laurreads's reviews
186 reviews

i read 63 pages on 8/20. i read the rest in two sittings (one at the laundromat, one in bed that same evening). this was my first murakami and it will come as no surprise to murakami-loyalists that i was stunned by his writing. murakami bares his heart in this novel through tsukuru and i was enchanted with each word. i look forward to reading more of murakami’s work.

note: there is some fatphobia in this book. as a fat person, it was upsetting, but there’s only one or two instances where size is mentioned for a brief second, so i managed to get through it without much sadness.

this book was interesting. i didn’t hate it. however, hiassen is a white author and one of his white characters uses the n-word. he uses it multiple times. it made me uncomfortable and i feel like a white author does not need to 1) use the n-word, 2) write white characters who use the n-word, or 3) write Black characters who say “n-word” in internal dialogue while writing the actual n-word for white characters. i feel like there is some disrespect for bahamians. i feel like there is disrespect and blatant misunderstanding of Vodou. while i liked the actual story, these things upset me enough to take my rating from what would have been a 4 or 5 stars to a 2 leaning towards 1. satire should still respect the people and cultures in use.

I have not seen *any* trigger warnings with any “BookTok”/IG recommendations. Here are mine. These are not specific spoilers, rather a warning to people like me. If you do not want trigger warnings or view them as spoilers, do not read this review.

TW: suicide, pedophilia, incest, cannibalism, rape, sexual assault, abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, manipulation, physical abuse, verbal abuse, victim blaming, murder, death, suicidal ideation, bugs, dissociation, derealization

I read pages 0-40 on 9/8. I read the rest of the book in one sitting on 9/11. This book was insane. Sayaka Murata is a really incredible author. I have seen this book recommended time and time again, but I was not prepared for this at all. I think I would rate this 5 stars, if not for some of the… topics. Murata writes with such elegance that you can picture every little detail of Akishina, which I really appreciate.

i literally dont know how to convey how much i love this series other than to say i read a nearly 700 page book in 2.5 days. 40 pages on 9/14, the rest spilt half and half between 9/16 and 9/17.

i sobbed multiple times while reading this. said “no way oh my god what the f***” out loud to either no one or my sweet boyfriend more times than i can count. i loved this book. maybe my favorite so far. the only thing i think is weird about this series is that maas says “male” and “female” but yknow, it makes sense. they aren’t really “men” or “women” bc that implies human, right? and yes, she does say mate a lot, but that is a very special bond. quite frankly, there’s approximately 230,670 words in this book. if 202 of them are “mate,” that’s 0.0875% of the book. it is *not* that high. sorry to the person who counted all instances of it, but it is not a huge deal. if u don’t like the book, simply dnf it. it’s okay not to like things! just move on though

this book was fine. it was a cutesy murder mystery. little weird that they don’t mention that molly is autistic and deals with ocd, but i guess we’re just supposed to understand this?? i could have done without the last “twist.” it didn’t really seem like a twist as much as it did like prose wanted to add in some last second intrigue. it is not believable for the character that she’d simply forgo the rules when following them is made out to be such a huge part of her personality. like, i think it’s a cheap shot when authors kill their main characters (does not happen in this book!!!), and this “twist” has a similar energy to me.

was it corny??? yeah! was it still good? yeah!

it wasn’t my favorite of the series (that honor still goes to mist and fury), but i did like it. it was up and down. some parts i loved! some parts were merely okay. i think a lot of it was kind of corny, but the last 250 pages or so makes up for it. i like a corny read. i just know not everyone does. there are a lot of clichés in this one, which doesn’t make it *bad* but also doesn’t do it any favors. weirdly enough, i don’t have a gripe about the length. enough happens that even though the structure of the days is repetitive, it remains interesting.

took me about 3.5 days to finish. i didn’t read much on 9/30 or 10/1. i read about 200 pages for three days then about 150 on 10/2.

read it in a few hours. short book, but wonderfully written. gruesome, intriguing, and anxiety-inducing.

this book was cute. as a 22-year-old in a new city, i was able to draw a lot of comparisons between myself and annie. i may be in a relationship, but i experience a lot of loneliness since i don’t have many friends. it was nice to read a story about someone with that emptiness growing out of it. rowan sounds so cozy, like the towns i want to visit.

i liked this book, and i read it in a few hours. it was a little cheesy, and a lot of the beginning happened slowly while the ending happened quickly. it left me feeling sort of off-balance. i wish i knew more about sophie’s life and experiences.

this is a cute fantasy novel but it isn’t high fantasy, so it’s digestible and fun. i like high fantasy, but they aren’t always easy to get into. this was enjoyable and palatable. if you want to dip your toe into something akin to high fantasy, go with ACOTAR. if you want a cute, cozy fall/halloween read, go with Cackle. :)