booktribe's Reviews (603)

The Beauty of This Street Love: A Texas Tale

Elle Kayson

DID NOT FINISH: 16%

I can’t stand these men… Genuinely terrible people. Specifically Tripp. I’m supposed to root for him and Cyn to get together??
dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was a journey… Wow…

It was so dark and atmospheric. It was even dark for ME, a person who has been loving horror since before she could talk. The writing was so engrossing. The descriptions were so detailed and disturbing, it was just wow.

Now excuse me while I immediately start the author’s short story collection Things We Lost in the Fire because it has a story called “Adela’s House”

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There's No Way I'd Die First

Lisa Springer

DID NOT FINISH: 30%

DNF’d because this book and these characters are just straight stupid.

For the main character to be such a horror fan that she has a whole horror club and wants to be a film critic and all that, she makes even worse decisions than they do in the movies. Like how do you claim to be an expert final girl who knows all the horror movie tropes and you acting like this??

There was also way too much time spent on unnecessary things like a romantic subplot and the main character thinking about the same couple of things over and over.

This is just a no for me.
emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
lighthearted medium-paced
tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Out There Screaming

Jordan Peele, John Joseph Adams

DID NOT FINISH: 40%

I was so excited when I got approved to read Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele before it was released! I am a horror girl okay?? And I especially love BLACK horror, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this collection! But sadly, I hated it and couldn’t even finish. I got through nine of the stories and then quit.

So many stories in this collection were pointless and directionless. I would spend the whole story waiting for something to happen, and then the story would end and nothing ever happened… The stories felt unfinished. I ended almost every single story with questions. 

The only story that I really loved was The Rider by Tananarive Due. This is not a shock because Tananarive Due is my favorite author of all time, so of course she delivered! There were a couple other stories that I thought were kinda good, but I only enjoyed them compared to the other terrible stories in the collection. Tananarive Due’s story is the only story that would hold up in a collection full of great stories. 

This is the most disappointing book I have read all year…

I go into more detail about my thoughts in my YouTube video review, so make sure you watch that! (@BookTribe)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this arc. All opinions are my own.
dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

🖤 Beautiful & engrossing writing
🖤 Trinidadian folklore
🖤 Shapeshifters
🖤 Gothic settings
🖤 Creepy atmosphere
🖤 Characters you care about
🖤 Themes of bodily autonomy & finding your voice
🖤 Incredibly sapphic (literally every story except for maybe one was gay, we love it)

Story ratings: 

📚 The Pull of the Herd: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Personal Rakshasi: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Her Voice, Unmasked: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Of Claw and Bone: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: domestic violence)
📚 Kill Jar: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (Tw: suicidal ideation, child abuse)
📚 Propagating Peonies: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
📚 Tessellated: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Tw: domestic abuse)
📚 Laughter Among The Trees: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Apolèpsie: A Descaling: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 The Bride: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Tara’s Mother’s Skin: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📚 Douen: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (TW: death of a child, animal death)

Average rating: 3.8 ⭐️s
Overall rating: 5 ⭐️s!

Thank you Neon Hemlock for this review copy! All opinions are my own.

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mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes

🫶🏽Likes🫶🏽

📚 Veryyy mysterious and creepy! There were several creepy elements but one element really made my skin crawl!

📚Great neurodivergent rep! (Specifically ADHD & anxiety)

📚Likable characters

📚A very fresh idea that I’ve never seen done before!!

📚I think this book will be great for teaching teenage girls signs of emotional abuse (the mc was in a past relationship that was emotionally abusive) without feeling like they’re being preached to! 


😬Dislikes😬

📚It got a little repetitive. I think the book could’ve been at least 50 pages shorter because there were too many times where we did the same thing multiple times different ways, when we should’ve been doing something new.

📚I was left with a few questions at the end.

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