sicksadlit's reviews
496 reviews

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

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

5.0

Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Mrs S by K. Patrick

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

3.5

God I wanted to like this, I really did. But unfortunately, I really really did not. 

Earlier in the year I saw the author K. Patrick speak on a panel at the Writers Festival, and she explained that she wrote the sex scenes first before writing the rest of the story. Well honestly, it shows. The sex scenes were the most interesting part of the book, the rest was boring and hard to follow.

I think Patrick fancies herself as a bit of a literary muse or something, because her writing was disjointed and confusing in a way that I think she intended to come across as deep, challenging and intelligent, but instead it was just annoying and pretentious. 

The writing was incredibly self-indulgent and there was no character development at all across the board and worst of all: I did not care a lick for either of the main characters. For a book that spent so long building to the sex scene, there was a glaring lack of tension between the two main characters. I was not invested in either of them and so all of their interactions felt fake and unnatural because the whole situation did not seem believable. 

It makes me sad to write a bad review about a sapphic book because as a queer girly, I wanna fly the flag of pride but this book ain’t the one.

However! I think it would have made an excellent short story.

Guess we’ll never know though…
Florida by Lauren Groff

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

5.0

Ok this is a Lauren Groff fan account now.

When I tell you this book was so exquisite, so profoundly moving and visceral that I dreaded finishing it because I didn’t want it to be over.

Forget favourite book of the year, this might just be the book of my LIFE.

As you know, I am proudly a diehard LG stan. Her writing is like music to my brain and eyeballs and imo she should probably just run for president.

And that was before reading Florida.

Now, if she started a cult I would be the first to sign up and handover my life’s worth.

Florida is a collection of short stories and that in itself is surprising because I do not usually care for short stories!!!

The thing about this collection though, is that each one was like a mini-LG book. Every individual story was complete, moving and engaging on their own. As a short story hater usually, I found myself getting lost in every one and experiencing them like Groff’s novels.

It also made me want to visit Florida which was definitely not on my 2024 bingo card.

Florida is a powerful collection exploring the complexities of family, motherhood, climate change and more with her lyrical prose and dark humour and wit.

Groff somehow manages to make me feel almost the full spectrum of human emotions with all of her writing. Florida is not a book to fall asleep reading as you will not want to miss a single word or moment.

I took my time with this book, luxuriating in every sentence, rereading passages to make it last longer. 

I borrowed my copy from the library but I loved it so much, I’ll be purchasing one to keep so I can go back to these stories time and time again.

I really can’t rave enough about it but I’ll leave you with one final thought:

If I had to choose one single book to read for the rest of my life, it would be this one.
Cult Trip by Anke Richter

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challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

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

4.0

Matrix by Lauren Groff

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

5.0

 This book left me speechless. Truly. 
 
Matrix is the second novel by Lauren Groff that I have read, and following on from the masterpiece that was The Vaster Wilds, I was not sure what to expect as to whether she’d stay true to the style of TVW or whether Matrix would stand its own with a unique spin. 
 
Well, stand alone it sure does. 
 
As is true to Groff’s consistent theme of strong female characters thrust into harrowing situations, Matrix is, at times, difficult story to read. We follow Marie who is sent to live in a convent at the young age of 17 following the death of her royal mother. Marie is the byproduct of r*pe, and so is deeply shamed within her family. 
 
Initially resisting the abbey, she soon finds her element and begins to rise up through the ranks until she assumes the ultimate power of abbess and baroness to the crown. 
 
Marie is a powerful force to be reckoned with, who brings wealth and abundance to her women, but always at a price. 
 
Every decision she makes has an often fatal consequence, although ultimately benefiting the wider abbey. 
 
Groff is such a phenomenally talented, lyrical writer. Matrix took me on a visceral journey across the broad spectrum of emotion. From joy to anguish, I felt it all, right alongside Marie. 
 
The care and attention that Groff dedicates to researching her subject matter was abundantly clear in Matrix. It had me wondering if it was perhaps based on a true story because it felt so incredibly real and inspired. 
 
Groff’s work is not for the faint of heart and carries some heavy trigger warnings, so readers should take care. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

This book completely eviscerated me. 
 
I am winded. 
 
My soul is on fire. 
 
If I could give it 10,000 stars out of five, I would. 
 
Set in the early 1990s in the Irish village of Crossmore, Sunburn follows the coming-of-age journey of Lucy. Born to a devoutly Catholic family with a life-path clearly mapped out for her by her traditional mother and Granny, Lucy struggles to reconcile her growing feelings for her friend Susannah and what that might mean for her life. 
 
Never before have I read such a powerful and visceral depiction of young, queer love and the journey of identity and self-discovery. 
 
I saw myself in these pages, I was transported back to 2011 when I fell in love for the first time at 17 years old with a girl who would break my heart so badly, it took three years to heal. 
 
I felt every moment of Lucy’s experience as though it were my own. 
 
To write a novel this incredible at such a young age is a remarkable achievement by author Chloe Michelle Howarth. Sunburn read like the works of a veteran up there with the heavyweights like Margaret Atwood, Lauren Groff and Donna Tartt. 
 
Whether you identify as queer or not, Sunburn is an important read for all those who have experienced the yearning of a first love, and the pain of first heartbreak. 
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-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

3.75

Ok, Ali and I are six books deep now so I feel like we’re pretty well acquainted at this stage. 
 
Not in Love is a fairly big departure from her usual work and as always, I have some THOUGHTS… 
 
Firstly, I love to see Hazelwood exploring her creativity and the boundaries of the genre with her latest works. Both Bride and Not in Love are very very different from her usual style and honestly, I am here for it. 
 
The book opens with a letter to the reader from Hazelwood, explaining that the book is quite tonally different and leans more towards erotic romance, so I was eager to find out what that would mean. 
 
I’m going to break this review down into three parts: characters, plot and execution, because I think they all deserve a bit of solo attention. 

- Characters

I LOVED the characters in Not in Love. In fact, I think they might be my favourite of all her characters ever?? Or maybe it’s just because for once, the MMC had a fully fleshed out and developed storyline which has always been one of my issues with Hazelwood in her previous work. Eli was so great and he could have carried the entire story on his own, I loved the chapters from his perspective.
 
I also liked the MFC Rue, mainly for the fact that again, for once, she actually felt materially different from all Hazelwood’s other female leads and not just the same character with a different name.
 
I loved that she knew herself and her needs, wasn’t afraid to advocate for her desires and didn’t make stupid nonsensical decisions like some of the previous female leads. She actually felt hyper-intelligent and every action supported that.
 
The friends in the surrounding circles were also fantastic and they each felt quite well-rounded with the exception of Hark, who I felt had some unresolved tension at the end and it was quite weird that he just disappeared off the page about three quarters of the way in ??? Anyway..
 
 - Plot

For once there was no stupid nonsensical misunderstanding between the MMC and MFC!! They both behaved like intelligent adults!! Yay! But I will say this story was a bit of a slow burn for me and the first 20% or so was not as engaging as usual. Typically my experience with Hazelwood’s book is they come crashing out the gates with a roaring start, sag in the middle and then rush to tie up the loose threads at the end. This one was different. It was a bit slow and confusing at the start but it found its feet by the midway point.

Without spoiling anything, the ending just left a little something to be desired for me. I don’t know what it is but it just didn’t hit me in the feels or have the huge climactic pay off that I would have liked.

- Execution

The only reason I want to speak to execution specifically is that this novel differs from Hazelwood’s usual style in that it shifts between two perspectives: Eli and Rue. 

I enjoyed this change and found it definitely added some interest, but I actually wound up feeling like it may have been better written entirely from Eli’s perspective as he was definitely the more compelling of the two characters. In contrast to Eli’s chapters, Rue fell a little flat at times,
 
I also wonder if part of the tension was lost in the dual-perspective approach because nothing was left to guess, we knew exactly how both characters were thinking and feeling the whole time.
  
Soooooo overall, 3.75 rounded up to 4 imo. The plot and execution is what brought it down for me but I did love the characters. Also, I always genuinely enjoy the shit out of all of Ali Hazelwood’s books and I will read every single one of them until I die.
Bunny by Mona Awad

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

5.0

Oh bunny, you are sooo like, totally unhinged? But in like the BEST way possible?

When I first read this book I was too stunned to talk about it. 

I put it down. Returned it to the library. Scored it 3 stars and decided to just move on with my life.

But the thing about Bunny is that bunny just gets in your head you know? Bunny likes to hang out and let her freak flag fly. Bunny likes to remind you of the book in the most visceral way possible.

So now I’m here. Writing a review nearly a month later and I’ve changed my rating to 5 stars. Because the girls who get it get it.

I am an absolute simp for an unhinged woman in literature. Samantha, our main character, is truly mad as a bag of snakes and the journey through her mind from her perspective is a twisty one. At the end I had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. 

But I LOVED it.

This book is definitely not for everyone. I still wonder if I’m maybe a bit too dumb to truly appreciate it but it was weird as f*ck and enjoy the shit out of books like that. 

I didn’t take any pretty books pics so just enjoy these Bunny *vibes* instead. 🐰 

If you like Ottessa Moshfegh, you will like Mona Awad. 🤍