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parasolcrafter's reviews
240 reviews
Yet a Stranger by Gregory Ashe
Did not finish book. Stopped at 73%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 73%.
genuinely cannot stand theo like if he were a real person i would not hesitate to knock his teeth in. thats all goodbye
They Told Me I Was Everything by Gregory Ashe
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
feel like im going crazy reading the reviews for this book omg...ive never been so far in the minority for a book before??? like damn i Legitimately hated this one ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ i wanted to like it bc i generally like this authors books a lot, but this one was SUCH a fucking miss for me. like...theo is insufferable; im sorry but it needs to be said. i feel sympathy for what happened to him and my issue isnt that hes gone through trauma, its that he such an incompetent adult and that he gets feelings for auggie. auggie, the newly 18 year old kid where theo is pushing 30 like dude. dude fucking back off??? literally pissed me tf off god anytime theo was in the book (the entire time since hes a main character) i wanted to fight him. god. this book only gets points bc somerset is there. like literally thats all i rated it for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Declination by Gregory Ashe
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Triangulation by Gregory Ashe
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
Orientation by Gregory Ashe
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
been a Hot Minute since i read this book, but overall i remember being kind of disappointed in it compared to the other books by gregory ashe :/ i did like it, but i wanted it to be just...more. just more everything, really. i feel like, compared to hazard and john, north and shaw didnt get as much depth for their characters and story. i did love them, but i just feel like they could have been so much more. and...idk, i think shaws virginity being a center point for who he was made me think it was going to be a much bigger deal than it was, because it just...it seemed like that plot-point fizzled out? im not really sure how to explain it, but it just didnt come across as it having as much meaning on as there should have been. i did like the end though, where he gives norths husband what he deserves, like i wish shaw was like that more through the series as a whole.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, and Alcohol
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
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
4.5
this was a really good book that educated me in something i knew nothing about going into it. it was very sad at times and my heart ached (and still does) for salva, and i wish him nothing but the best with his foundation!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War
Golden Boys by Phil Stamper
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
this book is...fine. its not really anything special, but its not bad, either. that being said, i do have quite a bit to say about it.
first things first, the pacing SUCKS. i had quite a hard time figuring out how time was passing (frustrating, considering this book takes place over a 3-month period) and as such it made a lot of the development in relationships feel very rushed :/ at one point, one of the characters mentions him and his friends have only been a part for a week, but the next chapter - without a mention of time passing - a different character says he's been doing his job for weeks, which could only be a typo but for me it made me think a bunch of time has passed without it being mentioned. also, overall it really doesnt feel like 3 months pass during the book; a most, it feels like a month, maybe. like...just not much happens? all the chapters are fairly short and, spread between 4 characters, that doesnt leave a lot room for anything :/ only some of the character development feels deserved, and its more or less only for sal and reese. gabe feels like he only changes because the author says so; a lot of his development seems to happen behind the scenes, which just reads wrong since he changes the most. for the pacing, i wish the book had been structured differently. since there's 4 characters, i think it would have been cool to have each month broken into four chapters, each spanning a week with each character getting their own part. it would have flowed better and made us miss the characters more. really...the pacing makes it all fall flat.
next...i dont like how the relationships worked out, especially with gabe and sal. they ended up feeling like SUCH a hollow friendship because their 'relationship' didnt seem to matter to either of them? idk, they just had such a strange dynamic, with sal especially seeming like nothing matters to him. i also didnt like matt at ALL. hes just SUCH a non-characters; hes literally only there so gabe has someone to like, and it was so annoying they got together in the end. it just didnt make sense to me. and reese and heath...they were fine, but nothing special. overall the characters just fell flat to me. they had so much potential, but it didnt lead to anything, which really is a shame.
further on the characters, theyre all so bland and fairly similar, especially sal and reese. despite the book being told in first person from all the boys, none of them had a distinct voice or personality. their personalities were more or less told to us by the other characters, but it didnt translate very well to their chapters, and it feels like we only know them all on a very surface level. i also dont like the way reese & heath and sal & gabe mirrored each other beat for beat. the chapters where they switch POV's just read as very lazy and i found those 2 chapters annoying and tedious to read; it was essentially the same chapter twice.
i wish this book had just gone a little bit deeper with everything because it was interesting, but it could have been much, much better.
first things first, the pacing SUCKS. i had quite a hard time figuring out how time was passing (frustrating, considering this book takes place over a 3-month period) and as such it made a lot of the development in relationships feel very rushed :/ at one point, one of the characters mentions him and his friends have only been a part for a week, but the next chapter - without a mention of time passing - a different character says he's been doing his job for weeks, which could only be a typo but for me it made me think a bunch of time has passed without it being mentioned. also, overall it really doesnt feel like 3 months pass during the book; a most, it feels like a month, maybe. like...just not much happens? all the chapters are fairly short and, spread between 4 characters, that doesnt leave a lot room for anything :/ only some of the character development feels deserved, and its more or less only for sal and reese. gabe feels like he only changes because the author says so; a lot of his development seems to happen behind the scenes, which just reads wrong since he changes the most. for the pacing, i wish the book had been structured differently. since there's 4 characters, i think it would have been cool to have each month broken into four chapters, each spanning a week with each character getting their own part. it would have flowed better and made us miss the characters more. really...the pacing makes it all fall flat.
next...i dont like how the relationships worked out, especially with gabe and sal. they ended up feeling like SUCH a hollow friendship because their 'relationship' didnt seem to matter to either of them? idk, they just had such a strange dynamic, with sal especially seeming like nothing matters to him. i also didnt like matt at ALL. hes just SUCH a non-characters; hes literally only there so gabe has someone to like, and it was so annoying they got together in the end. it just didnt make sense to me. and reese and heath...they were fine, but nothing special. overall the characters just fell flat to me. they had so much potential, but it didnt lead to anything, which really is a shame.
further on the characters, theyre all so bland and fairly similar, especially sal and reese. despite the book being told in first person from all the boys, none of them had a distinct voice or personality. their personalities were more or less told to us by the other characters, but it didnt translate very well to their chapters, and it feels like we only know them all on a very surface level. i also dont like the way reese & heath and sal & gabe mirrored each other beat for beat. the chapters where they switch POV's just read as very lazy and i found those 2 chapters annoying and tedious to read; it was essentially the same chapter twice.
i wish this book had just gone a little bit deeper with everything because it was interesting, but it could have been much, much better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Homophobia
Moderate: Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content
Things We Couldn't Say by Jay Coles
emotional
lighthearted
sad
tense
fast-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
1.5
this book is very...odd. its unclear who the audience is, as the writing is fairly juvenile and easy to follow, but the two sexual scenes in the book dont fit with a younger audience, but the writing isnt developed enough for an older audience. the adults feel stereotypical in their roles, too; the only father thats really there is a hardass whose been bad to his children, and the mothers are only there to be loving and supportive without motives of their own :/ his birth mother does have a sort of motive, but its shoved in at the end and her storyline ends abruptly so it doesnt even really matter. and his father development is HORRIBLE. like all it takes is one conversation for his dad to be nice to him...? im sorry, but thats not how things EVER happen with bad parents.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
the main characters were fine, but they all just seemed shallow which is a shame because i saw potential for them all. this book needed to be longer and , frankly, better written. the pacing of this story is way off and it makes the relationship between gio and david very rushed into; the amount of pop-culture references was annoying as hell; the near therapy-level of speak from everyone is flat-out unrealistic and sterilized; and the shoe-horned in dialogue of things that just feel like bullet-points of inclusion is just sloppy, honestly. like...i dont get what this book was really trying to do? like, everything was just surface level and hardly explored or expanded upon, which is unfortunate because it had so many good things going for it! it really didnt work on anything it tried to touch on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Biphobia, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Classism
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
this book is really and truly not at ALL worth the hype & reputation it has. the characters are bland, the plot has almost no meaning by the end as all the stakes just end up...not really mattering, and the writing is far too in the realm of fanfiction for me, which makes complete sense. this could have been a good book with an interesting story, but nothing was executed well. the characters didnt dislike each other enough to be enemies, they didnt show me enough of their past for me to get invested, and we werent really shown WHY they supposedly disliked each other except because theyre both young men from famous families...? like im sorry but thats not enough for me. it really isnt. the plot for them to get together was completely rushed, and then when they got together it just. stopped. and never really picked up again. i thought the politics of this book would be a very tense, interesting point of the story almost had next to no meaning in the book. like, i really thought the whole issue with the other presidential candidate would lead to SOME ramifications in the book, but it just didnt. also the fact that alex doesnt even WANT to go into politics by the end of it, which was part of the reason why their relationship had some reason to be kept secret...thats just bad writing. oh, and all the 'jabs' at the royal family were far too on the nose to me; it really feels like they were just there for the author to point to say 'look! look i pointed out that the monarchy is bad!!!' like spell it out for us a LITTLE less. have some nuance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Racism
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
Pink by Lili Wilkinson
emotional
sad
tense
fast-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
1.0
his book was just...bad. it started off alright, and by 'started off' i mean the first few pages; after that, its just all bad. the book is written in a way where im really not supposed to know who to like? like all the characters are shown badly, then theyre shown to be good people, then theyre horrible again, and its this really weird back and forth where i never get a clear view of who they are, but the bit of them i DID see i didnt like. the pacing was also very strange and i didnt really care what ended up happening to ANY of the characters. this could have been an amazing book, but instead it turned out to be very poorly written
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Biphobia, Bullying, Fatphobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol