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reggiereading's reviews
8 reviews
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
i know the trope of this book is so cliche and ya, but i ate it up. the literal definition of y/n inherits billions and the only condition is that she has to live with four cute boys for one year. (wish the boys were girls, we need more y/n lesbianism😞💔) i loved how short the chapters were, very motivating!! i did find it weird how when talking about people's races, they capitalised them?? eg "she was a Black woman". idk i don't think it's 'wrong' per se, it just gave me a weird feeling.
okay quotes!
"/holy ship./" (ily max)
""motorcycle cowboy," libby whispered in my ear."
""it would be a shame, jameson commented, "if we were related."" (i physically recoiled when i read this because WHAT)
""everything's a game, avery grambs. the only thing in life we get to decide is if we play to win.""
"/nothing is certain but death and taxes./" (so true💔)
"i could feel tears stinging in my eyes, and i wasn't entirely sure why." (same girl, same)
"i could see exactly how his mind worked-- and it was disturbingly like my own."
okay quotes!
"/holy ship./" (ily max)
""motorcycle cowboy," libby whispered in my ear."
""it would be a shame, jameson commented, "if we were related."" (i physically recoiled when i read this because WHAT)
""everything's a game, avery grambs. the only thing in life we get to decide is if we play to win.""
"/nothing is certain but death and taxes./" (so true💔)
"i could feel tears stinging in my eyes, and i wasn't entirely sure why." (same girl, same)
"i could see exactly how his mind worked-- and it was disturbingly like my own."
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
i honestly didn't really like this book at the start, i found it boring and slow. but by the second half, it picks up ! (seriously, it takes a while at least for me) as always, here are some quotes (context removed)!
"Nora wanted to live in a world where no cruelty existed, but the only worlds she had available to her were worlds with humans in them."
"In another life Nora was a sea of emotion. She felt everything deeply and directly. Every joy and every sorrow. A single moment could contain both intense pleasure and intense pain, as if both were dependent on each other, like a pendulum in motion."
""I've forgotten who you are." "Don't worry," she said. "So have I.""
"It was nothing but trees and traffic and mediocre architecture, but it was everything. It was life."
"It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living."
"It is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy."
"We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite."
"Because she had touched the vastness of life and within that vastness she had seen the possibility not only of what she could do, but also feel."
"She would accept the darkness of life in a way she never had, not as failure but as part of a totality, as something that threw other things into relief, into growth, into being. The ash in the soil."
"And where there was uncertainty there was also possibility"
i'll be honest, quite a bit of this book felt like philosophical drivel trying to be deep (it succeeded, but whatever). it was a good light read, i can see it putting me into a slump now though😭
"Nora wanted to live in a world where no cruelty existed, but the only worlds she had available to her were worlds with humans in them."
"In another life Nora was a sea of emotion. She felt everything deeply and directly. Every joy and every sorrow. A single moment could contain both intense pleasure and intense pain, as if both were dependent on each other, like a pendulum in motion."
""I've forgotten who you are." "Don't worry," she said. "So have I.""
"It was nothing but trees and traffic and mediocre architecture, but it was everything. It was life."
"It is easy to mourn the lives we aren't living."
"It is not the lives we regret not living that are the real problem. It is the regret itself. It's the regret that makes us shrivel and wither and feel like our own and other people's worst enemy."
"We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite."
"Because she had touched the vastness of life and within that vastness she had seen the possibility not only of what she could do, but also feel."
"She would accept the darkness of life in a way she never had, not as failure but as part of a totality, as something that threw other things into relief, into growth, into being. The ash in the soil."
"And where there was uncertainty there was also possibility"
i'll be honest, quite a bit of this book felt like philosophical drivel trying to be deep (it succeeded, but whatever). it was a good light read, i can see it putting me into a slump now though😭
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
oh my god. i said this about tsh by donna tartt too, but i'd read this book just for the ending. the only reason this isn't a 5 star review is because it's horribly dated, so many things referenced are so 2023 it's insane.
i really enjoyed june's character. she was so firm in her belief that she wasn't doing anything wrong i almost started to believe it (almost)!
i can't decide if i like athena or not. i was happy when june mentioned some happy moments in her friendship with her, but i can't get over how many stories athena stole and profited from (seriously, stealing june's rape story is a whole new level of stealing). even though athena was only alive for the first maybe 2 chapters of the book, i really felt like i knew her by the end, she was so present in june's life. i really felt how haunted june felt, how desperate she was to be free from athena's shadow.
the book was well-paced, it felt very quick at the moments of her book releases and social media happenings, but immediately slow when, for example, june saw athena's ghost at the event at politics & prose. the kind of slow that doesn't drag, but stops you in your tracks.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
i really enjoyed june's character. she was so firm in her belief that she wasn't doing anything wrong i almost started to believe it (almost)!
i can't decide if i like athena or not. i was happy when june mentioned some happy moments in her friendship with her, but i can't get over how many stories athena stole and profited from (seriously, stealing june's rape story is a whole new level of stealing). even though athena was only alive for the first maybe 2 chapters of the book, i really felt like i knew her by the end, she was so present in june's life. i really felt how haunted june felt, how desperate she was to be free from athena's shadow.
the book was well-paced, it felt very quick at the moments of her book releases and social media happenings, but immediately slow when, for example, june saw athena's ghost at the event at politics & prose. the kind of slow that doesn't drag, but stops you in your tracks.
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
sad
medium-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? Yes
5.0
i'm distraught. why have i never read a john green before this one. fml.
idk how else to convince you to read this book other than listing a few of my favourite quotes (out of order and with no spoilers obvi)
"i lack all conviction."
"the parasite believes itself to be the host."
"thoughts are just a different kind of bacteria"
"i wasn't possessed by a demon. i was the demon."
"it's like a brain fire. like a rodent gnawing at you from the inside. a knife in your gut. whirlpool. black hole."
""actually, the problem is that i /can't/ lost my mind," i said. "it's inescapable.""
"look up long enough and you start to feel your infinitesimality."
"the worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company."
"the past is a snare that has already caught you."
"illness is a story told in the past tense."
""nobody gets anyone really. we're all stuck inside ourselves.""
""i'm sorry." "you say that a lot." "i feel it a lot.""
john green you are so quotable and i love you for it. anyway i'm gonna go cry for ever i am inconsolable .❤❤❤❤
idk how else to convince you to read this book other than listing a few of my favourite quotes (out of order and with no spoilers obvi)
"i lack all conviction."
"the parasite believes itself to be the host."
"thoughts are just a different kind of bacteria"
"i wasn't possessed by a demon. i was the demon."
"it's like a brain fire. like a rodent gnawing at you from the inside. a knife in your gut. whirlpool. black hole."
""actually, the problem is that i /can't/ lost my mind," i said. "it's inescapable.""
"look up long enough and you start to feel your infinitesimality."
"the worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company."
"the past is a snare that has already caught you."
"illness is a story told in the past tense."
""nobody gets anyone really. we're all stuck inside ourselves.""
""i'm sorry." "you say that a lot." "i feel it a lot.""
john green you are so quotable and i love you for it. anyway i'm gonna go cry for ever i am inconsolable .❤❤❤❤
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
this is the third time i've read this book (two if you don't count audiobooks) and i don't even know how to go about writing a review because i just love this book so much that i can't express any of my feelings about it in any way other than just asking you to read the book yourself. here are some of my favourite quotes from the book in hopes that you'll pick it up too;
"I need to get back to anorexia. I need to be a kid again."
"..this is the first birthday wish I'll be making where I won't know what to wish for because the thing I've been wishing for all my life is done. Over. case closed. The thing that I secretly hoped through all these years I had some control over, I know now that I don't, and never did. My entire life's purpose, keeping Mom alive and happy, was for nothing. All those years I spent focusing on her, all the time I spent orienting my every thought and action toward what I thought would please her most, were pointless. Because now she's gone."
"Her dreams were my dreams, her happiness was my happiness."
"Slips are totally normal. When you have a slip, it's just that. A slip. It doesn't define you. It doesn't make you a failure. The most important thing is that you don't let a slip become a slide."
"I need to get back to anorexia. I need to be a kid again."
"..this is the first birthday wish I'll be making where I won't know what to wish for because the thing I've been wishing for all my life is done. Over. case closed. The thing that I secretly hoped through all these years I had some control over, I know now that I don't, and never did. My entire life's purpose, keeping Mom alive and happy, was for nothing. All those years I spent focusing on her, all the time I spent orienting my every thought and action toward what I thought would please her most, were pointless. Because now she's gone."
"Her dreams were my dreams, her happiness was my happiness."
"Slips are totally normal. When you have a slip, it's just that. A slip. It doesn't define you. It doesn't make you a failure. The most important thing is that you don't let a slip become a slide."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Vomit, Addiction, and Panic attacks/disorders
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
great book, i really liked it, but just dwel on this for a moment:
he's 15, she's 13/14.
(timeskip)
he's 19, she's 17.
i have no doubt that they do care about each other and their relationship is real but i just cringe when i think about it.
he's 15, she's 13/14.
(timeskip)
he's 19, she's 17.
i have no doubt that they do care about each other and their relationship is real but i just cringe when i think about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Bullying, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Death, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Rape, and Suicide
If I Can't Have You by Charlotte Levin
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Self harm, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape
The Institute by Stephen King
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
(c&p from my goodreads)
FIVE STARS.
this was my first stephen king read, and it will not be the last. every moment was gripping and i simply couldn't put it down. ill admit, at the start i wasn't very interested; tim jamieson was not a compelling character to me. but with luke ellis i was enthralled. this twelve year old is so smart and witty, so much more than i could ever hope to be.
i'm not sure how many times i had to close the book and reflect upon what i had just read, because it happened so much. i was constantly surprised, i stopped trying to guess what would happen because i was always wrong. absolutely wonderful for my first read of 2024.
FIVE STARS.
this was my first stephen king read, and it will not be the last. every moment was gripping and i simply couldn't put it down. ill admit, at the start i wasn't very interested; tim jamieson was not a compelling character to me. but with luke ellis i was enthralled. this twelve year old is so smart and witty, so much more than i could ever hope to be.
i'm not sure how many times i had to close the book and reflect upon what i had just read, because it happened so much. i was constantly surprised, i stopped trying to guess what would happen because i was always wrong. absolutely wonderful for my first read of 2024.
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