Reviews by chantaal | The StoryGraph

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chantaal

The Burning Girls

DID NOT FINISH: 30%

DNF @ 30%. This hit some character and plot beats that I personally cannot stand, so I'm putting it down. A true application of my It's Not You, It's Me shelf.

That Time I Got Drunk And Saved A Demon

Kimberly Lemming

DID NOT FINISH: 9%

Really wanted to have fun with this, but the modern oh-so-quirky voice was too much for me to handle.

Black Widow Vol. 1: The Ties That Bind

Kelly Thompson

4.25

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was a great Black Widow story from top to bottom. Good story hook, great execution, wonderful character work, and incredible art.

DNF @ 27% on audio. I'm sorry Richard Armitage, but not even you could save this for me.

The thrills of this entire thing rest on the author doing her best to write in a way that deliberately keeps information from the reader in a very awkward, infuriating way. Everything is "but not since the last time" or "ever since it happened", that drives me NUTS. It's one thing to do so sparingly to up the tension at certain moments, but this happens from the beginning and it's about everything. EVERYTHING.

I had to stop when I realized I spent 15 minutes of my commute in this manner about Anna visiting her MOTHER. 3-4 chapters of Him and Her back and forth for the same events from each perspective, but it starts with "she hadn't seen <i>her</i> in months" or "he knew what [Anna] would find behind that door". Spoiler alert: Anna's mother has dementia and her childhood home was a rundown mess because of it. Which you knew if you took two seconds to think about it but it's treated like some secretive, <i>thrilling</i> reveal!

On top of that, it's OBVIOUS that both Jack and Anna (Him and Her of the title) have big secrets relating to the murder victim and maybe the murder itself, but the way things are dropped is just so infuriating. It's like the characters KNOW that they're being written from a first person perspective and thus won't think about any details to obfuscate the narrative on purpose.

Content Warnings

The Unhoneymooners

Christina Lauren

4.25

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

THEY COMMUNICATED

Content Warnings

The Guest List

Lucy Foley

2.75

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

Fugitive Telemetry

Martha Wells

4.5

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Trying not to cry in the car over bots on my morning commute...thanks again for that, Martha Wells.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Iain Reid

3.25

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I do not know how else to shelve this or how to review this. Knowing that this book is weird and off-putting and keeps you off-kilter and keeps you guessing doesn't take away from the whole of it; at least, it didn't when listening to the audio.

The entirety of my book updates for this are just variations of "WTF is going on??" and that's really all I can say about it.