thattheatrekid's reviews
98 reviews

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! Similar to Rumpelstiltskin and Persephone. The world building was phenomenal.
I liked the POVs but the end wasn’t satisfying. I wanted to see the rest of Irina’s story!! And the tsar’s character arc.  I was most invested in their story and then the end was unclear. I didn’t like how Wanda was never really fleshed out. She seemed naive and childish even though her childhood forced her to grow up fast. Sergey could have used development too. This book wasn’t what I was expecting but it was a good read. Just could have had less going on because it seemed too complex for the amount of pages it got.

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

The first part of the book was quite promising. It was adventurous, the characters were likable, and there were some great motives. I LOVED part 2 where it expanded more on the magic system. It gave me Starless Sea vibes, which is another of my favorite books. But then the plot got jumbled to me in part 3 (it felt like a too-long movie action scene), the magic was almost never used even though one of the characters had access to it, and some characters were introduced that ended up not being in the story again (like the prince Evelyn was supposed to marry, or Xenobia). I also think the ending was ambiguous…what happens to Rake and Alfie? 

Also, I think Flora and Evelyn fell in love way too fast but more time passed than were shown so it’s possible.

I liked this book and it had the perfect air of adventure I was in the mood for, but it also lacked something big and I can’t pinpoint what.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott, Alyson Derrick

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

3.75

Decent read! I needed something light after a lot of heavier books so this was perfect. 
The characters were heavily relatable and realistic. Molly annoyed me sometimes but I can’t really be mad because I used to struggle with severe social anxiety and was just as irritating. The chemistry was cute. But

it was weird how Natalie at the beginning seemed to just be an in love girl who felt hurt, and at the end she gets turned into an utter villain. It’s a little too convenient. But also I know our perspective of her shifts with Alex’ so that might explain it.

Other thing, the whole internalized racism thing on Mollys mom was random and did not seem realistic to me. It felt thrown in there as a talking point and the execution was poor.

I also liked Alex’ story with her mom. It gave her motives and a life outside of Molly and was exceptional, not to mention realistic. Sadly I have a friend who was in a similar situation and it looks a lot like this.

Something I did appreciate was the author’s constant description of what the characters were wearing/looked like. I didn’t realize how much this helped bring the story to life. A lot of authors leave that stuff to the imagination but with these descriptions I was able to vividly imagine the characters. 

Overall a nice light read but probably won’t read again. This did help me get into romcom books though, which I never thought I’d like.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

What a beautiful, moving, heartbreaking, masterful book. This told the story of WW2 through the eyes of the French and was an insightful glimpse into how slowly but insidiously the Holocaust progressed. There were some scenes that were graphic and I cried a lot through the book, but the character and story arcs were immaculate. The pacing was also very smooth, despite covering long periods of time and even jumping into the future for some chapters. 

The only pitfalls of this book were that it was hard to get into because it started rather slow, and it got a little preachy in its feminist messaging at times. But I truly loved this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Child death, Violence, Death of parent, Deportation, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.

I just ran out of time to finish this. Interesting concept and maybe I’ll pick it up again someday.

The Names of the Dead by Kevin Wignall
Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.

Murder mysteries really aren’t my thing but I tried

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.

Had to return to the library and was way less engaged. I hope to try again sometime though.

Rivals by Katharine McGee
Did not finish book. Stopped at 92%.

I don’t remember why I stopped 😂 but I don’t remember anything about this book and was probably bored or busy

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

What a fun book! The movie truly did a great job adapting it and I love the story. The only drawback is Buttercup, the only female character, is painted to be stupid and useless the whole time. But as far as the plot goes I was hooked even though I knew what would happen. 

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn

challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Genius book! If you like things like the Phantom Tollbooth you’ll like this. Very fun, self aware, intelligent book. It just moved a bit slowly in the middle.