paperbackwh0re's reviews
209 reviews

49 Days by Agnes Lee

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

4.5/5⭐️
thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc!
it feels weird to describe this book and story as delightful, but that is truly what it is. 
it’s a sad and deep story about grief and the Buddhist belief process of going to the afterlife and it was such a wonderful story. I have always loved reading and learning about different cultures and their thoughts on the afterlife and this book gave me that, but seeing the real life process of the family left behind added so much to this story. it made it feel more connective to audiences and made you not feel alone and know our character going through this afterlife process isn’t alone either. 
I would definitely recommend this do a wide variety of audiences as I feel like anyone could enjoy and appreciate this story. 
this was a touching show of culture and belief while also sharing a deep story as well. 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

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5.0

forever a favorite. may have to make this reread a yearly thing. 
She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 42%.
got stuck in a standstill for a month and just never felt like going back :/ 
hopefully I can come back to it next October 
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

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4.5

thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!
(review to come)
The Secret of the Ravens by Joanna Cacao

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4.0

thank you NetGalley for the e-arc!
this was a very unique story! I love the magic system and it’s what drew me to this book in the first place. 
I loveddd the representation in this book, especially the plus size rep. learning about the characters was fun, especially the villain. </I was not expecting the opening scene to be about the villain> I can’t wait to see the story develop. 
pro: spell glossary!!! that was so very cool 
con: I did see the same line repeated on pages 178 and 184, would have been okay if only they weren’t so close together. 
4/5 ⭐️ this was such a fun read and would recommend to so many people!
Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp

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3.75

thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!
this was pretty interesting. I could tell it would be about being part of the printing press life, but the political aspect I did not expect. obviously the arrest I knew about because of the synopsis. but seeing the girls do what they can to get the truth about corrupted royalty out and doing whatever they can to do the right thing for their home was amazing to see. the physical disability representation was also refreshing! especially because it didn’t hinder what the character could do, in fact we see her do powerful things. the ethnicity representation was another thing I loved seeing. 
really the only problem I had is that while reading, page 97 felt out of place and just kind of disrupted the flow. I don’t know, just didn’t feel right. but it wasn’t too bad. 
3.75/5 ⭐️
Galatea by Madeline Miller

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4.0

I love mythology. 
I read this as a sort of bedtime story (?) 
I was getting ready for bed and wanted to read something and saw this so I read it with only one lamp one and it made the atmosphere of reading so much fun. 
this was such a great short story about a Greek mythology figure that some may not know of unless they know other literature classic works and I loved seeing this version of her story. the afterword helps with context a lot and gives insight to miller’s purpose for writing this. 
4/5⭐️ loved this 
Transmogrify! by g. haron davis

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5.0

thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an e-arc for this.
while I did receive an e-arc for this I struggled to get into it as I have never read a short story anthology before, so I switched to the audiobook and it was SO GOOD!!!
I loved this so much and each story was so unique. my favorite thing about this book is that it's marketed as "fantastical tales" because it 100% is, but once you start reading you see how many genres are crossed through these short stories. it makes it interesting to see how exactly fantasy elements can be used acrossed such different genres. we saw young adult fantasy to horror to science fiction and I loved each one so much and struggle to choose a favorite. the cast of narrators made the audiobook so fun and I will definitely reccomend the audiobook to friends who want to read it. I love how trans is being used as an umbrella term and we are able to see so many different gender identities in these stories. each author is so talented and short stories feel so much harded to write because you have less time to develop plot and characters while still keeping the audience's attention. this was SO good and I need everyone to read it and appreciate these trans stories.
5/5 ⭐️ I LOVED THIS