therivingtonreader's reviews
237 reviews

Wow. What??? Dungeon Crawler Carl has got to be hands down one of the best books I've ever read. Not just read, but experienced. It was action-packed, exciting, hilarious, ridiculous, and horrific at times. This is a must-read for anyone who loves video games, RPGs, or any sci-fi/fantasy with a side of absurdity.

The characters are complex and feel real. I was rooting for Carl and Donut from the very beginning, and I absolutely adore Donut with my whole heart. I'm so invested in even the side characters' stories, like Mordecai and Odette. 

This is the kind of book that's so good it might put you in a reading slump because nothing else can compare. The kind you want every edition of, because you want to display it on your shelf. The kind you recommend to everyone and won't ever stop talking about.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first two books, but it was still really good! This story felt very similar to Cinderella, which I'm sure was intentional, but it was a fun connection to make. 

The thing that irked me the most was that the entire time I was mentally yelling at Sophie to just talk to Benedict and tell him what was going on. I also didn't feel super connected to Benedict, since his personality isn't really shown in the previous books like many other members of the Bridgerton family.

I did really enjoy getting to see more of Violet and Penelope in this, though. It's very hard to avoid spoilers with the new season of the show out right now, but it makes me excited to read Colin's story next.

I have so many conflicting thoughts about this book, so I'm just listing good vs. bad.

The good:
- the characters are easy to love and connect with, especially Willem, Harold, and Julia
- the majority of this book was interesting and easy to follow
- the writing is so beautiful. There are many valuable lessons and incredible quotes to get from this story. Some of my favorites are:
      • “He experienced the
      singular pleasure of
      watching people he loved
      fall in love with other people
      he loved.”
      • “But what was happiness
      but an extravagance, an
      impossible state to
      maintain, partly because it
      was so difficult to
      articulate?”
       • “Fairness is for happy
       people, for people who have
       been lucky enough to have
       lived a life defined more by
       certainties than by
       ambiguities.
       Right and wrong, however,
       are for—well, not unhappy
       people, maybe, but scarred
       people; scared people.”

The bad:
- much of the trauma that Jude experienced borders on misery porn
- the traumatic events began to be repetitive, and made the middle of the book drag
- at times it felt like the author dreamt up the most horrific shit that could ever happen to a person and threw it in the book

- there are multiple detailed pages of a child being groomed and sexually abused

- I would not feel comfortable recommending this to someone

Overall, I don't regret reading this. There were certainly good parts about it and things I will take away from it. But I could've done without most of the explicit things that happened to Jude. We could've understood that Jude was clearly mentally/physically ill without all of that.

This one kind of fell flat for me. It had so much potential, but it was missing a lot of things. 

It seemed like it was trying to be a found footage type of story, but everything was just typed in paragraphs. For example: a good chunk of the story is reading transcripts from a chatroom and journal entries, but everything is written in formal paragraphs. People in chatrooms don't type like that. I guess it's more of a me issue, but it completely took me out of the story.

The ending was also very abrupt and didn't give us any explanations. Not that explanations are needed, but there was a lot of build up to find out what happened to Jacob, and then the end is just the bad guy saying "oh I have him, and I'm going to do lots of bad things to him," and then it was over.

Okay, this one scared me pretty good. This is my first from Nick Roberts, and I'll definitely pick up more since I know how well he can write a creepy story.

It doesn't help that I also have a Labrador so now I'll be forced to deal with nightmares where she's standing on 2 legs and smiling at me 🙃

The Hunger is a retelling of the incidents surrounding the Donner party, but supernatural. It was good, with a lot of tense moments and some scary imagery. The author never comes right out and says what's attacking all of the travelers, but for me it was pretty easy to figure out early on. 

My biggest issue with this was that it felt like the whole story was building up to something, and then it just fizzled out. Right from the start we know that everyone's going to die, but it felt like it was leading up to some big event and it never happened. People just got picked off here and there and then the book ended.

It was still pretty enjoyable and I'd still recommend it, but probably something that won't stick out in my memory in the future. 

Oh my god, this book. I'd give it 5000 stars if I could. I am so grateful this is a series because I've found my next obsession!!

This was just excellent and 100% up my alley. I loved the dark fantasy elements, the world, the characters, the spice (🥵), the action, and literally everything else. And there were even some creepy parts with the demons that catered to my horror-loving heart. At 534 pages, I still wasn't ready for it to be over.

I never thought I'd be reading monster romance, and here I am emotional over Orpheus; a big, scary duskwalker who's actually a sweetheart and just wants someone to love him. Bye 😭

No rating for this one - I don't typically rate memoirs, and this one is no different. I don't like to place a rating on people's experiences and how they choose to express them.

That is not to say that this wasn't an absolutely heart-wrenching and beautiful read. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and every other emotion in between. 

I listened to the audiobook along with reading my physical copy, and honestly I think that's the best way to experience this book. Jennette narrates the book herself, and it's worth the listen. My heart really broke for her childhood self experiencing all that abuse and then later coming to terms with it, but then soared as she was able to get help and move on with her life.

I really can't recommend this enough. I'll go as far as saying I think this is a book everyone should read, but especially if you grew up watching iCarly or Sam & Cat. It really puts into perspective the things Jennette was dealing with behind the scenes of what looked like just a regular child star.