smalljoys's reviews
77 reviews

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Miscarriage, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Death, Confinement, Bullying, Torture, Sexism, Medical content, Alcohol, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Abortion, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Medical content, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Addiction

Dracula by Bram Stoker

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.25

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Babel by R.F. Kuang

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Slavery, Colonisation, Classism, Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Torture, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Blood, Alcohol, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Abandonment

Pageboy by Elliot Page

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

As other reviewers have shared, the time jumps in the book were a bit hard to digest. (for example; going from a story of elliot at age 6 and then jumping to age 19 and back to age 6 and then to age 28) I had trouble keeping up with the time jumps. Altogether though, thank you Elliot Page for sharing yourself with us. I appreciate you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, Medical content, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Transphobia, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Drug use, Excrement, Homophobia, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Dysphoria, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

inconsistent main character, boring love triangle, repetitive statements (we get that you the mc dated your gay bff for a week! move on!). unclear motive of the main character, did she want to be an idol? or not?

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

So many flat characters i couldn’t remember. 

XOXO by Axie Oh

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

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

2.5

I like books with fluff, but this had so many gaps with the fluff.

 I felt like the connection between the two main love interests (Jenn and Jaewoo) was lacking. there were barely any moments between the two that convinced me they were made for each other. I felt like there were too many random thoughts from Jenny that didn’t need to be there and quite frankly were distracting. Jenny was not very well fleshed out. I felt like her personality was weak/barely there and then super strong all of a sudden. she just felt very wishy-washy with no backbone. Sori was also a weak character in that she all of a sudden became Jenny’s BFF even though all the issues they had were worked through off the page. that was a recurring element that most issues were worked through off the page so as a reader, i didn’t see how they fixed their problem, just that the characters had a problem or multiple and they were then fixed magically a page or so later but we didn’t see how it was done.. I also felt like the music element (Jenny wanting to be a concert cellist) was weak. It’s like the author forgot Jenny was at the school in Seoul for music until she remembered in the final stretch of the book. i had high hopes for this book, but it was disappointing to be honest. 

Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 12 by Yoshihiro Togashi

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0