tospeakordie's reviews
192 reviews

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.75

this was an interesting read because carrie absolutely pissed me off but i was still invested in her life and rooted for her with everything i had

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

5.0

phenomenal
made me feel all the things i think i was meant to and more

Strange Meeting by Susan Hill

challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

my heart- it’s a mess. 
I think I believe that they really had a rare relationship and friendship, and I think there were probably romantic feelings involved as well. it doesn’t matter how they loved each other because this is a story of human love on the front line. maybe they were lovers, and I’d like to think they were lovers, but ultimately that doesn’t change anything for how much they became a part of each other throughout this books. 
it’s difficult to quantify how internally distressed this made me, at wars, at our inability to learn from our mistakes, and every time I read ‘they think it’ll be over by Christmas’ I could have cried. 

this is also really petty, but i have an immense hate for the cover and i literally would never have picked it up had it not been on sale. make better covers. literature deserves to be represented by art that doesn’t require hiding away. (it just doesn’t WORK) 

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

feels like a very gentle opening into someone’s life, the prose is really pleasant yet grounded in realism

Finale by Stephanie Garber

4.5

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.5

this was a genuinely fun short story lol 

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

just about a 4 star read. this is only the second fantasy book i’ve read this year, and i genuinely did enjoy it. scarlett was frustrating me but i don’t think the author went overboard, because thankfully she did go through some character development. i loved the sister bond. i think maybe nearer the end, it was really like ‘where is this gonna go’ and despite everything, i guess i do believe in Julian. also i read half of this before i slept at night, and the rest after i woke up, so by no means would i say i wasn’t into it :p
i will finish the trilogy! maybe this will end up being one of my favorite fantasy series 

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.5

i can’t even count the amount of times i cried, nearer the end of the book it was more like a crying session with some reading. still, this is not a 5 star review from me because of the characters. i LOVE Reza, and i can tell the author relates a lot to him. Art was okay, but sometimes very overly dramatic about things and made choices without clear reasoning at all, which made him harder to like as a person, and also as Reza’s boyfriend. also, pressuring into sex is gross.
Judy. girl it just felt like she never grew up, she’s described as having a lot of empathy but it seems to be only in certain situations. the whole childish fight thing just ruined things for me a bit. i just felt like it didn’t need the y8 type friendship drama when they’re actually 17.

tldr; cried my own niagra falls but some of the characters were borderline insufferable

reread november 2022:
i still desperately love reza and hate judy. since i read this book for the first time, i couldn’t stop thinking about it, EVERY DAY. i watched a movie about AIDs (an early frost) and couldn’t stop seeing uncle stephen in the characters. this book isn’t perfect by ANY means but i know one thing: it has not left my mind for a second

“The most important four-letter word in our history will always be LOVE. That’s what we are fighting for. That’s who we are. Love is our legacy.”

Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

4.75

i never knew addiction could be like this