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pranjuli's reviews
162 reviews
Nanny for the Neighbors by Lily Gold
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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? Yes
4.5
Cute, fun, sexy, cozy. Nice and flowy writing, one that doesn't make you struggle to read and doesn't make the story cheap. I really enjoyed. Read in a single sitting (although that says more about the time and mental place when I picked it). Mostly liked the main male characters, LOOUUVVVEEDDD Cyrus, Beth was also very well-carved out character. Really liked her as well.
What I did not like was the absolute lack of other female characters, atleast the lack of redeemable female characters. I don't know if the author has some personal grudge against hers or someone else's mother, but not a single mother in the book was redeemable. That's weird, right? Like atleast give me reasons why they were being such assholes. And ONLY the mothers, actually. Beth's, Seb's, Cyrus's, Cami's. Every mother wasn't a good mother.
Anyway, it was cute. It was SMUTTY. It was nice, really. I enjoyed it. :)
What I did not like was the absolute lack of other female characters, atleast the lack of redeemable female characters. I don't know if the author has some personal grudge against hers or someone else's mother, but not a single mother in the book was redeemable. That's weird, right? Like atleast give me reasons why they were being such assholes. And ONLY the mothers, actually. Beth's, Seb's, Cyrus's, Cami's. Every mother wasn't a good mother.
Anyway, it was cute. It was SMUTTY. It was nice, really. I enjoyed it. :)
Randomize by Andy Weir
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
Weird quantum shit, neither interesting nor well-explained. So much info-dump on every page. Characters not developed at all. Random sentences thrown in at places to create an illusion of a character, but in actual, you can not picture a person at all. Just words.
Dialogues are mainly expository. Things are told, not shown. Plot is obvious and easy to guess. I wasn't even interested to know what happened to any of them or to the story at the end. Just words thrown in like - randomize, quant, qbits. Without these words this story is legit 5 sentences long. That's it.
Andy Weir wasn't interested in this.
Dialogues are mainly expository. Things are told, not shown. Plot is obvious and easy to guess. I wasn't even interested to know what happened to any of them or to the story at the end. Just words thrown in like - randomize, quant, qbits. Without these words this story is legit 5 sentences long. That's it.
Andy Weir wasn't interested in this.
Educated by Tara Westover
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I wanna know more and lesser at the same time. Tara has a gift - this is undeniable, and her story is one of inspiration and abandon at the same time. I am horrified as well as gratified.
Weirdly, despite being a story so away from our lives, Tara doesn't come across as an alien when discussing about her feelings and fears and how she felt when thrown into new situations after living a completely different life for 17 years. She doesn't feel unnatural, she doesn't come across as miraculous either.
She is a woman, just like any of us, who had to grapple with so much.
Weirdly, despite being a story so away from our lives, Tara doesn't come across as an alien when discussing about her feelings and fears and how she felt when thrown into new situations after living a completely different life for 17 years. She doesn't feel unnatural, she doesn't come across as miraculous either.
She is a woman, just like any of us, who had to grapple with so much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
Zikora by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Chimamanda does it again - filled my head and heart with worry, loneliness, impatience, and too many thoughts and none at once. She has a gift.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
Will start over again, at the right time, hopefully and love it then.
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Aggressively average. Something that you can just listen to when you want some stories told to you while you are doing some boring work, something like that. They are simplistic in the extreme, and the world is just too straight forward. If you're looking for quality reading experience, I am afraid this isn't going to be one.
The characters are one-dimesnional, sexist, body-shamers and outdated. One can clearly see that stamp of 'black female characters written by a white man' everywhere. If the premise wasn't set in Botswana and instead in some white country, or somewhere even a little bit known, one wouldn't even have heard about this series of books. It works only because most people in the world outside Botswana know nothing about Botswana. The titles of each mystery are probably the most interesting part of them.
The characters are one-dimesnional, sexist, body-shamers and outdated. One can clearly see that stamp of 'black female characters written by a white man' everywhere. If the premise wasn't set in Botswana and instead in some white country, or somewhere even a little bit known, one wouldn't even have heard about this series of books. It works only because most people in the world outside Botswana know nothing about Botswana. The titles of each mystery are probably the most interesting part of them.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I am not entirely sure why this book is tagged horror in most reviews and discourses, or maybe my understanding og such genre is limited at the moment for I personally did not associate it with horror while reading it.
This is the character discovery of Yeong-Hye from the eyes of other people as she unravels in front of them. How each one of them see her as an inconvenience, as an object of desire, as an artpiece, as a responsibility, as a victim. As parts ot Yeong-Hye are opened up infront of me, I felt more and more uncomfortable and stunned by what she has endured and as you realise that at some point something inside her broke and she stopped enduring. She suffered and tried to not suffer, but having no control of her life, she couldn't escape suffering for a long time. You realise that although she spoke little, when she did, she clearly communicated what she needed, but those words weren't heard.
The understanding of the characters of the narrators is also constantly being discovered as you read chapters in their voices and also see the others from their eyes.
I think this book has tried to say so much about the society, about the insides of people's minds, about traumas and sufferings of long ago that stay with us, about the sheer impossibility of understanding what exactly is going on inside someone else.
Flashes of this story are going to keep coming to me for a long time.
This is the character discovery of Yeong-Hye from the eyes of other people as she unravels in front of them. How each one of them see her as an inconvenience, as an object of desire, as an artpiece, as a responsibility, as a victim. As parts ot Yeong-Hye are opened up infront of me, I felt more and more uncomfortable and stunned by what she has endured and as you realise that at some point something inside her broke and she stopped enduring. She suffered and tried to not suffer, but having no control of her life, she couldn't escape suffering for a long time. You realise that although she spoke little, when she did, she clearly communicated what she needed, but those words weren't heard.
The understanding of the characters of the narrators is also constantly being discovered as you read chapters in their voices and also see the others from their eyes.
I think this book has tried to say so much about the society, about the insides of people's minds, about traumas and sufferings of long ago that stay with us, about the sheer impossibility of understanding what exactly is going on inside someone else.
Flashes of this story are going to keep coming to me for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt