dbguide2's Reviews (863)

 Apparently this is meant to be a fast-paced book – I definitely did not get that vibe. As with Goth Girl, I really tried to push myself to read and like this book, and I eventually decided this was not worth it. I really liked that it was diverse and I enjoyed seeing the Bronx rather than New York or another standard American setting – especially when they added a bit of history – that I did enjoy. That was sort of all that I enjoyed about the book. 

The book didn’t scare me – I love horror movies so when I read a horror book I want that same feeling. I unfortunately didn’t feel the same way, which might’ve been another reason for my dnf – that I couldn’t get into the book because the horror wasn’t enough for me. 

Even though I got to nearly 60% I still felt like I didn’t know anything about the characters, and yet I had been given a lot of information about them. I think the writing was fine enough, I just couldn’t find anything about… anything to really dig into the story and enjoy. Much like Goth Girl, this will find their audience and others will enjoy it. 

I really wanted to like this one. I pushed nearly to 50 percent – which is quite far as usually I know by 10 or 20% if it’s a book for me – but I kept trying to make it work for me. It had a cute cover, it looked like it was about something important and apparently it did find its audience – which is great! I’m glad that it was able to mean something for someone – just not for me. 

It read like a book I could easily find in back in 2010s. We’re nearing the end of 2022 (still cant believe that) and reading this really felt like I was a teen again reading cringey reads. By cringey I mean unnecessary stereotyping of various characters just because they’re a cheerleader? A pretty girl must be one that has no ‘real’ thoughts and so on – I was very unimpressed and that was a big reason for me not wanting to read anymore. 

I also didn’t like the style of writing – it contributed to my dislike of the book and also made it feel like a book stuck in the 2010s. It’s not that I didn’t like Jess, I I just didn’t think much of her because of how she saw everyone else. And okay, sure, I understand how that’s not her fault, her circumstances are much different and all that – but even that didn’t help my feelings towards her/the book. 

 Hello, new best book ever. Definitely a favourite of this year. Amongst many. I think I’ll have to sort them by age range and category. This for sure would fall under the YA Horror category. And book by an author I’ve read before. I very much recommend it. And all of Marshall’s other books (even though I’ve only read two books now). 

Ever since I read Rules for Vanishing some time back (maybe 2019?) I knew that this author would be a firm favourite of mine. She once again proved it with These Fleeting Shadows and will further prove it when I get to her other books. 

The blurb for this is The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out. I still haven’t watched Knives Out but Hill House is one of my favourite TV series so I had high hopes it would deliver on that – it absolutely did and much more. It actually made me want to rewatch Hill House straight away (which I’ve done now 

The writing was absolutely phenomenal. It drew me in, it kept me captivated throughout the entire book. I never felt bored, I never felt like the writing was boring me. I always thank the book thoroughly when the writing doesn’t bore me – you will too when you go from a boring book to an exciting one. 

Helen is the main character of the story and I love her so much. There was a moment at the start of the book where I thought I wouldn’t really like her but that quickly turned around and I did love her immensely. She’s a strong character, stronger than she thinks she is. She’s curious (but also how curious do you want to be in a horror story?) and that helps her to be a stronger character. She’s a bit apprehensive when it comes to relationships (who could blame her, though) although she improves at that as the book carries on. 

The house is also the other main character in this. Which might not make sense but if you’re familiar with a lot of haunted house stories (or have watched The Haunting of Hill House), you know what I mean. The house has a rich history (albeit bad), there’s a lot of stories that have happened in the house, countless of people who have lived and died in that house. That all makes it as much of a main character as Helen. It has its own agendas, its own story to tell. It has secrets that it reveals to us and to Helen. 

The family and the family dynamics that we get in this book was written so well. You get to know the family and (eventually) the secrets, but there’s still so much you don’t know, or could know about the family. All that just adds to the mysteriousness of everything – the book, the house, the plot – so well. Also I would not like to be in this family. Married in, biologically, legally adopted, basically part of the family (like you have your preferred mug and you do chores). 

As I did with Rules for Vanishing, I read most of These Fleeting Shadows late at night – as in after midnight. I recommend and I also do not recommend doing that. It’s scary and the writing and the plot just make it so much scarier so maybe don’t read it late at night? But also to me it just elevated the reading experience that much more. I also listened to the Hill House soundtrack while I was reading the book, to further push the vibes of Hill House. That I do recommend – it was quite fun. 

Bryony was an absolute delight to meet and get to know. I’m always for the quirky characters, the ones that other people always think of as weird – probably because that that’s me. She knew who she was and she wasn’t afraid to just be herself, plus she encouraged Helen to be more of herself too. 

The book is more than just a family and a house and secrets. It’s about knowing yourself. Who you are on the outside versus you on the inside and how you portray yourself to be. It’s about not letting other people decide who you are. It’s about acknowledging who you are. 

I moved from wanting to give this book 4 stars or 3 stars a couple of times. I finally decided on 3 and a half stars. It’s not to say that I didn’t like this, I really did! It just also confused me a lot.

What I mean when I say ‘it confused me’ I meant that the comps are The Sun is Also a Star meets Jumanji. Now I’ve never read The Sun is Also a Star, and neither have I watched it (it’s been adapted into a movie this year? Last year?). But I love Jumanji. I’ve watched the original multiple times and the new sequels a couple of times. I love all of them. But I think I focused too much on the Jumanji side of the comp when I should’ve focused on the other side – even if I’ve never read the other comp.

Yes, this does have the fantasy element in it but also I wanted more? I did really enjoy the utter absurdity of snow falling in the airport and plants growing everywhere. Their phones being permanently on 100% and anytime they tried to post about what was happening – they just couldn’t. Like was it the airport somehow stopping them? Who knows and I quite liked that! I like the writing and that the author wrote an omniscient third person point of view. That was definitely different than other books I’ve read (I don’t even know of any other). There was often a feeling of show, don’t tell (meaning it felt like the author just described everything rather than letting the reader read about it), and I’m not a big fan of that.

The plot was interesting (even though I wanted more 😄). I did however become annoyed a lot of times as I’m like “do they not… think it’s super weird to have snow falling IN the airport? Why are they just walking around and holding hands?

I liked the characters enough, even though James and Michelle were instalove – not a favourite of mine, unfortunately. I like to build up to the relationship most of the time. It’s rare that I’ll enjoy an instalove and that’s usually due to the writing style or the plot/characters.

I also didn’t like their voices or personality as much as I had hoped to. Michelle felt like she was written as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Or like she only watches foreign art films and her favourite thing is to go to old bookstores – that type of quirky, I’m not like other girls vibe. She also kept giving all of these big speeches to James even though she’s just 2 years older than him. But other than that I liked her fierceness. She had plans and she wanted to fulfil them. I could get behind that!

I liked James a lot. He was funny and I liked that he just didn’t really know what he wanted to do a lot of times. Which, I know, is probably a weird thing to say, but I liked that. I would actually want to see more characters not knowing what their next step is – in any genre.

Unfortunately in this instance I would not be walking around with a stranger 😆. No matter how hot they are! I’ll be trying to get back to my parents. Like there has to be service stairs or normal stairs? Something the staff uses or a back entrance? I’d make a huge fuss over it so I think I would’ve liked to have seen that in the book.

There was a Harry Potter reference (referring to a Boggart) and you could’ve literally just replaced it with a normal shapeshifter and the reader would’ve understood? 

Another really quick read and another one that I really loved! I hope I can carry on with these quick reads that I really love. This one was a heartfelt, sweet read about two friends falling in love.

As I’ve said before, I’m just not really a fan of the friends-to-lovers but I think it’s due to how it’s normally written. Luckily it wasn’t the case in Nate Plus One. I very much enjoyed the trope and definitely would’ve liked the book to have been longer. Even if it would just have been more South African things to fill the pages.

Speaking of South African things, I loved seeing all the nods and little things – even if they didn’t come down to Cape Town (I live near Cape Town and I don’t remember Durban very well).

I laughed when they heard ‘robots’ and were very confused because, yes, we do call traffic lights robots. (don’t ask why, I don’t know why). I loved they included a braai (like a barbeque, but just better) but I would have loved the braai to be longer – both as in more written and chronologically longer. It’s a running joke that braais take forever. You could go to a friend’s house at 2pm and only eat the cookd food around 11pm. I’m quite serious.

There was a point where the aunt explained a Hadeda to the boys and I laughed because they’re absolutely awful and I hate them. On another ‘South African note’ the book mentioned Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu can be seen walking around with his wife. Tutu passed away last year, and so did Leah (his wife)… But also we don’t know which year the book is set in so they might still be alive?

The plot was unfortunately a bit over the place and confusing. The synopsis made it seem like there would be fake dating? And even as I read, I kept waiting for them to start up their fake dating agreement, but it never happened?

And when they got to South Africa the plot also fell apart a bit? It’s like it didn’t know what part of the plot to work on. That didn’t deter me from loving the book, so I’m glad about that!

While I loved what we were given, I do think the book would be better if it were longer. Even 50 pages would’ve been very helpful. Either more adventures in South Africa – them eating rusks, them eating biltong. Or even more bonding with Nate’s family (except for the homophobic uncle. YOU, I hope loadshedding hits you at every turn).

I loved the close friendship of Nate and Jai and the way it quickly turned into a sweet relationship! It felt natural, super sweet, like they’ll have cute moments with each other in the future! They also treat each other like equals and that’s a favourite thing of mine to see in relationships.

Asterisks indicate my favourite ones.

*Silver and Gold by Natasha Ngan – 5 stars! This was so good! The spider squid sounded absolutely terrifying and I never want to see anything like that. I really enjoyed the characters and loved how they played off each other.

*Five Stars by Amy Spalding – Just like the title says – 5 stars! So so so good! I love Amy Spalding and this was so funny 😂😂😂 I would’ve died and also grabbed anything to possibly defend myself. I totally understand being too anxious to say anything. Represent!

Unfortunately, Blobs Do Not Eat Snacks by Rebecca Kim Well – 4 stars. MAGES, MAGE SCHOOL. I did like this. I didn’t like the whole confessing things under influence. I know thats the trope… But I dont like it. I wouldve starred it 3 but magic!

Edges by Ashley Herring Blake – 3 stars. Cute but not enough to capture me and interest me much.


*What Makes Us Heroes by Julian Winters – 5 stars! I mean, Julian Winters, so of course. It was all so cute and I more than likely squealed my way through it all.

*And by Hannah Moskowitz – 5 stars. Really really cute!!! Such a soft introduction into polyam and a natural change from 2 in a relationship to 3. And also, yes, that love triangle resulted in polyam because yes!! Those typical love triangles in books aren’t even proper love triangles!

My Best Friend’s Girl by Sara Farizan – 2 stars. I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t like the plot either. Hal was a weak character and I sort of didn’t believe he could be a hero? Like his character just didn’t fit the personality – superhero or ‘normal’. And not like the usual ‘oh the superhero isn’t a superhero once they’re not in costume’ – no, that’s totally different.

(Fairy) Like Attracts Like by Claire Kann – 1 star. I struggled to get through this. Glad this was a short story. I couldn’t get into the story and had no connections to the characters. The story makes no sense as well?


These Strings by Lilliam Rivera – 2 stars. I’m all for girls doing what they wanna do. It’s not 3 stars because I didn’t like the language – the narration and writing.

*The Passover Date by Laura Silverman – 5 stars. This was so super cute! It’s a little… CHEESY but that’s exactly why I liked it. Silverman does it again!!

Bloom by Rebecca Barrow – 1 star. It was very confusing, especially as this is a short story so you wouldnt expect to find so much world-building here


*Teed Up by Gloria Chao – I know absolutely zero about golf (because I find it really boring lol) but this was absolutely 5 stars and gorgeous!! I loved the discussion about pressure, especially from your parents, and I think even more when you’re a woc in a very male-dominated area.

I love Liam. He was so nice and proud of Sunny and wanted her to succeed – but ONLY if it’s what she actually wanted.

*Boys Noise by Mason Deaver – 5 stars!! So so good!! I love boy band books and this one was so so good! I loved it so much!

*Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Malinda Lo – 5 stars! So so sweet!! Loved the characters 😌😌

Disaster by Rebecca Podos – 2 stars. I liked the concept but it wasn’t written well enough for me to go wow and everything.