djreads's Reviews (577)

Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Tomi Adeyemi

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Meh 🫤

Murder is a Piece of Cake

Valerie Burns

3.25

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Light, funny, but don’t think too hard

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder

Valerie Burns

3.5

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Good story, funny cast of characters, but a few unforgivable plot holes! Will still continue this series.

Viva Durant and the Mystery at the Masquerade Ball

Ashli St. Armant

4.0

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Magic Has No Borders

Samira Ahmed, Sona Charaipotra

3.5

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

The Bandit Queens

Parini Shroff

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Disclaimer: this is a review that is not helpful if you’re reading it to decide if you might like this book. This review is more for my own recollection than anything else. It’s best to just skip it. There are many things I liked and disliked about this book. Foremost, I’m not sure why so many people listed it as funny. There may have been a slightly dark humor funny part or two but I picked it up specifically because it’s supposedly funny and was sorely disappointed by it not being. I thought it was triggering and frustrating and sad and many many things but not funny. It elicited many negative emotions for me, especially after the halfway point. None of that is to say that it wasn’t good, I think it was, and still I wish I hadn’t read it.

Content Warnings