rosetaylor2's reviews
75 reviews

Normal People by Sally Rooney

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

As always, Shannon's prose will bring you to tears.

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

I could not handle the terrible prose. For example, explaining random facts about people's style and appearance, when it does nothing but interrupt dialogue and true character development opportunities. There are also a lot of sentences which start the same exact way in a single paragraph. I couldn't get into it...

Happy Place by Emily Henry

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

1.5

Spoiler review.

While reading, I felt like I wrote this book in high school during my fan fiction days. The friendships are shallow. The protagonist's main personal conflicts are real enough, but when you're writing a book about 'found family' I expect there to be a deep bond with the found family, and something much more convincing to have driven the protagonist - and all other members of said found family - into each other's arms. Of course, at the end, Sabrina is called out for being shallow and the group discovers how not-family-like they really are (avoiding hard conversations, lying, avoiding challenging topics, refusing to lean into each other). I also hated when Cleo comes out as pregnant to Sabrina at the end, during this huge 'fight', and Sabrina's fake, over the top reaction. Who are these peiple?

I only finished this book because I wanted to find out why Harriet and Wyn didn't stay together. Well, that was way too drawn out to be believable, as well.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-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

3.75

I loved this book. I was disappointed by the climax, but it ends in a believable way. The characters are all flawed, and the protagonist is such an unlikable antihero. The audiobook narration was AMAZING. I'm impressed with R.F. Kuang and I want to read all her future books.

Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced