wretchedtheo's reviews
450 reviews

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

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

4.0

It's all about that pathetic, hideous ache of wanting to be loved by people who don't know how to live.
The Thirteenth Vampire by Alice Hemming

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

3.0

Pretty fun but oh so corny. One of the worst twists I've ever read, I could NOT take it seriously 😭😭🙏💯💯
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

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

4.0

I enjoyed The Name of the Rose because I love stories about monks, religion, heretics, saints and so on so forth. However, I wasn't a fan of the style. It is so impersonal and academic as to almost be more encyclopedia than novel. The characters are mainly vehicles to inform the reader of this or that historical context, or else they have intellectual debates with each other. And this can go on for as long as 20 pages in some chapters, pages and pages of research, history, philosophy, theology and logics that the reader is forced to wade through if she wishes to glean bits of actual plot, dialogue and characterization. This novel must be completely exhausting for anyone who doesn't have a passion for religious themes and a degree in the Humanities. Hell, I have both of those things and it exhausted me.
The Insomnia Museum by Laurie Canciani

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emotional 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? No

2.75

The Insomnia Museum doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. You wanna say "experimental", but it honestly just reads like the author lost her way, said fuck it and decided to do whatever. The beginning where Anna is locked in the house has some cool passages, but the whole rest of the novel is nothing but aimless, cliche-ridden stream of consciousness slop.
Frații Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

5.0

O traducere iscusită care păstrează în mod admirabil tot hazul sarcastic al lui Dostoievski, dar și permite pasajelor înduioșătoare să-și ia cu adevărat zborul.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

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Absolutely abysmal. I loved every second of it.
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

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

5.0

Stellar dialogue. Misery so ugly and petty it grips you.
Third Witch by Jackie French

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Am I the only one who found this depressing as hell? Just soul crushing. And not even the Septimus bits, but the Clarissa and Peter bits. I'll always remember this book just so I know how not to think and act when I'm old. Jesus Christ.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

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

2.75

Lyrical prose does not save The Virgin Suicides from being unimpressively gratuitous and intellectually lazy.