Daijah

i enjoyed this story and the direction a lot but i do think it was too short for what it was. i wanted a bit more pages to flesh out the story.

this was such a fun thriller! it really had me on the edge of my seat and i enjoy all the discussions of indigenous people and colonizations

read for the swoon sisters' bookclub: first quarter 2024 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9K5I...)

honestly i didn't like anything in this book besides the radio show element. the mc was absolutely unsufferable plus her and almost all the plot points in this story felt juvenile and immature like for high school, not the university. it was so meh.

i literally loved this 🥹

read for summerween 2024: vlog coming soon

i really enjoyed the concepts of this collection but i wanted more of a bang with the horror.

read for summerween 2024: vlog coming soon

the eyes are the best part by monika kim is a brilliantly inventive and subversive feminist psychological horror novel that delves deep into the making of a female serial killer from a korean-american perspective. this book is not just about the grisly and thrilling elements of ji-won’s transformation, but it also profoundly explores the daily struggles and horrors faced by women of color, making it a truly compelling read.

one of the most captivating aspects of this novel is its exploration of the unique challenges that women of color encounter every day. the true horror of the story lies in the societal pressures, microaggressions, and blatant discrimination that ji-won faces, which are hauntingly relatable and powerfully depicted. monika kim masterfully intertwines these themes with the story of an unhinged woman seeking revenge, creating a narrative that is as thought-provoking as it is thrilling.

at its core, this novel is about a young woman discovering the harsh realities of how the world treats her. ji-won feels overlooked and ignored by everyone, from her family to society at large. this sense of invisibility and the accompanying rage are palpable throughout the book, and i found myself deeply relating to her struggles. as a college student navigating a tumultuous life, i saw reflections of my own experiences in ji-won’s journey, despite the extremity of her actions.

the depiction of ji-won’s unraveling is both mesmerizing and chilling. her dreams, filled with horrifyingly vivid imagery of bloody rooms and succulent blue eyes, add an eerie and surreal layer to the story. the character of george, her mother's obnoxious new boyfriend, serves as a perfect catalyst for ji-won’s descent into madness, making her actions, though extreme, understandable in the context of her suffering and rage.

this book is a must-read for fans of unhinged women and revenge stories. monika kim’s writing is gripping, and her ability to weave together themes of familial disintegration, societal neglect, and personal vengeance is nothing short of genius. the eyes are the best part will undoubtedly be added to my list of go-to recommendations for unhinged women revenge stories. it is a powerful, evocative, and unforgettable read that will leave you craving more.

this book is very mixed for me. i appreciate a lot of what it was trying to say but i was soooooo bored. like at first this concept was cool and i adore the concept. but it got extremely repetitive. i know it was to make a point but that doesn't lessen the fact, it bored me. i also felt like while we spent so much time with the main character, we still never really got to know her. i feel like i could read the most boring, repetitive book in the world, but as long as it has a character i find interesting in it, i'll love it. but this lacked that. the main character was never really flushed out. i will say i did really enjoy the ending of the book a lot but besides that and the concept, this was really a slog to get through.

the final chapter june 2024 bookclub pick: https://www.patreon.com/daijahsbookworld

i enjoyed this one a lot and the audiobook is really good. i just wish we had a lil more gore and it was more showing and not telling but with it being told completely through interviews, that's kinda just the nature of it.

this was literally so wholesome 🥹

abby jimenez is THAT GIRL

this is such a good dark family drama and THE END?! it ripped out my heart

what more could you want than a sapphic, cottagecore, horror?

this was so cozy and cute and i did not expect it to have a murder mystery element to it. i had such a delightful time reading this. 

2/5 stars

Definitely not the worse but not necessary at all. I don't really care about the characters anymore but their banter is still decent. While relatable, I feel like the plot was a bit unrealistic and had me rolling my eyes a lot. We also don't stan Mackenzi Lee but this is the only book I owned under 150 pages for and OWLS prompt.

i'm sorry no
 

this was a good first installment but i' interested to see where it goes. i don't normally read comics because they're so short and i'm impatient lol so i wait for bind-ups. the shortness is why this hasn't been my favorite because i don't know much yet. 

I read this for school so I'm not going to rate it because it's a really hard nonfiction to rate. It was an interesting read but I would not recommend binging this in a day 😅 

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review

I honestly wished this book was better than it turned out to be. The blurb sounded amazing, and I was so excited for a mercenary/mob book but it just fell so so flat and become highly confusing.

Firstly the characters were okay in the beginning. I enjoyed their banter and the fierceness of our main female lead, Kylie. In a lot of mob related books the main protagonist is so out of the loop and doesn't have any sort of common sense but Kylie really defied that. The main male protagonist was really intriguing and sexy in the beginning, but he had absolutely no depth to him at all. I was just waiting for him to develop some sort of personality other than being horny all the time but it never came.

Another thing that also bothered me about the characters that bothered me is that their motives for their actions in the past and present were so weak. The organization that Kylie and Jaxon worked for also had a weak motive in their reasoning for even wanting to recruit Kylie in the first place. This was a recurrent theme throughout the novel in which everybody's motives were just off. The logic in Rogue was nonexistent especially the deeper you got into the book with the mystery. The mystery just became confusing and in the end it just seemed like no big deal. I think the author was just attempting to do too much and none of the aspects could have been truly explored making the logic extremely confusing.

Lastly, the plot and the writing were just not very good. There was a bit of steam in here which was fine but there was no sexual tension that built up between the characters, The steam started almost immediately and would sometimes happen 2/3 times in just one chapter! The plot was extremely repetitive in the beginning and it was just the same thing over and over again.

This book had a lot of promise but it was just too all over the place and repetitive for my taste. The characters lacked depth, there was no logic, the plot was repetitive, and there was no build up between the two main romantic interests making me not care if they're together or not. As I said I think this is just a case of trying to do too much leading to a lackluster novel that is underdeveloped.

5/5 stars

This book had me

Swoon Sister Book Club August Pick: Single Parent Trope

I literally adored every page of this book. It was absolutely hilarious but also touched on really hard topics. I always need something extra in my contemporary romances to push them up to a 5 star and for me, that was the exploration of grief and moving on after loss. The two main characters were both absolutely amazing and I loved the kids. This gives me really similar vibes to Hero by Lauren Rowe which was on my favorites list of 2020 and this one has a chance to be on it too. If you really liked this I recommend Hero and vice versa.

Read for Winterween 2022: book with a winter setting & book with snow on the cover

I really did love the themes in this book. This book is very important and this made me understand why people really love team sports which is a weird thing to get from this book. I have never really been a sports person even tho I played them when I was younger but I never understand why people are always so committed to them. This made me understand that. Besides that I really like how all the perspectives mattered to tell a story of how sexual assault can impact so many people especially when sports players are involved. The writing wasn't my favorite and it was a bit too slow for me but besides that I adored this. 

Stacks of Strange Book Club Pick
Watch the liveshow here

I felt very apathetic towards this book and hardly remembered it even the day after I finished it. It just felt very meh to me.

i originally gave this 3 stars but after discussing it on the literally dead book club & the troop liveshows i realized how literally nothing in this book connected. also this tried to make this toxic, crazy romance and they barely did anything crazy. like baby this is nothing 😭 i will say it kept me engaged and interested the entire time tho 

i love the trope of someone becoming a parent or finding out they're a parent so i absolutely ate this up. i don't know if i enjoy this one more than the first but i loved everything about this and alexa martin's writing is just so excellent and witty. i can't wait to continue on in the series 

i had such a good time reading this! it was a bit dark but also futuristic, fun, and has romance? yeah it ate