Daijah
actual rating: 4/5
this was hard for me to even decide if i wanted to rate it because i rate based off enjoyment and at about 40% of the way through i wasn't enjoying myself. in disturbing books i still enjoy my time but this one had me not for a good chunk. that is not why i rated it 4 stars instead of 5 tho because the book was trying to disturb me and it did that. i took off a star because i honest kinda wanted more to physically happen to the mc which kinda is kinda weird cause this book pushed my limits as it is but idk for the book's purpose and plot that's what i wanted. it seemed unrealistic how she came away from the situation(s). i loved the grief plot lines and the exploration or morally grey people and decisions.
this was hard for me to even decide if i wanted to rate it because i rate based off enjoyment and at about 40% of the way through i wasn't enjoying myself. in disturbing books i still enjoy my time but this one had me not for a good chunk. that is not why i rated it 4 stars instead of 5 tho because the book was trying to disturb me and it did that. i took off a star because i honest kinda wanted more to physically happen to the mc which kinda is kinda weird cause this book pushed my limits as it is but idk for the book's purpose and plot that's what i wanted. it seemed unrealistic how she came away from the situation(s). i loved the grief plot lines and the exploration or morally grey people and decisions.
this was such a good hades and persophone retelling. the characters were great. the plot progress was amazing. smut was fantastic. i loved the representation and the vibes. r.m. virtues created a fantastic atmosphere. the romance did feel slightly insta-lovely to me and i personally don't like carnival aspects in books and this one has a slightly focus on that. besides those aspects this book was absolutely amazing for me.
read for strangeathon 2022: different format
okay so brother meets the push and the strangerville pack from the sims 4 😭 this had the messed up family dynamics and exploration of that isolated family with the evil child/unreliable narrator vibes or the push and the scientific desert testing of the sims 4 strangerville pack.
this book follows and mother and her child as they leave their home to take a hiatus in the desert at the mother's childhood home due to the fact that she believes her child, poisoned and virtually abuses her other child. the mother then begins to tell her daughter about her own childhood in the desert and is known to us as an unreliable narrator but we are unsure why for most of the book. we also get the perspective of the child but she is also a bit unreliable. the child take bones of animals and often see these animals and someone that is the pale version of her. they are like imagined friends but something feels off.
i really enjoyed the beginning where we are learning about the family and seeing why the mother takes her child to the desert, it gives classic domestic thriller/the push vibes and i was also really intrigued once they went to the desert but that part did start to drag for me a little bit and felt a bit long. this is similar to brother a bit with the slower family exploration. there is some animal testing on dogs which can be triggering for some but it didn't bother me personally. that part honestly interested me a lot and how that played out was so fascinating.
the ending was so fast paced and there was so many twist that kept me guessing what was going to happen next in both timelines and i love how everything aligned in the end. the writing was so good and you can really see the purpose of the slower parts to cause tension for the ending.
thank you to tor nightfire, catriona ward, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review
read for strangeathon 2022: strange cover
sigh
this book was just fine. this is a retelling of the fall of the house of usher and i love poe so much so despite not loving t. kingfisher's other work i still wanted to try it out. while i did enjoy some things about this like the incorporation of a non-binary character, especially in a historical setting and the atmosphere, this book didn't work for me.
the writing i think was my main problem. this book was really written like it was a classic and i couldn't stand it. if i wanted classic writing i would read a classic. i don't mind historical but this was too much for me personally but others may not mind it. i also didn't care for the plot a lot but the fungus twist was done in a semi-interesting way because it went more scientific. i read mexican gothic and didn't love it either so maybe i don't like this twist but i didn't mind it in this book. it just wasn't my favorite. i felt like this meandered a lot and i was bored most of the time.
as i said the atmosphere was fantastic though and it's genuinely what kept me reading and prevented me from dnfing this. i love poe so much but somethin about this just didn't hit for me. i don't really like haunted house stories either and even the original house of usher isn't my favorite so that could be potentially why as well.
thank you to tor nightfire, t. kingfisher, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review
read for strangeathon 2022: nonhuman character & backlistread for the queer romance readathon: erotic romance
okay so this was great. it was so smutty i loved it. THE TENSION. but his being a fairy that looks like an insect was a no for me 😭 i HATE bugs so the thought wasn't amazing but it was so good i can't fault it for having a monster in a monster romance
so this book is very complicated for me. what the book was trying to am for it did really well. i really enjoyed most of this book. the ending wasn't my favorite similar to the end of no one is watching by alyssa cole but i didn't dislike it nearly as much as that one. i also really related to chiamaka personally. she is mixed like me and often a lot of the things she said i would find annoying but i used to think those same things back in middle school. she's a senior in high school tho and should know better but imma just move past that part. devon had an interesting storyline but they packed on every single stereotypical trauma onto him. it was just a bit too much but is realistic for some experiences. because the book did what it aimed to do well, i really can't fault it BUT i'm tired of all this black trauma. i want a thriller with black characters where the whole plot doesn't revolve around some people trying to get them for their race. race is apart of life and it will always be apart of black books but racial trauma doesn't have to be the catalyst. as i said the first maybe like 75% was a solid 5 star for me because even though i had problems, it felt like pretty little liars but more diverse and it was eating it up. the end was more like a 2.5 but since it was only 1/4 of the book i'm giving this book 4 stars
read for the queer romance readathon 2022: f/f romance
i did have a fun time reading this but unfortunately in the past 2 days since i finished this i've already forgotten most of this. this book had so many plotlines i think none of them were really as fleshed out as i wanted them to be. i also felt like the romance was really one sided which made me big sad. i enjoyed the characters and all the connections to the diner were so fun too ofc the lgbtq+ rep was amazing but the actual plot and romance just wasn't.
actual rating: 3.5/5 stars
a lot of people either love this book or hate it. i really am in the middle where i enjoyed my time but there are definite problems and I'm not obsessed. my main two complaints are the world is interesting but needs a lottttt of refining and i want more romance which ik it is a series but still. the characters were fun but i would like to see even more distinction between them. this book kinda felt like watching a show like teen wolf or the vampire diaries so take that for what you will.
this book was a bit slower and not as gory as people made it out to be. i still enjoyed the slower parts but the last quarter of the book was absolutely amazing and i loved the ending so much. the slower bits definitely also created tension that made the ending just explode and have me shook. if this book was a bit gorier it could have definitely gotten a 5 star from me
this book really surprised me because it leaned in a way that riley sager has hinted at in previous books but never fully went into. i don't normally like this type of thriller but riley never disappoints tbh.
in this book we follow casey fletcher who is a semi-famous actress mostly known for smaller roles in tv shows and movies as well as playing the lead in a pretty popular thriller broadway show. there are multiple timelines throughout this book but in the main timeline begins with casey in her familys cabin on lake greene that was built in the 1800s. casey was sent there by her even more famous mother due to a scandal casey got wrapped into. casey tried to perform her broadway show drunk and was thus fired. casey's mother hopes sending her to the cabin will help solve her daughter's alcoholism but throughout the book alcohol is a huge part of the plot which makes casey an unreliable narrator. i wouldn't recommend this book if you'd find that annoying or triggering. casey's drinking started about 14 months prior to the main timeline after the death of her husband because he drowned in the same lake that casey is now forced to reside on by her mother.
while casey is at the lake she ends up saving one of her new neighbors katherine from drowning in lake greene and prevented her from facing a similar fate as her husband. katherine and her husband tom just moved into the house across the lake which is mostly made of glass windows. katherine and casey begin to strike up a friendship after this event over the following couple days after her accident. casey also finds a pair of binoculars her husband left behind and she uses them to spy on her new neighbors thorugh their giant windows. she starts seeing suspicious behavior over the following days between the couple and then suddenly katherine disappears without warning. she begins trying to figure out what exactly happened to katherine and if her husband, tom, had anything to do with it.
while some are definietly going to find casey annoying, i really thought she was just a flawed charatcer who was dealing with real human struggles. sometimes there types of characters can grate on my nerves but this one just didn't. i personally also really enjoy having unriable narrators in thrillers. compared to the main character in riley sager's last release, survive the night, who many people also thought was annoying mostly in part to her unreliableness, i would say casey is less annoying than her for sure. i enjoyed a lot of the side charatcers like boone and eli who are both neighbors of casey—one newer and one a family friend. boone and casey do have a slight romance throughout the story so if you don't like that in your thrillers, i wouldn't necessarily recommend this one but it's not a huge part of the plot. katherine and tome were very interesting to me in the way the really felt like fractions of people since both were celebrities—katherine an ex model and tom a billionaire tech guru who created a new social media app. we also only saw them through casey eyes and what she gathered by spying on them which really helped to create the illusion of not knowing whats's going on.
the writing was the same riley sager, descriptive but not overly distracting, and very digestiable. this book is slightly more lsower paced than osme of his novels but i feel like most of his books tend to be slow until th first 60-70% where the main character is just invesitgating without anything major occuring. then in the last third of the book he generally packs in a lot of action and plot twists and this book was no exception. riley sager's endings always have me shaking in my boots because i absoutly never see them coming but they always click into place perfectly. as stated this one went in a bit of a different route than most of his other books but the vibes were a combination of the last time i lied and home before dark with the unriable narraotr aspect of survive the night. those happened to be my top 3 from him before this book.
overall, while this book was slightly slower paced than some of his others and also went in a different direction, this still had the classic sager intrigue and twists that make his books so consuming and shocking. i don't think this is going to be one that everybody loves but i had an amazing time reading this and i genuinely never wanted to put it down and when i had to, i kept thinking about it all day.
thank you to penguin group dutton, riley sager, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
buzzwordathon june 2022: all
this mystery was done really well as usual and i loved seeing our usual characters. this one definitely wasn't my favorite in the series or my least favorite. i wish there was more overall plot development for the whole series. while this one was a good standalone, it felt like filler for the overall series.
read for swoon sisters book club live discussion: may 2022
this book has been one of the first to make me cry all year.
i really enjoyed the characters and their romance, the discussion around grief and getting to know a family member who wasn't always there for you, and learning more about alaska and flying airplanes. i did have a couple problems like i hated jonah's whole barbie thin and taking away calla's cosmetics. i understand preference but that went too far i also cannot speak on the indigenous representation in this book. i thought it did bring a good element to the book but it was not as central as it could have been. this is the only review i could find from an indigenous review. my rating may change after my book club's live show discussion but just the way this book was written really hit me in the feels and i think this one will stick with me for a while.
this book is a fast-paced summery drama with thriller elements it follows a woman as she gets wrapped up in a group of suburban housewives that drink copious amounts of alcohol and partake in socially unacceptable behaviors together in her new small town in texas. she begins to become obsessed with the perceived leader of the group and it goes down from there and boy does shit hit the fan.
i love a good suburban mom drama and the whole last 30-40% was very thriller and the twist and turns i loved. the last section was probably a 5 star for me because it really kept me guessing and reeling. while the beginning 50-60%ish wasn't bad by any means, it was mostly set up and the main character, sophie, getting indoctrinated into this group. while i do think that exposition was necessary it honestly dragged on a bit and felt slow at times. i see what the author was trying to do with building suspense slowly over time but it definitely could have had better pacing.
i enjoyed the small town aspects and how everybody knows everybody's business because i love knowing other people's business lol i haven't lived in a town like that since i was a kid and honestly i want to live in a small town one day just to know everybody else's tea and maybe something like this would happen to keep me entertained. the characters in this are all extremely unlikable but personally, i don't mind that, and especially in this type of story it really works for me. it may not work for everybody but i love morally grey characters.
this book definitely was giving vibes similar to big little lies but also this newer movie called deep water that just came out this year. the woman the main character becomes obsessed with was very similar to the character in that movie. i really did enjoy that aspect of it but it had the murder mystery and suburban drama of big little lies.
while this book was not perfect it is a really fun ride and i would recommend it for anybody who is starting to crave that domestic thriller vibes again with a twist.
thank you to berkley publishing group, may cobb, and netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
so i'd say the first 20% was a 5 star, the middle 60% was a 2.5/3, and the last 20% was around a 3.5/4 so i'm averaging it to a 3.5 star. i loved the first 20% so much and the tension build up as well as the chemistry/history between the adopted siblings. seeing the fallout of their relationship at the end was nice because sometimes in taboo romances i feel like it gets skipped over a lot.
while q.b. tyler does write amazing smut, for me it was just a little too much smut in the middle and not enough character depth and development. this was originally a shorter story which i feel like i would have enjoyed better for this plot line than this extended version. i would still recommend for a taboo and steamy time!
read for bookoplathon 48 hour round, may 2022: spooky & ya book
this book was very fast-paced but i found it a bit juvenile even for a ya thriller, i don't think the social media aspect was bad but i didn't particularly enjoy it, and it was super unrealistic. going from reading really graphic, amazingly written, adult thrillers, it just dampened my experience of this book. i did really enjoy the reveal of the killer at the end but that's really it
