shivani_n's reviews
332 reviews

Things I Wanted To Say (but never did) by Monica Murphy

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

objectively this book is absolutely despicable and deranged but hey i knew what i was getting into so i can't say i didn't expect it!

the writing is terrible, and i mean like absolute GARBAGE. 
there's barely any plot or real romance the book is 90% smut.
the main guy, whit, is a total ick whose only redeeming quality seems to be his dick (omg hey that rhymes!), and girl, summer, is a desperate idiot. i mean she spent a whole year and half away from him saying she was "so over him" and that they would "never work out" only to get back together with him the SECOND he popped back into her life. it barely took any convincing LMAO.
all the characters are so goddamn stereotypical like there's this one gay side character who says "darling" every 2 seconds and loves shopping and is horny 24/7- monica murphy literally writes his character as if she has never talked to a gay person in her LIFE LMAO. to be honest it feels like she writes all her character interactions as if she's never spoken to a human being before.. bc the stuff these people say is INSANE like there's just no way there are people that actually talk like that💀.

anyway, really bad book but i got some good laughs from it and it was a good break from real literature! sometimes you just need to read trash and that's okay 🙏🏼😁

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

"If I could make you stay, I would, if I had to beat you, chain you, starve you– if I could make you stay, I would. One day, perhaps, you will wish I had."

"One day I'll weep for this. one of these days I'll start to cry."

this book lowkey shocked me to my core. i've never read something so brutal and raw in its description of shame and guilt. in fact, the whole book is really all about shame when it comes down to it, how it manifests, and how much damage it is capable of. the way james baldwin created the whole book around giovanni's room was also really interesting to me, albeit very sad. at first, it starts of as a place where david (the main character) is able to express himself and escape the outside world and its expectations, but then later transitions to a kind of prison where he is unable to escape his desires and gets caught in this deadly cycle of shame and guilt for his queerness. 

i also like the way the book is structured in terms of the passage of time. right from the beginning, you baldwin lays out how everything ends (hella leaving david, giovanni being executed), but you don't know how or why yet. that's part of what made the story so compelling; i was eager to find out why giovanni was being sentenced to death and everything that led up to that moment. 

honestly a very gloomy, weepy, depressing book but i still liked it. there's a lot of devastatingly eloquent writing so i'd still recommend if that's something you're in the mood for- it's also very short! 

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

"Think how you love me, I don't ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember. Somewhere inside me there'll always be the person I am to-night."

i saw the above quote somewhere a while ago, and it was actually what inspired me to pick up the book in the first place. while i do think the quote is devastatingly gorgeous, and i've been thinking about it for days, the book itself was quite a letdown. i really liked gatsby, but tender is the night was definitely not as good, despite having multiple similar themes. with it being fitzgerald's most heavily autobiographical book, it features deeply troubled characters in deeply troubling marriages, broken relationships, loss of purpose, and wasted potential. 

similar to the rest of his novels, it is of course, very bleak and depressing. if that's your thing, you might like this book more than i did; i mean i love a good sad book as much as the next girl but this was just plain boring. there isn't really any plot, the chapters are so disjointed, and the characters lack depth and variety. 

i liked some parts of the book and it made me feel things at times, but overall it was very mid, so 3⭐️.

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

4.0

i LOVED this book and it was exactly what i was craving!! the banter between kai and paedyn was 10/10 AMAZING i enjoyed reading it so much. they had me GIGGLING and kicking my feet fr. to me this is like a fantasy version of the hunger games like that (who doesn't..) then i'm sure you would like powerless. i need the second book NOW bc that plot twist hello???? 

also random but i miss when i used to be able to finish a book every 3 days like i've been reading powerless for 2 WHOLE WEEKS and i just finished it. that is ABSURD for me😭. anyway at least it was really good.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

homegoing is truly a triumph!! i think this book is a very important one as it explores the relationship between africans and african americans in a really interesting way and it makes you think a lot about african diaspora and how its history has made such a lasting impact. the novel starts of with two half sisters in 17th century ghana who go on to live completely different lives- while one is married off to a british slave trader living in the cape coast castle, the other is locked away in the women's dungeon of the very same castle. from then on each chapter of is a different descendant, and it spans across three centuries of generations. 

the way yaa gyasi was able to bring together so many complex aspects of african history into the individual character's lives, combined with the brilliant writing, gets you so connected to the characters and their family legacy. each story is so different yet so similar, and each impactful in their own way. i also really enjoyed just how much i learned from this book, so much history about the 
trans-atlantic slave trade, slavery in the US, colonialism, generational trauma, etc. 

i think this book would be a great read for anyone tbh there are so many topics in it you could connect with. it's about history, family, politics, religion, love, hardship, ancestry, and more. would definitely recommend if you want something unique and totally gripping!!

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

ruta sepetys visited my school and gave a talk that was so brilliant it made me want to read all of her books immediately. this is my first one by her and my expectations were already high but it totally exceeded them!! this book is so well written and heartfelt, and it had me hooked from start to finish. i previously never knew anything about the romanian revolution and all the suffering their people went through under the dictatorship of nicolae ceaușescu so it was also really interesting to learn about that history. also i loved all the characters, i thought they were really well developed and interesting, and the romance between cristian and liliana literally MELTS MY HEART😭. would definitely recommend if you're in the mood for a gripping historical fiction that's also not too depressing (it's YA and quite hopeful).

Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran

fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

the way it’s written is giving very great gatsby, the whole book is written through the lens of the main character’s friend, except in in the great gatsby it proves to be effective but in this it was just kind of useless. i didn’t see the point to this book at all actually, it wasn’t even really a story, just an amalgamation of random moments and thoughts?? i would not recommend.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

“More than anything I was relieved that in my unfamiliar bab-bling-and-wanting-to-talk state I'd stopped myself from blurting the thing on the edge of my tongue, the thing I'd never said, even though it was something we both knew well enough without me saying it out loud to him in the street-which was, of course, I love you.”

“With a beautiful girl I could have consoled myself that she was out of my league; that I was so haunted and stirred even by her plainness suggested-ominously— a love more binding than physical affection, some tar-pit of the soul where I might flop around and malinger for years.”

quite unfortunate that i’ll never get back the 12 days i spend reading this book because my god, what a waste. aside from the few good quotes there were, i heavily disliked it. donna tart’s writing is obviously good, but it does not make up for the fact that the plot of the book was absolute trash in my opinion. NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS!!!! NOTHING!!! i don’t understand the reviews of this book that say it’s “masterful” or “a modern epic” or “astonishing” because to me it is simply 863 pages of a bunch of deeply unlikable characters doing drugs and getting drunk and making terrible, terrible decisions with their lives. it’s just grimy and depressing and i did not enjoy it at all, would NOT recommend. 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.0

i loved this story!! it was slow but really engaging. i loved the characters and i was really invested in their journey. it was really sad at times but it all tied together very well at the end. would definitely recommend if you’re looking for a unique historical fiction book :)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

emotional reflective slow-paced

3.0

i think this is really well-written and carries great tone with lots of rich language and imagery to really get his point across. it's a really powerful and important novel about the black experience in america, and i liked it. i just kind of got bored at certain parts, especially during the last 40 or so pages because i feel like it dragged on a bit, hence the 3 stars.