unfathomablereader's Reviews (822)

Lights Out

Navessa Allen

4.0

emotional funny lighthearted medium-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

Content Warnings

Stolen Tongues

Felix Blackwell

0.25

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is BS!

I’ve just seen it recommended a lot, as really scary so of course as a fan of horror I wanted to give it a try. The first part was fun and interesting but something to know is that this book is written by a white person and has indigenous folklore as its mystery and where it draws its creature from. I still thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt, I feel people can do research and represent things respectfully and I wanted to give it the potential to show it’s work.

I was too generous. If you want to read or listen to this book just keep in mind that the author goes on a long rant at the end about how he wanted to represent indigenous people properly but seems too interested in congratulating himself for being so thoughtful about this that he didn’t bother writing a good story and threw his indigenous characters under the bus for no reason.

This book like a lot of horror could have been an interesting look at the way people deal with grief, I liked how it ended but how it got there SUUUCKED and honestly got old, BORING, and inconsistent real fast. This book could’ve been an email.

If I ever read a book an a white author mentioned indigenous folklore as a plot point I’m DNFing it into the fucking sun.

Anyway shout out to the audiobook narrator, J.S. Arquin my man really did that.

Content Warnings

Shortcake Cake, Vol. 2

suu Morishita

3.0

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Don't Let the Forest In

C.G. Drews

4.75

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

Love and Other Conspiracies

Mallory Marlowe

3.25

funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Incidents Around the House

Josh Malerman

3.5

Long Live Evil

Sarah Rees Brennan

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

For some inexplicable reason I was deeply invested in this story and characters. So much so I cried on two separate occasions. I haven’t cried over a book in years. Not even the ones I was like “oh wow this is really good and changed my life”. Life is sometimes like that.
But when I sit back and think about it, this silly little isekai book with absolutely over the top metaphors that Brennan really needs to work on, has something I really enjoy seeing in stories and that is the discussion of what makes up our truth is what we believe in and helps shape our reality.
Sometimes it’s camp for the girls and the gays, other times you’re remembering the very real and dire situation the main character is in. Other times the writing is confusing and your life “what the hell is even happening on this page”. I think once Brennan calms down her metaphors and polishes her writing particularly during actions scenes she has quite the makings of a high fantasy author.
I wrote three separate book journal entries over this book and I spent all morning finishing it. IM EXHAUSTED!
What can I say, Brennan literally wrote catnip for me in character form. I will read the sequel and I will never forgive her.

Content Warnings