honeyreads1066's reviews
339 reviews

I was not as much of a fan of this as I expected to be. 

Huynh uses poetry to talk about several different topics from grief and loss to healing and friendship. While poetry is a deeply personal thing, I think I just expected more from something that had such great reviews. Reviews of this talk about the gorgeous imagery which I did see but not to the degree I was expecting or wanted. The poems seemed a little cliche and I didn't personally feel connected to any of them. 

I did love the range of topics that Huynh touched on though. I thought that each poem brought an overview through emotions relating to each of the topics but aside from that, I didn't get too much from it. It just seemed like an oversight and I didn't get that deep and personal connection that I was craving. 

I personally liked the last section titled Elysium the most, I think that was just the section that resonated with me the most but it was also my favourite. I had high hopes for this but I think I'm unlikely to recommend this collection. 

Perhaps maybe my expectations were the reason I didn't like this as much as I was expecting too.

This collection of poems and personal essay centered around Bee's mental health issues.

Perhaps at the beginning I was expecting something deeply personal and devastating which I didn't get. While certainly this is a collection that has a lot of love and strength put into it, it didn't connect with me the way I expected.

My person favourite parts of the collection was "the night I burnt my suicide note" and "I am dying even though I'm alive." Perhaps this was because I related to these sections deeply and they reflected my own thoughts and feeling at times through my journey with mental illness.

With poetry and essays not everything resonates with everyone and I guess aside from those 2 nothing else did on a level that would have made me feel a type on kinship.

Though despite that, maybe from the perspective of someone who does not suffer from mental health issues this would make them feel different. As much as this is a personal and visceral piece if writing I can't help but feel that this was not meant for me. That doesn't mean that I would not recommend it though because I absolutely would.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I had anticipated.

This is the second book in The Drowning Empire Trilogy, and it continues the story of Lin, Nisong, Jovis, and others after the events of the first book.

This book had a significant amount of politics that I didn't expect but really enjoyed. Yes, I appreciate a little political intrigue, and it felt authentic here because you could tell when characters were or felt inexperienced, as well as the subtle power dynamics and tensions between characters.

The twists at the end were incredible; it was one thing after another, and I wasn't expecting any of it. When this stuff did happen, I was able to see where the vague clues were coming from, and they all made sense in some way.

I also thought the relationship development was natural and believable. I understood why each character felt the way they did, and nothing seemed particularly far-fetched to me.

My main complaint is that it took a little longer to get started. Even though I don't expect or want action right away, I believe the second book should have a gripping beginning like the first, and I didn't get that with this. Despite the fact that it had been a while since I had read the first book, I felt much more confused than I should have been, to begin with. Maybe it's just me and my bad memory.

The journal entries were also jarring and unnecessary in my opinion. While I didn't dislike them, I felt they took me out of the story and that I had no interest in them. I sometimes skipped one or two to get to the action.

Overall, this was a surprisingly good second book in a trilogy. I'm excited to read the next one. This is up there with some of my favourite series, in my personal view.

I wanted to read more contemporary fiction and I thought this would be the one for me. While I found it interesting and finished it, I think I just expected to like this significantly more. 

This book follows Vivian, a lawyer with a dysfunctional family and a dysfunctional way of thinking. After it all becomes too much she begins to spiral blowing up her life in the process.

One thing I did love was the way Vivian was written. Getting into her head felt so much more intimate than in other books I've read. Her thinking I didn't agree with and also the way she after but she felt real and messy and I was so engrossed by her that I felt embarrassed and hurt when certain things happened. Honestly, that is the way to write the main character. While I didn't like her which I never do with main characters anyways I did find myself rooting for her towards the end and sympathies and empathising with her. 

I also loved the monologues that Vivian had. Vivian as a character was aware of the way she sounded when she went off on one but honestly, I didn't mind it. It felt like talking to someone significantly smarter than me and some bits of it made me think about my perceptions of certain things which I appreciate. There were certain interests she had that went completely over my head but that was hardly a big issue.

I think I expected more to happen in a way. The way this seemed was that some massive event makes Vivian spiral and from then it gets a bit crazy but it was very much a build-up thing. I just wished that something bigger happened to prompt the later events and I found myself halfway through hoping something big would happen. 

Also, the ending felt a bit rushed and unfinished. I felt like a lot was skipped through very quickly and I wish there was some more time spent on Vivian's healing, I think I would have benefitted a lot from that. Also in the same vein, there were some things that I wish there was a little more depth put into. A lot of Vivian's past experiences affect the way she acts now but they seemed very glossed over.

Overall I got a lot more out of this book than I didn't expect. I did enjoy it and would recommend it, especially so I can discuss it with someone else.

I think I just expected too much from this book.

This book follows a group of young colleagues who work as moderators for an unnamed social media site. Between the atrocities, they see daily and their messy personal lives, the violence seems to affect them a lot more than they cared to admit.

I sped through this book. Not only because it was short but because it was weird and I had a type of morbid fascination with the blase way Bervoets describes what the moderators have seen.

I guess what I found lacking was the depth in which certain things were explored. I felt that a lot of what happens was by inference and there was a lot of areas that needed more development, especially in terms of the relationships between the main characters.

I would have overlooked that because it was short and I understand that certain things cannot be explored in that many pages but the ending ruined it for me. It felt rushed and I was left wanting more but not in a good way. The final page especially just felt like it was unfinished.

Overall k would recommend it but be clear not to expect too much. I was hoping to like this book a lot more than I did. I would also like the mention the translator Emma Rault who captured the tone beautifully. 

This book follows 17-year-old Savannah. She is cursed, a curse of anger that follows the woman in her family from generation to generation. The curse will kill her eventually as these cursed women suffer from early deaths. Savannah is determined to break this curse but there are witches in the underbelly of cape town that want to steal its power for themselves. 

I had high hopes for this book. I love books that are set in places that aren't usually written about and imbed culture and traditions within the so I was extremely excited to get through his.

I guess the things that I didn't like were the fact that it felt like such a long book and also the romance between the main characters. There's no way to say this nicely but simply there were parts where I just got very bored. The book had a sense of urgency and a time limit of sorts but I felt that that time limit wasn't something that worried Savannah at all. She seemed more focussed on things I didn't particularly care about and it didn't mesh well with the sense of urgency the book seemed to have.

In regards to the romance, I just wasn't particularly convinced of it. I see how they could be very close friends, but I struggled to believe that they were THAT into each other. I personally just didn't feel that tension or that kind of want between them.

I did love the ending though, I thought the book was going a particular way and felt very smart when the character came to the same conclusions I had only to have curveball after curveball is thrown at me at the end. I was in a rush to keep reading because not only was I shocked but also really wanted to see what else I had gotten wrong.

I also LOVE the setting. Watson has a brilliant authors note at the beginning of the book which really gave some context to the world I was entering. But mostly I just loved reading about South Africa and cape town, I love the way Watson described it and that alone has made me want to read her other books. 

I would recommend this book, overall I did really like it, I enjoyed buts of it and I loved the magical world I was thrust into. Also for once, I didn't dislike Savannah, I didn't agree with some of her decisions but I wasn't supposed to, I actually really liked her and just wanted her to succeed. 

This book reminded me a lot of the movie ready or not.

This followed I think 14 people who were given the opportunity of a lifetime, to go and play hide and seek in an old amusement park for 7 and if you win you have enough money to change everything. Except once the competition starts and the contestants start disappearing in strange ways it becomes apparent that something more is happening.

I think my biggest issue with this book was mostly the fact that I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters. When they were being picked off I just didn't really care. I was more in the mind of how and why is this happening.

I did like the way the monster was described and everything to do with that. It was creepy and scary and the setting of the park was so vivid I felt like I could somewhat plan out what it looked like.

The ending I also really liked, usually, I have an issue with endings because it's such a hard thing to end a story well but here I was satisfied and none of it felt rushed or out of place, it just really felt like a realistic ending to the story.

Overall I enjoyed this, while I did feel a little meh about it, it's not bad by any means and I would recommend it to a friend.

This book took me on a ride.

This follows 5 people whose loved ones have been kidnapped, they must play a mysterious game where the rules and game master are all a mystery to get them back. 

I thought this book was going to be more fast-paced than it was. I think that was my main issue with the book as a whole. It felt like there were a lot of bits, especially in the beginning that dragged a little and at times I did find myself skimming.

Despite this, the plot was absolutely worth it. The twists and turns it gave were insane and the ending I was not expecting at all. It also made a lot of sense, there was no point during the ending where I thought it came completely out of the blue.

I did have questions that I don't think we're addressed at all or very little at the end as well but honestly, that's me being a little nitpicky. 

The characters I didn't feel too much for and for some didn't particularly like but I felt that it didn't matter or mattered very little to my enjoyment of the book. I didn't need to like everyone to feel for them and I think that's impressive to a point.

Overall I loved the ride this took me on and I would recommend it as a decent thriller. 

Looking back after listening to this I liked it a lot more than I did when I finished it. 

This book follows Sankofa who walks the streets of Ghana with a green glow meaning death on her way to find the object from the skies that gave her these powers.

This story is so much more than just a story about a girl. It explores, culture, death, fear of the unknown, religion and what it means to be human. I got a lot more out of this story than I originally anticipated.

Sankofa is written extremely well, you sympathise with her and also understand why she does what she does and she is written as you would expect a 13-year-old to be written. I loved how though she isn't perfect and wholly good you still feel for her in almost a maternal way.

I thought the other characters were written beautifully as well and felt 3 dimensional.

Also, the setting was rich with culture and felt like a very real place. I found it extremely easy to visualise exactly where Sankofa was and the descriptions helped me create an image without being overboard.

The thing I'm not too keen on was that at parts things just felt very slow. Had the narrator not been so good I think it would have taken me longer to finish this or I would have dropped it and come back. I understand why the story went the way that it did but there were some sections I wanted more on instead of the others. 

Overall, I enjoyed this and I'm very glad that I listened to it rather than read it. It's a good realistic and short sci-fi set in a place one wouldn't expect. I would absolutely recommend it.

I wasn't expecting a lot with this one because I don't like the author's style of writing but the plot just seemed so good that I was sucked in.

This follows Eddie Flynn a lawyer who is pulled into a high profile murder case that rivals that of OJ. He quickly realises that his client is innocent but with the evidence stacked against him Eddie struggles to find a way to prove that. All unbeknownst to him, a serial killer is watching him, trying to influence the trial, all from the Jury.

I won't get into the fact that I didn't like the writing because we already know that but I did really like Kane's perspective. He had the most interesting bits by far and sometimes I would skip buts of Eddie's chapters just to get to him. I think Kane's voice was really interesting so it confuses me that I didn't like Eddie's.

The plot itself is what kept me going the whole time. Every time I thought I knew what was happening Kane would do something or information would come out about him which would throw an absolute curveball into the mix. Overall that was the best part of the book.

I felt the ending seemed a bit rushed. I understand with a thriller it's a lot of build-ups and the action seems to happen at the end but here I just kind of blinked and it was over which I don't like.

Not going to lie, after about halfway I did begin to skim because it was taking me a long time to finish but I did enjoy elements of this book. I wouldn't recommend but I didn't completely hate this.