solaria's reviews
60 reviews

A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing by Jessie Tu

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I found the prose very boring. Nothing is shown. Everything is told. I don't have a problem with first-person perspective, but Jenna is such a boring protagonist. There's no opportunity to learn things about other characters or environments because she tells everything as it is, but without descriptive detail. Her environments are just given names with no physical descriptions and the supporting characters are extremely one-dimensional. But hey, at least we got an overly sexualised description of what they look like when they're first introduced! I know Jenna herself is a very monotone and "dry"(?) character, but damn her world seems so boring and unnoteworthy. Dialogue between characters is also very stale. And...my god, there is so much sexual content. A LOT is unnecessary. It felt like there was a sexual encounter in every chapter. It could've been cut down significantly. Most of these sex scenes taught me very little about the characters involved and contributed nothing to the story.

Jenna is a complicated character, which I liked, but she had ZERO growth. She didn't learn from her mistakes until the very end, and even then it's debatable if she really learnt anything. Her actions are clearly influenced by her upbringing where her mother was a manager instead of a parental figure, and her father was absent. I liked this, it's interesting and explains a lot! Most of her actions, which hurt people and herself, can be somewhat justified by her childhood and background. Yes, she's still wrong and definitely doing the wrong thing, but her loneliness, desperation, and upbringing can explain why she's making these decisions.

I wish that her travel to New York and feeling more at home in that city was used to make her realise that she needs to own up to her actions, the people she's hurt and herself and turn her life around. Instead, she continues to say "Sydney's bad, all my problems are in Sydney" and makes the exact same mistakes in New York. It makes her an incredibly frustrating narrator. I don't have a problem with reading the perspectives of characters who do bad things and aren't likeable, but my problem with Jenna is that she never grows. The only other character who calls her out is Olivia - and while Olivia definitely didn't call her out the right way - Jenna blames Olivia for the mistakes SHE is making. Characters like Val aid Jenna's worsening spiral and it's very annoying to see her wonder why she's lonely when all she does is push away the people who care and self-loathes by having sex, playing the violin for hours or watching porn.

She treats her friends and the people around her terribly and never apologises for it. She gets everything she wants, and if she doesn't, the narrative finds a way for her to get it anyway. Seriously, the ending was so bullshit. She wasn't accepted into the American orchestra, and I thought this would FINALLY be her wake-up call. It isn't. Nope. Somehow a friend finds a workaround for her to head back to the US. Great. Just great. Also, the "build-up" to her getting the phone call about the orchestra position was laughably predictable. She kept going on and on about how confident she was, and other characters reassured her that she'd get what she wants in the end. Of course, she'd get rejected after all that build-up, it was so obviously coming.

I was also not a fan of the implications surrounding sexual encounters and discrimination. It's no secret throughout that Mark is a Grade-A misogynist and racist. Jenna acknowledges this but ignores his problematic opinions about women and minorities just so she has someone to distract her from her loneliness via sex. Mark also repeatedly sexually assaults her and doesn't ask for her consent to perform certain sexual acts, but it is never treated as a bad thing. I don't know if any of these ideas - that being ignoring boundaries and also problematic behaviour - is the smartest idea to send to young adults who might be in vulnerable or lonely positions??

The book tries to tackle racism and misogyny in the music industry, although I don't think the execution was great. The themes felt too forced because Jenna never shows any real interest in them. Instead, they come off as weird observations she makes that add no new insights. If the book had more to say about racism and misogyny in the music industry, I wouldn't have this opinion. Instead, it regurgitates things we already know and have for many years now. I think a better route would be to explore these issues through Jenna's porn addiction and relationship with Mark.

Some other things I could point out are that I can't write whole paragraphs about:
- The ending was extremely anticlimactic and frustrating. Its only purpose is to set up a sequel that I don't think is necessary. The author quickly wraps everything up clumsily, and it takes away from what could've been a decent ending that had Jenna learning from her mistakes and finally growing.
- I liked the exploration of Jenna's music career. It was the most compelling aspect of the book and I wish the author did more with it. I wanted more scenes of Jenna as a teenage prodigy or in the American orchestra. Instead, we get dozens of unnecessary sex scenes. Also, because the book pivots towards a very dull ending that is open-ended, we don't get any closure about her music career.
- The big reveal about her mother doing that study when she was a baby was random. I think it was supposed to be the emotional climax that informed me of why their relationship is so strained. But it fell flat and didn't offer the information I was craving about Jenna's mother.
- The whole bit about Jenna wanting to be raped was concerning and very weird??
- Why did her peers in the orchestra not have names? Why was Tuba called Tuba the whole time, or is Oboe called Oboe? I can't remember if their names were said at all, but if they were, why were they just referred to by the instruments they played?

Content Warnings

The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The Dragon's Promise by Elizabeth Lim

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

I cried over the death of a paper bird. I think that says enough.

Elizabeth Lim you are an incredible author. An excellent sequel to its predecessor. Lim's writing style is unique and to die for. Despite the criticism I'm about to get into, I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The worldbuilding was well executed and exciting, the characters were written well and it was just an excellent read.

Despite being the titular character, Seryu didn't have that much presence in the book which I was surprised by. I wasn't too unhappy about it though, because he wasn't a particular favourite of mine so I didn't feel like the story was missing anything when he faded out of the plot. I think the title is a bit misleading though for that reason.

The main flaw I picked up on which lowered its rating from a 4.5 was pacing, at times I felt the story was moving a bit too fast. In some ways I wish this was a trilogy to space out the events and give me time to digest what was happening. It felt like I was in a washing machine that kept getting tumbled around with the amount of plot-breaking events being introduced. This is in contrast to Six Crimson Cranes, which didn't have nearly as many plot-altering events which gave the characters and also me time to breathe. As others have pointed out too, SCC could've worked as a standalone if the ending there was slightly modified.

Again, I enjoyed reading regardless. I have become a fan of Lim's writing and have Spin the Dawn sitting on my shelf waiting to be read next. Hoping it meets my expectations as well.

This Place Is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.0

A bit of a rough start but gradually got better and by the end I really loved it. I wasn't a fan of the present tense usage at the start but got used to it and it didn't really hinder my enjoyment of it by the end either.

Characters were likeable, lovable and realistic. Their flaws were challenged when needed and they actually demonstrated a lot of growth by the end.

Content Warnings

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Stunning art, absolutely adorable ending, love love love love

Content Warnings

Deadly Kerfuffle by Tony Martin

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to like it more.

The first few chapters were phenomenal, I liked where it was going. Gradually as we passed the halfway point, the plot became barley comprehensible and I wasn't sure where Martin was going. it felt like he had written a TV show script that got rejected and tried panning it off into a book, because the eccentricity of it could only be carried in a visual format IMO.

Wayyyyy too many characters, I kept forgetting who was who and again, needed a face put to the name to remember each person (hence why I think it wouldve worked better as a TV show). The first few chapters introduced characters that were very distinct and thus I had no problem remembering—Gordon, Herb, Spence, The Tamakis, Coral, Jonah. Beyond that though, is where I became lost. It should've focussed on those central six, why did we need to know about Weekes affair? I didn't think it was relevant.

Content Warnings

Finding Jupiter by Kelis Rowe

Go to review page

emotional funny fast-paced

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

1.5

bruh

Boring, cliche and cringey. Characters couldn't communicate and were bland which made it a frustrating read. Chemistry between main couple was forced and offered nothing interesting. There was no plot which left the already stale cast nothing to work with. The "plot twist" if you even want to call it that was underwhelming because the author clearly laid out what was going to happen before it was revealed, I knew exactly where the plot was heading and it was just as boring as predicted. The author told too much rather than describing or exploring it in a meaningful way. It could've been a lot shorter because sometimes the author inserted lines that were already implied during dialogue or other moments. Idk.....just not a good read at all.

Content Warnings