stayshiny's reviews
24 reviews

Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

Briardark by S.A. Harian

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Nearly perfect, wonderfully spooky and creepy and tense. The abrupt ending kept it from being a solid 4, it wasn't even a cliff hanger so much as the cliff abruptly disappeared under you. Looking forward to the sequel!

This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

3.75

Fun ride. Tense and spooky. Pretty gory at points. Kind of lost itself towards the end, but for a debut novel it's great. THE DOG SURVIVES

Stay away from big rocks in Kentucky.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

I almost never read first person POV but I really enjoyed this. The ending kept it from being a full 4 stars. And the author needs to calm down on using italics.

Valley of Bones by Michael Gruber

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Another excellent Jimmy Paz book. Like the first book's field guide notes, the flow of the confession can be a bit jarring, but I was better prepared and it didn't bother me as much. I've grown very fond of Iago Paz! Gruber is very good at what he does.

Content Warnings

Tropic of Night by Michael Gruber

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Started out slow and initially I struggled with the different character perspectives, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. Gruber is an excellent writer and really knows how to capture a sense of urgency and fear. The Olo are an invented tribe and he uses a LOT of foreign words, which I also struggled with, but the glossary in the back helped. Really good police procedural mixed with occult thriller.

Content Warnings