stories_of_the_soul27's reviews
282 reviews

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I think the line ‘If I loved you less, then I could have talked about you more’ should apply to one’s favourite books too. When it comes to my favourite books, I get so tongue tied. I know I could write an essay on why I loved this book but words fail me. 

In Memoriam was one such book for me. It didn’t make me cry or heartbroken but did left an empty space in my heart. If one isn’t living under the rocks or following ignorance is a bliss’ to their heart, then one would be very well aware of what war brings to a nation, which is a whole lot of nothing. War takes and takes and takes. And this story was just about that. War took away loved ones, innocence, dreams and false beliefs. Through Gaunt, Ellwood and their close knit group of friends, we saw public school boys who had ideals and false romantic notions about patriotism, develop hollow eyes after proving their patriotism. I liked how that story just wasn’t about Gaunt and Ellwood as an entity, but as separate beings with their own set of friends and trauma bonding and experiences. They lived together and grew and then they were separate and grew more. They weren’t perfect. They went through a lot which changed them, distorted them and made them more imperfect. 

I don’t know what else to say except that this book will stay with me. The letters the boys wrote to each other and their friends will stay with me. The constant push and pull between Gaunt and Ellwood will stay with me. The kindness of Devi, Archie, Bertie and Cyril will stay with me. Maud and Gaunt’s relationship will stay with me. David Hayes’ strong presence will stay with me. The boyishness of taking long strolls in countryside and reciting poetry in any given chance will stay with me. The sheer willpower to survive just to see the face of your loved one last time will stay with me. 

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The book definitely creeped me out. Simultaneously I also loved the conversations and different topics that came up like the concept of spending the rest of your life with someone. I wasn’t able to grasp the ending completely on my own and had to rush to Reddit for that. Definitely going to reread soon and maybe I will be able to appreciate this book more. 

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This is my 2nd Simon St. James book and I have come to appreciate how deeply she cares for her characters and painstakingly build up their stories. For me, the highlight of this book were its characters. The mystery and the horror aspects of the book didn’t wow me much. It felt predictable. But it was a good read. 

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

dark 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? Yes

4.0

This book was written solely for making the readers feel disgusted, horrified and angry. I don’t know how but it had such a magnetic field around it that I was gravitating towards this book despite it making me nauseous with its gruesomeness. 

I truly believe that humans in general are capable of doing more bad than good because leaving the poor evil people aside, the rest of us either care too much for ourselves or for our loved ones. No in between. 

I didn’t like a single person in this book. All were hypocrites. But you have no option to be anyone else in that dystopian world. All I saw were broken people who were trying to do the right thing on their own terms. 

P.S. : In every kind of world, women will remain unsafe and be the most taken advantage of. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Dementia, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Gyo by Junji Ito

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

A stuff full of nightmares 😣

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

Haikyu!!, Vol. 34 by Haruichi Furudate

inspiring lighthearted 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? No

4.5

Haikyu!!, Vol. 33 by Haruichi Furudate

inspiring lighthearted 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? No

4.25

I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel

dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

Honestly I tried so hard to like this book and while reading the first few chapters I did think that I would really enjoy and like this book. What was the point of this story? I couldn’t tell at all. Absolutely nothing happens throughout the book. The author had some ideas and I was able to get behind that but nothing was coherently written down. It wasn’t structured and the timelines were so messed up that it ended up distorting the reader’s understanding of the characters too. The sudden social commentary was so out of place that it made the author look as trying to hard to impress the readers. I get the narrator is supposed to be unlikeable and her unlikeable nature was because of how the society has favoured the few who had been lucky with parents, with their skin colour or with their rich relatives etc. I could get all of that and still I wasn’t able to give a fuck about it and sympathise with the narrator. A good author is someone who writes the story in such a way that a reader is able to cry buckets for an unlikeable character. 
I don’t hate this book. I don’t hate the character and I wasn’t tearing my hair apart thinking why does the narrator so focused on ruining her life. I had a lot of expectations from this book. I really liked 2-3 chapters on the social commentary. But in the end I was disappointed massively.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This was such a beautiful book! There was so much of love, consideration, empathy and warmth in this story that it melted my heart. It is amazing that you never know what fate has in store for you, that someday you might happen to meet a person who changes your life in unimaginable ways that are neither grand nor complex but you feel the change in your thinkings, habits, etc.
The book was so simple. It was about a Housekeeper getting assigned to work for a Maths Professor with a memory loss problem where in he can retain only 80 minutes of his memory before it getting rewritten. The housekeeper also has a 10 year old boy and the professor and the boy develop a grandfather-grandson relationship. The story follows their daily life featuring maths, baseball, homework, housework etc yet the story flowed so gently. There is beauty in the mundane life and time and again Japanese authors have shown it to me and Yoko Ogawa perfected it in her book.