sarah984's reviews
605 reviews

Fearless by Shira Glassman

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

A short and sweet little romance - I liked the theme of rediscovering music and the relationship between the main character and her daughter. It's nice to see stories like this featuring older characters.

A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories by Bettye Collier-Thomas

3.0

Interesting set of Christmas themed stories and poems published between the turn of the century and the 1950s. Each story is preceded by a short biography of the author and some information about the social context of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Death, Pregnancy, Animal death, Suicide, War, Ableism, Child death, and Slavery

The Usual Santas: A Soho Crime Holiday Anthology by Peter Lovesey

dark

2.0

The titular story is fantastic and as always I enjoyed the Helene Tursten story, but this is another weirdly mis-marketed holiday anthology. The copy is all about the stories being delightful and funny but most of them are really dark and for some reason a whole bunch of them don't even happen on Christmas?? Just call it winter noir or something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Trafficking, Rape, Suicide, and War

Minor: Ableism and Child abuse

I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street by Ben Farthing

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A surprising amount of heart for a story about evil Christmas lights

from space

. The voice was cute and the terrible decisions the character made worked because he was eleven. However I noticed a few distracting typos and I found the end a little disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

What January Remembers by Faith Gardner

dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is a sci-fi domestic thriller that takes place over the Christmas holiday. The characters are fun and the mystery keeps you guessing, but a few parts dragged a bit and the ultimate "reveal" was underwhelming. No one's doing "good for her" in the indie space like Faith Gardner, though, and overall I had fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder, Infidelity, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Eating disorder, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Language of Love - A Flirty, Festive Anthology by Astrid Ohletz

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

As with most anthologies, this one's a bit hit or miss. I loved the concept, with each story featuring different holiday traditions from around the world. The best stories were sweet and fun, but some of the others were weirdly violent or felt pointless. One wasn't even a romance, which is kind of a weird choice. 

Favourites: Mask by Sheryn Munir and Grand Market Bliss by Fiona Zedde

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident

Moderate: Fatphobia and Dementia

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Classism, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Weirdly detailed descriptions of dental work in one story.

The Visitor by Sergio Gomez

dark tense 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

2.5

This was a fast paced read with decent tension but it could have been a lot better. All of the POVs felt the same to me (even the dog!) and nothing really surprising happens. The writing style is pretty simple and uninteresting and there were a few obvious errors (misspelled or missing words).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

A sweet little middle grade novel about a Deaf girl and her grandmother on an adventure. I liked Iris's interest in radios and sound, and the way she learns a bit about the lives of the adults around her, but the stuff anthropomorphizing the whale comes across pretty maudlin and silly (not by the girl, there are a bunch of whale pov chapters and they felt unnecessary) and near the end she does an extremely dangerous thing

(jumping into freezing water)

I didn't really like. Overall fine but I wish it had had another round of editing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Ableism and Death

Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park

challenging informative slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

A darkly funny wild ride through the history (and future?) of Korea. You might want to keep a notebook on hand for this one, there are so many interconnected layers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Confinement, Racism, Torture, Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Suicide, Medical content, Pregnancy, Ableism, Car accident, Incest, Hate crime, Child death, Rape, and Sexual content

Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

emotional 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

4.0

I liked this better than the previous book in the series, but not quite as much as the first two. There really are a limited number of types of stories that you can tell in this format and I think the series might be hitting a wall. The story about the dog was my favourite.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Grief, and Infertility

Minor: Pregnancy

Descriptions of a natural disaster (earthquake/tsunami)