saint_eleanor's reviews
240 reviews

No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of the best books ive ever read by far. It is so complex on every level, to the point where you’re questioning the author’s involvement in said “fictional” story. “Truth” eludes the whole thing. I don’t think i can even go into all of it but it just took over my whole reading schedule until i finished it lol, it’s about a group of friends from the states on a heritage trip to Ghana and the two different Ghanaians who are showing them around (and their conflicting personalities) and its really like a fever dream i was so unnerved the whole time. It would make an incredible horror movie or thriller. It definitely became a little confusing at the end but nothing that you can’t figure out if you concentrate. Read this book!!
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Sakuran: Blossoms Wild by Moyoco Anno

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dark funny lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Good story but i was hella confused  the whole time and also in the first half the art looked weird but then got better? I love anno tho
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Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition by Tsutomu Nihei

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challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Broke my damn heart 
Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.
Got bored.
The first story hit so close to home tho
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

so fucking good!! I have a lot of theories about this book and feel like I will mull it over for a long time. It's the perfect length, it's really unsettling and disturbing and tbh like to me more horrific than most horror novels bc it's all about like existential dread and being and nothingness (horrifying.). I lowkey want to read it again because it's one of those non-linear books that is more of a circle, each section can be explained by other sections in relation to eachother.
I liked how it was a story that Jake wrote about the girl he never had the courage to speak to, but I also played around with the idea that they actually were on Venus lol, or he was. Idk, i felt like the venus stuff was cool to include and not insignificant but maybe there's another piece.
I also liked the movie, but DO NOT watch it w ur partner for the love of god. I'm also curious how they chose to do the screenplay and stuff bc it was pretty different from the book but conveyed the story really well. 
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This is definitely worth the hype. The characters are so intense and the writing is so so good. You really start to feel for all of them and like be angry at them etc. You also start to see like how far people are willing to go to impress eachother/ maintain their social standing and financial status. A really good look at humanity and banality and violence and all that jazz. My only qualm is the
ending, bc what the heck like I just wanted more closure or something. Like yes it was really crazy but it wasn't crazy enough for the book to be setting up for that for so long yk.
And also I loved the scary ass magical realism undertones (the "deer" they kept seeing that they thought was Dionysus.)
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The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

This was super fun and very classical sci-fi horror vibes but the racist undertones were a bit much for me, even though I know that the whole book is kind of a metaphor for
God and humanity and race issues etc
.
Faust Part Two by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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challenging dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.75

def lots of fun, didn't make a ton of sense and is almost more like a theoretical exercise. Brain food forsure
Faust, Part 1 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.75

The Stranger by Albert Camus

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was okay, i really liked the story actually and i can see how important it was at the time, but i kind of wish that it was longer or shorter/more concise? I like the themes of the übermensch, absurdism, and ultimate freedom from society’s norms/morals, but i think he could have gone even further with that. It reminded me a lot of Tayeb Salih’s Season of migration to the North, which i felt similarly about bc they deal with characters who kind of sit back and watch their peers assault women and kill people. I think the only reason i find these types of books to be irritating is bc the main characters are often like praised by people who are into Nietzche but all I’m seeing when I’m reading it is a man who is enabling/creating violence towards women and marginalized people and who is too spineless to have an opinion about it. Thats not really the book’s fault though, i feel like they are missing the point of the story.  I also have an issue with the existentialism theme, bc it gets him off the hook for any guilt about the murder bc he embraces true nihilism. I think thats BS personally but again i think that’s the point— that nihilism is actually quite dangerous. Idk!!
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