sonygaystation's reviews
429 reviews

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

adventurous lighthearted mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Grief, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship

In Nightfall by Suzanne Young

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and Alcohol

Minor: Gaslighting

After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

STOP I DIDN’T EXPECT TO CRY WHAT THE HECK 😭😭😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Physical abuse, Suicide, Vomit, and Alcohol

Massive general poor mental health and trauma representation

Burden Falls by Kat Ellis

adventurous mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.75

I loved the premise, had a really good time with the environment and how everything was set up, and thought the characters were so sweet. My biggest hang up is the BBEG because the rationale and build up didn’t feel fleshed out enough, and there wasn’t much feeling looking back on the story to feel all that impacted by the reveal. The ending was satisfyingly tense in spite of it though, but that’s entirely because I really liked the MC.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.

So many parts of it are boring and when they’re not boring they’re exceedingly graphic. Sex scenes are wholly unnecessary and always written with the male gaze so the woman’s perspective is so unrealistic. I can’t deal with the graphic rape, assault, and abuse; the graphic descriptions of stoning cats; the unrealistic and boring “love” between Tom and Ellen; and the weirdo random anti-semitism sprinkled here and there throughout. I LOVE fantasy but I don’t understand how people can stomach this book and find it not only read-able but actively enjoyable. Y’all have suspect taste

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infidelity and Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed the writing but the plot itself left things to be desired. I wanted more spookiness, more weirdness. I felt like it ended with a lot of unanswered questions and I wish it had more of a plot rather than just two alternating perspectives basically written like journal entries. Would’ve LOVEEEED to have more fleshed out time in the ocean and maybe a little more detail into the company who put them down there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Abandonment

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death and Sexual content

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Suicide, and Grief

Heir by Tate James

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.75

Was this fun? Sure kinda! Definitely not as fun as the first one as I was sort of forcing myself through the book and 10000% skipping through the egregious and extremely graphic sex scenes but it wasn’t horrible! Although I could have DEFINITELY done without the weird incest vibe from characters who were literally siblings or claimed to be close enough to be siblings like does the author have any siblings orrrr? Like the others, it suffers from poor build up, many clichés, major cheese-factor, and mid writing but it’s got a solid enough skeleton and a plot that’s clearly well thought out that I think a stronger writer would have done super well with so not all is lost :) I do wanna give a shout out to a semi polyamorous relationship although again… with three brothers it’s very delicately toeing the line of yuck lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

4.25

Really interesting and thorough on so many different types of poisons, but pretty hard to listen to at times. Hearing about how people died and how they used dogs for poison testing in graphic detail was really uncomfortable for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer and Child death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, and Abortion