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minimicropup's reviews
334 reviews
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This felt like a made-for-me story, I loved it so much. I miss this world and these characters, especially Rika.
Energy: Cautious. Insightful. Suffusive.
Scene: 🇯🇵 Various Tokyo districts and Niigata, Japan
Perspective: We follow a journalist in their day-to-day life. Work success is their sole ambition until a rare interview with an accused serial killer catalyzes a re-examination of their life and how society's expectations have prevented them from embracing their Best Life. We also get a snippet of their bestie, who has a different Best Life, and how they navigate those expectations.
🐩 Tail Wags: All of it... Food as a metaphor. The characters, both likeable and unlikeable. The slow burn with meaning. How both men and women suffer under societal expectations. And those foodie descriptions 🤤
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I went in expecting a food horror, but it wasn’t that. It’s literary fiction with tastes, textures, smells, and visuals. I’d describe this as a subtle, profound, symbolic exploration of domesticity, service to others, and true happiness and success.
Slow burn character and societal study, using food to explore different themes. It’s meandering, kind of random, just existing. It could read as dull if you don’t like that style.
There’s room for reader interpretation and alliance with different characters and their values, this could be a good book club discussion book.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Poetic, meticulous (in a good way), reflective, with a touch of surrealism.
🤓 Reader Role: Thrown into the story. Exploring the themes, messages, and existential questions with Rika and her friend Reiko.
🗺️ World-Building: Rich, sensory, abundantly detailed but not overexplainy. Tranquil yet gritty, even disgusting sometimes. Immersive and cinematic. Tiny bit of info-dumping with stations, but glad they were included so I could explore via YouTube & Google Earth.
🔥 Fuel: Emotional investment in character transformations– whether you like ‘em or not, how will this year play out for them? Will Rika and Reiko grow apart or closer? Will Rika choose to stay in her relationship or move on? Will she be able to publish her interviews with an accused serial killer? Is the accused a killer or something worse?
📖 Cred: Semi-realistic with hyper-realistic moments and a sprinkling of absurdist pointlessness
🚙 Journey: Slow burn gradually unfolding in complex layers. Snuggled in a thunderstorm, working on a favourite hobby, contemplating how things could have been.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Wintery nights. Soft snores. Ambient office sounds. Cigarette smoke and coffee. Fresh butter. Train announcements. Paper grocery bags. Wet soil. Smokiness. Cumin. Fried meat. Cake baking. Ramen slurps. Roast turkey. Sounds of home and comfort.
- Bizarro melting into slice-of-life literary fiction.
- Found family and friendships
- Social commentary around gender roles and failures of traditional indicators of success and happiness
Content Heads-Up: Body shaming (fat). Fertility struggles. Murder. Fatphobia. Double standards. Misogyny. Toxic gender roles. Adult/minor relationship. Escort/sex work. Pedophilia (stalking, molestation; recall). Loss of parent. Stroke. Hit and run. Emotional incest. Narcissism.
Rep: Fat. Thin. Voluntarily childfree. Involuntarily childless. Japanese. Queer. Cisgender. Heterosexual.
📚 Format: Library Digital
🤩 Potential Fav of 2024
🤩 Potential Fav of 2024
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming
Moderate: Infertility and Misogyny
Minor: Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship
Mysterious Setting by Kazushige Abe
dark
reflective
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? Yes
1.5
I LOVE Weird fiction and second-hand embarrassment but couldn’t get past how this story is told. It made the most intriguing moments a snore fest.
Energy: Amusing. Ludicrous. Impressionable.
Scene: 🇯🇵 Begins in a run-down park in Tokyo, Japan
Perspective: We follow our main character through middle school, high school, and a college music program. Our MC is tone-deaf, can’t read the room, and their family and peers avoid them. They aspire to be a singer and seek connection and friendship.
🐺 Growls: Talking at us instead of letting us infer, experience, and observe. How boring this is.
🐕 Howls: How long this felt. Dragging what could have been a curious short story into something too long.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I wanted to interrupt the narrator with Why Are You Telling Us This and Where Is This Going so many times. There were moments I loved, like dialogue or interactions that highlighted unlikeable cringe and awkwardness in such a visceral way, but they were sporadic and overshadowed by the narrator explaining why it’s cringe to us.
I couldn’t help but read most of this in a flat, monotone way. I think because shocking, bizarre, or horrific scenes were explained after the fact, and it ruined the vibe. Or right in the middle of an interesting/random/shocking scene, we’d be yanked out into a tangent of how Shiori really wants [insert thing here].
The ending and twist were indeed Weird, but still couldn’t keep my attention. If it was supposed to be symbolic, it was lost on me.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Wordy, dense stream of consciousness. Overly drawn-out philosophical dialogue between characters. Spoon-feeding bizarro tropes.
🤓 Reader Role: Sitting next to a stranger on a park bench as they tell us Shiori’s life story (literally).
🗺️ World-Building: Foreboding but barren. It could take place in just about any large city.
🔥 Fuel: Driven by character evolution and moral quandaries. It read like a third-person draft of Shiori’s memoir.
📖 Cred: Speculative ‘what if’
🚙 Journey: Excited for an event. Car dies in the middle of nowhere. Miss out on the event. Hear about it second-hand for months.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Rusty playground equipment. Child wailing. Parakeets chirping. Mall music. Electric guitars tuning up. Suitcase latches.
-Bizarro story-within-a-story soft sci-fi
-Socially isolated coming-of-age and new adult plots
Content Heads-Up: Physical and sexual assault, incestuous (sibling). Torture. Suicidal ideation. Rape (mention, rumours). Loneliness. Rejection (family, peers). Animal death (birds, disease). Nuclear weapons.
Rep: Japanese. Cisgender. Heterosexual.
📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Pushkin Press and NetGalley.
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Energy: Amusing. Ludicrous. Impressionable.
Scene: 🇯🇵 Begins in a run-down park in Tokyo, Japan
Perspective: We follow our main character through middle school, high school, and a college music program. Our MC is tone-deaf, can’t read the room, and their family and peers avoid them. They aspire to be a singer and seek connection and friendship.
🐺 Growls: Talking at us instead of letting us infer, experience, and observe. How boring this is.
🐕 Howls: How long this felt. Dragging what could have been a curious short story into something too long.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I wanted to interrupt the narrator with Why Are You Telling Us This and Where Is This Going so many times. There were moments I loved, like dialogue or interactions that highlighted unlikeable cringe and awkwardness in such a visceral way, but they were sporadic and overshadowed by the narrator explaining why it’s cringe to us.
I couldn’t help but read most of this in a flat, monotone way. I think because shocking, bizarre, or horrific scenes were explained after the fact, and it ruined the vibe. Or right in the middle of an interesting/random/shocking scene, we’d be yanked out into a tangent of how Shiori really wants [insert thing here].
The ending and twist were indeed Weird, but still couldn’t keep my attention. If it was supposed to be symbolic, it was lost on me.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Wordy, dense stream of consciousness. Overly drawn-out philosophical dialogue between characters. Spoon-feeding bizarro tropes.
🤓 Reader Role: Sitting next to a stranger on a park bench as they tell us Shiori’s life story (literally).
🗺️ World-Building: Foreboding but barren. It could take place in just about any large city.
🔥 Fuel: Driven by character evolution and moral quandaries. It read like a third-person draft of Shiori’s memoir.
📖 Cred: Speculative ‘what if’
🚙 Journey: Excited for an event. Car dies in the middle of nowhere. Miss out on the event. Hear about it second-hand for months.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Rusty playground equipment. Child wailing. Parakeets chirping. Mall music. Electric guitars tuning up. Suitcase latches.
-Bizarro story-within-a-story soft sci-fi
-Socially isolated coming-of-age and new adult plots
Content Heads-Up: Physical and sexual assault, incestuous (sibling). Torture. Suicidal ideation. Rape (mention, rumours). Loneliness. Rejection (family, peers). Animal death (birds, disease). Nuclear weapons.
Rep: Japanese. Cisgender. Heterosexual.
📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from Pushkin Press and NetGalley.
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Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Torture
Minor: Rape, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
Content Heads-Up: Occult, possession, demons. Religious trauma. Mental illness (prejudice, abuse). Earthquakes, rubble. Medical (stroke). Rats. Blood. Confinement. Violence (knife, threats). Loss of a grandparent. Loss of a parent. Loss of a spouse.
Rep: Gay. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Diverse skin tones. Italian, American, British, and Senegalese characters.
📚 Format: Library Digital
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dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I loved the premise and initial unease, but the narration and reveals killed it for me.
Energy: Curious. Stubborn. Tactless.
Scene: 🇮🇹 A slightly abandoned Sicilian village offering low-cost homes.
Perspective: We follow a newlywed couple moving to Italy after purchasing a 1 euro home to renovate.
🐺 Growls: Kate’s entire personality
🐕 Howls: The writing style and execution of the reveals and high-stakes scenes.
🐩 Tail Wags: Creative setting. Interesting premise. The beginning as they settle in.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I loved reading the first half late at night, it scared me. But it lost me at the reveals. To be fair, I’m not usually scared by religious explanations, but in this case, it was mainly because of the contradictory suspense. The best way I can describe w/o spoilers is:
-“We don’t believe in religion, so we aren’t worried.” Yells at everyone for not informing them about the religious dangers.
-Swearing at religious authorities that their rituals are lies to control people. Followed by swearing at religious authorities because they didn’t perform the rituals correctly.
Maybe the characters were meant to be conflicted? But they seem to forget their own beliefs from moment to moment.
It spent too much time on heavy commentary about religion and was all over the place. There was commentary about religious atrocities followed by validation of those same beliefs as reality. I didn’t get what it was going for; it was just distracting.
Not pretentious, but close. I was rereading sentences. It got in the way of my imaginings.
I sometimes wanted to shush our third-person narrator. We enter an unsettling scene, pause for backstory…the scene continues then is interrupted to add more backstory.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Plot-driven. Telling style. A little clunky and circles back on itself to remake the same point.
🤓 Reader Role: Hanging out with our narrator as they take us through scenes and fill us in on backstories.
🗺️ World-Building: Not effortless but worth the investment. Enough foundation to imagine as much or as little as you’d like (YouTube helped me).
🔥 Fuel: Why are the townsfolk so uneasy about the house? Who or what is bumping around at night? What’s going on with Thomas’ grandparents? Will the characters survive?
📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief to plausible depending on your beliefs.
🚙 Journey: Watching a movie recommended by a friend. They already saw it and want you to like it but keep interrupting instead of letting it speak for itself.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Energy: Curious. Stubborn. Tactless.
Scene: 🇮🇹 A slightly abandoned Sicilian village offering low-cost homes.
Perspective: We follow a newlywed couple moving to Italy after purchasing a 1 euro home to renovate.
🐺 Growls: Kate’s entire personality
🐕 Howls: The writing style and execution of the reveals and high-stakes scenes.
🐩 Tail Wags: Creative setting. Interesting premise. The beginning as they settle in.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I loved reading the first half late at night, it scared me. But it lost me at the reveals. To be fair, I’m not usually scared by religious explanations, but in this case, it was mainly because of the contradictory suspense. The best way I can describe w/o spoilers is:
-“We don’t believe in religion, so we aren’t worried.” Yells at everyone for not informing them about the religious dangers.
-Swearing at religious authorities that their rituals are lies to control people. Followed by swearing at religious authorities because they didn’t perform the rituals correctly.
Maybe the characters were meant to be conflicted? But they seem to forget their own beliefs from moment to moment.
It spent too much time on heavy commentary about religion and was all over the place. There was commentary about religious atrocities followed by validation of those same beliefs as reality. I didn’t get what it was going for; it was just distracting.
Not pretentious, but close. I was rereading sentences. It got in the way of my imaginings.
I sometimes wanted to shush our third-person narrator. We enter an unsettling scene, pause for backstory…the scene continues then is interrupted to add more backstory.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Plot-driven. Telling style. A little clunky and circles back on itself to remake the same point.
🤓 Reader Role: Hanging out with our narrator as they take us through scenes and fill us in on backstories.
🗺️ World-Building: Not effortless but worth the investment. Enough foundation to imagine as much or as little as you’d like (YouTube helped me).
🔥 Fuel: Why are the townsfolk so uneasy about the house? Who or what is bumping around at night? What’s going on with Thomas’ grandparents? Will the characters survive?
📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief to plausible depending on your beliefs.
🚙 Journey: Watching a movie recommended by a friend. They already saw it and want you to like it but keep interrupting instead of letting it speak for itself.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Hot sun. Dense summer air. Church bells. Stone and dust. Mildew. Darkness. Rats scurrying. Doors slamming. Heavy footsteps. Incense. Chanting.
- Religious (Catholic/Christian) themed suspense and survival thriller
- Possession horrors
- Creepy grandparents
Content Heads-Up: Occult, possession, demons. Religious trauma. Mental illness (prejudice, abuse). Earthquakes, rubble. Medical (stroke). Rats. Blood. Confinement. Violence (knife, threats). Loss of a grandparent. Loss of a parent. Loss of a spouse.
Rep: Gay. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Diverse skin tones. Italian, American, British, and Senegalese characters.
📚 Format: Library Digital
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Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, and Mental illness
Minor: Violence
Where You End by Abbott Kahler
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 15%.
Just a little too YA and heavy on the intense twin sister bond and I’m not the biggest fan of amnesia tropes either so struggling to stay interested. I don’t think it sucks though. I just have so many library books to get through, so I’m returning this one for now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident and Medical trauma
The Other Side of the Road by Andrea Bartz
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Cute concept, but it didn’t work for me. This relied on familiar tropes, but all the ones I dislike.
Scene: 🇺🇸 Upstate NY
Perspective: We follow a character moving into their dream home (literally) with their spouse. They are pregnant with the couple’s first child and are open to finding friends among their new neighbours.
🤔 Random Thoughts
I liked the hit of how it can all go wrong when you invite neighbours into your life, but it didn’t progress much from there.
The dialogue felt so stilted and not how people interact.
Unlikable plot device: A character freaks out (rightfully so) then effortlessly dives into their most feared situations, especially when a short wait would allow them to include others for safety.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Frogs. Crickets. Doorbell. Fireplace heat. Baking bread. Musty basement
-Uneasy new neighbourhood…tradition or something more ominous?
-What Would You Do narratives
Content Heads-Up: Pregnancy. Paranoia. Voyeur/peeping. Dementia/memory loss.
Rep: Lesbian. Androgynous. Cisgender. Heterosexual. White and ambiguous Americans.
📚 Format: Kindle Unlimited
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Scene: 🇺🇸 Upstate NY
Perspective: We follow a character moving into their dream home (literally) with their spouse. They are pregnant with the couple’s first child and are open to finding friends among their new neighbours.
🤔 Random Thoughts
I liked the hit of how it can all go wrong when you invite neighbours into your life, but it didn’t progress much from there.
The dialogue felt so stilted and not how people interact.
Unlikable plot device: A character freaks out (rightfully so) then effortlessly dives into their most feared situations, especially when a short wait would allow them to include others for safety.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Frogs. Crickets. Doorbell. Fireplace heat. Baking bread. Musty basement
-Uneasy new neighbourhood…tradition or something more ominous?
-What Would You Do narratives
Content Heads-Up: Pregnancy. Paranoia. Voyeur/peeping. Dementia/memory loss.
Rep: Lesbian. Androgynous. Cisgender. Heterosexual. White and ambiguous Americans.
📚 Format: Kindle Unlimited
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Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Dementia, and Mental illness
The Resort by Sara Ochs
3.5
This annoyed me…why did I like it?! I’m glad I stuck it out but struggled with the way it was told.
Energy: Spiteful. Confounded. Secretive.
Scene: 🇹🇭 Set on the (fictional) island of Koh Sang, Thailand
Perspective: We follow two main characters, both in their twenties. One is an American with a negative reputation who moved to Thailand and became a diving instructor. The other is an aspiring American journalist working as a travel influencer on Instagram. Each chapter alternates between their perspectives.
🐕 Howls: The overly detailed writing style that didn’t contribute much to the story. Lack of atmosphere and culture. Ambiguous characters when the author has a specific appearance in mind. MC lying through…inner monologue?
🐩 Tail Wags: The story. The setting (in theory).
🤔 Random Thoughts:
It was too easy to confuse Brooke and Cass. They sounded the same in their text voice; audio saved me once I picked up on the nuance between the audio narrators.
Finding out a character was dishonest for most of the book was puzzling. We mostly get detailed inner monologues, so why would she think and overanalyze so deceitfully?
The setting was unique but underwhelming. It is not a luxury resort but more of a hostel, which I prefer, but it lacked atmosphere and took awhile to figure that out (it could have been any tropical island). I get the main characters were American, but the setting wasn’t. It was so absent of any cultural authenticity of Thailand.
The narrative pace is slow; it sometimes felt like the story unfolded in real-time. I love that, but the present tense narration made all the mundane day-to-day details seem overly dramatic and diluted the suspense because stretching in the morning had the same build-up as discovering a dead body.
The way-too-late dropping of minor but key details like character or setting specifics (appearance or an off-resort bar…) killed my mind-eye imaginings. It was so frustrating that I started ignoring what the author said about the characters’ appearance and setting later in the book.
Was there even a single Thai character in this book? Is that realistic? I have no idea, but it seemed weird.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: YA style direct and simplistic. Verbose with lots of spoon-feeding and handholding.
🤓 Reader Role: Deep in the MCs’ minds, overhearing all their thoughts, reflections, and vague scheming as they go about their days, but not getting much context.
🗺️ World-Building: Detailed, but it didn’t capture the atmosphere and unique setting.
🔥 Fuel: Why did our main characters choose to stay on this island? What are their secrets? What are the guests’ secrets? How do they all connect? Who is killing staff on the island? Will our main characters survive? Who can they trust?
📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief, plausible-ish
🚙 Journey: Week-long vacay on a tropical island. Starts fun but soon becomes claustrophobic. Looking forward to going home.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-White sand. Waves rolling in. Sour bar. Ocean salt. Grilled seafood. Suiting up with diving equipment.
-Not-all-is-as-it-seems characters lying and scheming
-Contemporary fiction about ex-pat island life in a hostel-style resort with a of thriller and YA writing style mash-up
Content Heads-Up: Death, dead body. Alcohol, drug use (partying, recreational). Sexual assault. Blood. Rape (on page). Mental illness (bipolar, brief). Drugging. Loss of sibling. Loss of parent. Medical (heart, brief). Adult/minor relationship (off page, mentioned). Gun violence. PTSD. Panic attack. Sexual harassment. False accusations.
Rep: White, somewhat ambiguous British and American. Swedish, Laotian, and Israeli peripheral characters. Heterosexual. Bisexual. Lesbian. Cisgender.
📚 Format: Everand Audio
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Energy: Spiteful. Confounded. Secretive.
Scene: 🇹🇭 Set on the (fictional) island of Koh Sang, Thailand
Perspective: We follow two main characters, both in their twenties. One is an American with a negative reputation who moved to Thailand and became a diving instructor. The other is an aspiring American journalist working as a travel influencer on Instagram. Each chapter alternates between their perspectives.
🐕 Howls: The overly detailed writing style that didn’t contribute much to the story. Lack of atmosphere and culture. Ambiguous characters when the author has a specific appearance in mind. MC lying through…inner monologue?
🐩 Tail Wags: The story. The setting (in theory).
🤔 Random Thoughts:
It was too easy to confuse Brooke and Cass. They sounded the same in their text voice; audio saved me once I picked up on the nuance between the audio narrators.
Finding out a character was dishonest for most of the book was puzzling. We mostly get detailed inner monologues, so why would she think and overanalyze so deceitfully?
The setting was unique but underwhelming. It is not a luxury resort but more of a hostel, which I prefer, but it lacked atmosphere and took awhile to figure that out (it could have been any tropical island). I get the main characters were American, but the setting wasn’t. It was so absent of any cultural authenticity of Thailand.
The narrative pace is slow; it sometimes felt like the story unfolded in real-time. I love that, but the present tense narration made all the mundane day-to-day details seem overly dramatic and diluted the suspense because stretching in the morning had the same build-up as discovering a dead body.
The way-too-late dropping of minor but key details like character or setting specifics (appearance or an off-resort bar…) killed my mind-eye imaginings. It was so frustrating that I started ignoring what the author said about the characters’ appearance and setting later in the book.
Was there even a single Thai character in this book? Is that realistic? I have no idea, but it seemed weird.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: YA style direct and simplistic. Verbose with lots of spoon-feeding and handholding.
🤓 Reader Role: Deep in the MCs’ minds, overhearing all their thoughts, reflections, and vague scheming as they go about their days, but not getting much context.
🗺️ World-Building: Detailed, but it didn’t capture the atmosphere and unique setting.
🔥 Fuel: Why did our main characters choose to stay on this island? What are their secrets? What are the guests’ secrets? How do they all connect? Who is killing staff on the island? Will our main characters survive? Who can they trust?
📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief, plausible-ish
🚙 Journey: Week-long vacay on a tropical island. Starts fun but soon becomes claustrophobic. Looking forward to going home.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-White sand. Waves rolling in. Sour bar. Ocean salt. Grilled seafood. Suiting up with diving equipment.
-Not-all-is-as-it-seems characters lying and scheming
-Contemporary fiction about ex-pat island life in a hostel-style resort with a of thriller and YA writing style mash-up
Content Heads-Up: Death, dead body. Alcohol, drug use (partying, recreational). Sexual assault. Blood. Rape (on page). Mental illness (bipolar, brief). Drugging. Loss of sibling. Loss of parent. Medical (heart, brief). Adult/minor relationship (off page, mentioned). Gun violence. PTSD. Panic attack. Sexual harassment. False accusations.
Rep: White, somewhat ambiguous British and American. Swedish, Laotian, and Israeli peripheral characters. Heterosexual. Bisexual. Lesbian. Cisgender.
📚 Format: Everand Audio
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape
Minor: Medical content, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault
Piglet by Lottie Hazell
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? No
5.0
I. Loved. This. But it wasn’t satisfying, the texture was strange, and it left a weird aftertaste…I want more, where can I find more?
Energy: Evasive. Addictive. Vulnerable.
Scene: 🇬🇧 Set in Oxford, UK, in a newly developed neighbourhood
Perspective: We follow a cookbook editor nicknamed Piglet as they settle in with their soon-to-be spouse in the months leading up to their wedding.
🐕 Howls: Moments of ambiguous dialogue where we need to know who is talking, it impacts the story!
🐩 Tail Wags: The writing style. The dialogue (mostly) & characters. The feels and foods. Using ambiguity and withholding as the primary plot device. Piglet being frustratingly horrifying, but loveable. The nuanced juxtaposition of greed and entitlement vs love and fulfilment.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
Half the time I didn’t know what was going on. How does a book that bases everything on ambiguity and withholding not annoy me?
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Dialogue-driven. Mostly show, not tell.
🤓 Reader Role: Invisible, standing in the room, picking up what others are putting down and tying it all together.
🗺️ World-Building: Energy driven. The physical settings are minimal. The ambience comes from the characters interacting with each other and their environment.
🔥 Fuel: What happened to make Piglet feel so differently about her partner and friends leading up to her wedding? Is she ruining her life? Will she go ahead with the wedding? Will she stand up to others? Will she stand up for herself? Should she?
📖 Cred: Open to reader interpretation with sprinklings of everything from hyper-realism to bizarro nonsensical
🚙 Journey: A dream that feels all too real.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Backyard barbeque. Sizzling stir fry. Kettle boiling. Knife chopping. Pots and pans. Caramelized onions. Bitter perfume. October breeze. Fall colours, crunching leaves. River water. Food truck rumblings. Tourists in the park. Hamburgers. Seams ripping. Sickening sweetness.
-Ambiguous plot mostly vibes bizarro realism
-Literary should-I-stay-or-should-I-go romantic suspense
Content Heads-Up: Body shaming, fatphobia (character comments). Pregnancy. Vomit. Eating disorder (starvation, restricting food, binging). Betrayal.Unhealthy relationship. Alcohol use.
Rep: Lesbian. Heterosexual. Cisgender. Fat. Same-sex parenting. Ambiguously described characters.
📚 Format: Kobo
🤩 Potential Fav of 2024
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming and Eating disorder
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Alcohol
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A cute little story I enjoyed on the road during a wintery day.
Energy: Gallant. Familiar. Exhausting.
Scene: 🇬🇧 Late 2022, leading to the Christmas holidays in a British village.
Perspective: We follow multiple members of a club that puts on local plays (in this case, a rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk to fundraise for a new church roof).
🐕 Howls: The epistolary format became less effective for me once it was clear what had happened.
🐩 Tail Wags: The epistolary format overall. The caricatures of characters that felt so real. The problems, mix-ups, and sabotage.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
I could only get this on audio, but it was surprisingly easy to follow despite it being an extensive cast of characters all communicating online. Excellent voices and expressive narration helped to differentiate everyone too.
The story is sad and silly, but how it’s told felt true to life. The nit-picking, passive-aggressive comments, self-centred ramblings from certain members…it was a little satirical but also word-for-word how petty people communicate. Depending on what your inbox looks like rn, this could be cathartic or triggering 😅
Not that big a deal, and maybe the downside of epistolary in general, but once all the tea was spilled the continued communication suddenly lost interest for me. Not repetitive, but it felt like a formality to avoid an abrupt ending.
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🎬 Tale-Telling: Told entirely through emails, WhatsApp, flyers, and police interview transcripts.
🤓 Reader Role: Reading all the emails and texts, piecing everything together, and getting a sense of who is who and their intentions.
🗺️ World-Building: Surprisingly vibrant and easy to imagine
🔥 Fuel: Will all the little hiccups and issues be resolved? Will the passive-aggressive jealous members succeed in sabotage? Will the play go off without a hitch? Who died? Why and how?
📖 Cred: Hyper-realistic with a sprinkling of satirical over-the-top
🚙 Journey: Like accessing someone’s computer and e-eavesdropping on the mini-drama that is their life.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Hammering. Christmas chorus. Candy. Crinkle bags. Musty church scent. Practicing lines. Echoing room. Dog panting. Keyboard clacking. iPhone keyboard feedback. WhatsApp notifications.
- Christmas theatrics and drama
- Clusterf*** of problems, conflicts, and secrets
Content Heads-Up: Domestic abuse. Dead body. Alcoholism. Sabotage. Drugs.
Rep: White and ambiguous British. Cisgender. Heterosexual.
📚 Format: Everand Audio
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Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Death
Minor: Alcoholism
Long Weekend by S.M. Thomas
Content Heads-Up: Fire/fire injury (brief, off-page). Infidelity (brief, off page). Suicide (graphic on page). Sexual content (consenting). Grooming (brief, off page). Death, blood, body horror, gore. Gun violence, mass shootings.
Rep: Lesbian. Bisexual. Heterosexual. Cisgender. White and Black British and American. Diverse skin colours.
📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from BooksGoSocial and NetGalley
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adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
This one just didn’t work for me. If my pet peeves aren't the same as yours, you may enjoy it.
Energy: Precarious. Eager. Farcical.
Scene: 🌎 Luxury complex on a private island in an undisclosed location
Perspective: We read a story based on journal entries from a 32-year-old assistant who attended the opening of an exclusive luxury hotel alongside several celebrities. We know the assistant didn’t survive the trip, and the release of their journal is meant to quell rumours of what happened.
🐺 Growls: Overly drawn-out, dull action. Interrupting the suspense with random thoughts. Stuffing the entire premise and twists in a rushed, convoluted epilogue with unresolved subplots.
🐕 Howls: Emma and her tedious, repetitive inner monologues.
🐩 Tail Wags: Clear introduction to all the characters and their backgrounds.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
Over-the-top camp can be fun, but this was a struggle-chugging rush to the frantic ending with most of the story invested in Emma repeating herself.
Speaking of Emma…I’m sure she’s meant to be immature and lacking self-identity, but she read like a whiny 13-year old. So, the steamy insta-love tropes felt more like middle school fantasizing across the cafeteria. The kind where she’s misinterpreting every glance as romantic interest.
The action scenes kept getting interuppted with Emma's inner monologue. So random too, like her gushing over her parents. It knocked me out of the story enough that I just wanted everyone dead so we could be done with these characters. 😅
The story is present-tense first person. I guess Emma was carrying around her journal and writing everything that happened…asking the bad guy to pause while she writes about her sheer terror. While in the pool. Underwater. Unfortunately, that’s how I kept picturing it 🫠
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🎬 Tale-Telling: Simplistic, almost middle-grade style.
🤓 Reader Role: Emma tells us her thoughts about everything happening.
🗺️ World-Building: Under-described (‘the pool’, ‘the bar’, ‘the villa’). The author had a specific layout in mind relevant to the survival scenes, and I had mentally placed everything differently. A little map/layout at the start would have helped.
🔥 Fuel: What happened on the island? How did Emma die? Will Emma’s steamy fantasies about her famous co-travellers come true? Once the action starts, will they survive? Who is trying to kill them, and why?
📖 Cred: Over-the-top camp
🚙 Journey: Someone starts telling you a crazy story about their vacation, and they’re obviously exaggerating, but when you try to excuse yourself, they talk faster and louder.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Energy: Precarious. Eager. Farcical.
Scene: 🌎 Luxury complex on a private island in an undisclosed location
Perspective: We read a story based on journal entries from a 32-year-old assistant who attended the opening of an exclusive luxury hotel alongside several celebrities. We know the assistant didn’t survive the trip, and the release of their journal is meant to quell rumours of what happened.
🐺 Growls: Overly drawn-out, dull action. Interrupting the suspense with random thoughts. Stuffing the entire premise and twists in a rushed, convoluted epilogue with unresolved subplots.
🐕 Howls: Emma and her tedious, repetitive inner monologues.
🐩 Tail Wags: Clear introduction to all the characters and their backgrounds.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
Over-the-top camp can be fun, but this was a struggle-chugging rush to the frantic ending with most of the story invested in Emma repeating herself.
Speaking of Emma…I’m sure she’s meant to be immature and lacking self-identity, but she read like a whiny 13-year old. So, the steamy insta-love tropes felt more like middle school fantasizing across the cafeteria. The kind where she’s misinterpreting every glance as romantic interest.
The action scenes kept getting interuppted with Emma's inner monologue. So random too, like her gushing over her parents. It knocked me out of the story enough that I just wanted everyone dead so we could be done with these characters. 😅
The story is present-tense first person. I guess Emma was carrying around her journal and writing everything that happened…asking the bad guy to pause while she writes about her sheer terror. While in the pool. Underwater. Unfortunately, that’s how I kept picturing it 🫠
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Simplistic, almost middle-grade style.
🤓 Reader Role: Emma tells us her thoughts about everything happening.
🗺️ World-Building: Under-described (‘the pool’, ‘the bar’, ‘the villa’). The author had a specific layout in mind relevant to the survival scenes, and I had mentally placed everything differently. A little map/layout at the start would have helped.
🔥 Fuel: What happened on the island? How did Emma die? Will Emma’s steamy fantasies about her famous co-travellers come true? Once the action starts, will they survive? Who is trying to kill them, and why?
📖 Cred: Over-the-top camp
🚙 Journey: Someone starts telling you a crazy story about their vacation, and they’re obviously exaggerating, but when you try to excuse yourself, they talk faster and louder.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Bottles at the bar. Distant pool waves. Tropical sun. Soft linen. Airy rooms. Smell of death. Blood. Gunshots. Screaming.
- Escape, isolated, killer on the loose survival slasher
- Rich people behaving badly, starstruck, culty tropes
Content Heads-Up: Fire/fire injury (brief, off-page). Infidelity (brief, off page). Suicide (graphic on page). Sexual content (consenting). Grooming (brief, off page). Death, blood, body horror, gore. Gun violence, mass shootings.
Rep: Lesbian. Bisexual. Heterosexual. Cisgender. White and Black British and American. Diverse skin colours.
📚 Format: Advance Reader’s Copy from BooksGoSocial and NetGalley
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Death, Gun violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Infidelity
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
Content Heads-Up: Prejudice/bias (class, privilege, ancestry, race). Racism (systemic, relationships, academia). Domestic abuse (physical and verbal). Toxic masculinity. Suicide (implied, on page). Murder (on page). Death, life after death (on page). Bullying. Sexism, misogyny. Body shaming. Eating disorder (brief mention). Controlling relationships. Alcohol use (intoxication).
Rep: Cuban American. Puerto Rican. Latina, Lebanese, French, Black, and White Americans. Cisgender. Gay. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Diverse body sizes. Diverse skin colours. Santería.
📚 Format: Paperback
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4.5
Oof, the feels. There’s all too real magic realism, heartbreaking life lessons, and a beautiful ending.
Energy: Intrepid. Vibrant. Raw.
Scene: 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Set in Providence, Rhode Island (1990s), NYC (1970s-1980s) and Havana, Jaruco, and Varadero Cuba (1980s).
Perspective: In the 1980s, we follow an artist who meets an untimely end as their marriage unravels with perspective from their spouse. In the 1990s, we follow a graduate student questioning their world as they learn more about the spouse of the male artist whose work they are writing about.
🐕 Howls: I find post-death or beyond-the-grave perspectives difficult, but that’s just me!
🐩 Tail Wags: Raquel. Imperfect characters. The balance of show-not-tell commentary. Overall energy and thoughtfulness. The portrayal of how established art is dictated and how limiting and destructive that is.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
This is a book you’ll want to be in the headspace for. Even though I haven’t lived the character’s experiences and identities, it felt so relatable and understandable. There’s a wide span of commentary, but it never felt shallow or heavy-handed. I loved the symbolism of connecting across time and supporting the growth of each other’s spirits.
The exploration the 'man-child' and toxic gender roles was well done, too. I hated Jack, but I was glad we got his perspective because it gave us insight into how people like him justify their actions. This didn’t feel misandrist (not all men are jerks), and it explored the role of women in enabling these behaviours too.
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🎬 Tale-Telling: Poetic and expressive but dense with long chapters.
🤓 Reader Role: Anita is talking to us directly and from beyond the grave. We are also tagging along with Raquel with a narrator who gives insight into her thoughts and actions.
🗺️ World-Building: Effortlessly 1990s and 1980s. Musical, too. This is a great book to read along with the songs listed.
🔥 Fuel: We know right away that Anita died, but there’s an unravelling mystery around how and what led to it. Will the truth be found out? Will her art survive? Raquel’s portion has relationship and coming-of-age suspense, and some research sleuthing.
📖 Cred: Hyper-realistic magical realism
🚙 Journey: Spending an afternoon lost in a book or movie, feeling all the feels.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Energy: Intrepid. Vibrant. Raw.
Scene: 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Set in Providence, Rhode Island (1990s), NYC (1970s-1980s) and Havana, Jaruco, and Varadero Cuba (1980s).
Perspective: In the 1980s, we follow an artist who meets an untimely end as their marriage unravels with perspective from their spouse. In the 1990s, we follow a graduate student questioning their world as they learn more about the spouse of the male artist whose work they are writing about.
🐕 Howls: I find post-death or beyond-the-grave perspectives difficult, but that’s just me!
🐩 Tail Wags: Raquel. Imperfect characters. The balance of show-not-tell commentary. Overall energy and thoughtfulness. The portrayal of how established art is dictated and how limiting and destructive that is.
🤔 Random Thoughts:
This is a book you’ll want to be in the headspace for. Even though I haven’t lived the character’s experiences and identities, it felt so relatable and understandable. There’s a wide span of commentary, but it never felt shallow or heavy-handed. I loved the symbolism of connecting across time and supporting the growth of each other’s spirits.
The exploration the 'man-child' and toxic gender roles was well done, too. I hated Jack, but I was glad we got his perspective because it gave us insight into how people like him justify their actions. This didn’t feel misandrist (not all men are jerks), and it explored the role of women in enabling these behaviours too.
----
🎬 Tale-Telling: Poetic and expressive but dense with long chapters.
🤓 Reader Role: Anita is talking to us directly and from beyond the grave. We are also tagging along with Raquel with a narrator who gives insight into her thoughts and actions.
🗺️ World-Building: Effortlessly 1990s and 1980s. Musical, too. This is a great book to read along with the songs listed.
🔥 Fuel: We know right away that Anita died, but there’s an unravelling mystery around how and what led to it. Will the truth be found out? Will her art survive? Raquel’s portion has relationship and coming-of-age suspense, and some research sleuthing.
📖 Cred: Hyper-realistic magical realism
🚙 Journey: Spending an afternoon lost in a book or movie, feeling all the feels.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
- Seagulls. Salt-scented air. Honking traffic. Elevator music. Studio light. Polite laughter. Sand and ocean waves. Hip hop.
- Elements of magical realism and good-for-her revenge
- Literary fiction with new adult experiences and breaking free from patriarchal and White-normalized expectations
Content Heads-Up: Prejudice/bias (class, privilege, ancestry, race). Racism (systemic, relationships, academia). Domestic abuse (physical and verbal). Toxic masculinity. Suicide (implied, on page). Murder (on page). Death, life after death (on page). Bullying. Sexism, misogyny. Body shaming. Eating disorder (brief mention). Controlling relationships. Alcohol use (intoxication).
Rep: Cuban American. Puerto Rican. Latina, Lebanese, French, Black, and White Americans. Cisgender. Gay. Lesbian. Heterosexual. Diverse body sizes. Diverse skin colours. Santería.
📚 Format: Paperback
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Racism
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Suicide, Bullying, Eating disorder, and Body shaming