1_more_chapter's reviews
302 reviews

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I really enjoyed this book, it was a solid YA dystopian and did a good job of critiquing misogyny and religion in our modern day society. Definitely do not read if you don't like gruesome, gory books!
Some of the pacing was a little weird with us jumping months in a single page and I thought the book would have benefitted from the beginning being a little longer to fully flesh out the world, systems and history. But I thought the author did a good job overall and definitely shocked me with some twists and turns. You know it's a good dystopian when you can relate to the experiences of Tierney!
I thought the romance could have been left out as it sort of undermines the message of feminism in the way it was carried out

i.e. Tierney wouldn't have survived were it not from the help of men rather than surviving completely on her own due to her actions and abilities and I'm glad Ryker dies so we didn't end with them running away and having either an ambiguous ending or the world continuing on

I appreciated that the ending wasn't ambiguous (*cough cough* The Giver) but still left parts up to the imagination as to how the system gets demolished.
Ending spoilers:

I'm not a huge fan of the pregnancy trope but I didn't mind it too much here, I'd probably be more shocked if she wasn't pregnant tbh. Also, I'm so happy that Gertie's scumbag husband-to-be died!

Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

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adventurous hopeful fast-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

2.0

I'm so sad that I didn't like this book :(
the characters felt very one-dimensional and flat, with their actions and dialogue feeling like they only happened to further the plot rather than it being something the character would actually say/do. There were so many characters and it was hard to keep track of who was who, especially since none of them had any distinguishing traits.
the main character felt like she didn't have a personality other than she cries a lot and the "romantic" relationships between her and two characters felt underdeveloped, forced and lacked any emotional connection and feeling.

Also, how creepy is it that a guy who doesn't know you tells you he dreams about you telling him stories and asks you to marry him?! Hell no!

the plot was weird and kind of hard to follow. It felt like the author compiled a scrapbook of plot ideas and tried to cram them all into one story, with more development, more time could have been spent on fleshing out the characters rather than introducing more.
Overall, this book felt underdeveloped and messy and should be targeted more towards middle-grade readers rather than young adult
1 star for that absolutely gorgeous cover and one for the fact I managed to finish the book

The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni

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hopeful sad tense medium-paced