bookswithlydscl's Reviews (639)

A fun, fast paced escape room/jumanji St adventure story. A wonderful middle grade story with multiple worlds to experience and challenges to face. I only wish we could have explored each world a little more as the focus was on progressing the story more than world building but despite that I really enjoyed this book and will try out book 2 as well.

I don't even know where to begin. Suffice to say this book is dark, funny, touchingly sad, and horrific all at the same time, and it's compulsive reading.

I didn't really 'get' The Beresford when I read it last year, but I'm really glad I read it first. Even though this is a prequel, reading TB first meant I mentally knew what to expect and was prepped for just how dark this could, and did, get. I'll definitely re-read TB now, and I think my review will probably be a little different compared to the first go round.

I felt a lot more connected to the characters this time round, especially little Odie with his books. There are grotesque characters, and then there are just the humans trying to do their best, but it makes for a wonderful variety of perspectives and storylines all woven seamlessly together. There are CWs for domestic violence in the Diana/Odie story, and I did find that one difficult to read at times. What helps though is that the chapters are all short so you jump between characters and areas of the building which means it moves at breakneck speed but also then gives you breathing room with the more difficult elements.

Hotel Beresford is a place that could be anywhere (and reminds me of Hotel Cecil in LA) and is as much a character as the people inhabiting it. Will Carver has done a wonderful job creating a chilling atmosphere with a place that is rich and vividly captured on the page and which is further enhanced by the characters and storylines.

I'm looking forward to my re-read of The Beresford and can't wait to see how this dark little trilogy ultimately plays out with book 3.

Not my favourite, especially as it felt similar to Code of The Woosters which I loved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Media Do International, Inc. / YUZU Comics for an eArc of "Loving You When the World Ended" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

I picked this up as I saw queer romance set in a dystopian cityscape and knew I wanted to try it. In this manga an apocalypse sees spoiled Nuowan and skilled hotel worker Yu Sen literally thrown together when the world very suddenly ends and tracks them over the coming year or two as they fight to survive in this new reality.

The premise is something that absolutely appealed to me, I love dystopian fiction and this was a new approach to it for me in a manga context. Unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I found Nuowan tiresome and annoying and there were some scenes that absolutely raised the cringe factor - the suppository scene. 

I love darker manga so I think the mixture of humour and light-heartedness mixed with a dystopia/apocalypse theme was not one that I ultimately enjoyed. 

This will absolutely find an audience who love all of these elements but for me it didn't work but I can appreciate what it is doing and the story that it is telling.