clovetra's Reviews (262)

dnf’d at 5%
i’m sorry this reads like a textbook i actually am so bored

what the hell 🔥
ok but seriously this is probably my least favourite junji ito story im sorry
i was not scared or creeped out at all, and i read it in a pitch black room at 12:30am.
um idk this felt like it was missing the thing that makes a junji ito story a junji ito story.
like idk i didn't even like the premise. or the plot. or any characters. complete apathy.
the only thing that gave me a feeling of unease was

kaori's suicide

but other than that.... i was not spooked. and that's one page
like tell me why the bonus stories scared me more? like the enigma of amigara faults actually made me scared more than the entire gyo story. junji ito my love you flopped here <3
im kidding junji ito can never flop but this so far is my least favourite work from him </3
i found nothing redeemable about this story im sorry
also who moved first one star of 2024

i need to preface this review by stating i feel so bad for everything im about to say. i know an indie author wrote this, and i know one measly goodreads review wont ruin her entire life but i don't want to shit on her! this book had some great elements! the overall plot is so out there its insane. sci-fi mixed with horror mixed with thriller mixed with romance? sign me up. i found roz soooo funny, and i loved how annoying she was. roz was insufferable and that's how i like my main characters sometimes! now, i will begin with the smallest gripe i have - sometimes roz is too snippy. like yeah ok i get her schtick is shes a bitch. we are one in the same. but sometimes its almost exhausting how she's a broken record of alcoholism and self-sabotage. is it realistic? yes! did i find it excruciating! often.
i will also say there was no need for a romance plot. i think this book struggled because it tried to do so much. i appreciate the enthusiasm and i can smell the love for reading through power's work. but there's so much going on, it feels at times that nothing was fully tied up.

after the psych reveal, essentially everything is explained, but it still felt flat. like there was still a lack of motive. and that there was too much time spent on how much roz is infatuated with jace. like im sorry the mum being dead bomb felt like it was left still slightly open!

. i also felt like there was a looooot of padding, and then the ending was rushed in the span of 3 chapters... in a 70 chapter book. i think some cutting was needed, either cutting plots or cutting ideas. 
can i also say after 500 pages it feels that characters were not characterised? like they felt very surface level. i could not give you more than a couple adjectives to describe jace, and they are all very surface level, and sadly that extends to even the mc, roz, who's entire character is that shes an awful person. roz also somehow is clairvoyant (/j); it feels like she comes to realisations too quickly, or makes massive logic jumps to get there that a real person wouldn't make!
also i just need to bring up again how rushed the ending was.

why is ben back. was the cop dirty? i felt like the confrontation needed to be longer and more in-depth

and my final final gripe is about tropes.

im sorry im SO over the psychologist is evil trope. im sorry it feels overdone. i could also lowkey smell it from a mile away....

anyways i WILL say this book was addicting and even though it sounds like i hated this, i did have a fun time reading this! roz is full of quips, and as i said earlier, i love me an insufferable protagonist.

what the fuck????????????????????????
i actually cannot explain my thoughts on this book well.
i'll say PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS!!! this is the second murata book ive read so i thought i was safe not checking the trigger warnings. i was Wrong. 
ummmm all i can say is that this book was incredibly fucked up. and yet i enjoyed the underlying story.
natsuki kind of reminds me of tomie in the best ways? both are women who are dangerous and are trying to make the best out of a society that sexualises them. and i loved tomie, so i love natsuki.
her husband gave me incel vibes if im honest. it seems like murata loves having her main characters have incel partners which is a choice!
ummm honestly there were many moments where i had to pause and put this book down. like i am quite desensitised to horrifying things (thanks mum for letting me have unrestricted internet access /sarc) but this book is the most vile work ive ever read. or seen. 
i also enjoyed how unhinged this book became. i love how there's no plot and its just natsuki trying to avoid having to fulfill her womanly duties because. same. minus the um. crimes. obviously.
i was so close to giving this a 5 star because this was so unique and captivating but simply because of how ill some plot lines made me feel i did not want to read this book multiple times. i took a couple days' break from reading this simply because of the scene with her teacher. no not the last one the one in the middle. im not spoiling but i felt nauseous. usually im good at internalising the awful feelings media gives me but NEVER has a work given me a physical reaction until this book. 
sayaka murata you will always be famous.

first classic of the year and i am thoroughly impressed!

i think this is also my first time reading a gothic? and tbh don’t ask me what defines a gothic but all i know is that i loved this.

i’ll say the only reason this isn’t a 5 star is simply due to a pet peeve. the introduction by jonathan lethem should’ve been an afterword. not only did it lowkey spoil some plot elements to me such as the culprit of the arsenic poisoning, but it also spoiled the introduction of charles and the two girl’s personalities. i read the introduction before i began the novel and i’ve just gone back to reread it and although some elements should’ve been in a foreword, like background about shirley jackson’s life, i think things directly related to the plot should’ve been placed at the end.

other than though how i adored this book!

my favourite part was easily seeing merricat. i’ve never seen any story in any form ever with such a unique character as merricat. she is whimsical yet terrifying, and i loved seeing the book from her point of view. constance was beautifully characterised as well, although i will say she left me with a lot of questions! uncle julian was probably my least favourite character as he was the least fleshed out and was kind of filler i felt, but he still served his purpose. charles can go jump off a bridge sorry i love merricat and he had it out for my girl!!!!!!!! death to charles blackwood.

the way shirley jackson writes in this book was so spectacular, i was transfixed. i almost didn’t want to read this book not because i was bored, but because i knew the more i read the less i would have to enjoy. sometimes i’d be starring up at my ceiling just reimagining past chapters i’ve read, which honestly not many books have had me pondering them that deeply. i love the characterisation of the town as well, i just wish there was a tad more explanation as to why they hated the blackwoods (although ngl i could’ve just missed that, or it’s just because they think they’re murderers and/or weird).

anyways i really enjoyed this book and could defo see myself dabbling in some more gothic books in the future!

i would say this is my most conflicting read so far for this year. which isn't saying much considering its week 3 of 2024 but. still
god i wanted to adore this book. i think this was my most anticipated read of 2024. like i was dying to read this. i was sadly disappointed. like when i realised i wasn't enjoying this as much as i thought i would i wanted to cry.
this book was still good. i need that to be known. i adored nick, and i loved many sequences. i just felt like the main issue for me was this book was trying to do a lot, and needed more pages to achieve its goal.
there was so much going on. the theo plot, the nick plot, the world-building, the themes. it all felt rushed. there were many times i had to pause and go back and reread previous chapters, or ask google/friends for help understanding what was going on.
i needed a lot more world-building in this. i feel like this book needed about 100 pages more to explain things. and the way information is divulged i found is hard! i prefer my exposition to be dumped honestly because hey at least i know what is going on, and the fact there are such fantasy elements i felt needed an exposition dump. 
i also really had a difficult time imagining what was happening. i thought it might have been an issue with me, but when i swap to other books im reading at the moment im fine. to me there felt like a massive disconnect between the writing and the reader (me)
i also think a minor issue for me was the fact i know nothing about religion. i don't think this overall affected my reading experience, but as someone who has been to church once i felt like i was not in the story, but like i was multiple layers separated away from the plot.
i truly cannot put my finger on why i did not enjoy this as much as i thought i would. it has everything going for it. fantasy. autistic rep. trans rep. gay rep. i truly am just hoping this is an issue regarding world-building for me, as i do love how andrew joseph white writes, with the phrasing and the topical slang ("yeet" had me give a good little chuckle lol). maybe if i come back and reread this, ill have a better experience, as i'll not be left in the dark. i don't know.

edit: just remembered some things i had to add! the ending felt rushed. i wanted maybe even just. an epilogue. but there were so many questions left.
also a lot of this book was confusing and explained through subtext. but the subtext was had to grasp for me. 

im so sorry i know everyone loves this book but i have 2 major gripes with it
1) im unable to connect with the characters. im sorry at 22% finished i should be able to tell you something new than whats on the blurb and i cant. they are incredibly one-dimensional. like they dont even HAVE NAMES AT THIS POINT IN THE BOOK!
2) the poetic language is taken too far. why was there an entire chapter about basketball and trauma? why was there an entire chapter about his father and yet i still fail to understand their relationship? like ok his dad didn't give him love.  but was he abusive? callous? he worked too hard? yeah sure his dad left him at a store once. ok. i still cant tell if his dad is an airhead or a douchebag. i should know and yet i dont. the over explanations of unnecessary events and yet the under explanation of the actual characters in this book is difficult for me to get through.

what the hell 🔥
no but seriously. what the hell just happened
this is way too short of a book to understand wtf i just read
like im still wrapping my head around it, and honestly, i think i might have to read a couple of other reviews to try and understand what happened
like i get the narrator is in the dark. but therefore we are in the dark.
sure i felt the perpetual dread, but because the narrator is so god-awful at explaining what is happening, i had no idea.
like if you asked me what the ending was. i would have no response. because i don't know
sure that confusion may be some people's cup of tea. but not mine. i like to know what ive read.
anyways i liked the beginning. i did like how sentences sometimes finished in the middle and an entire new paragraph ended. the middle was pleasant. the ending was incredibly rushed. granted that's what you get for 114 pages but still. 
anyways um i actually cant say more because what can you say about a book so short!
i will say though i do want to try reading some of kehlmann's other works in the future. i generally did enjoy his writing! i just fear this was too short to be fleshed out in an appealing way to me.

edit (5/2/2024): i was too nice to this book so ive dropped it a star as i realised i didnt actually enjoy this at all

oh that was delectable.

ok so i will admit. i am a baby greek mythology consumer. before this i knew barely anything - i knew of the minotaur, and “read” the odyssey last year (no i didn’t i got 30 pages in and closed it and then pretended i read it for my year 12 literature class…. i ate that essay up)

anyways i can solemnly say this book has actually turned me into a greek mythology lover. wow did i love the way miller wrote.

her writing seems to have this lyrical quality of it that seems like she herself is immortal, like circe. honestly i could read her work for days.

also the way she made some stories beginner friendly? chefs kiss.

i was so enthralled in circe’s life, i couldn’t stop thinking about her. granted my insanity for the twilight series was unmatched, but i have banned myself from twilight for a while. and in the meantime circe has taken its place in my noggin.

god i cant gush about this book enough

now the question is…. why is it only a four star?

i found this so ooo ooo o fucking hard to read for like the first 150 pages. not because it’s boring! oh no! because it reads like i’m trying to read an untranslated bible. granted it works for the book! if it was written any other way i would be a little bitch about it! but the reason i dnf’d the odyssey wasn’t because i was bored, but because the writing style was like trying to read 30 layers of subtext in one sentence. this book had less of that, but i would spent ages reading a page. i’d say i’m a quick reader, but genuinely i would spend 5 minutes on each page. like just having to wrap my head around some of the phrasing being used made my noggin want to explode. i think over time i will get used to it if i keep reading books in this same style (is style the right word idk), but for this being my first book of its kind it was a doozy!

anyways shout out to medea what a bad bitch.