mgdoherty's reviews
319 reviews

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

I tore through this in four days — could not put it down. For anyone who loves Dracula, Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Gaskell, and old gothic lit, this is the modern gothic horror for you. 

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

As it turns out, Ali Hazelwood’s style really works for me. I love her take on demi rep, and that’s consistently one of the strongest parts of her work to me. 

 The dynamic between Elsie and Jack is perfection. I’m especially in love with the friendship between Cece and Elsie — love it when girls are weird.  

Smaller thing that fell flat for me: Elsie’s traumatic backstory re: her ex. In both The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theorectically, Olive and Elsie’s big life-altering traumas are SO CONSPICUOUSLY HIDDEN from the reader, and then by the time they’re revealed, whatever I’ve dreamed up is so much juicier than whatever the real backstory is. …this might be a “me” problem, actually. 

The final act feels a bit rushed, which iirc, is the same way I felt about The Love Hypothesis. It’s not that I want the third act breakup to last longer, but in both books, all the external conflicts felt SO BIG that it feels jarring when they’re wrapped up so quickly and SO EASILY.

Wildsam Field Guides: Big Bend National Park by Taylor Bruce, Rebecca Worby

informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I’ve been researching Big Bend region for years, and this is the most comprehensive books I’ve read while also being one of the shortest, too. This is gonna be a gem in my collection. 

Best Friends for Never by Lisi Harrison

lighthearted fast-paced

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

Honestly it’s really nice to see Claire and Massie naturally stumbling into a friendship. The seeds were totally laid for that last book, and it’s fun that we’re finally seeing that play out. 

The Clique by Lisi Harrison

lighthearted fast-paced

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

• the age-old  “do I like her or do I want to be like her?” question for questioning twelve-year-olds girls
• This book stays iconic even when it’s ridiculous 
• How did Kendra and William Block produce a tiny little monster like Massie? They’re so classy. You wouldn’t catch them openly dissing someone in their social circle. 

Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either: Poems by Marisa Tirado

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

One Marisa to another, one Latine struggling to speak Spanish to another — I’ve never felt so seen. I’ve never seen a poem so clearly, either. This is an incredible rendering of a very particular experience of assimilation and then undoing some of the very assimilation. This is a blueprint, it’s a map, it’s an autobiography. 

Sweet, Young, & Worried by Blythe Baird

emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Beautiful book of poems. This book is a separated into three parts along three different themes/chapters in an emotional journey of pain and healing. Roughly they are “girlhood pains and traumas,” “motherhood,” and “healing.” Personally part 2 resonated with me the most, but part 1 also clawed my heart open. It’s beautiful but almost painful to read.  

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh by Mark Waid

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I don’t know if I’m confused because I haven’t read whatever series preceded this one, or if I’m confused because the characterization and world-building was shallow. This had a fascinating premise, but the story was hard to follow. 

Galactic Hellcats by Marie Vibbert

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

How am I supposed to just move on with my life now that I know this writer exists?

Placeholder notes: 

- love how characters inner lives are explored here. Voice is expressed very differently than prev book (obvi bc different narrative conceit). The very close third person here allows enough distance that we can laugh at the characters interactions and misunderstandings but also we’re close enough to empathize  when things go wrong for them. 

- the plot stretches believability to the point of almost snapping, but I WANT to buy into the Galactic Hellcats’ shenanigans because the found family they become is so beautiful. If this were a book in which we seriously explored how

Thane’s family is probably powerful enough to pursue and kill all our main characters with relative impunity, that would be a very different, much darker book.

. Instead this book chooses to focus on the power of family and friends who love and accept you just as you are, whether that’s a sad kleptomaniac, an anxious mess who does best in combat situation, a queer prince who’s been abused all his life, or an aimless socialite in a parasocial relationship with royalty. 

- I do wish this were either longer or that we have a sequel on the way. Pacing-wise, it took like 85% of the novel for the characters to start seeing each other as they truly are and begin to gel as a family/gang. Which isn’t to say we didn’t get good character beats before that — the perpetual Margot/Ki fights are really interesting because they’re coming at life from polar opposite perspectives and i would love to see that explored more. Also Margot and Thane’s tension about her trying to go home and Thane being like “some of us would have to go back to an abuse home.” Also her decision to forgo stability to protect him from having to go back to his abusive home was fascinating bc she’s angry she has to forgo stability but she does it anyway because she values his safety above her desires. And also Ki’s almost-unspoken understanding of who Thane is and why he is the way he is, and the way all she wants to do is heal the physical and emotional wounds his family have left. And the relationship Zuleikah has with Thane where she’s having to actively unlearn all the Royal propaganda that the publicists have fed the Ratanese population. Yeah. Yeah, I desperately need a sequel. An whole series. 

Lady Killer, Vol. 1 by Jamie S. Rich
Did not finish book.

No longer remember why I didn’t finish but probably just wasn’t for me.