wretchedtheo's reviews
450 reviews

Enter Three Witches by Caroline B. Cooney

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adventurous dark 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

3.75

Really solid YA retelling of Macbeth, with credible characters, strong atmosphere, and great stylistic choices for the most part.
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

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sad 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? No

2.75

Tedious. 
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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

1.0

YOU'RE TELLING ME A 14 YEAR OLD RAPE VICTIM'S GREATEST WISH WAS TO COME BACK TO LIFE TO FUCK AN ADULT MAN??!?!!?!!
Daughter of the White Rose by Diane Zahler

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adventurous sad 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? No

3.25

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
What I liked about this book is that, unlike most stories aimed at younger audiences, it doesn't baby them and doesn't shy away from heavier topics. It's pretty well researched too. A lot of children's authors seem to think that kids don't care about this, or aren't ready to read about violence and death, but they do and they are. The heroine was strong and makes a good role model for young girls. My main problem was the way it handled the little boy's death. The overall tone of the story as well as the context clues indicated your typical middle grade "he actually escaped!!! Big adventure!!" Happy ending twist, but it wasn't so. It was handled really weirdly; for example, the MC doesn't even go into her friend's room to check if he's actually dead, just assumes he is. That was one of the biggest context clues that made me think the author wouldn't have the guts to kill him off, but turns out she did. It made me think to myself: good on you for taking up a difficult topic like this one in a kid's book, but you didn't have the mastery and care required for it. That's a serious decision you're making and you gotta stand by it to make it good.
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

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emotional hopeful sad medium-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

2.5

SO corny... Though I guess I should've expected that from the title. Bonus points for not romanticizing suicide, I guess? Good message, lackluster delivery. A book that deals with this sad of a topic should've made me tear up at least once, but it goes without saying that it didn't. 
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

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

4.0

I could find flaws with the style, but Stone Butch Blues is so vital and necessary - so informed by real lived experience - that I don't really want to. A must-read for anyone curious about queer history.
Touching Earth by Rani Manicka

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.0

Beautiful, lyrical style. Really engaging plot and characters. It's kind of a cliche to say this, but I couldn't put it down. The author's self insert made me cringe though, no matter how wryly and self-deprecatingly she went about it. 
Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani

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

2.25

Saccharine and sentimental, Children of the Jacaranda Tree is an unatmospheric volume filled with an overabundance of pregnant women protectively laying a hand over their bellies. Seriously, it happens like 6 separate times. The author has got to have some sort of a breeding kink or something.
Gun Dealers' Daughter by Gina Apostol

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

3.5

Pretentious. Oh my god, so pretentious.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

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challenging dark tense 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? No

2.5

It's crazy to think that Henry James intended this to be a potboiler. It's literally unreadable. I'm a lit student and the syntax in this gave me a stroke.