okinreads's reviews
78 reviews

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Good god, this book was insane! I had a hard time picking a rating that felt accurate, because I cannot confidently say this was a good book, but I was captivated by the plot and I read it very quickly. There is not a moment during this book that something ridiculous isn’t happening. It was mysterious, intriguing, creepy, at times horrifying, and even sometimes funny. Many times while I was reading my jaw actually dropped in surprise at what was going on or at what someone said. With that said, essentially none of the characters in this book are likable. They almost all have faults that are very severe and the things these characters do and say to each other is shocking. This reads as a very messy soap opera and there are a lot of triggering themes in this book that I’ll list in the content warnings. Even characters I liked at the beginning turned out to be awful and the ending did not provide any sort of closure. In the end, I enjoyed the drama and mystery of this book, but be prepared that this book does not hold back.

Content Warnings

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

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

I think that this book had a ton of potential and I thought the plot idea was super intriguing! I love a good mystery and I started the book feeling excited to find out details of the curse, hear about her exciting adventures, and find out who this man was that could somehow remember her.

Sadly, I really did not connect well with this author’s writing style and I felt myself getting bored often. Most of the story is focused on Addie’s feelings and turmoil, although she doesn’t show any character growth or change from the chapters in the past to current day. This leads to it feeling a bit repetitive and monotonous. All her adventures are only talked about in passing. The events that she actually lives through in the book, I only found minimally interesting. A lot of the book just felt like the author was trying to tell me how sad of a premise it is to be forgotten by everyone. At some point it’s like okay, I get it! Let’s move on to something else. Also - she was alive for 300 years and didn’t seem to venture out of Europe and the US?? Come on!

I gave this book a 3.25 because the premise was a good idea and there were some plot points that I found interesting. However, the characters lacked some depth and in a lot of ways I feel the story was not engaging.

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced