thomasdm15's reviews
83 reviews

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

2.5

Well well well... Lots of mixed feelings about this one.

It wasn't a bad book per se but it definitely did not hit for me. Luckily it was a very short read so I was done quickly with it but any much longer and I would've DNFed it. 

Let's start with the pros:

• The beginning is intriguing and the magical realism aspect of the book flows naturally.
• The messages, although naive, are quite cute and heartwarming. You can tell this was supposed to be a feel good story.
• The translation was really good, which is always a point I appreciate.

Now for the bad parts:

• The characters are really dull and one-dimensional. Obviously this is a short book so we don't need fully fleshed out characters but it would have been nice if they were more likeable.
• It was somewhat boring at times and it had me dozing off/my mind was wandering, which is a prowess in and of itself because this is a really short book.
• It was also repetitive because
  the only surprising things are (1) the girl joining them on the 2nd labyrinth and (2) the 4th adventure not being "about books" (although in the end it ended up kinda being that way so... ye...). Other than that it's always the same thing: cat appears, they go somewhere, evil guy being evil, main guy doesn't know what to do then for no reason finds exactly what to say and the evil guy is like "u know what, u convinced me with ONE speech", like they need 0 convincing. So yeah that was really not enjoyable.
• In the end, I wasn't really eager to pick it back up.

Although I am citing a lot of cons, I wouldn't say this is a BAD book, but you definitely need to come in knowing it's not outstanding and you can be done with it in one sitting.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Simply incredible, very interesting plot, beautifully written, a very good example of how to use flashbacks properly.

I don't even know what to say, just go read it please I am begging.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

An ode to the power words hold. An absolutely stunning read: beautiful writing, loveable characters, touching and deep relationships. Would highly recommend.
Only deducting half a point because I felt very frustrated during the first half of the book because the blurb is very misleading so spoiler alert but

what is announced in the blurb (the whole suffragrettes and world war stuff) only starts at the halfway point of the book

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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? No

5.0

An absolutely incredible book, would rate it more than 5 stars if I could.
Don't know what more to say except than: GO READ THIS BOOK!!!

I would die for Rocky + the fact he gets a class on Erid is so so so sweet ):

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

A masterpiece. Beautifully written. The emotions I felt reading this cannot be explained, you have to read it for yourself. Made me feel ashamed that English isn't my first language so I couldn't enjoy this masterfully crafted art piece to its fullest potential. Please do yourself a favor and indulge yourself in this very quick read, you won't regret it.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

medium-paced

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

3.5

A good book, but couldn't help feeling like "Is that it?" by the end of it.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

A masterpiece, I love R. F. Kuang but I mean this: F*** YOU (and I say this with all the love in the world)


Side note : next time PLEASE make the asterisks bigger because I missed a ton of them because of how small they were.