notsobinaryart's Reviews (162)

Assistant to the Villain

Hannah Nicole Maehrer

3.0

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

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A fun and easy read, but I had some major issues with the book.

It’s a fun concept, showing The Villain being not a bad guy and having a sweet bubbly girl working for him. The characters are overall charming, and you do root for them even when they do less than ideal things.

The book was long, having unnecessary scenes that serve as fun little moments without furthering any obvious plot, which can be fine but don’t seem super well edited. The book is very on the nose, which isn’t bad for an easy read, but don’t expect some earth shattering revelations, new concepts, or major twists on any tropes. The characters weren’t super complex either, and we mostly only get surface level insight into the characters until we get a few moments of insight to their trauma, often in an info dumpy way.

One of my biggest issues is with some ableist tropes is at the climax of the book.

In the end, you find out the sick disabled father was faking it all along. Not only is he faking, he’s faking to further his villainous intentions. This stereotype further perpetuates that many disabled people are actually faking it, which is incredibly harmful towards public perception of real disabled people. I am extremely tired of disabled people, even fake disabled people, being the villain, especially if it’s a direct tie to their villainy. Almost every disabled person has experienced ableists questioning their disability perpetuated by these harmful tropes.

If you’re looking for a fun read, it can be enjoyable, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse

Kiss Her Once For Me

Alison Cochrun

emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Abandonment

Weird Blood

Azalea Crowley

4.75

funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Strange Blood

Azalea Crowley

4.5

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Body horror, Chronic illness, Vomit, Acephobia/Arophobia, Abandonment

Overall a very cozy book, but as it is a book about vampires, death is frequently discussed and seen on page I am someone who can easily get frightened and disturbed, and I personally had no problem with the level of detail of the horror and death side of things Sexual content is mentioned as happened quite frequently in this story, but we do not see any actual on-page sex. There is an on-page scene of heavy making out, however

Merry Inkmas

Talia Hibbert

4.25

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Pedophilia

Whiteout

Angie Thomas, Dhonielle Clayton, Ashley Woodfolk, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Tiffany D. Jackson

4.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

The Decoy Girlfriend

Lillie Vale

3.75

hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment

The Wrath & the Dawn

Renée Ahdieh

4.0

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage, Slavery

Fake Dates and Mooncakes

Sher Lee

DID NOT FINISH: 30%

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The biggest reason I had to DNF was because of my distrust of Theo and all of his actions. 

Spoilers ahead

Every step of the way, we are led to mistrust Theo. The moment I couldn’t keep reading was when they go to the Hamptons for wedding of a family member of Theo’s. He let Dylan walk into a toxic, manipulative family situation. Dylan doesn’t find out they weren’t truly invited and welcome until they step foot in the Hamptons for the weekend after a two hour drive, effectively trapping him there.

Theo causes so much stress for Dylan, from the unwelcome stay to being seemingly willfully ignorant of their differences in class and how that would make Dylan feel. Even the situation we meet Theo in feels deceitful when Theo later explains that him and his friend/ex just casually were in their boxers together as friends, not as lovers.

Overall, the positives of this book couldn’t keep me interested enough to keep seeing the web of lies that only seem to hurt Dylan.

The Bride Test

Helen Hoang

2.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Sexual content