heyshannonhall's reviews
614 reviews

All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us about Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today by Elizabeth Comen

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informative medium-paced

4.0

This was so good and interesting! For some reason I thought it was going to mainly focus on reproductive health so I was pleasantly surprised that it encompassed many aspects of women’s health in general. So much to call out but the gut health chapter really had an impact on me (like… did you know that women’s digestive tracts become longer than men’s? The reasons why are wild) as well as the chapter on menopause and hormones. Should be required reading tbh!
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

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dark sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

This book freaked me out, especially as someone who is often the “what are they reeaally going to do with our data” person. It’s an extremely interesting premise: a future where the government uses individual’s data, even from dreams, to assign “risk levels” to them to try to prevent crimes (instead of just passing gun control laws, obviously) and then detains people with high risk scores until they deem that they aren’t going to harm anyone. But of course, proving you aren’t planning to commit a crime is basically impossible, as the women in this book come to realize. Just like in a nightmare, the panic and urgency about Sara’s situation seems to mount as this novel goes on. It follows kind of a predictable pattern imo but I was still glued to it because it felt so believable and personal. It was very haunting and I definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eArc!
The Most by Jessica Anthony

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tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

Kind of a weird book… I liked what it was going for but I’m not sure it totally nailed the impact. Relatable though—who among us has not entered a pool and thought “what if I just never get out”
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

A hot mess. The stakes were in the negative numbers and the romance was giving me the ick from page 1. I am begging Rebecca to make me care about a single side character (or even main character bc Violet was annoying af in this). Filled with drama that added nothing and did not matter at all three chapters later. Honestly I had fun in the first two books and this series had so much potential despite the writing but this was nothing but filler and emotional manipulation. 
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Kinda felt like the author was inside my head at some points while reading this and I don’t know if I should feel worried or seen that it felt so similar to how I think. Same As It Ever Was is true literary fiction: slow-moving, character-driven with lots of bad decisions, and never really “goes” anywhere but you feel so much by the end. I sobbed in my car through the last few pages and listened to the ending several times. This book is about motherhood and marriage and hills and valleys and everything. I loved it so much. Time to read everything Claire Lombardo has ever written and will ever write. 
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was sooooo good. I’m making it a point this year to read some of the books that have been on my tbr the longest and this was the first—I added it 9 years ago. I’m glad I read it when I did though, it’s just as relevant as ever and was really a balm to read over the last week. Incredibly beautifully written with the most lovable and human and well-rounded characters. The audiobook was perfection, I only wish I had a hard copy to highlight some of my favorite quotes. One of those books that makes you feel hopeful, and like life is really just about those moments when you turn to look at the porch in the sun and see everyone you love loving you right back. 
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

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challenging dark informative slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Impulsively bought this in a Facebook marketplace book haul for my little free library and decided to read it before lending it out. The writing is so smart and the plot so slow-moving (in the best way), with a lot of philosophizing about Neanderthals thrown in for good measure, which I obviously loved. Not at all what I was expecting from a spy novel but I was pleasantly surprised.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love a literary thriller and I don’t think many authors do them better than Angie Kim. This might have been my first courtroom thriller too and I really enjoyed it even though it was a little slower paced—a character study at its finest. I didn’t expect such a raw investigation of motherhood and all its rough edges, especially when it concerns differently-abled kids, but I loved that about this book. Every character was soooo complicated and nuanced. I wish we would have gotten a little more from Mary’s perspective and even Janine. By the last two or three hours of the audiobook though, I could not put this down. Out of Kim’s two books at this point in time, I liked Happiness Falls a bit more, but honestly I loved both and can’t wait for whatever she publishes next.
More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood by Majka Burhardt

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

3.0

This is such a hard book to review. Almost everything about it resonated with me but I also had a difficult time getting through it. I love that we’re getting more and more writing about how hard the transition to motherhood can be and how so many of us want to do it all (and more) and struggle to figure out how. But all of that in journal form felt a little too stream of consciousness for me and I feel like I wanted some takeaways or reflections on all those thoughts. This was a very interesting look into motherhood for professional athletes—a whole different kind of working mom—and I love hearing how all kinds of moms make it work. 
Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

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dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

5.0

It’s hard to review this without comparing it to Blue Sisters now that I have read both and I will say I liked that one more, but I’m still rating this five stars because I want Coco Mellors to keep writing books forever and I do think this deserves a separate kind of five stars. The characters are so unlikeable which I know bothers so many people but if you know me you know I love to read about people making poor decisions and muddling their way through life because aren’t we all? There were a few lines that absolutely gut-punched me (like when Cleo says “I want my mom” in the hospital—crying just thinking about it) and the entirety of Eleanor’s chapters were gorgeous. Anyway I didn’t mean to write this much but basically this book made me think about the randomness of life and how much the people we bring into it matter and how we’re all just trying to figure it out. And I love books that do that.