bella613's Reviews (551)

I would not have expected this book to include Eminem quotes but it did and that might have been my favorite part. 

Cute story and wholesome friendship. I saw some reviews saying Paloma is too pretentious (she is) but I found her incredibly relatable. 

This is wild. 
Gross. 
Edgy for the sake of being edgy. 

I didn't like it persay, but it was somewhat well done. I agree with most of the criticism I've seen about it, but I also don't disagree with most of the praise, so... I guess make of that what you will. I would not recommend this. Unless you're into very dark gory horror with no real point. 

I liked Gideon.
I didn't like Maeve herself and I can't tell if you're supposed to sympathize with her or not. She's very much a pick-me, impulsive, evil character without any intelligence or forethought. Extreme self-centeredness is typical for a killer in most cases, though, am I right? 

I heard reviews say it was funny. I did not find it funny. It wasn't dark humor, it was just dark. 
But I'm not mad that I read it, and I think in most cases with books like this I probably would be. So the author gets brownie points for making it somehow ok without anything ok in it lol. 

It was rather predictable and the pacing went up and down throughout the story. The characters are pretty flat, but it's clear that this isn't supposed to have redemption or growth because that's not the purpose of the book. It's definitely just a story as a catalyst for bringing the reader gore and graphic shock and repulsive horny murder. Psychological thrillers do more for me than horror that is only horror for the gore. 

This is boring and the reviews seem to say it doesn't get any better. Stopping at 4:35

I expected a book about women in the war, and I got a romance drama with a war setting. Why is it called the women, plural, when the friends are side characters to one woman who mostly focuses on the men around her?

It wasn't a bad book. There was a lot of good things about it, and I respect the difficulty of writing such a complex subject. But it felt dark in a drama way, not a real way. The insights into wartime nursing conditions, I have seen other reviewers say, are somewhat accurate. But that got repetitive fast and didn't elaborate.

I didn't like the main character or any of her romantic interests, and that was all there was to the book (besides parental drama, some PTSD and addiction that was wrapped up in heartbreak). It seemed to touch on a lot of things that are known struggles for veterans, but not actually go in depth. And focused wayy too hard on the ~but wait he didn't die~ tropes that are so predictable it hurts (twice!). The choices she makes in men are unbelievably stupid. Of course I don't want to blame her for the men's horrible character but she really doesn't help herself out in that area. I wish there was less awful romance and more of the great friendships. I loved Barb and Ethel. 
Other things that I found weird- Why is there not even one Vietnamese character? How does she become such an amazing surgical nurse that she is first assisting with no scrub experience? (I get you gotta learn quick and it's all hands on deck in these situations, but that doesn't provide good learning conditions?) 
A lot of this book felt clean, simplified, and romanticized. Some of it also felt negatively exaggerated (the response coming home) I heard such good things about the author and the writing quality but she really modernized the dialogue in a way that felt disconnected, and didn't have any developed supporting characters. I'm left disappointed. 

This is unhinged chaos. I think I liked it. I'm still a little shocked. We start off with some trauma, continue into unhealthy adjustment and then just go off the deep end completely. The more I read, the less I understood it. About 6 hours in it loses all sense, and I think my mouth was just hanging open in a confused state of revulsion for the last half hour or so.

The book starts off with some extremely upsetting content so make sure to check the TW and if it's something that you have experienced, maybe don't read it. Our FL is treated horribly by all of the adults in her life and there is not one redeemable adult in the entire book. 
The middle of it has very similar themes as Convenience Store Woman but still somehow gives an entirely opposite vibe. 
I liked the experience of the book, but I can definitely say I don't like anything that happens in it. The absurdity is unmatched and written so well. These characters are so convincing, which given the context is very impressive. I would recommend this but just prepare yourself for a trip.

Hmm. 
Well, it does get better as it goes. But that's not to say it gets particularly good. I found myself either laughing at parts that were not intended to be funny, or cringing at parts that were meant to be meaningful. Apparently it was too hard to decide on a trope so... take them all, I guess.
It's a cute little pg fantasy romance that's very fast-moving, and would probably be fun for early teens? The problem is that there's nothing unique about the story and it really just takes a few tropes and glues them together rather than telling a real story. The plot is not bad, it's just... meh. As fast as it seems to move, nothing really happens. 
There is no world building or character set-up. The reader is thrown in straight off the bat. It still makes sense because it's fairly simple and easy to follow, but feels very off-kilter because everything's ironically serious. At first I genuinely thought I was reading a sequel and just missed the first book. 
Quell is very ignorant and childish, and everyone around her is blind to her very obvious secret. Even after the end of the book I can't tell if she is a true protagonist or if this is a villian origin story. I could see the series moving on in two opposite directions- dark magic is actually good if you embrace it, or the bad people of good magic forced her to choose dark magic which took her over and made her the supervillain of her time.

This book definitely reads like it's aimed for mid-grade reading level. It's classified YA so I didn't expect it to be super complex, but I've read other YA that is extremely well developed and intriguing, so I don't really think the age of the aimed audience is an excuse. I got more interested as it kept going, but it's rather unimpressive as a whole. 

Simply put and easy to agree with. This is good basics on censorship and also how libraries run. I liked it but near the end it did get a little too political, for a book that is all about being neutral and serving all beliefs in a community. 
It's definitely important to think about these topics but I'm pretty sure that everyone who would read this book would also generally agree with the stances taken. The people that need the messages in this book probably wouldn't read it.