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squids_can_read's Reviews (706)
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in the modern day, with a gay main couple, and main characters in their late thirties and early forties.
Objectively, this book is bad. It’s badly written and the characters aren’t great. There are some amazing lines such as “Show me your kitty” and “Don’t play with my balls” said within pages of each other by a very drunk forty-year-old. All of the characters drink multiple cocktails within a short amount of time while eating no food and still do not get hungover. The main love interest also acts like a child sometimes despite being a forty-year-old heir to an oil company, which we won’t touch on. There are also a lot of gay stereotypes within this book that I felt were thrown in because they were gay. Finally, there were past relationships that were brought up but really never discussed and I wanted to know more about them.
Despite all of that, I enjoyed this book. Not in that I thought this book was beautifully written, life-changing, or an interesting retelling. I liked it in the way that people like trashy television. Truly, I ate up every word and some of the dialogue had me giggling like a little kid.
Overall, I think that if you are looking for a life changing book about the gay experience overlayed with hints of pride and prejudice, this isn’t the book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that is trashy almost to the point of cringe with a cute gay couple, this is the book for you.
P.S. The rating is due to the actual content of the book. My enjoyment of the book was around 4 stars but with how the book was actually written and some of the contents of the book I can’t in good conscience rate it higher than 2 stars.
Objectively, this book is bad. It’s badly written and the characters aren’t great. There are some amazing lines such as “Show me your kitty” and “Don’t play with my balls” said within pages of each other by a very drunk forty-year-old. All of the characters drink multiple cocktails within a short amount of time while eating no food and still do not get hungover. The main love interest also acts like a child sometimes despite being a forty-year-old heir to an oil company, which we won’t touch on. There are also a lot of gay stereotypes within this book that I felt were thrown in because they were gay. Finally, there were past relationships that were brought up but really never discussed and I wanted to know more about them.
Despite all of that, I enjoyed this book. Not in that I thought this book was beautifully written, life-changing, or an interesting retelling. I liked it in the way that people like trashy television. Truly, I ate up every word and some of the dialogue had me giggling like a little kid.
Overall, I think that if you are looking for a life changing book about the gay experience overlayed with hints of pride and prejudice, this isn’t the book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that is trashy almost to the point of cringe with a cute gay couple, this is the book for you.
P.S. The rating is due to the actual content of the book. My enjoyment of the book was around 4 stars but with how the book was actually written and some of the contents of the book I can’t in good conscience rate it higher than 2 stars.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
I received an advanced copy through NetGalley.
I felt very mixed about these stories as a whole. Most of them I liked a lot, the environment was really interesting as was the way that the characters interacted with it. However, there were some where I felt that the environment was a little loser or not developed as well as others. There were also some where the story just ended not in a satisfying way. This story collection isn’t focused on happy ending which is fine but some of the stories just seemed to stop instead of ending.
Overall, I thought that the stories were overall interesting though some were a little long and lack-luster.
I felt very mixed about these stories as a whole. Most of them I liked a lot, the environment was really interesting as was the way that the characters interacted with it. However, there were some where I felt that the environment was a little loser or not developed as well as others. There were also some where the story just ended not in a satisfying way. This story collection isn’t focused on happy ending which is fine but some of the stories just seemed to stop instead of ending.
Overall, I thought that the stories were overall interesting though some were a little long and lack-luster.
emotional
tense
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:
No
3.25/5 stars.
Thank you Penguin Random House for the ARC.
Hazel and Kagan have just lost their mother to a tragic accident, except maybe it wasn’t an accident. Their mother, Janice, was pushed to her death at a church that she regularly visited. Now Perry, their step-father, has run off with the money that they believe is owed to them and they are determined to take it back.
The plot of this book was really interesting, focusing on a lifetime con man and the one con that may ruin his life. I also really enjoyed how the authors played with providing information to the reader. However, there were subplots that I thought subtracted from my overall enjoyment of the book. One of these subplots is a romance that almost completely overshadows the actual plot. It really annoyed me, especially because it pitted the siblings against each other, distracting them from their plot for revenge. The ending of the book was really satisfying however and it definitely increased my enjoyment of the book overall.
The characters in this book are the reason that I rated this book the way that I did. I only really like one of the five main characters within this book. This was a character that wasn’t even introduced until the second part of the book. The reason that the characters make it so difficult to enjoy the book is because it is told in the third person limited where we follow a specific character in each chapter, hearing their inner thoughts. Being in the heads of characters that were just overall unlikeable was really hard. For some context(These aren’t spoilers): Perry hates technology and any person didn’t come by money honestly, which is really annoying because he’s literally a con man. Hazel is obsessed with her online personality and money going so far as to cut off her mother when she stops giving Hazel money. Kagan is just obsessed with doing drugs and drinking and stealing women from his sister.
Overall, the plot really shined in this novel but I didn’t really care about any of the characters.
Thank you Penguin Random House for the ARC.
Hazel and Kagan have just lost their mother to a tragic accident, except maybe it wasn’t an accident. Their mother, Janice, was pushed to her death at a church that she regularly visited. Now Perry, their step-father, has run off with the money that they believe is owed to them and they are determined to take it back.
The plot of this book was really interesting, focusing on a lifetime con man and the one con that may ruin his life. I also really enjoyed how the authors played with providing information to the reader. However, there were subplots that I thought subtracted from my overall enjoyment of the book. One of these subplots is a romance that almost completely overshadows the actual plot. It really annoyed me, especially because it pitted the siblings against each other, distracting them from their plot for revenge. The ending of the book was really satisfying however and it definitely increased my enjoyment of the book overall.
The characters in this book are the reason that I rated this book the way that I did. I only really like one of the five main characters within this book. This was a character that wasn’t even introduced until the second part of the book. The reason that the characters make it so difficult to enjoy the book is because it is told in the third person limited where we follow a specific character in each chapter, hearing their inner thoughts. Being in the heads of characters that were just overall unlikeable was really hard. For some context(These aren’t spoilers): Perry hates technology and any person didn’t come by money honestly, which is really annoying because he’s literally a con man. Hazel is obsessed with her online personality and money going so far as to cut off her mother when she stops giving Hazel money. Kagan is just obsessed with doing drugs and drinking and stealing women from his sister.
Overall, the plot really shined in this novel but I didn’t really care about any of the characters.
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really wanted to understand this book. I thought the world was really interesting, especially with the mix of fantasy and science fiction. The characters were also really interesting and I loved the broad array of characters shown in the story. I think this book just fell flat for me.
Starting with the world, I don’t think that I really understand how this world works. Every time that I thought that I understood where everything stood in this universe, something else would come up and be immediately(almost) by the characters in the book. However, every time that this happened, I felt like I was being left behind in the book. There was never really enough time for the reader to catch up with all of the information being given.
I also really didn’t understand the magic system. It just didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t understand how hand gestures were required for some magic and not for others. I also didn’t understand why there were so many different types of magic being described. I’m sure that some of them overlap but the book describes them as all different so there end up being more than 10(as far as I remember) distinct magic systems which all do different things.
Additionally, I overall didn’t understand the OmniSync. I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work. It was just overall really confusing especially when the characters were told that people could look through their OmniSyncs but we only saw this happen once in the book. It just felt like it should have happened more with how much it was discussed.
Finally, I felt like the characters were a little lacking. This book is told in the third person but from the point of view of Sera. There are things that she learns that she just immediately accepts. She never seems weary of people helping her which doesn’t always make sense with the experiences that she has on the page. There are also times when Sera does things that are not on the page. When we learn about these things, Sera is able to continue without processing because she already knows about them but the reader does not. We are left with almost no time to process new information before more new information is introduced. There is also a lot of plot points packed into this novel, which I think contributed to the fact that I felt left behind while reading.
Overall, I thought that this was an extremely inventive novel. The mix of fantasy and science was intriguing and the characters' design and development were really interesting. In the copy that I read, there were also illustrations that were beautifully drawn and I think helped my understanding of the story. I just think that this book could have been less packed with plot points, the world a little better described, and time added for the reader to process all the new information.
Starting with the world, I don’t think that I really understand how this world works. Every time that I thought that I understood where everything stood in this universe, something else would come up and be immediately(almost) by the characters in the book. However, every time that this happened, I felt like I was being left behind in the book. There was never really enough time for the reader to catch up with all of the information being given.
I also really didn’t understand the magic system. It just didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t understand how hand gestures were required for some magic and not for others. I also didn’t understand why there were so many different types of magic being described. I’m sure that some of them overlap but the book describes them as all different so there end up being more than 10(as far as I remember) distinct magic systems which all do different things.
Additionally, I overall didn’t understand the OmniSync. I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to do or how it was supposed to work. It was just overall really confusing especially when the characters were told that people could look through their OmniSyncs but we only saw this happen once in the book. It just felt like it should have happened more with how much it was discussed.
Finally, I felt like the characters were a little lacking. This book is told in the third person but from the point of view of Sera. There are things that she learns that she just immediately accepts. She never seems weary of people helping her which doesn’t always make sense with the experiences that she has on the page. There are also times when Sera does things that are not on the page. When we learn about these things, Sera is able to continue without processing because she already knows about them but the reader does not. We are left with almost no time to process new information before more new information is introduced. There is also a lot of plot points packed into this novel, which I think contributed to the fact that I felt left behind while reading.
Overall, I thought that this was an extremely inventive novel. The mix of fantasy and science was intriguing and the characters' design and development were really interesting. In the copy that I read, there were also illustrations that were beautifully drawn and I think helped my understanding of the story. I just think that this book could have been less packed with plot points, the world a little better described, and time added for the reader to process all the new information.
