blewballoon's Reviews (763)

This felt a bit more somber for a YA graphic novel, not quite the level of Sheets, closer to Heartstopper level. I really enjoyed the characters and their natural chemistry. 

I breezed through this cute high school drama. Very light and enjoyable. 

I think this is the fourth "fake medium" book I've read in the last couple years, and every time I pick one up I am hoping that the "fake medium" will encounter a real ghost. This book finally gave me what I wanted! I had a great time with this story, I thought Gretchen was a complex yet sympathetic character to follow. I would have liked having Charlie's perspective as well for the romance aspect, but I can see why we didn't for narrative purposes. I was surprised that

we never got a resolution to the plot with Gretchen's father. I had assumed he was the con man who tricked Charlie's grandfather out of thousands of dollars for unfulfilled repairs on the farm and he was going to come into the plot of saving the farm and also Gretchen might get some closure. I suppose she got her own form of closure without him actually appearing.

I seem to be in the minority, so I'm not sure what I'm missing that others found so charming. Vera reminds me of the mother from Everything Everywhere All at Once, but older and generally worse. All of these characters seem unlikable so far, and what I think is meant to be humor in the writing isn't working for me. I'm glad so many people enjoyed this, but I think I was hoping for something more like Thursday Murder Club and this is not meeting those expectations.

Was this cliché? Yes. Was it contrived? Yes. Was it cheesy? Yes, and I enjoyed every slice of cheese this book had to offer. It's like a Disney Channel Original Movie that's aged 20+ years and includes a spicy scene. There is minimal angst, the smallest of stakes, several worldbuilding questions left unanswered, and just a dab of spookiness. The author clearly likes their vampires as clean and bloodless as possible, and loves Chicago. The audiobook narrator did a good job, a middle area between reading totally flatly and injecting personality to the text.

This didn't quite work for me as much as I would have hoped. I realized I wasn't really in the mood for this type of romance after I had already started, but I wanted to finish because I have a physical copy of the 2nd book in the series that I got at a book swap with high recommendations. 

I think I might have still enjoyed it more if I hadn't listened to the audio. It's not that the narrator has a bad voice, but I think I just don't like their timing and line delivery. It gives the whole book a quippy and sarcastic tone, which isn't untrue to the text, but pushed it a little too far maybe. 

The romance went from "oh no, I must resist, I simply cannot have her" to

sexual activity in a closet

abruptly without a good character explanation for why. What changed? Much of the remaining romance outside of the spicy scenes was the FMC making incorrect assumptions, the MMC being a martyr, and "communication" that involved leaving big gaps of information, which all proved to be a bit frustrating. 

I read the previous book as an ebook and listened to this one as an audiobook. I enjoyed this entry more, and I wonder how much the audiobook narration contributed to that. Overall I think this is a pretty good YA historical fantasy duology. It doesn't rely heavily on the typical YA fantasy tropes or historical romance tropes, but you do get the good stuff that both genres have to offer. 

Another fun entry in this series! There were some big reveals in the last book that were sort of close to what I had theorized might be going on, but this one introduced even more layers to the mystery! It's nice to read a series that feels like it's moving forward at a good pace. I wonder if Darcy Coates watched the Jenny Nicholson Evermore video, which I recommend if you enjoy the setting of this book. 

I forgot how much fun this series is. As I've said before, it's sort of like a combo of The Ghost Whisperer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was impressed with the plotting in this one, events flowed into each other and looped back around in satisfying ways. I really like the trio of main characters, so watching them go on a mini road trip was a treat. 

My absolute favorite historical mystery series does it again!! This installment gave me all my favorite things about the series and I'm delighted! So far I'm 2/5 for solving the mysteries ahead of time, which I think is a good balance! I do actually think the mystery element of this series is done quite well, but I'm really here for the characters and I was so happy to have all my favorites back in action. Honestly considering re-reading the series just because I love it so much.