thefoxyreader's reviews
317 reviews

Come & Get It by Kiley Reid

medium-paced

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

3.0

Ooooooof this book is so hard to review.

On one hand, Kiley Reid is showing a lot of her writing strengths in terms of crafting unlikable but incredible layered characters. On the other hand, she really struggles with creating an engaging plot in this book.

SYNOPSIS: A group of unlikable people make increasingly bad decisions while living in a dorm at the University of Arkansas.

Let’s start off just taking a look at our characters. They are a mix of good and bad, and to be honest, I appreciate that they felt real.

Reid does a FANTASTIC job of layering all the characters with both good and bad traits. You’ll hate some in the beginning but begin to understand and maybe even admire them by the end. You’ll also have some that you initially like at the beginning, but by the end of the story, you’ll be going full on Tyra Banks, screaming, “WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU HOW DARE YOU?!”

And some people will love this book because they enjoy character studies.

Unfortunately, I’m someone who most of the time needs to have a plot that drives the story and Come and Get It just doesn’t.

I’ve seen other people describe it as “No Plot, All Vibes,” but what exactly are the vibes in this??? Bad decision making and everything you hated about your grody dorm room?

I was also disappointed by the setting since I live in Northwest Arkansas and work at the University of Arkansas. That connection is why I picked up this book, and while it was initially exciting to read a book that takes place in the city I live in, it quickly became apparent that Reid wasn’t focused on making the city or the university its own character in the book.

It just reads very much like Google Maps giving direction as opposed to capturing the vibes that Northwest Arkansas has.

And as hard as this might be to believe, Northwest Arkansas does have VIBES.

So, I see a lot of missed opportunities with the story as a whole, but I do really appreciate the character work that Reid did in this book even if I really don’t like the characters. She still shows promise as an author, but I wish she would imbue her novels with more plot and less “characters just make bad decisions with no end in sight or point to be made.”

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

dark mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

Look, I’m not going to pretend as if I have even the slightest idea of what is happening in this book and The Locked Tomb series as a whole, but it’s a hella fun ride and I’m here for it.

SYNOPSIS: Goth girl obsessed with skeletons chooses the most unhealthy ways to grieve.

While I didn’t enjoy Harrow the Ninth quite as much as I enjoyed Gideon the Ninth, I still really appreciated that it was quite different but still maintained an intriguing plot that was a mix of science fiction, mystery, and horror.

The closest thing I can compare it to is FX’s Legion, which is a show that I LOVED and never thought I would find anything else like it.

And while Harrow the Ninth isn’t exactly the same as Legion in terms of plot, it does have the same brain breaking vibes and affinity to weirdness that I appreciate.

I wish I had a better grasp on where the overall story is headed as I go into the next book, but I trust Tamsyn Muir to continue to push the genre and provide a fun time, so I am really excited to get started on it.

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

 

I’m not really much of a thriller girlie, so when Celadon sent me a copy of Listen for the Lie, I was expecting some bombastic side eye and unlimited scoffing at how stupid the story was.

But, SHOCKER, I actually enjoyed reading it. Read it in a day even.

And yeah, it certainly has its problems, but overall I think it’s a pretty well-written thriller that has one unique quality to set it apart from other books in the genre.

And what is that quality? It’s funny AF.

SYNOPSIS: A woman accused of murdering her best friend arrives back in her small hometown at the same time as an obnoxiously attractive podcaster who is recording a series about the cold case.

The smartest thing that Amy Tintura does with this book is inject it with a lethal dose of self-awareness. It knows it’s kind of silly. It knows that some of the scandalous situations that these characters find themselves in are ridiculous. The main character is fully aware that the decisions she makes are not great.

It gets ahead of itself and isn’t afraid to point out when something may seem ridiculous, which oddly grounds it, and allowed me to just accept some oddities, such as:

• Yeah, sure, I’ll accept that everyone in this tiny Texas town is HOTTTTTTTTTT.
• I’ll also accept that they are all sleeping with each other. Even Grandma is getting around!
• And I guess I’ll accept some of the podcast production that just seems off. Would that guy be able to record an interview and then package it for an episode the next day? I know it’s a mini episode, but I also don’t really get how he does an interview and then it’s on the show in record time. Wouldn’t he do a bunch of those interviews and then figure out the narrative from there and how the episodes should flow? He really just makes this somehow wildly successful podcast completely on the fly.

And yeah, I’ll let those go because the author has established this dark humor tone so I’m not expecting all of it to feel completely grounded.

But it would have been kind of nice to have a little more depth to this story. While I do think the book is pretty successful in portraying abusive relationships and their effect on women, I think it really missed the mark on making this a story about the power of friendships and women being “girls’ girls.”

It makes an attempt at this in the last fourth of the book, but at that point, it was just a little too late.

So, while this is no Sadie (which in my opinion is just SO SOOO GOOD), it also doesn’t completely try to be. And this works in its favor. <i>Listen for the Lie</i> is a fun, entertaining read, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to bust a reading slump.

CW: Abusive relationships, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual assault, murder, cheating, alcoholism 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

 

I am trying my hardest to give this book the benefit of the doubt because I am well aware that I’m not the target audience. I knew that without a shadow of a doubt when the main villain revealed his age to be 37.

(insert I’m the Crypt Keeper Jamie Lee Curtis gif)

SYNOPSIS: Two teens in old timey England join a medieval cult to stop the Dark King from getting his groove back.

I really wanted to love this book. C.S. Pacat’s writing is pretty good and flows well, and I enjoyed the intro to our characters and the plot.

However, after that the whole middle is a repetitive slog. I get that Fantasy books need to have exposition to explain the world building and magic system, but with <i>Dark Rise</i>, the characters were just too bland to make me care about anything that was happening.

There was sooooo much exposition (which once again, I get that this is common in Fantasy), but the bland characters couldn’t even make that info interesting in the slightest. The people giving all the exposition might as well have been talking to a wall.

And yet another reason that Dark Rise is clearly not marketed towards me is nearly every adult is an incompetent idiot.

And as a teen reading this, I’m sure I would have been thinking “Sounds about right.” But instead as an adult, I was thinking “HEY! Wait a damn minute…”

And honestly I don’t hold that against the book. I just want to point out that Dark Rise is THAT type of YA that I don’t think is too friendly to adults…and really it shouldn’t have to be.

But putting aside that this book isn’t written for me and the characters lack personality, the ending is easily the best part of the book. While I definitely could see “the twist” coming since it’s honestly right there on the tin, I wasn’t even mad about it.

Because that’s exactly the direction this series should go, and that ending above all else is interesting.

So, will I read the next one? Maaaaaybe? But I’m definitely not frothing at the mouth to get to it. 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

All I gotta say about Gideon the Ninth is…DA-DAYUM.

Look, I can see why people may hate this book (and I guess the rest of the series), but something about its attitude and presence really spoke to my 15-year-old soul who is still mad that her parents wouldn’t let her dye her hair blue and stay out past 11pm.

SYNOPSIS: Redhead and her frenemy who really likes skeleton find out the Necromancer Olympics are more dangerous than they anticipated.

I think Tamsyn Muir deserves all the accolades for creating a world that has unique world building and magic systems while also maintaining its own unique aesthetic.

It stands out in a packed genre despite using the tired but true “characters must enter a competition” trope.

And while I actually did enjoy the overall story and found the central mystery to be compelling, I think I got to agree with everyone when I say that the vibes are immaculate. I just don’t know of another Fantasy/Sci-Fi book that goes hardcore with the skeletons and Hot Topic vibe. All it was missing was a score composed by Trent Reznor.

Nor do I think there’s another Fantasy/Sci-Fi property that nails the level of biting sarcasm that Gideon and Harrow bring to the table. I have not seen that level of sarcasm since Daria, so yeah it’s been a while.

It’s hard to say where exactly this is going as a series, but just as a first book in a trilogy, it was a banger for me. Entertaining as hell with an interesting story. I legit couldn’t have asked for more.

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

2.5

 Because I like Stephen Graham Jones so much and adored My Heart Is a Chainsaw, I wanted to LOVE the sequel, Don’t Fear the Reaper. But y’all, I am struggling to even LIKE it…

SYNOPSIS: More evil shit in small-town Idaho and Jade Daniels is back on the scene to spout some horror movie knowledge like she’s the IMDB trivia page.

Here’s my problem with this book: Why is it not Sheriff Hardy’s book??? That man has decades of grief over his daughter’s accidental drowning. Why isn’t he the main POV this go-around?

And this particularly kills me because his daughter is one of the slashers in this book. Like why not make this the emotional core of the story??? Instead, I felt nothing when he discovered her spirit lives on and put her out to sea.

I think there’s just too much going on in this book. Chainsaw was limited to only Jade’s chaotic point of view, but in this go-around nearly EVERYONE gets a POV chapter…and they don’t need it.

I half expected inanimate objects to start giving their POV just because SGJ was handing them out like candy on Halloween.

So, along with EVERYONE getting a POV, there’s also just one too many villains happening in this. I liked Dark Mill South and think that’s he an interesting force of nature and foil to Jade in terms of her indigenous identity. I also liked

the inclusion of Sheriff Hardy’s daughter’s spirit as well as the hint that the new History teacher is a force of evil himself.

However,

I felt that the inclusion of the two girls from the first book (I am blanking on their names right now) was just completely unnecessary and made the plot way too confusing. The one was never convincing as the Final Girl and it was just too much of a stretch that both of them would also become obsessed with horror movies.

I think at the end of the day, I’m okay with where the story ended and will read the third book, but I think Don’t Fear the Reaper unfortunately suffers from middle book syndrome and doesn’t do enough to justify why this series is a trilogy. 

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

 

Like, honestly, what the hell did I just read?

SYNOPSIS: When a job assignment gets delayed, a woman goes to stay with her mom in her childhood home that now seems to be haunted.

This book is two books slapped together without really blending the two.

On one hand, you have a very slow-paced “I think my house is haunted” story that took up the first two-thirds of the book and put me to sleep faster than popping a couple Ambien.

And then for that last third, you have the most bonkers out-of-left-field shit that I’m not sure even pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson could have dreamed up for his early horror movies.

And the funniest thing is that I actually liked the batshit stuff at the end because at least it was interesting and exciting. I just couldn’t take the too-slow slow burn. I almost DNF’d the book because of it.

And honestly, this book just feels like a lot of different ideas thrown together by way of Mad Libs.

I like the vultures, but what the hell do they have to do with this story? And also I knew once Alistair Crowley’s name was thrown into the mix that Kingfisher was really stretching to fit all of these bizarre pieces together.

Despite not liking this book, I really do like T Kingfisher and think she has a unique voice in both Fantasy and Horror. I will definitely read another one of her books, but it’s safe to say that this one just didn’t work for me at all. 

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

I feel like My Heart is a Chainsaw was written for me. It’s wild and it’s violent and it’s unbalanced, but man, it just gets horror fans.

Which makes sense because it is BY a horror fan FOR horror fans.

Honestly, this might be my most fun read of the year just because of that.

SUMMARY: A rebellious teenage horror fanatic has her dream come true when she thinks a slasher is wreaking havoc on her small town.

First of all, this book is going to have one of my favorite protagonists of the year. Jade Daniels is just such a great character. She’s equal parts badass and frustrating, and despite having the weird quirk of being hyper focused on horror movies, she feels very real.

She’s a fantastic character to root for, and Michael Myers and Jason are lucky to never have come up against her.

Despite having very clear inspiration from slasher movies and referencing them nonstop, I’m insanely impressed by how original and unique this book feels. There’s nothing quite like it out there, and it’s honestly just begging for a film adaptation.

My only qualms with the book is I do think the ending is messy (both literally and figuratively). It’s almost as if Stephen Graham Jones got so excited about the ending that he rushed right through it. It was just hard to tell what was happening because the pacing suddenly jumped to lightspeed.

But at the end of the day, I just really enjoyed reading this and would absolutely highly recommend it to anyone who loves horror movies. You will not be disappointed.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

I have spent decades now trying to find something with similar vibes and tone to Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Yes, The Hunger Games is very similar in terms of children being forced by a totalitarian government to kill each other, but it still didn’t quite capture that really dark and gritty outlook that BR did.

But then Chain-Gang All-Stars came along and now I’ve finally found a similar vibe of dark hopelessness mixed with the call to enact change all contained within a future society that might be right where we are headed.

SUMMARY: Prisoners engage in gladiator-style deathmatches in hopes of gaining their freedom.

There’s a lot that really works in this book, but for me the number one thing that I enjoyed is purely Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s writing. I appreciated that he crafted a book that is both informative and entertaining. He put in the effort doing a lot of research and those stark facts in the footnotes are just the cherry on top of supporting what he’s trying to say with the story.

And what is he trying to say? It’s honestly as simple as saying that we have a flawed justice and prison system, and that these systems typically punish minority groups harsher than others.

He grounds this social problem by centering the story around two Black women, who are having to balance fighting for their lives with their love for each other.

It really is a smart move as it gives the story heart and allows the reader to view them as flawed but relatable humans while other characters in the story view them as Other.

I thought it was also a bold choice to not take the easy route out by making all the characters either be innocent or guilty of lesser crimes. No, many of the characters have done terrible things, and even they are grappling with what they did and what they deserve because of it.

There aren’t any answers to the problems proposed in this book, but ultimately I appreciated that as it allowed me to ruminate on this topic and come to my own conclusions. I hate when books have to spell things out for everyone or the author brings the reader only to THEIR conclusion instead of trusting them to develop their own thoughts.

And it’s this trust in his characters to convey all these thoughts and feelings and the trust in the reader to really think about this story in the context of their own world that sets this apart from other dystopian science fiction books.

Chain-Gang All-Stars is really just a fantastic triumph and is a book that I think many people will be discussing for years to come.

The January 6 Report by The January 6th Committee

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I’m not really sure how to rate a government document, but I commend the House January 6 Committee for the investigation they conducted to definitively prove the following facts:

1.) Donald Trump knew the 2020 US Presidential election was NOT stolen but continued to pedal lies about voter fraud and election interference to stoke his base.
2.) Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in hopes of overturning the election results and/or stalling the count of the Electoral College votes.
3.) Donald Trump did NOTHING for 187 minus while rioters staged an insurrection by breaking into the Capitol building. Law enforcement were viciously attacked while senators ran for their lives. Donald Trump watched this all on Fox News while his advisors and kids begged him to tell the angry mob to go home.
4.) Donald Trump is a liar and a danger to our democracy.

Despite knowing a lot about Jan 6 (hell, I watched it all unfold on TV), I thought this was still an interesting read. And because of the damage he’s already done to our country, I’m always down to read more of Trump getting dunked on with FACTS.