the_broadway_slasher's reviews
54 reviews

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-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

3.5

I’m torn about reviewing this book because on one hand it was delightful and I really enjoyed it but on the other hand I was really confused as to who the core audience for this was and whether or not my criticism even mattered if this was a novel that was maybe intended to be more for children than adults. The House in the Cerulean Sea is a syrupy sweet story about embracing your individuality and navigating the world to find a home and family to call your own. It was an uplifting and enchanting story full of loveable characters and cute adventures. It was also a fairly easy and quick read and a good reset from some of the darker things I’ve been reading this year. That being said, this book seems to be catering to the wrong audience? I wouldn’t even say that this is necessarily a YA read because to me it seems more like something catered to 10-12 year olds. Taking that into account, the themes of love and acceptance are all fantastic devices but if this is intended to be a novel for YA or adults, it’s a little heavy-handed and too simplistic. I also didn’t really feel that there was ever a consistent conflict to tie things together other than “people are afraid of what they don’t understand”, so the third act feels too brief to really resonate and everyone is resolved so quickly that it feels like the stakes never really mattered. Also, I think we could have done without the over-packed epilogue. Though in not giving this book a 5 star rating, I do still recommend it for those who are looking to read something pleasant, empowering and happy and DEFINITELY recommend it for kids aged 10-13 who are struggling to find the their place in this world.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

Model Home might just be my favorite read of the year. It’s a beautifully written tale about the horrors of assimilation and trauma. It’s a unique story unlike any I’ve ever read before and a really fascinating take on the haunted house genre. This novel is definitely not for the faint of heart and might be a little too dark for people who don’t like to see their souls laid bare on a page but I really enjoyed the honest POV the author injected into this story.
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Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin

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challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

2.0

I can’t believe it took me nearly 2 months to get through Cuckoo. 😅 It’s got a promising premise, some interesting characters and a lot of creep factor that never really pays off. Honestly, I think the biggest problem is the novel starts with a banger of a teaser and then just cuts to 200 pages of character exposition that only ever give you little peeks at the actual story. By the time we get to any action, we speed through it and then jump ahead 15 years to a finale that is a mess. Gretchen Felker-Martin tries to stick a landing for about 10 different characters that doesn’t feel earned or like it has sufficient space to breathe and develop. The last 100 pages had me feeling like I was reading through a pool of sludge. I wanted to like this novel so badly, as it definitely has a promising story but it was so hard to force myself to get through it. It was also hard to keep up with the logic of the Cuckoo? It didn’t seem to really follow any rules and so it took away from the impact of its design. Why is this monster chasing queer kids? Why does it have to take up the front of a conversion camp? Why do we witness it eat and kill heterosexual people too? It just doesn’t really follow any logic and characters all seem doomed based on their stupidity, more than their circumstances. 


Meh. 🤷🏽‍♂️ If you want a solid conversion camp horror novel go read Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass.
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I loved Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe so much. It’s a beautiful story about two young boys coming to terms with their love for each other in 1980s Texas. It paints a beautiful and relatable picture of adolescence that I found so real. It’s syrupy sweet but also interjected with many quiet moments of deep sorrow that anchor our characters down. I have to say that i especially found it relatable as a Mexican who struggled with a lot of the same inner-dialogue and societal expectations that Ari and Dante struggle with. My only problem is that at times the story seems too simple and I wish there was maybe just a little bit more conflict. Otherwise, a near perfect queer novel with a very unique and desperately needed voice.
Dirty Poole: A Sensual Memoir by Wakefield Poole

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious fast-paced

5.0

Dirty Poole was an excellent slice of the life of a queer icon whose films shattered records and ignited the silver screen with thought provoking eroticism. I really enjoyed reading about Wakefield Poole’s early days and was shocked to learn how his career started as a dancer, eventually catapulting him onto Broadway and choreography before he took a left turn and landed in the porn industry. Poole shares an unflinching look at his life that is sometimes devastating, particularly in the last third of the memoir. Even so, I’m so happy I was able to learn so much about this man and the influence his movies had on queer culture in the 70s and beyond. 
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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

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

2.0

Hot Milk was a weird fucking read. I’m not sure if it was brilliant or terrible but could it be both and also boring at the same time? 😅 Having studied anthropology and read a shit ton of ethnographies I think I understand the writing style the author was going for but ultimately it didn’t work for me. There are some passages where you can’t discern a single thing that’s going on or distinguish between what’s happening, the narrator’s POV or the writer’s prose. The book had me for about half the novel despite problems I had with the writing style but once we moved to Greece, the story stopped dead in its tracks and it never really recovered. I do have to say that as the child of a parent who is struggling with depression, there were some really insightful passages here that helped me put into words things I’ve felt but could never say, which makes this review so much harder to write. I was rooting for you Hot Milk… WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!!!!!!
The Blade Between by Sam J. Miller

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

The Blade Between is a MASTERPIECE of literature and an instant favorite. Wow, hats off to Sam J. Miller who created a rich and vibrant world of complex characters that all felt relatable at one point or another, despite some of the horrors waiting to be unleashed. I found myself panicking as I felt myself getting to the big finale because I just wanted to live in this version of the Hudson Valley forever.
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Hide by Kiersten White

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

I really enjoyed HIDE. My biggest problem with it was the constant shift in perspective which made it really hard to follow in the first act. Once the cast of characters begins to dwindle, it becomes less of a problem and I found myself riveted going from person to person. Kiersten White is a really exciting author and between this and Mister Magic, she’s definitely one I will be reading for years to come. Fantastic first entry into adult literature for Kiersten and it’s fascinating to see how quickly she grew from Hide to Mister Magic. This was a really fun, quick moving thriller with some deep themes about systemic trauma. If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, A Quiet Place or The Most Dangerous Game, Hide is for you!
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The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass

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adventurous funny hopeful 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

5.0

I love Adam Sass so much. This is now my third book by this author and I love how rich and detailed his world-building is. On top of that, he has a gift for writing authentic queer voices that feel like they’re speaking directly from my heart. I was hesitant to read Adam’s second novel because I’m not really into romantic novels, and the fact it was YA made me feel even more adverse but I needed a lighter read to cap off June and kick-off July and I’m so glad I went with The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers.

This novel was way out of my comfort zone but I absolutely adored it. Reading this novel was therapeutic for my 15yr old, closeted repressed self. I had so many sad, lonely and sleepless nights back then wishing I knew if there were other people out there like me. If books like this had existed when I was that age, my God would my adolescence have been different. I’m so jealous of all the LGBTQIA+ teens out there who get to read this novel and know that there’s a world out there just waiting to be discovered by them. 

This story brought me instant joy and I’m so grateful I read it. Absolutely pumped and ready for Adam’s follow up, CURSED BOYS AND LONELY HEARTS, which is only a few weeks away from release.
The Only One Left by Riley Sager

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I started this book on vacation and really only got the chance to read like 10 pages at a time. Eventually I hit a point where I couldn’t put it down and found myself trying to read it as often as possible and then BAM- I hit the third act and could not put it down. Is THE ONLY ONE LEFT soapy and silly? Yes. Did I have to suspend a looooot of disbelief throughout? Also yes. Did I mind having to do any of that to enjoy this novel? Not one bit! As an avid fan of telenovelas, I was fully strapped in for this story and the third act full of shocks and twists had me squealing gleefully until the very last twist which left me with more than a few tears in my eyes. If you’re into gothic mysteries, you will devour this book. It was an excellent beach read!