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squids_can_read's reviews
689 reviews
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Nora and Sam haven't seen each other in years. There really isn't a reason for them to until Liam, their shared father, dies. Sam thinks that Liam couldn't have died naturally, not in a place that he knew well. Now Nora and Sam are on a journey to find out all the secrets that Liam hid from them.
I thought the characters in this book were pretty boring. Nora and Sam both seemed to be very 1-dimensional. They just didn't really seem to change throughout the book and kept making bad decisions despite knowing that they were bad decisions. The only characters that I really liked were Liam and the girl he was in love with in the past. they seemed to have actual chemistry and reading about them was really interesting.
The plot was actually the best part of this story. I thought that Nora and Sam chasing around Liam's past until they find out what happened was really interesting. I also thought that the twist was really good and I didn't see it coming. The only thing that I didn't really like about the plot was where the book ended. It seemed to me that Sam and Nora both made bad decisions based on what they learned about their father. I don't know, it just seemed to me that they didn't really learn anything during their journey.
Overall, though, this book was really interesting and I would recommend it to any one who wants a low-stakes thriller/mystery.
I thought the characters in this book were pretty boring. Nora and Sam both seemed to be very 1-dimensional. They just didn't really seem to change throughout the book and kept making bad decisions despite knowing that they were bad decisions. The only characters that I really liked were Liam and the girl he was in love with in the past. they seemed to have actual chemistry and reading about them was really interesting.
The plot was actually the best part of this story. I thought that Nora and Sam chasing around Liam's past until they find out what happened was really interesting. I also thought that the twist was really good and I didn't see it coming. The only thing that I didn't really like about the plot was where the book ended. It seemed to me that Sam and Nora both made bad decisions based on what they learned about their father. I don't know, it just seemed to me that they didn't really learn anything during their journey.
Overall, though, this book was really interesting and I would recommend it to any one who wants a low-stakes thriller/mystery.
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Sibylla doesn't know what to do with her son Ludo. He's an incredibly intelligent boy who has no father figure. How is Sibylla supposed to balance raising Ludo and working a dead-end job? And how is Ludo supposed to find a father figure?
The characters in this book were really sweet. I loved the way that Sibylla and Ludo were characterized. They felt like extremely intelligent people who were stuck in their circumstances. The rest of the background characters were interesting but it felt like they only existed to further Sibylla and Ludo's story rather than being characters in their own right.
The plot was amazing. I loved the family aspect and the way that intelligence can be a hindrance in everyday life. I didn't love the switch between Sibylla and Ludo's perspectives because it felt inconsistent and unnecessary because I felt like we didn't really get a resolution for either story. However, I felt like the whole book didn't really have a distinct plot. It was honestly more vibes than any actual plot. The real issue that I have with the story is the ending. The book just ends. There is no resolution, not even close. It felt like the author just decided to stop writing and didn't bother thinking of an ending. It made me really annoyed because this was the type of story that needed an ending even if it was open-ended.
Another thing that annoyed me a little was the way that the book was actually written. In the beginning, it's very hard to understand because there are no quotations or dialogue tags. Additionally, there are sometimes several different lines of conversation or inner thoughts happening at the same time where they interrupt each other. The more of the book that I read, the more that I understood the writing but I still think that it could be a significant barrier to most people.
Overall, I really liked Sibylla and Ludo along with the discussion of family and intelligence but everything else fell flat.
The characters in this book were really sweet. I loved the way that Sibylla and Ludo were characterized. They felt like extremely intelligent people who were stuck in their circumstances. The rest of the background characters were interesting but it felt like they only existed to further Sibylla and Ludo's story rather than being characters in their own right.
The plot was amazing. I loved the family aspect and the way that intelligence can be a hindrance in everyday life. I didn't love the switch between Sibylla and Ludo's perspectives because it felt inconsistent and unnecessary because I felt like we didn't really get a resolution for either story. However, I felt like the whole book didn't really have a distinct plot. It was honestly more vibes than any actual plot. The real issue that I have with the story is the ending. The book just ends. There is no resolution, not even close. It felt like the author just decided to stop writing and didn't bother thinking of an ending. It made me really annoyed because this was the type of story that needed an ending even if it was open-ended.
Another thing that annoyed me a little was the way that the book was actually written. In the beginning, it's very hard to understand because there are no quotations or dialogue tags. Additionally, there are sometimes several different lines of conversation or inner thoughts happening at the same time where they interrupt each other. The more of the book that I read, the more that I understood the writing but I still think that it could be a significant barrier to most people.
Overall, I really liked Sibylla and Ludo along with the discussion of family and intelligence but everything else fell flat.
Crash Code by Dean H. Wild, Aaron Thomas Milstead, K. Trap Jones
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
4.0
This is a science fiction short story collection by a variety of authors exploring the theme of humanity. Each story deals with the idea of how human you can be when parts of you aren't human(i.e. robotic or AI). Some of the stories are really amazing and some of the stories missed a little bit for me. Overall, I thought that the stories were really good and fit the theme of the collection.
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 40%.
The mix of romance and plot just wasn't working for me. The dialogue was snappy but the inner thoughts of each character were kind of boring and didn't match with the character that their dialogue was making.
The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Thank you St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
Katrine is bringing her mother home from the hospital after she fell from a step ladder. Soon she finds the offending step ladder in the door of the closet. There she finds a box. A box that holds the secrets to her mother's life in Germany. A life that she left behind. No Allina(Katrine's mother) reveals all the love and heartbreak that she experienced in Nazi Germany.
The characters in this book were amazing. Historical fiction is typically isn't my genre but I thought that the characters really just jumped off the page. That is with the exception of the chapters of the book where the book jumped into the future. They just seemed slightly pointless to me and actually spoiled the ending in a way(not in a concrete on-the-page way but I predicted the ending based on these chapters). Other than that, the characters were just really amazing. This book actually made me cry and I haven't had a book make me cry in a while.
On the other hand, I thought that the plot was interesting if a bit disjointed. There was a lot of historical build-up of the plot but then the actual payout seemed to be really speed through. One year takes 203 pages to get through at the beginning of the book then years are completely skipped over in the back half of the book. I just wanted the book to slow down a little bit and focus more on the plot than the romance. Especially with the long build-up.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it was heartbreaking. I would have liked a little bit more plot but I think that if you even have the slightest interest in historical fiction, you should give this book a read.
Katrine is bringing her mother home from the hospital after she fell from a step ladder. Soon she finds the offending step ladder in the door of the closet. There she finds a box. A box that holds the secrets to her mother's life in Germany. A life that she left behind. No Allina(Katrine's mother) reveals all the love and heartbreak that she experienced in Nazi Germany.
The characters in this book were amazing. Historical fiction is typically isn't my genre but I thought that the characters really just jumped off the page. That is with the exception of the chapters of the book where the book jumped into the future. They just seemed slightly pointless to me and actually spoiled the ending in a way(not in a concrete on-the-page way but I predicted the ending based on these chapters). Other than that, the characters were just really amazing. This book actually made me cry and I haven't had a book make me cry in a while.
On the other hand, I thought that the plot was interesting if a bit disjointed. There was a lot of historical build-up of the plot but then the actual payout seemed to be really speed through. One year takes 203 pages to get through at the beginning of the book then years are completely skipped over in the back half of the book. I just wanted the book to slow down a little bit and focus more on the plot than the romance. Especially with the long build-up.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it was heartbreaking. I would have liked a little bit more plot but I think that if you even have the slightest interest in historical fiction, you should give this book a read.
888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers by Abraham Chang
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Young loves numbers. And I mean really loves numbers. They are his life and his heart. They are what keeps him moving. When his uncle tells him that everyone has seven great loves, Young takes that to heart. But when Young meets Erena, he thinks that she's the one but she is only love number six. Now Young is trying to make this work, while also keeping his love of numbers alive.
I think this book really shines in the characters. I liked the way that almost all of the characters were neurodivergent in different ways. Young's connection with numbers is really interesting and I really enjoyed how it was written. I did think that his obsession with God was a little strange but I marked that down as something his family instilled in him. A reason wasn't really given but that's what I ascribed it to. Erena was a character, to say the least. I actually really liked her when she was speaking like a normal person. For every paragraph, she said it seemed like Young said maybe a sentence. Also, the way that she spoke was extremely off-putting and I didn't enjoy reading it. It was actually difficult for me to read through her dialogue and understand what she was saying. The other supporting characters were written really well. I liked how we got enough to understand who they were but not every detail of their lives because we didn't need it.
The overall plot of the book was okay. Young is trying to keep this love of his while the reader learns about his past loves. The ending of the book made me really disappointed. The actual last chapter was fine but the epilogue was really annoying. It's split into three different endings which makes it almost like a choose-your-own story. However, these are all ways that Young's life could have gone. It seemed really unnecessary and I would have liked the book to end at the last chapter and have no epilogue at all.
I did get an ARC copy of this so I don't know if this was changed in the final copy but there were almost no dialogue tags. This makes the book really hard to read because it doesn't even have a dialogue tag for the first-person talking. You just have to figure it out. It's also hard when someone is on a rant and the author breaks up the speech. This is because there are still no dialogue tags but the dialogue continues to a different paragraph. So in order to understand the dialogue you have to really pay attention, which I don't think is a terrible thing but it made it really hard for me especially since the way that the characters talked already made it hard for me to understand what they were saying.
I think this book really shines in the characters. I liked the way that almost all of the characters were neurodivergent in different ways. Young's connection with numbers is really interesting and I really enjoyed how it was written. I did think that his obsession with God was a little strange but I marked that down as something his family instilled in him. A reason wasn't really given but that's what I ascribed it to. Erena was a character, to say the least. I actually really liked her when she was speaking like a normal person. For every paragraph, she said it seemed like Young said maybe a sentence. Also, the way that she spoke was extremely off-putting and I didn't enjoy reading it. It was actually difficult for me to read through her dialogue and understand what she was saying. The other supporting characters were written really well. I liked how we got enough to understand who they were but not every detail of their lives because we didn't need it.
The overall plot of the book was okay. Young is trying to keep this love of his while the reader learns about his past loves. The ending of the book made me really disappointed. The actual last chapter was fine but the epilogue was really annoying. It's split into three different endings which makes it almost like a choose-your-own story. However, these are all ways that Young's life could have gone. It seemed really unnecessary and I would have liked the book to end at the last chapter and have no epilogue at all.
I did get an ARC copy of this so I don't know if this was changed in the final copy but there were almost no dialogue tags. This makes the book really hard to read because it doesn't even have a dialogue tag for the first-person talking. You just have to figure it out. It's also hard when someone is on a rant and the author breaks up the speech. This is because there are still no dialogue tags but the dialogue continues to a different paragraph. So in order to understand the dialogue you have to really pay attention, which I don't think is a terrible thing but it made it really hard for me especially since the way that the characters talked already made it hard for me to understand what they were saying.
Kill Two Birds by Thomas Bjørn
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Leah has always known that she's a little different. After all, she was adopted by a Canadian Consulate who travels all over the world. But Leah finds out how different she really is after she witnesses a shooting in Rio. Now every plan that her father has had to keep her safe goes by the wayside. Leah goes on the run, running from seemingly everyone, as she finds out who she really is.
The characters in the book were where I had the main problem. Leah's character was fine. Her motivations made sense and the things she did make sense for a seventeen-year-old. However, I did think that it was kind of unbelievable that she didn't think anything was strange about her father but whatever. Beyond Leah, though, none of the other character's motivations made any sense. It seemed like the author was trying to justify it but since we don't get the background politics, nothing makes sense. The things that all the characters say or do are tinged with complex politics that we are not privy to. It just gets really annoying.
The overall plot of the book was hard to understand as well. We have Rio being unstabilized along with the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Honestly, it felt like the author was just info-dumping about these two topics because he's interested in them. The way the characters talk about these topics and interact with these topics doesn't make much, if any, sense with the context that we were given.
I can see where the author was trying to go with the book but it felt under-researched and more like a first draft than anything that would be published. Additionally, the ending of the book felt extremely rough. I wonder if the author was under a deadline or pressured to make this book into a series. Yes, this is the first book in a series. The ending makes no sense and the writing style almost completely changes. It also leaves off on a cliffhanger. However, I think that this is a series that I will not be continuing.
Leah has always known that she's a little different. After all, she was adopted by a Canadian Consulate who travels all over the world. But Leah finds out how different she really is after she witnesses a shooting in Rio. Now every plan that her father has had to keep her safe goes by the wayside. Leah goes on the run, running from seemingly everyone, as she finds out who she really is.
The characters in the book were where I had the main problem. Leah's character was fine. Her motivations made sense and the things she did make sense for a seventeen-year-old. However, I did think that it was kind of unbelievable that she didn't think anything was strange about her father but whatever. Beyond Leah, though, none of the other character's motivations made any sense. It seemed like the author was trying to justify it but since we don't get the background politics, nothing makes sense. The things that all the characters say or do are tinged with complex politics that we are not privy to. It just gets really annoying.
The overall plot of the book was hard to understand as well. We have Rio being unstabilized along with the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Honestly, it felt like the author was just info-dumping about these two topics because he's interested in them. The way the characters talk about these topics and interact with these topics doesn't make much, if any, sense with the context that we were given.
I can see where the author was trying to go with the book but it felt under-researched and more like a first draft than anything that would be published. Additionally, the ending of the book felt extremely rough. I wonder if the author was under a deadline or pressured to make this book into a series. Yes, this is the first book in a series. The ending makes no sense and the writing style almost completely changes. It also leaves off on a cliffhanger. However, I think that this is a series that I will not be continuing.
Eye of a Little God by A.J. Steiger
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Eddie doesn't feel like he belongs anywhere. He doesn't have a purpose. That is until he finds a notebook in the middle of the woods after hearing a gunshot. Now Eddie is on a journey to find a woman who fears for her life. He might just find out that the world is filled with magic along the way.
I absolutely loved this book. I want more of this universe immediately. Right in my hands. It's so good.
The characters are amazing. I loved the depth of all of them and how they all viewed the world. Each person had such a different viewpoint that all worked together in a strange and intriguing way. I loved learning about all of the characters even if they are all morally grey. they are all just people trying to survive in the strange and messed up world of the book.
The world-building was really interesting. Typically when a book doesn't really establish the rules of magic, the world-building can feel a little bit lackluster. But this book does it amazingly. The world was just so rich and I loved the way that magic was described. I also thought that the talk about fate and free will was super interesting and I absolutely loved it.
The twist at the end was my favorite thing. I didn't see it coming. I possibly could have if I was trying to but I was totally on board with just letting the story flow over me. I think that's honestly the best way to read it. The story is really just beautiful and I love that our two characters will choose each other every day for as long as they can.
Overall, a wonderfully written book. Definitely give it a read, though read the content warnings first.
I absolutely loved this book. I want more of this universe immediately. Right in my hands. It's so good.
The characters are amazing. I loved the depth of all of them and how they all viewed the world. Each person had such a different viewpoint that all worked together in a strange and intriguing way. I loved learning about all of the characters even if they are all morally grey. they are all just people trying to survive in the strange and messed up world of the book.
The world-building was really interesting. Typically when a book doesn't really establish the rules of magic, the world-building can feel a little bit lackluster. But this book does it amazingly. The world was just so rich and I loved the way that magic was described. I also thought that the talk about fate and free will was super interesting and I absolutely loved it.
The twist at the end was my favorite thing. I didn't see it coming. I possibly could have if I was trying to but I was totally on board with just letting the story flow over me. I think that's honestly the best way to read it. The story is really just beautiful and I love that our two characters will choose each other every day for as long as they can.
Overall, a wonderfully written book. Definitely give it a read, though read the content warnings first.