mashley14's reviews
40 reviews

Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.

Exposition was taking a really long time. I love the premise, and it's a really interesting take on current politics disguised as a dystopian future. I expected something similar to Ng's other two novels, and was excited that this one was a little different--it is just taking too long to get to the true action.

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Generally, I liked it.

I didn't realize that the version I purchased had extra stories included, which was a pleasant surprise! Especially since I was, at first, confused by how many pages were left when Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke ended. But then! Extra spooky stories! Very exciting.

Short Story 1:
I liked how fast paced it was, it kept my attention peaked and I wasn't bored. This was awesome because my biggest problem with a lot of horror novels is that they take forever. Obviously, this is a short story, but still. Her slow descent into madness was captivating, and I loved how the format showed how much time had passed between correspondences. I also enjoyed how complicated both of the characters were--that's something I look for in a good story.

Short Story 2:
This one was a doozy. It took a while for the action to really start rolling, and that was difficult for me. I liked the complicated relationships between the characters, and the weird double meaning of

the son's note

. This was a time where I predicted something about the plot, but the story wasn't predictable--the author made me feel smart.

Short Story 3:
This was my least favorite, but not because it was poorly written or anything like that. It was short and sweet and it definitely took a different turn than I expected, which is all we want from horror, no?

All in all, I enjoyed this collection of stories, and I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys

Content Warnings

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.

Very weird reading sexual content about a high schooler

Zipper Mouth by Laurie Weeks

Go to review page

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

“How tantalizing is each leaf! Yet how impossible to attend its performance all the way to the ground! Other leaves twirl into the picture, flirtatious and distracting so I lose track of the first.”
That’s how I would describe this book

Sula by Toni Morrison

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

“We was girls together”

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad 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

2.0

Not my favorite. Ending was underwhelming.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I loved this book. I was so excited to hear that Collins was releasing another novel, especially since I enjoyed the Hunger Games series just like all my other middle school classmates (why we were reading this at that ripe old age? I have no clue).

Something that I liked about this book was that you couldn't really tell whether or not the author was trying to redeem Snow or not. This is something that I am sure other people would not like about this book, but for me it felt like a whirly, confusing and engaging argument that my brain would have with itself. I wanted to understand why Snow was the way he was in the original series, but for some reason, I liked this much better.

The fact that all of this happened to him and he decided to keep it going ANYWAYS is what really did it for me. The book didn't redeem him in any way, and actually made me dislike him more. Coriolanus was in love with someone that was being targeted by the system that he was helping to conduct. He saw what was going on, first hand, and was actively engaged in the troubles of Lucy and risked his life for her. But alas, he became a direct drone of the system that tortured him and his lover by becoming a peacekeeper, went fully apeshit on said lover, and then became the horrific and downright sadistic president that we all know and hate.

We also see him trying to gain sympathy about his financial situation, but his convincing falls flat when he reveals his true feelings about all of the people around him. Coriolanus is a bad person, and there is no part of the book that Suzanne Collins ACTIVELY tries to redeem him. She is specifically writing him in a way that makes you loathe him more and more as the pages turn. She knows exactly what she's doing, and deserves more credit.

The only reason that I don't give this book five stars is that the ending wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. I was waiting for some sort of big twist, but the one that was written was sadly underwhelming, and we never know what exactly happens. However, the character development nods to the original series, and the writing is what earns it four stars from me (speaking of nods to the original series, I loved that you could see the connection between Katniss and Lucy and how it makes sense that Snow hates Katniss so vehemently).

Not all backstories have to justify the villains deeds, not all narrators have to be the hero. We have, of course, seen this before, but the Hunger Games is so popular already that the book met an incredibly wide audience as soon as it was released.

I'm so glad that Collins gave this book to us, and I know that many people did not particularly enjoy it--but I did. It brought me out of a reading funk! I'm also super excited for the movie version!

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Go to review page

challenging dark funny tense medium-paced