sarah984's reviews
628 reviews

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really liked the premise of this novel (literal movie magic!) but I found the execution so dull. Most of the characters' motivations are just straight up fed to you in exposition and neither of the point of view characters is especially compelling. None of the attempted emotional beats with them land at all because they don't feel like people with real lives and goals. The '90s Mexico setting was cool and there were a few good scares but overall not that great.

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How to Get a Date with the Evil Queen by Marie Cardno

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was fine, but I didn't like it as much as the first one. Trillin's point of view was what really captivated me in the first one and way more of this one was focused on Sian and her relationship hangups.

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Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror by Lor Gislason

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dark

3.0

I always seem to find anthologies hit or miss and this book fits that pattern. A lot of the stories leaned into the weird transgressive space body horror offers as a playground in a way that was really interesting even if I couldn't say I enjoyed it, and the trans lens in many of the stories was really compelling. However there were a few that were stretching the limits (heh) of what I would consider body horror and one story I outright hated, so I'm rounding the average at 3/5.

Top faves: Long Fingers by Layne Van Rensberg, Lady Davelina's Last Pet by Charles-Elizabeth Boyles, Man of the House by Lillian Boyd.

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Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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dark informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really liked this book - the history is interesting and the characters are well drawn. I didn't think the horror was that scary and a few parts were a bit silly to me but overall this is a great story about family, revenge, and the meaning of forgiveness.

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The Way Life Should Be by William Dameron

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

There was way too much going on in this book. Everything felt like a distraction from some other thing happening, the thriller section near the end was unbelievable, and the author seems so desperate for the characters to be likeable that all their messiness gets kind of papered over near the end with no resolution.

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Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

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dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Some of the scares in this had real promise but overall this book annoyed me. The podcast setup felt pointless (half the chapters could not have been told by the character as they're presented to us or Anwar's reactions make no sense) and the "twist" partway through was ridiculous. Very few of the characters were really interesting enough to make the things that happened to them land. In the end a lot of this book was boring and the rest made me angry.

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Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

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emotional hopeful informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was an interesting book about a historical Chinese doctor. I liked the detail of the medicine (most of which are based on real cases) and daily life during the time period. However I found the voice kind of bland and the tone was preachy in places. I was a bit disappointed that arguably the most interesting parts of her life occur after the book ends.

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You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

There were a couple of fun creepy moments around the halfway mark, but otherwise this was just bad. The escape room camp theme is abandoned after only one round and seems to only exist to make sure there are no kids at the summer camp. The characters are really bland - I kept forgetting Paige even existed until other people brought her up - and the 'plot twist' was goofy and borderline offensive.

Unfortunately the biggest sin to me in a slasher, aside from maybe the first two the kills were boring. A good slasher should be about over the top people being killed in over the top ways and this was just like "oh he's dead I guess". 

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What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A. Chancy

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

3.5

This is a fictionalized account of people affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Each chapter is the account of a different person from their point of view. I liked the ways the characters connected and saw one another, and the variety of experiences that are included. Unfortunately to me there were too many similar characters (though I loved Sonia and I liked Anne's perspective) and I wasn't a fan of the first person POV, especially for characters who died during the story.

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The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book was fine, but I found it kind of disappointing. The descriptions were so over the top that they didn't have the visceral feel that they should have to me, the pace meant that character relationships feel unearned, and we're chained to the POV of one of the least interesting characters involved. For some reason the world building is loaded into the second half. Despite the content it really feels like there are no stakes as
(aside from one near the end)
all losses are immediately reversed and most problems are solved without much intervention from the main character.

The angel descriptions mostly felt imaginative and the setting was interesting enough.

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