bryiennefaye's reviews
463 reviews

"Sometimes I wish I could step outside of myself for a while. I want to leave this worn body behind, but my chains are too many, my weights too heavy."

I delved into this novella not really expecting much since I find Shatter Me slightly underwhelming; but boy, this one delivered.

Expectedly, Tahereh Mafi did not disappoint with her writing. I really loved and devoured every word, sentence, and paragraph written in Aaron Warner's POV.

This surely made me understand his character more, and how genuine his feelings are towards Juliette.

Okay. First of all, I liked Adam on Shatter Me. Then my views on him went lower as this series progresses, but reading his POV? It made me significantly loathe him.

Spoiler

I understand his sentiment when he wanted to go back to James since he has no idea that his brother can self-heal if injured, but not wanting to go back for Juliette—despite claiming that he loves her—was such an asshole move. It literally took Kenji's convincing for him to agree to go back to base and save Juliette.

If his definition of love is choosing between his brother and the person he claims to love, then he can just keep his so-called love to himself.

"Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.

No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.”

The only correct rating for this book is 5 stars.

This honestly becomes an instant favorite book series. Everything is so beautifully-written, especially the characters. Perhaps, the reason why I am so attached to some of the characters—Juliette, Warner, and Kenji mostly—is because there are pieces of them that I see in myself. I really appreciate that Tahereh Mafi did not only focus on the character of Juliette but also on the others—like how they were profoundly written differently and yet fit each other's personalities.

I can confirm that there were moments when I would stop and cry my heart out because of how much this book speaks to me.

3.75 stars rounded up

"I have a great fear of drowning in the ocean of my own silence. In the steady thrum that accompanies quiet, my mind is unkind to me. I think too much. I feel, perhaps, far more than I should. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that my goal in life is to outrun my mind, my memories. So I have to keep moving."

What a strange turn of events from the other installments of the series.

Getting back to reading this book was so hard after experiencing a reading slump, but I'm so glad I still get the hang of it. However, I feel like this book was slower compared to the others because the real story only started to unfold toward the end, which was kind of off to me—the reason why I only rated this book as 3.75 stars. But other than that, I loved the diversity of this book, especially with the new characters introduced.

I live for Kenji and Nazeera's interaction <3

"Your own experience is not less because mine was more."

This was probably one of the cheesiest books I've ever read, but I love it so much! I just really enjoyed everything about this book, especially how the relationship between Abbie and Damien turned into more; and how they resolved their problem maturely. Damien probably set my standards a little bit higher—I mean, c'mon, he's a goddamn lawyer who handles pro bono cases and exactly my type. And—of course—Abbie, who's so lovable and everything sunshine—I just really want to be friends with her, please.

Overall, Tis the Season for Revenge is exactly the type of book that I would enjoy reading and rereading every holiday season.

I feel so bad leaving this book a bad review, but this needed to be said: This had so much potential, but the execution was an absolute disappointment. I felt like there was no depth in what's Lily's going through to the point that I felt so detached from her because the background of her suffering felt lacking. Although, yes, there are glimpses of her past that made me understand why she's suffering from depression, still, they weren't enough to explain her pain.

In terms of its writing, I didn't particularly like the style of this book, and I feel like the editing team could do better.

I was supposed to finish this book while waiting for New Year, but it was so bad I had to put it off for a whole week. And honestly, the first thing that came to my mind after reading this book is: this couple needs therapy.

Quick and compelling. Several People Are Typing delivered a satirical take on the online, working-from-home culture in the corporate world. Although I couldn't grasp the first part of this book—because I had no idea what Slack is—I still find this absolutely hilarious and an interesting read.

Is it weird that I only enjoyed the part when Ella and Reed still hated each other? Because Ella ate and left no crumbs with those comebacks.