rinitealeaf's reviews
96 reviews

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

The story is extremely beautiful, yet sad as it is as described "novel about the nature of life and the way it feels to live it."
It is a story about a couple who rent a guest house from an older couple in Tokyo.
One day their lives will be forever changed as this small little beautiful cat decides to adopt the couple as her part time owners.
The writing style is very poetic and the author goes great lengths to explain the smallest details which, in my opinion, makes the book even better but I understand why some readers might find it hard or distracting to read. Translator, Eric Selland, has done remarkable job. Maybe one day my Japanese will be good enough to read this on it's intended language.

Spoilery part

I was also touched and sadden by the old couple and I was devastated and cried like a baby when the protagonist learned of Chibi's death. Being a cat person and creating space for each one I meet in my heart has left me very soft for sad news like this. Chibi reminds me of my neighbour's cat, she is so similar in her ways yet different. My neighbour's cat always comes running and meowing when she sees me and would love to come inside as well.

The End was a little shocking but also I loved that it left a bit of a mystery as well. I'm halfly believing that Chibi just left that day like it was in her nature from the start and the other half that has watched so many drama and horror series/movies thinks that the neighbours did something to her may it be accident or not.

All in all, even if you aren't a cat person I urge you to read this. Such a piece of art <3

Merfolk by Jeremy Bates

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adventurous slow-paced

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

0.75

I have so many things to say about this book, maybe my first should be DO NOT READ this book.
It was poorly written and the whole story was incredibly boring. It took me 6months to finish it, at times I felt like just ditching it but I wanted to be able to say I read it and it sucked.
I picked up this book because it was hyped so much by others and I foolishly saw "#1 Amazon best selling" and "World's scariest legends" and I'm sucker for horror and underwater creatures like merfolk. Yeeah it was none of that. I am glad I didn't buy this, I read it via Kindle Unlimited.

It felt like someone else wrote the first half of the book, it was full of "fancy" words and it felt clunky, then pretty much after 50% it changed and got slightly better (which is why 2 stars and not 1). What I mean by "fancy" words is that it felt like the Author was in thesaurus looking for synonyms to every other word which for someone who has English as 2nd language is a bit daunting. Even if I use English pretty much 95% of the time and I still had to look up many of the words.

The story should come with trigger warnings for random sexual encounters that have no relation to the actual plot and don't give anything to the story (one of the characters was into erotic asphyxiation). You can also clearly see from the writing that it's a male Author from sentences like "Her brastrap was visible under her Metallica top" when describing a woman or "She hurried over, stuffing her breasts back into her bikini top".
Men please, when you're describing women's chesticles stuff like that is very cliche and cringey.

There is also one racist remark which honestly didn't need to be there. "She's from France, but her mother is Chinese, which is why she looks like that" then characters talk about how that was racist and it's "corrected" [insert eyeroll] by "She's from France, but her mother is Chinese, which is why she's so stunning."

The idea of the story had so much potential but all the action was packed in for the last couple chapters. I did appreciate the research that went to this book, to get all scientific stuff correct etc but that alone doesn't save the book.

Content Warnings

Angel Maker by Morgan Greene

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

I will put Content warnings at the end of the review.
I'm big fan of detective books, especially well written and not your usual white male lead.
I liked Jamie as a protagonist a lot, she has a tragic past but it doesn't define her too much (in my opinion). Maybe I might be biased as I've been through the same as her.
Unrelated, well sort of, I moved from Finland to Sweden and reading things I can recognise and understand intrigued me a lot. I really like the Scandinavian feels.

I'm usually quite good at guessing "whodunnit" and I wasn't wrong on this, well I was wrong about the motive and that last doubletriple twist at the end but that what makes me want more and appreciate the writing. :) I will definitely meet with DI Johansson in the future.

Two decades ago infamous serial killer Angel Maker was caught and put behind bars by Jamie Johansson's fathe. Now he seems to be back as a teenage girl is found in the forest killed exactly like the previous victims. Jamie is a detective in London and is called back as a consultant because of her unique ties for the old case.
She is paired with and "old schoold" detective Anders Wiik and his current partner Julia Hallberg.
Wiik is grumpy, rude almost and Hallberg is young, still little green and reminds Jamie when she was starting as a detective.

The start felt a little slow, but I think it was just me not having read in a while and was too eager to get to the action. The suspense and the hold the book had for me was amazing, the plot was written so well that it gave you enough hints but then also took them away leaving you second guessing yourself :) As a fan of crime/detective/mystery genre I appreciated the detail on the crime scenes, there was enough grit but it wasn't off putting.

I highly recommend this book!
Content warnings(biggest ones I can remember): gritty murders, suicide, sexual abuse of minors, abuse, stalking, death of a parent

Content Warnings