wdallas126's reviews
165 reviews

Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 0 by Gege Akutami

4.5

This is my first time reading manga, so I don't know how to rate objectively. AHhhhhhh just really loved being back in this world and getting to spend time with the side characters. Sad, endearing, encouraging, badass, comical. Lots of adjectives, lots of joy from me reading this. Can't wait to watch the movie. I'm utterly incoherent.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

4.0

I really freaking loved this. Love the tone for Murderbot, they were very flat in their delivery of sarcasm and it was quite comedic. Listened to this audiobook, and the narrator read in a way that felt robotic and was just perfectly fitting for the technical influence in the book. The cute little bonds between them and the members of the crew were really endearing to see develop (even if it was quite fast). Enjoyed the action throughout, though felt the main conflict could have been given more time to resolve. The ending was fairly quick - would have liked around 50 more pages to round things out - and a little sad, but in a good way. SUPER excited to keep listening to these.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

2.5

I never thought I'd say this about anything, but I wish this was a bit more like the original Romeo + Juliet story. I was intrigued by the family politics, and the history of these characters, but I did not care for the supernatural plot at all. Moreover, it was frustrating that the more traditional R+J beats were in the past, since they would have been super interesting and, without them, I just wasn't as invested in the relationship. The fantastical aspect was just unnecessary and not enjoyable (plus, the plague-like references were frustrating) and it would have been better if the story just focused on the blood feud and regional politics. 

I liked the occasional delves into other characters and new relationships. I enjoyed the middle of the book quite a bit, but the ending was so spectacularly disappointing that it brought the rating down quite a bit. Our two main characters could be quite frustrating as well. Generally, this book was just too long for the amount of plot we truly got, and I feel as if the next book is going to be the same way.

The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

3.0

An easy book to read thanks to its writing style, but it often feels like the pacing is off. There’s a lot of complexity in the character relationship explored, but not in the political or social world, which is disappointing when this book is surrounding such a difficult issue. It didn’t get really interesting to me until the half way mark honestly.

Perfect Days by Raphael Montes

2.5

Sometimes we read books WAY outside our comfort genres because our friends gift them to us <3 
Shout out to Felipe for this birthday/Christmas present, it was definitely an interesting one lol.

I cannot honestly say I enjoyed a lot of my experience reading this, but I also know I wasn't intended to. The premise and genre are definitely difficult, and there is a significant amount of violence against women which was especially hard for me to read about. It is a very easy to read book, and the translation/writing style were very enjoyable. It didn't necessarily flow exactly as I imagined, which probably lowered it's rating for me a bit. Still don't know how I feel about the ending either lol.

Still, an enjoyable foray into Brazilian (translated) literature, and a different genre than I normally read! Glad I read this all in all. Definitely helps to frame this the way the author does in the acknowledgements, as a violent crime novel that is his attempt at writing a love story.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

4.0

Favorite in the series so far! The angst and darkness of this one had a really good balance and I was compelled by the struggles of our characters. The plot was engaging and not too outlandish (within the realm of reasonability for PJ books at least lol). The OG characters felt like they were back to normal and I was really happy to see their interactions. Only major complaint is that the perspective focuses need to be shorter, because I would forget about a character's development by the time we got back to them. Plus, it leads to some situations where the outcome of a plotpoint gets info-dumped because we didn't have time to see those characters again. Still really enjoyable and I really loved it :D

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

3.5

I have read this story back when it was purely in fanfiction form. It is still a pretty enjoyable story, though I wish the author had done a bit more work to distance the novel from it's previous iteration - having the characters less obviously be Reylo, adjusting the beats of the story, develop the tropes a tad more complexly. But of course I still loved what happened, it was just a little less fresh this time around. I do appreciate the adjustments made around academic conduct, it was very refreshing and empowering to read about. Overall, enjoyed but would have liked to be a bit more surprised by this.

to make monsters out of girls by Amanda Lovelace

2.5

I was just very disappointed by this... Lovelace has undeniable technical skill and I would love to see more long-form poems from her. These shorter poems just don't provide enough content or emotion to avoid me being frustrated. Moreover, the concept of this collection was not executed in a way I enjoyed, particularly the last portion. I read it because it was easy and short, but it still majorly disappointed me.

Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley

5.0

I really fucking enjoyed this. So much character depth was added that I found myself engaged in every single one of their plotlines, whereas the last book I couldn't stand most of them. Leaning into the "infinite sadness" just made the tone and pacing of this book perfect. The movie did not do this whole book justice. This one will be hard to beat honestly.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley

3.5

I could see where the movie deviated from the story in this one, but I generally liked the differences! It incorporates the game-style world building a lot which feels very natural and fun. The characters are generally bad people which the story really pushes, which is an idea I appreciate even when I’m not enjoying their assholery. Ramona… she lost some of the charm I had of her from the first which is what dampened this rating.