pupbeat's reviews
21 reviews

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75


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When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A fun and suspenseful little book, set in a small anarchist community with a very interesting magical being tied to it, a deer with three antlers who is
suprisingly violent compared to what you would expect of a deer.

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Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lại

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adventurous funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Pretty fun book and i feel like the characters were especially endearing and believable
Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An all around fun read! Fun fantasy setting, though definitely has its dark/sad moments and moments that can hit close to home or feel real enough to empathize with compared to
having to deal with sharing a mind bond thing with a dragon
. One of the main characters, the sister of the protagonist, has some struggles with mental health that I thought added good depth to her character and motivations as well as made her more relatable.
While I say its a mix of plot and character driven I'd also say it leans more towards plot in this case.
Endearing protagonist too imo, a hotheaded impulsive type girl with a lot of determination.

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Between the Water and the Woods by Simone Snaith

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

A fine book in my opinion, just not entirely to my tastes or didn't click much with me. It has a likeable protagonnist, and I like the world it takes place in. I liked the hook at the beginning a lot, and something that especially stood out to me that i thought was really cool was some little bits of world building, especially at a scene that takes place in a marketplace explaining some clothing items on the surrounding people.

Theres also an occasional illustration which was extremely charming.

I don't think the rest of the book was lacking especially, it just didn't stand out to much to me or fit my personal tastes.
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

A read I enjoyed quite a lot, though an undoubtedly heavy one with dark subject matter. If you are coming in with no context or prior knowledge of Igbo mythology like I did you might get a little tripped up at first, but you can pretty quickly catch on to what things mean with context clues.
I loved the protagonist a lot (
though I guess we have quite a few more than just one in this case but im referring to just Ada
).

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