Olivia

 All in all, I really liked this book. It was extremely entertaining, easy to read and interesting to follow. I guess one of its biggest advantages for me is the take on various supernatural creatures featured in the story. Though it's a low fantasy, the magic aspect of it was quite unique and well thought-through. The themes of familial love, friendship, racism towards Indigenous people, the asexual representation (which I, as an aroace person, really appreciated) is another thing that makes this book so good. Moreover, I'd like to mention that I like how Ellie's and Allerton's magical abilities directly correspond with their role in the story. Dr. Allerton's heritage is the magic that can, in some ways, “steal” people's life forces and give them to others. This makes a lot of a sense for a character whose predecessor was a white man who participated in the colonization, stealing the lives of Native Americans to give a place and the chance for long live to white people. Ellie, on the other hand, can wake dead and has a deep connection with the Earth itself. This is a good way to metaphorically represent the importance Indigenous people place on their family, ancestors and the world around in general. However, the one downside of this book is that I can't imagine myself thinking about it ever again. I give it 4 stars, and not 3 or 3.5 (as I would usually do in such a situation) because it was a solid story with good narrative, captivating “murder mystery” subplot and, most importantly, it made a (successful) attempt at exploring very important themes. 

 There are some things that I really enjoyed in the story, and some that fell flat for me.    Advantages: the first thing I want to point out is the format it's written it. We follow the story through the blog posts, published by the main character years after his encounter with a strange and disturbing Patient. I listened to the audiobook for this and would highly recommend everyone to do the same. This way, the story feels like an episode of a horror podcast (I, personally, kept thinking about how well it would fit into a project like “The Magnus Archives” throughout the whole read).    The plot itself is definitely griping. The book gives the reader an opportunity to make theories about what's actually happening and what's wrong with Joe as a human being. To be honest, I wasn't able to guess the right answer and was slightly surprised by what transpired in the end (that being said, the plot twist doesn't feel out of place; it makes perfect sense and I think it's my fault for overlooking such a simple explanation).    The end is another thing that I'd like to praise the book for. It makes sure that after closing it, the reader won't immediately erase the book from their memory. It gives food for thought, even if for a short period of time.    I also appreciated the attempt to tackle such themes as the abysmal treatment of mentally disordered people in the majority of psychic wards, the tendency to brush off the fears and worries of children by their parents (and sometimes even medical professionals), explaining them as their “active imagination” when in reality these worries may stem from very real, harmful things.        Disadvantages: I'm the type of reader who can fully enjoy the story only if it has both a good plot and memorable characters I can fall in love with. “The Patient”, for me, was severely lacking in this last aspect. The main character wasn't written poorly, but he's just a generic smart protagonist with a big heart. The only character I was even remotely interested in was Rose (Doctor G.), but her appearances were far and between, and she's not the best female character I've ever read about.    Moreover, I believe my enjoyment of the story was greatly hindered by the use of the first-person point of view. Its usage is explained by the format of the book, however I found that it helped to create “a wall” between me and the characters.    This is more of a nit-picking, but if you're looking for a horror book that will genuinely terrify you, then “The Patient” is not something you need to pick up at the moment. There are some disturbing images in the novel, sure, but aside from that, there is nothing particularly scary about it.    Overall, I liked the book. It's a perfect story to listen to in the background as you're doing household chores or going somewhere. The plot was interesting enough to keep my attention, the gore disturbing enough to make me feel somewhat unpleasant. The ending leaves you with questions (or rather, one big question) on which you can ponder for some time. A good short read if you want to read something easy and enjoyable. 

Despite my general indifference towards short stories, I liked this one quite a lot. From what I've gathered while going through others' reviews, people's dislike for it is, in most cases, caused by virtue of them expecting it to be something that it's not.  So, I want to start this review by prefacing that if you're looking for a plot driven, sci-fi horror book then This World Is Not Yours is not for you. In my opinion, it's a story that focuses more on different types of human connections (emphasis on different, which is quite refreshing), rather than the plot or themes of environmentalism and consumerism.  Personally, I found characters in the book to be interesting and complex (the same goes for their relationships with each other). Jesse, in particular, is a very peculiar character, who seems to be an enigma for most but with whom I had the strongest connection (in my point of view, this is caused by how heavily aroace coded he is, his “inhumanity” in the context of the story since the very beginning, his love towards Amara and Vihn, which is undoubtedly not romantic nor sexual, but is undeniably there).  More than that, the writing was great, the imagery containing gore and horror elements was also done in a very good way. Overall, the only thing lacking for me in this is its size, but that's just a quirk of my mind, which can't form deep connection without prolonged exposure. I would recommend this novel if you're interested in sci-fi and, more importantly, is looking for a book with messy, codependent romantic and non-romantic relationships.