Ray
This is a horror book about a group of 4 friends, one of them goes missing, returns 2 years later, but she is not the same person as she once was.
The synopsis really intrigued me, but I feel like I was expecting more than what the book offered. The female friendships was done pretty well, but the pacing just didn't work for me. I feel like the story dragged on quite a bit in the beginning, nothing much happened for a big portion of the book, and it felt quite repetitive. Also there was a lot of side stories being told in between that pulled me out.
The characters were unlikeable too, maybe that was intentional, but still, I didn't feel like I was rooting for any of them. They each had their own quirks, and personalities yet I found that i couldn't connect to them for some reason.
I enjoyed the ending though, it was quite fun. A little bit anticlimatic, since I was maybe expecting too much, but still fun nonetheless.
I picked this one up on an absolute whim, but I actually flew through it much faster than I was expecting. I really like Rickey and G-man's characters.
I wouldn't exactly call this a romance but it's more like you're just following 2 boys fall in love and i know it sounds like it's a romance, but it's definitely written in a different way that makes it feels more like a contemporary coming of age story.
As a book nerd (if you're reading this, you probably are too) the prospect of an old sex magic book is too enticing to miss up on. I had to read this book.
The first half of this book I found to be really boring and slow paced and nothing really happened but the second half was a little more action packed. Still, the ending felt a tiny bit anticlimactic.
I liked the narration of the protagonist though. She is one of those people who is just extremely brutally honest. Will not care about what you might think, and will always slap you with the truth no matter what. That was an interesting thing to follow.
One of my all time favourite horrors.
I feel like this book drained the emotions out of me somehow. By the end, i just remember feeling numb.
So beautiful.
I could barely put this down, this was super addicting. I loved the writing style.
This story was strangely juicy. It revolved around a small set of characters but it did it well.
I had fun!
Oh my god, I feel like i just got off a rollercoaster after I finished this book. It's been a while since I've read such a plot heavy dark romance.
I loved the depth to everything in this book. The characters of Elli and Sin, and the plot structure.
Sin is such a complicated character, i loved watching him develop throughout the book.
Elli is so thoroughly damaged, I felt so much sympathy as I read her character.
As always with this author, the sex was absolute fire. I love how it's so vastly different in each of her books, with each couple it feels so unique and fresh yet with her style. Shantel Tessier is an author I could never get bored of.
My jaw dropped at some of the plot twists. I loved this book.
However there were tiny little plot holes I could find, along with a few other things I feel are unsettled in my mind and that lowered my rating a little.
Also I love the cover. I think it's such a great depiction of the kind of writing this has.
The Ritual was 5 star read for me, and undeniably, this delivered on the smut. Shantel Tessier never disappoints with the kinkiness. Half the book, almost was just sex, and i enjoyed it. The plot also was very enjoyable.
Absolutely recommend, if you're into this kind of shit.
Definitely not for everyone, but god, i LOVED this. It's so dark, and Shantel Tessier has a way of writing the dom sub SO SO WELL. Absolute dominance, never read anything like this again from any other author.
Check up trigger warnings.
I usually don't read classics so it feels weird to be rating this.
I enjoyed this.
Especially now that I sit and think about how the story runs so much deeper. The more that i think about it the more I feel with Gregor Samsa's feeling of loneliness, hatred, self loathing, and how tired he is with his life of constant hard work. A life where his entire self worth is tied to how productive he is. Even to this day it's definitely open to interpretation, and remains relevant in my opinion.
So beautifully well done, subtle, but puts the point across.
I've had this book borrowed from a friend for weeks, and I've heard nothing but good things about this but for some reason I can't bring myself to keep going back to it.
It's just too slow paced for me and the mystery is barely moving.
And also I'm just tired of constantly hearing how incomplete Harri's life is without a man and how DISTRAUGHT her single life is, and it's just dragging on for way too long for me and I'm just gonna return this
This is, without a single doubt in my mind, the most beautiful thing I've ever read in my life.
The writing is so beautiful. I had chills down my spine so many times, and i cried a few times too.
I love how this book goes so many places and talks about mother-son relationships, immigration, racism, war, queer identity, love, sex, acceptance, cancer, death, drug abuse, nationalism, self love and so much more.
I also love how from beginning to end, the author's perception of his mother changes entirely.
In addition to that, probably my favourite thing about this book is the irony of it all. A son writing a letter to his illiterate mother. It's so much more about him acknowledging things to himself, admitting things to himself and finally expressing everything that he has the right to.
I'm so grateful I could be a part of this journey that the narrator takes.
This broke me a little, I think.
Here's some of my favourite parts of the book.
“He loves me, he loves me not, we are taught to say, as we tear the flower from it's flowerness. To arrive at love, then, is to arrive through obliteration. Eviscerate me, we mean to say, and I'll tell you the truth. I'll say yes.”“I believe the wound is also the place where the skin reencounters itself, asking of each end, where have you been? Where have we been, Ma?”
What a book.
Stayed up all night, and my jaw dropped, so many times.
One of my all time faves.
My parents made me watch this movie nearly a decade ago because it was supposed to be “educational” and i had wayyy more fun watching it than i expected to. So when I saw this book in my library, I immediately picked it up and it was so nostalgic for me.
The narration by Mark Watney is such a delight to read. It's smart, witty, funny and also heart pumping in certain parts.
This is probably the best survival thriller I've ever read.
There were certain scenes in this book where my heart was a literal melted goop on the floor. It was so cute.
Heated Rivalry is probably my all time favourite gay romance, and I have so much love for Shane and Ilya. So getting to read them again was great. I loved being immersed into this world of sexy gay hockey players again.
Few criticisms, I can't say I loved the way Ilya's mental health issues were handled. Also I don't understand why everyone is throwing so much shade on Shane, about not being understanding of Ilya's issues. That's fine, he didn't know but when he found out, he was supportive of him.
Also there were wayyyyy too many characters. A lot of characters making appearences, and it was hard to keep track.
Otherwise, this is an amazing book, gonna be a comfort read for me.
Great end to the series, I'm so glad I read it and experienced them ✨
Needless to say, i would think twice before posting a one star review, lol.
This book was such a ride.
I loved it.
I picked up this book because i loved Bunny by Mona Awad and was looking for something similar, and i got exactly that with this book.
If you love weird fever dream LGBTQ horror, you'll love this.
Also, this is the first book that i read with a gender fluid character and i loved that.
Story felt very cartoonish almost. Like a fearmongering story or something your parents would tell you when you were little to warn you about the internet predators rather than a story that makes horror out of pedophilia.
With that title I was expecting a more disturbing story with nuance that this lacked, in my opinion.
Relatively light on the gore and pretty long for an extreme horror.
When the Air Hits Your Brain is not about the technology, it isn't even really about the medicine. It's about the human aspect of disease, the human dimension of those who suffer from it, and the human dimension of those neophytes, like me, who learn to treat it. And that dimension is timeless.
I enjoyed reading this book much more than I was expecting to!
The first half of this book was more about surgery as a whole and how Dr. Vertosick ended up becoming a neurosurgeon (because that wasn't his initial plan) but the second half was more about anectodes and felt like your senior telling you crazy stories from their life.
Something about his narrative felt very genuine to me, the empathy he holds for each patient. Those stories really touched me.
I also loved the way he talks about death and cancer. It was fascinating to read about. Lots of quotes to post from this book.
Highly recommend if you're interested.
Failure instructs better than success. A single death shapes the surgeon's psyche in a way that fifty “saves” cannot.
I was blown away by how well the character development is here. I feel such strong hate towards our main character. That requires some seriously good writing to make you feel such strong feelings towards a fictional character.
Although i had no idea which direction this was going to head when i picked this up, i still really enjoyed it. I loved how often a lot of the main characters crosses paths with each other.
Overall a pretty straightforward medium paced story, not as twisty as some of John Marrs' other books, but a solid thriller.
I usually enjoy this theme of a plotless story of watching a woman slowly lose her mind but this one was just so boring. Nothing happened... In a bad way. Nothing about this made me want to keep reading but since it was so short I made it to the end. Ending felt unimaginative and anticlimactic
This is a book that reads like a culmination of a lifelong of experiences and discrimination and payback and feminine rage.
Going in I was not expecting much from this book except eyeball horror (which there is plenty of) but this was so much more.
Settling on a 4.25 rating because I found the first half a little boring but wow, I was actually SEETHING with rage for our character during the second half.
Also I feel like this part is when you know you've finally grown up, so well written.
I know now that I was wrong to blame my mother for what happened to our family. And I don't resent her for her grief. It comes from a place of weakness, of powerlessness. Umma allowed the men in her life to control her, to tell her what to do, to make all the big decisions foe her. Without them, she's lost. Adrift at sea.
When I started this book I was expecting a straightforward drama mystery, but it managed to be so much more. In a very efficient and effortless way.
The characters run very deep, they were built really well in my opinion. The book was trying to do a lot, but it didn't feel overwhelming and it worked. It garnered my sympathy and made me feel all the emotions.
The plot twist caught me off-guard, yes, but I was expecting more. Something about the ending was unsatisfying for me. So yeah, I settled on a 4.5 rating.