readingduckling's reviews
129 reviews

House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.75

I liked that book very much, especially the different depictions of grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Mental illness and Suicide

Minor: Child death and Suicidal thoughts

Die Füchse von Hampstead Heath by Ben Aaronovitch

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

1.5

Well I bought the book on sale because it was damaged, and I'm so happy I didn't pay full price. The writing style is bad (maybe it's the translations fault but maybe not) and it's so obvious that the author wanted to write teenagers without understanding them.

Too Late: Definitive Edition by Colleen Hoover

dark tense fast-paced

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

0.5

Maybe this could be a good story if you scrapped everything and just kept the very very basic concept. 

But it was badly written and Al of the characters were terrible people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Death, Self harm, Grief, and Death of parent

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Liked the representation of grief and how people deal with it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Death

Greek Lessons by Han Kang

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Liked this book so much, especially the representation of mental health issues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Death

Minor: Terminal illness

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Liked this book so much, I think it was my first dark academia and definitely recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Blood

QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book very much. But it was a little bit exhausting to read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence

The Cinnamon Bun Book Store by Laurie Gilmore

funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

I liked this book very much, but not as much as the first one absolut cozy and relaxing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I'm so glad I finally got to this book. It was absolutely fascinating and I loved reading this book so much, it's a great story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Minor: Transphobia and Kidnapping

Nimm den Tod persönlich: praktische Anregungen für einen individuellen Abschied by Georg Schwikart, Fritz Roth

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

2.75

It's a good book to get ideas on how to deal with death and grief but the age of this book (15 years) is quite obvious, it's a bit to focused on Christianity even in the chapters that could have stayed secular and the last chapter sadly seemed poorly researched, thought about, but it had so much potential.

But if you need inspiration on how to deal with grief this book can be a great tool.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Terminal illness