maggers94's reviews
162 reviews

Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I was expecting something entirely different than what this story delivered, but I absolutely loved it. Sally is strange, but so very easy to root for.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This was such an unexpected love for me. I found the writing beautiful, poetic at times and very poignant, and Addie felt so incredibly relatable. The deep fear of being stagnant and missing out on all the experiences the world has to offer, while simultaneously just wanting to be known and understood in a way that comes with the deep familiarity and stability of home, hit just right for me. I found it heartbreaking, but also comforting in the moments where Addie revels in triumphant acts of living and carving out a semblance of a mark for herself in a world where she’s anonymous. This is one that I really think will be on my mind for a while.

Black Widows by Cate Quinn

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Initially I was skeptical I’d enjoy this, but it’s fast paced, twisty, and the ending was unexpected. I enjoyed the differing perspectives and personalities of the sister wives more than I thought I would upon the first intros to each of them. Although, at times the written accents felt a little too exaggerated. Parts of the story definitely felt plucked from the headlines of real life accounts about the FLDS, but I liked the way Rachel’s perspective peeks into the aftermath of growing up in a world like that. Overall, a solid read.

Undone by Karin Slaughter

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Finally out found something to pull me out of my reading slump. This was fast-paced, twisty (although, not unpredictable), and at many points pretty dark. It’s not often that books make me uncomfortable, but some of Karin Slaughter’s writing has me wondering how any normal person could come up with these plots. As far as the series, I love Will and Faith as a team, and Sara’s story was a good addition. I found myself invested in her almost immediately and curious about the other Grant County series. This was just overall a solid thriller, and I’m glad to have finally broken recent my spell of duds

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy

dark mysterious slow-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

2.75

 

This was just okay for me. I was bored for a lot of this and couldn't really buy into the whole smoking, tattooed, queer former addict turned nun story, mostly because Sister Holiday's background is revealed so slowly. I get there's supposed to be a build-up to the reveal of what was the catalyst to her choosing to join the convent, but I think I needed more upfront to build out Sister Holiday as a character.

It just felt a little hollow to start without having much to go off of and flesh out her as a character. I need more than a list of adjectives to find her compelling, and it took forever to get her full story. The story of the events leading up to when she became a nun is one of the only aspects of the book that actually had me invested and is way more intriguing than the mystery aspect, which has a very predictable ending. Her entire background story could have been a book in and of itself and would have been far more interesting.

The other characters feel somewhat thrown together as well, and their story lines feel very unfinished. It feels like you're led to ask lots of questions about each of the side characters and a lot of them are unanswered in the end. Rosemary, John, Bernard, Prince, Nina, all feel just kind of tossed to the side in the end. In general, the plot was kind of all over the place and lots of pieces felt disjointed or didn't really add anything to the story . I think there's a good concept here that a lot could be done with, but the execution was just lackluster for me.

 

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

dark mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

I seem to be on a kick of insufferable narrators. Elliot drove me nuts for much of the book. He's admittedly unreliable, and drags the unraveling of his story all out to the extreme. The story is told in acts and the first few acts felt repetitive and slow, so I had a hard time getting myself to want to pick up and continue. The last two acts were the most exciting, but they also felt somewhat dragged out. It just felt like Elliot's personal commentary took up so much of the book in comparison to the actual plot or events happening that I felt disconnected from the story he was actually supposed to be telling, and his digressions about his inner child weren't particularly compelling enough for me to care much for him as a character.  I think the plot had potential, I just wasn't a huge fan of how it was executed. It was overall just an okay read for me.

Keep Your Friends Close by Lucinda Berry

dark mysterious tense medium-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

2.0

I have had awful luck with both Lucinda Berry books I've read so far. I'm starting to think her writing style just isn't for me. This was like Real Housewives murder edition, but despite my love for the trashy, reality-tv version of rich women behaving badly, this didn't do it for me. 

The book itself opens in the aftermath of a woman being found dead at a party for her Beverly Hills moms group, which is presumably what the story will focus around, but the investigation into her death seems like a side plot. 

Instead you have messy divorces, custody disputes, illegal escort operations, cheating spouses, pretty much everything but who the victim is and how she ended up murdered.

  You know hardly anything about the victim other than being told that she and her best friend have an extremely strange codependent relationship. When the story gets around to solving her murder it feels like an "Oh by the way, also this happened and here's the clues that were never mentioned but the police were somehow unearthing behind the scenes the entire time."  You completely forget about Kiersten as a victim, so quite frankly I didn't even really care whether the investigation was resolved by the end.

 

The final chapter from Kiersten's perspective also felt rushed and frankly kind of half-assed. The secret pregnancy plotline was hardly fleshed out and felt like an after thought that needed to be thrown in there to explain why no one seemed to know she was pregnant. Plus how in the world could you steal another woman's embryo, implant it at home, and no one know? Is that even possible to do on your own?? If it was stolen sperm I'd get it, but I've never heard of turkey basting a whole embryo??? (Also Whitney never asked what happened to baby #2's embryo she was presumably going to appointments to create??)

Poorly done pregnancy and murder plot aside, the rest of the book's characters are all extremely unlikeable and their stories were hard to get invested in. The narration almost feels like a stream of consciousness for each character, but they don't feel fully fleshed out as people. I felt like I was getting a very surface-level depiction of who they are and their motivations, so it was hard to connect with them. At no point was I rooting for anyone, and their three perspectives felt like a jumble of loosely interconnected plot lines. Brooke's story felt completely out place and like it belonged in its own book. Her "twist" at the end was the obvious path for her plot and really didn't add anything to the story for me. It felt completely unnecessary. The story could have cut her out and solely focused on fleshing out Whitney and Jade's plots and it would have lost nothing.

There are definitely pieces of the plot that could have made for a good story, but it's just not put together well enough to be believable or compelling. I may still give Saving Noah or Appetite for Innocence a try since those seem to be the Lucinda Berry books people love the most, but the problems I had with this book are pretty much the same as what I had with Off The Deep End, so I don't have a lot of faith that any of the rest of her books will be for me. 

The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict

funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was very fun! I think I went into it expecting it to be somewhat campy, but was pleasantly surprised. It’s Christmas with a little dash of And Then There We’re None vibes, and I found the puzzles throughout a neat touch. It gave me the mystery and some suspense I was looking for, while still being overall an easy and light read.

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I’m conflicted on how I feel about this book. The story itself I felt was pretty slow, but the overall plot I enjoyed. Eugene’s story in particular I found very compelling, and I somewhat wish it had been written from his perspective. I didn’t particularly like Mia as a narrator. She refers often to one of her flaws being that she talks too much and that was definitely conveyed. I just felt she had a lot of tangents and extraneous thoughts that slowed down the story way too much. I also hated the use of footnotes for this reason. Every footnote was a long tangent that felt like a chore to read and completely disrupted the narrative. There just was a lot of extra info that made it difficult for me to stay engaged at times. I would have rather heard from Eugene directly and have him express his frustration at not being able to communicate. Overall, the content and overall depiction of how the world treats the nonverbal, even within their own family, is compelling, but I just wish it had been executed slightly differently.

Weyward by Emilia Hart

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I found this somewhat slow to start, but it grew on me. The story itself is very well done, and beautifully portrays womanhood and the bond between mother and daughter. Seeing in the acknowledgements that it was partly inspired by The Blind Assassin made me appreciate it even more. That’s my favorite Atwood book, if not my all-time favorite book, and Weyward certainly resonated with me in much the same way that Atwood’s writing does.