sarasoleil's reviews
133 reviews

Water by the Spoonful, by Quiara Alegría Hudes

4.25

The Bear, by Anton Chekhov

3.25

A Guide to the Dark, by Meriam Metoui

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-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

3.5

I wanted to love this book so so much. A horror book with queer Arab girls who fall in love? I thought this book was going to be THE BOOK for me. But it wasn't.

I don't think this book is bad but I don't think it's great either. I found myself a little bored through parts of it and I couldn't connect very well to the characters despite seeing parts of myself in them. The romance is definitely not the main plotline, which I am fine with, but it was hard to me to even see it happening when the connection just didn't seem there.

I still think this is a perfectly good YA horror book, and the representation is wonderful. Not to mention the photography aspect in it is really cool. It just didn't hit where I hoped it would.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for access to this book.

To Serve Man, by Damon Knight

4.0

All That's Left in the World, by Erik J. Brown

adventurous dark funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

It was cute, though I probably would have appreciated it more back in high school.

Dragonfall, by Laura Lam / L.R. Lam

adventurous funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This story had quite an interesting concept and I was pretty engaged the entire time. However, there were times where the writing style really stuck out as not for me. 

The characters, while they all had their backstories, lacked depth to me so I couldn't invest in them the way I'd generally want to. And I wasn't into the relationship as much as I probably should have been, but I definitely wasn't against it either.

This book was entertaining and consistent all the way through, and I don't think it's bad at all. Just wasn't totally for me. Still, I'm invested enough that I'll probably check out the sequel in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for access to this.

Final Girls, by Riley Sager

2.0

Gallant, by V.E. Schwab

4.25

"Perhaps you are haunting me.
What a comforting thought."

I went into this book knowing there was little to no plot and it exists to be atmospheric, therefore I was able to enjoy the atmosphere fully. Absence of plot doesn't mean absence of story, and this one still had a story with beautiful writing on top of it. Definitely enjoyed it! 

The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty

5.0

The Gravity of Existence, by Christina Sng

fast-paced

3.5

Poetry is something I struggle to connect with, and this collection falls into that struggle. If there were underlying meanings for a lot of these, I couldn't find most of them. Still, I don't want to say these poems are bad because that's subjective, but most of them were not to my taste (as is most poetry). 

There were poems that I enjoyed subject wise and them all being really short made it so nothing dragged. Can't say I've been converted to reading more poetry, though.