psychology4introverts's reviews
164 reviews

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Did not finish book. Stopped at 25%.

Not half as good as the others in the series and very depressing.

Attention Span by Gloria Mark
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.

Not enough attention to finish ;-D It’s more of a resource book on specific neurodiversity related topics.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.

It’s the kind of mainstream humour I don’t find overly funny.

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

A great finale to a great series. Def. worth a second read, it really is HP for adults and quite dark, but also intelligent and surprising in its depth. I enjoyed the grumpy strong, but reluctant heroine who hates the establishment and goes out of her way to not enjoy life too much, always braced for the next futile attempt on her life. Finally a hero who doesn’t whine about being so powerful! I still like the second book most, the last one the least. It’s still great, but I like the adventures inside the schoolomance more. The magic system is extremely well thought out and very logical, and quite similar to HP, minus the wands and plus the monsters. Worth getting in paper.

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

At first I thought it would just be another YA entertaining read, but there is actually more depth to the characters and the story is rather dark, yes, but that‘s just the setting, the characters and the story are wonderful, delightfully complex and there‘s a lot of character development. They seem very realistic in their development under the circumstance that they have to fight for survival every day, which becomes kind of normal in the book, but not in an unrealistic way, which gives it additional depth. The character development is great and it is very well written, there are no lengths at all, hard to put down and therefore 5 stars, which I did not expect but happy to have given it a try! The magic is connected with languages, which reminded me a lot of Babel, but it‘s definitely not as tragic as Babel.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
Did not finish book. Stopped at 63%.

I forced myself to listen until track 48, to 63% but then couldn‘t continue. It started out promising, the writing is good, but it‘s inconsistent and there are more and more torture scenes and that’s the one thing I don‘t want to hear or read because it‘s a not why I read books. Also the audio recording is inconsistent. There‘s a male and a female narrator, but they switch chapters and the key two characters, but then they read all other characters of course, but not one per character, but each one reads all the characters in their chapter, and in the next the other one reads the same side-character in his chapter but of course then in a different way, which makes it confusing and annoying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

It is undoubtedly a great series, and the writing is really good, the emotions intense, but Bella‘s constant guilt trips, while logically sound, are drawn out a bit too much. There is much more detail than in the movie of course, and it‘s the key reason to read the books, because everything makes a lot more sense with those details that the movies leave out, which really is kind of the reason for the bad rep the movies get from some. 

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

adventurous challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well it has its lengths, but it’s still great writing overall. I read it mainly because after reading book 1, I realised how much the movies are dropping and with that background the story makes a lot more sense and gains in depth beyond a crazy teenage infatuation. That’s also the reason I’m probably read the rest of them, there’s a lot more character development on the other characters as well, which adds so much to the story arc, and for fans of the movies, which I admit I am, because it is still a great love story and for some, Bella is a relatable character in her antisocial weirdness :-)

Shadow Reaper by Isla Frost

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

Great audio book voice actor.