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dododenise's reviews
394 reviews
Of Feathers and Thorns by Kit Vincent
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Just a very fun magical adventure. Nothing extraordinary, but very enjoyable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: War
Squire by Sara Alfageeh, Nadia Shammas
dark
emotional
funny
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and War
Moderate: Blood, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I’m a bit confused about whether I liked it or not. There were some truly tacky bits that were too much for me (which says a lot because I love my romances tacky). But the way fandom was portrayed was a bit like how I was with 13/14 and Ivy is a bit older than that. It was things like her writing style, what she wrote, her opinions. It all screamed young teenager on wattpad to me. Which would be fine, but Ivy isn’t that young.
Henry is the star of the show. Love the aroace representation. And him as a character is just everything I love. Nothing better than the sapphic’s himbo best friend. He was so much fun to read.
The romance was okay. It was well done, but didn’t do much for me personally.
I wish the reason why Weston appeared was actually explained. This story wasn’t set out to be an intricate exploration of the concept of someone making their story’s character real, but it would have been nice anyway.
Henry is the star of the show. Love the aroace representation. And him as a character is just everything I love. Nothing better than the sapphic’s himbo best friend. He was so much fun to read.
The romance was okay. It was well done, but didn’t do much for me personally.
I wish the reason why Weston appeared was actually explained. This story wasn’t set out to be an intricate exploration of the concept of someone making their story’s character real, but it would have been nice anyway.
In het vervloekte hart by Rima Orie
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Most of this book left me a little bored.
I love that it is inspired by colonial Suriname, definitely not something you usually see. However, that is also where its specialness stops. I also felt like its commentary on colonialism was a bit immature. This book is intended for 15+ readers, but much of it felt like “did you know kids, colonialism really sucks”. I hoped for more in depth exploration of dutch colonialism within a fantasy world and I think Rima would know how to do it, yet it felt like the commentary of a children’s book in a book that otherwise is truly made for more mature readers.
The world building otherwise is solid. It did its own thing where it was needed to tell a fantasy story while still having a lot of historical elements. Overall it did not feel like that much of a unique world as I expected it to be and in many respects is a very basic high fantasy world.
Priya definitely isn’t my favourite main character. At some point her constant back and forth of feeling inferior and feeling like she is failing everyone and then to being like one of the strongest characters in the story was getting too much. Yes those character arcs are quite normal, but it was laid on too heavily here. I didn’t get attached to any of the other characters either. I’m already forgetting most of them to be honest.
I love that it is inspired by colonial Suriname, definitely not something you usually see. However, that is also where its specialness stops. I also felt like its commentary on colonialism was a bit immature. This book is intended for 15+ readers, but much of it felt like “did you know kids, colonialism really sucks”. I hoped for more in depth exploration of dutch colonialism within a fantasy world and I think Rima would know how to do it, yet it felt like the commentary of a children’s book in a book that otherwise is truly made for more mature readers.
The world building otherwise is solid. It did its own thing where it was needed to tell a fantasy story while still having a lot of historical elements. Overall it did not feel like that much of a unique world as I expected it to be and in many respects is a very basic high fantasy world.
Priya definitely isn’t my favourite main character. At some point her constant back and forth of feeling inferior and feeling like she is failing everyone and then to being like one of the strongest characters in the story was getting too much. Yes those character arcs are quite normal, but it was laid on too heavily here. I didn’t get attached to any of the other characters either. I’m already forgetting most of them to be honest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Slavery
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
5.0
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was a bit of a rollercoaster of my enjoyment. I started out really enjoying a cute fluffy story, but quickly got annoyed by the protagonist. Then I started realising that the story is not actually fluffy at all, but about a toxic relationship. Realising that I started liking the book a lot more. While it is hard to read about abuse, I think that part of the story was well done. While I never truly warmed up to Noah, I was a lot more okay with reading about him.
What annoys me about Noah’s character is that it almost seems to mock teens. Give teens some credit, because Noah was a naive ass who really doesn’t know how life works outside of the internet, and is obsessive over social media. Idk, as someone who was and is in fandom a lot, it felt insulting to read about such an unbearably helpless character. Teens really aren’t that stupid. Some of it got better with some character development but it still wasn’t great.
What annoys me about Noah’s character is that it almost seems to mock teens. Give teens some credit, because Noah was a naive ass who really doesn’t know how life works outside of the internet, and is obsessive over social media. Idk, as someone who was and is in fandom a lot, it felt insulting to read about such an unbearably helpless character. Teens really aren’t that stupid. Some of it got better with some character development but it still wasn’t great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Transphobia and Vomit