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theinquisitxor's reviews
805 reviews
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
5.0
Jennifer Donnelly gets me again. Revolution was one of my favorite books as a young teenager and this one did not disappoint in the slightest. This novel has the same gut-wrenching emotions and hardships as a Kristin Hannah novel, and a nuance and attention to detail that I enjoy from historical fiction.
Book of Night by Holly Black
2.0
I saw someone on booktok describe this book as if you're playing a quest based video game and you're the main character (Charlie in this case) and every other side character in this book is an NPC and they just give you information/a side quest and then disappear again.
A lot in this book fell flat. Characters, the world building (not gonna lie, but Massachusetts is not the most exciting place), the prose. I just never got invested in the story, nor did I care all that much. Definitely a disappointing read, but I had seen early reviews that suggested that.
I didn't dislike the book, and there were certainly sections and passages I did enjoy, but I was hoping for more.
A lot in this book fell flat. Characters, the world building (not gonna lie, but Massachusetts is not the most exciting place), the prose. I just never got invested in the story, nor did I care all that much. Definitely a disappointing read, but I had seen early reviews that suggested that.
I didn't dislike the book, and there were certainly sections and passages I did enjoy, but I was hoping for more.
The Devil's Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past by Amy S. Kaufman
2.0
This is a difficult book to rate and review. As someone who studied history and focused on the Middle Ages, I learned and worked on projects surrounding this topic. It is something I feel very passionate about. I love helping educate people on the Middle Ages and helping them understand history better. I feel very strongly about this topic and I was excited to finally get my hands on this book.
From a scholarly perspective, this book is basically worthless. That's a little harsh, but the formatting, research, and references are not at the level they should be. I don't think I would ever cite this book in actual scholarly work. There are not enough references, nor do the authors show where/how they got their information.
One of the reviews say that this book reads more like someone's tumblr post and, sadly, yeah. It kinda does. Things are not well researched, planned, or formatted. I don't want to get into a rant-y review, but I was very disappointed at something like this out of University of Toronto Press. The scholarship surrounding this topic should be doing much more, especially books like this that are reaching the mainstream a little more than most scholarly publications.
Overall, very disappointed by what I assumed was going to be a great work on an important, pressing matter in the field and in current events.
From a scholarly perspective, this book is basically worthless. That's a little harsh, but the formatting, research, and references are not at the level they should be. I don't think I would ever cite this book in actual scholarly work. There are not enough references, nor do the authors show where/how they got their information.
One of the reviews say that this book reads more like someone's tumblr post and, sadly, yeah. It kinda does. Things are not well researched, planned, or formatted. I don't want to get into a rant-y review, but I was very disappointed at something like this out of University of Toronto Press. The scholarship surrounding this topic should be doing much more, especially books like this that are reaching the mainstream a little more than most scholarly publications.
Overall, very disappointed by what I assumed was going to be a great work on an important, pressing matter in the field and in current events.
Sadie by Courtney Summers
5.0
Reread: May 2022. The Audiobook is amazing
I'm starting to think that one of my favorite genres is thriller and/or murder mystery. This was really good, but also dark and dealt with some very heavy topics. TW for: sexual assault, pedophilia, murder, physical assault, etc.
This is about 19 year old Sadie trying to track down her younger sister's killer. Our second point of view is West, a NRP radio podcaster who is in turn trying to find Sadie. I actually really liked the NPR style sections, which almost made me feel like I was reading a documentary and gives the reader a lot more insight into Sadie from outside sources. Sometimes I don't really like alternate media in books, but I really enjoyed this. It was also very quick to read.
Sadie's sections were superb. Her narration was perfect and getting inside her mind was very interesting. I also really liked how she has a stutter? I can count one other fictional character I have ever encountered that has a stutter and it's nice seeing something like that in fiction. So many characters speak so eloquently, which just isn't realistic, so when we get a character who has trouble speaking is very refreshing.
The mystery is so so good. Obviously it revolves around the homicide of Sadie's younger sister, but you find out that the mystery at the heart of the book is so much deeper and darker. The story does an excellent job of not revealing things too soon, and handles the topics in a really good way. The topics in this book are almost too dark to be YA, but the author handles them really well and helps fit them into the genre.
This book is also so highly rated on Goodreads!? at 4.18 which just goes to show how good it is. Definitely a quick read, but not necessarily an easy one.
I'm starting to think that one of my favorite genres is thriller and/or murder mystery. This was really good, but also dark and dealt with some very heavy topics. TW for: sexual assault, pedophilia, murder, physical assault, etc.
This is about 19 year old Sadie trying to track down her younger sister's killer. Our second point of view is West, a NRP radio podcaster who is in turn trying to find Sadie. I actually really liked the NPR style sections, which almost made me feel like I was reading a documentary and gives the reader a lot more insight into Sadie from outside sources. Sometimes I don't really like alternate media in books, but I really enjoyed this. It was also very quick to read.
Sadie's sections were superb. Her narration was perfect and getting inside her mind was very interesting. I also really liked how she has a stutter? I can count one other fictional character I have ever encountered that has a stutter and it's nice seeing something like that in fiction. So many characters speak so eloquently, which just isn't realistic, so when we get a character who has trouble speaking is very refreshing.
The mystery is so so good. Obviously it revolves around the homicide of Sadie's younger sister, but you find out that the mystery at the heart of the book is so much deeper and darker. The story does an excellent job of not revealing things too soon, and handles the topics in a really good way. The topics in this book are almost too dark to be YA, but the author handles them really well and helps fit them into the genre.
This book is also so highly rated on Goodreads!? at 4.18 which just goes to show how good it is. Definitely a quick read, but not necessarily an easy one.