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onelittlearchive's reviews
393 reviews
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book struck a nerve and I'm not even really sure why.
First and foremost I really like Rachel Harrison's writing. It always feels really relatable and accessible to me. I'm not quite sure how to describe her authorial voice but it gives me this sort of relaxed feeling which is always enjoyable to read.
However, in the characters in Cackle? My god are there two more insufferable people than Annie and Sophie? I spent a lot of time while reading trying to figure out if that was what she was going for. If she was trying to craft characters that you simply did not like or if that was on me. From the moment Sophie was introduced she grated on my nerves as she flounced around her fake perfection. I'm always interested in a story about a beguiling mysterious woman who you want to pick apart and understand. Sophie, however, did not give me that. No, Sophie made me want to fling her into an abyss. She felt so self important and that her ideals were the ones any and every woman should take up despite what their desires might be.
Annie? Oh Annie, at first I was on her side. I get it, her life imploded. Her relationship of ten years gone in an instant despite her lingering feelings for Sam. She moved to a new town trying to escape the old life she built with him. I understood. But, my lord is she the most desperate kind of people pleaser who lacked any sort of backbone. The absolute desperation for Sophie to like her despite being the literal weirdest manipulative lady made me insane. Annie's moments of apprehension or self reflection regarding her all consuming friendship with Sophie were brief. Sophie would scare the shit out of her and Annie would just say "Oh, that's okay. We're still friends" the next day. Not to mention her obsessing over her ex to the point that it was honestly pathetic. Girl, stand up!
I really wanted to know the other people in town, their backstories and truly why each of them showed Sophie such trepidatious respect. You get little pieces of that story but largely Cackle focuses primarily on Annie and her burgeoning friendship with Sophie. I kept waiting for Annie to see through her, to find out that she didn't need Sophie or Sam. I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany that she needed to live for herself and her own ideals but... she never did. She traded molding herself into what Sam wanted to then doing the same when it came to Sophie. Even when we got to the part where it seemed like she grew a backbone it honestly just seemed like she became like Sophie, not some moment of self empowerment.
And the ending? Annie and Sophie can go to hell.
All this to say is that I still enjoyed reading this despite being utterly infuriated with the two main characters. I don't know what that says about me as a person. If I was supposed to despise them then thank you Rachel I've spent a week thinking about how much I wanted to throttle both of them. They deserve each other and maybe that's what the ending was trying to say.
First and foremost I really like Rachel Harrison's writing. It always feels really relatable and accessible to me. I'm not quite sure how to describe her authorial voice but it gives me this sort of relaxed feeling which is always enjoyable to read.
However, in the characters in Cackle? My god are there two more insufferable people than Annie and Sophie? I spent a lot of time while reading trying to figure out if that was what she was going for. If she was trying to craft characters that you simply did not like or if that was on me. From the moment Sophie was introduced she grated on my nerves as she flounced around her fake perfection. I'm always interested in a story about a beguiling mysterious woman who you want to pick apart and understand. Sophie, however, did not give me that. No, Sophie made me want to fling her into an abyss. She felt so self important and that her ideals were the ones any and every woman should take up despite what their desires might be.
Annie? Oh Annie, at first I was on her side. I get it, her life imploded. Her relationship of ten years gone in an instant despite her lingering feelings for Sam. She moved to a new town trying to escape the old life she built with him. I understood. But, my lord is she the most desperate kind of people pleaser who lacked any sort of backbone. The absolute desperation for Sophie to like her despite being the literal weirdest manipulative lady made me insane. Annie's moments of apprehension or self reflection regarding her all consuming friendship with Sophie were brief. Sophie would scare the shit out of her and Annie would just say "Oh, that's okay. We're still friends" the next day. Not to mention her obsessing over her ex to the point that it was honestly pathetic. Girl, stand up!
I really wanted to know the other people in town, their backstories and truly why each of them showed Sophie such trepidatious respect. You get little pieces of that story but largely Cackle focuses primarily on Annie and her burgeoning friendship with Sophie. I kept waiting for Annie to see through her, to find out that she didn't need Sophie or Sam. I kept waiting for her to have an epiphany that she needed to live for herself and her own ideals but... she never did. She traded molding herself into what Sam wanted to then doing the same when it came to Sophie. Even when we got to the part where it seemed like she grew a backbone it honestly just seemed like she became like Sophie, not some moment of self empowerment.
And the ending? Annie and Sophie can go to hell.
All this to say is that I still enjoyed reading this despite being utterly infuriated with the two main characters. I don't know what that says about me as a person. If I was supposed to despise them then thank you Rachel I've spent a week thinking about how much I wanted to throttle both of them. They deserve each other and maybe that's what the ending was trying to say.
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
I always enjoy a story that has so much shrouded in mystery and leaves you as a reader trying to figure it all out through narrow glimpses. What happened to the world? What do all these states of being chosen mean? There’s just endless questions and nothing to do except read on in the hopes of learning the answers. There are a lot of religious overtones as one might expect but there are lots of sharp barbs about climate change, bodily autonomy, and indoctrination buried in the story to examine.
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was thrilled to see another English translation by Agustina Bazterrica. As a big fan of Tender is the Flesh I was very eager to get my hands on another story by her. Unreliable narrators and religious fanaticism are two of my favorite things in fiction and this book has both. I really enjoyed the writing, the sort of hastily done pieces of narration where our narrator only has so much time or is interrupted. This story doesn’t shy away from the gruesome. It’s certainly a sort of skin crawling experience to read about the torture and violence these women exact on each other in the name of being faithful and dutiful. It seems untenable the things they all do in the hopes of becoming more than an Unworthy and ascend to being Enlightened.
I always enjoy a story that has so much shrouded in mystery and leaves you as a reader trying to figure it all out through narrow glimpses. What happened to the world? What do all these states of being chosen mean? There’s just endless questions and nothing to do except read on in the hopes of learning the answers. There are a lot of religious overtones as one might expect but there are lots of sharp barbs about climate change, bodily autonomy, and indoctrination buried in the story to examine.
That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
My full review will be up on my blog - www.onelittlearchive.com
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The story Kylie Lee Baker has crafted is a heavy one. It felt as though a weight had settled on my chest as I followed Cora’s through her new dark reality. This horror story covers so much and there is truly so much to dissect - Loss, Grief, Mental Health, Anti-Asian sentiment, Racism, Multiculturism.
Set during the 2020 COVID19 pandemic, Bat Eater follows young Cora Zheng as she tries to navigate what might just be the end of the world. Her sister is violently murdered right before her shortly after the lockdowns take place and to make ends meet she takes the unconventional job of being a crime scene cleaner. As a someone with OCD the cleaning, no matter how grotesque, is something Cora knows she can do. The rest of her life, however, is just some endless void. She is the absence of a person, seeing herself as a barely there echo of her late sister.
What to expect:
Set during the 2020 COVID19 pandemic, Bat Eater follows young Cora Zheng as she tries to navigate what might just be the end of the world. Her sister is violently murdered right before her shortly after the lockdowns take place and to make ends meet she takes the unconventional job of being a crime scene cleaner. As a someone with OCD the cleaning, no matter how grotesque, is something Cora knows she can do. The rest of her life, however, is just some endless void. She is the absence of a person, seeing herself as a barely there echo of her late sister.
What to expect:
- Hungry Ghosts
- OCD Representation
- Gore
- Racist Serial Killers
- Your Auntie is always right
My full review will be up on my blog - www.onelittlearchive.com
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A personal goal of mine in 2025 is to find a contemporary romance I like. When it comes to romance I love it the weirder and more bizarre it is and contemporary doesn't usually give that to me. But why not start with the romance in a town full of ghosts!
Haunted Ever After is a pretty easy read. I liked the premise of Boneyard Key, this small tourist town in Florida known for being haunted because its residents stick around long after they die. Cassie, looking for a fresh start, buys the house everyone in town knows for belonging to a rather mean spirit but she doesn't.
Cassie and Nick's romance was fine. I didn't particularly love the conflict resolution and the "Cassie is going back to Orlando if I can't convince her to say" felt pretty manufactured. There was no time limit or some pressing circumstance that would make that feel inevitable nor was she so terrified of her haunted house that she felt like she had to get the hell out of there. She had felt forgotten by her friends and wanted to do something new so I didn't really think it was as big of a deal as Nick kept making it out to be.
I do wish there was more ghost stuff, which as someone who reads a lot of horror is definitely on me. Did I maybe think this book was about her falling in love with a ghost? Possibly. If you're a contemporary romance enjoyer who likes small town vibes and a little twist on the trope you'll probably enjoy this one.
Haunted Ever After is a pretty easy read. I liked the premise of Boneyard Key, this small tourist town in Florida known for being haunted because its residents stick around long after they die. Cassie, looking for a fresh start, buys the house everyone in town knows for belonging to a rather mean spirit but she doesn't.
Cassie and Nick's romance was fine. I didn't particularly love the conflict resolution and the "Cassie is going back to Orlando if I can't convince her to say" felt pretty manufactured. There was no time limit or some pressing circumstance that would make that feel inevitable nor was she so terrified of her haunted house that she felt like she had to get the hell out of there. She had felt forgotten by her friends and wanted to do something new so I didn't really think it was as big of a deal as Nick kept making it out to be.
I do wish there was more ghost stuff, which as someone who reads a lot of horror is definitely on me. Did I maybe think this book was about her falling in love with a ghost? Possibly. If you're a contemporary romance enjoyer who likes small town vibes and a little twist on the trope you'll probably enjoy this one.
Old Soul by Susan Barker
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Oh man, I loved this.
This book had me pacing around my house with my stomach clenched in a knot and yet it's some of the most fun I've had reading a book in awhile.
I'm unsure how quite to describe Old Soul as on it's face it sounds like a very intriguing mystery. The book opens on Jake and Mariko both of whom have just missed their flight to Amsterdam. They are perfect strangers and yet in a way that only two people who will never meet again can their conversation reveals a secret they both have in common. They both lost a loved one a horribly inexplicable way and both of their deaths had occurred shortly after they met a strange and unsettling woman.
This conversation begins Jake's journey to understand what happened to his childhood friend and everyone else who's crossed paths with The Woman. This story is told through the testimonies Jake has collected interspersed between a narrative following who you can only assume is The Woman. This left me trying to desperately piece together this mystery and with each new account I found myself feeling just as caught in the spiral of chaos that each narrator felt trying to understand what happened to the person they loved.
I loved how much this creeped me out and how it examines how much you are willing to do to live. I ate this up and I'm fairly certain I may never let another person take my photo for as long I live.
This book had me pacing around my house with my stomach clenched in a knot and yet it's some of the most fun I've had reading a book in awhile.
I'm unsure how quite to describe Old Soul as on it's face it sounds like a very intriguing mystery. The book opens on Jake and Mariko both of whom have just missed their flight to Amsterdam. They are perfect strangers and yet in a way that only two people who will never meet again can their conversation reveals a secret they both have in common. They both lost a loved one a horribly inexplicable way and both of their deaths had occurred shortly after they met a strange and unsettling woman.
This conversation begins Jake's journey to understand what happened to his childhood friend and everyone else who's crossed paths with The Woman. This story is told through the testimonies Jake has collected interspersed between a narrative following who you can only assume is The Woman. This left me trying to desperately piece together this mystery and with each new account I found myself feeling just as caught in the spiral of chaos that each narrator felt trying to understand what happened to the person they loved.
I loved how much this creeped me out and how it examines how much you are willing to do to live. I ate this up and I'm fairly certain I may never let another person take my photo for as long I live.