complicated system so it doesn’t take 95 pages of bar bar this bar and that bar store the bars this way grab the bar hold the bar be the bar the bar the bar the bar the bar. DNF’d in the 220s. The whole thing didn’t work for me and I tried really hard.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
5.0
Literally never wanted to read a book before it came out so badly. Why does this sound so good?! God I need this yesterday. I already know it’s going on the display shelf!