tacoshark's reviews
889 reviews

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

This was a fascinating, engrossing and disturbing read that just happened to take me FOREVER to finish. Not a reflection on the book so much as the intensity of the subject matter - you can only take so much at a time. Really well done. 

Bloom by Kevin Panetta

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

Very sweet - definite Heartstopper vibes, especially since Ari looks so much like Charlie. This was a charming, quick read - slightly disjointed at times but cute enough that I didn’t care. I guess I can still do YA in graphic novel form. 

(Did I read this tonight so my books for the year would be 80 and not the awkward number 79? You bet.)

Under The Mistletoe With You by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

medium-paced

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

3.0

Meh. There were some good moments but overall this was pretty badly underwritten - way too much detail on some plot aspects while the actual romance was fairly unconvincing. Also if you’re going to do spice, don’t half-ass it like this - if you don’t like it or don’t know how to write it, just don’t bother. Also also this was a sequel, which I didn’t realize, and while that usually doesn’t actually matter in romances, there was a lot of referencing the previous book in a way that ended up being kind of confusing at times. Not gonna read that one, though. 

Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

Exceedingly predictable, but I honestly don’t mind that sometimes. The Reylo of it all really rankled at first but it wore off after a while. This was fine. Serviceable. 

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske

adventurous emotional lighthearted 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

5.0

Loved this. More standalones, please! This was just a delight from start to finish. The world building, the characters, the banter, the love story. I wanted more! 

All The Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

I enjoyed this a lot. It’s a fairly quick read but I didn’t race through it, mostly because there was a very thoughtful aspect to it that made me slow down somewhat as I read it. A nice mix of introspective reflections on art and art’s role in our lives and a behind the scenes look at the way a museum like the Met operates. There’s a certain level of unspoken privilege operating that I wish had been addressed, but I really liked this overall. 

Bells are Ringing: We Could Be So Good Holiday Epilogue by Cat Sebastian

emotional hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

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

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I struggled through a lot of this book and it was just interesting enough to keep me from putting it down - but only just. I really did not enjoy being in the main character’s head, and not just because of her experiences - she was unpleasant, really, full stop, and I found many of her choices fairly disturbing. The book was also very slow to me - well written but so discursive and meandering that I found myself often irritated and wishing it would just pick up the pace. The last quarter of the book was much more interesting and propulsive (and read far faster, though it had its own discursive moments too). Ultimately this was a decent but not great mystery novel with a very obnoxious main character. Maybe that’s for you but it wasn’t for me. 

Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall
Did not finish book. Stopped at 19%.

I cannot stand an omniscient narrator. 

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I found this, for the most part, very successful and engrossing. The universe building is very impressive and the authors really managed to keep all the plates spinning - the slight trade off, I think, was in the character development of the main characters. I think I would have liked this better if there had only been a few POV characters instead of nearly a dozen (and some of ten really got short shrift). Oddly, giving some of them POV sections and chapters was worse for their development because especially for some of the less frequent POVs, they all had a very similar feel, whereas from the more central characters’ perspective, they were more individual. Dafyd was the most interesting character by far, so I think focusing more on his POV would have been much better. Anyway, aside from that, this was pretty interesting and well constructed and it resolved in such a way that I intend to continue with the series (which I wasn’t sure of, at times). Overall, very solid and a promising start.