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howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)
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I decided to go ahead and DNF this one at the 50% mark because it really wasn't for me, but it's also not a book I feel right about giving a negative rating because I'm sure it's going to make a lot of people very happy! It's so sugary sweet, so over the top with fluff and cuteness, that I felt like I was inside the heads of the two most wholesome, innocent people of all time... and again, while that's going to work very well for a LOT of readers, I was very bored and not having a lot of fun. As a queer woman, I love seeing happy queers, but I think I'm a little too dry and cynical to enjoy this level of fluff anymore. Ah, well. It's a cute story and I'm happy it exists, even if I'm not the right audience!
✨ Representation: both characters are non-binary/trans
✨ Representation: both characters are non-binary/trans
reflective
sad
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
I don't want to open my eyes and see a world without Sam. But sometimes you just wake up. No matter how hard you try not to.
You've Reached Sam is a story with an incredibly sad premise that should absolutely tug at the heartstrings, especially for readers who are prone to being very emotional (such as myself)... yet unfortunately, I feel that the writing rarely reached an emotive enough state to allow me to care very much about these characters and their tragedy.
I felt more empathy for Mika and the rest of Sam's family than anyone else, but honestly, my heart even broke more for Oliver than it did for Julie. I found her inner narrative very numb and flat for the first 70% or so of the story, though I did appreciate the tremendous amount of personal growth she underwent in the end. Despite Julie telling us about the massive amounts of pain and grief she is undergoing, we don't actually see that for a long time. The writing also struck me as a bit stilted and unnatural, with some of the dialogue not feeling organic.
I'm glad I read this story, and I think it will resonate with a lot of readers, but it fell a little short of the hype I'd built up for it in my head. That's okay, though - I think Dustin Thao shows a lot of promise here and I'll happily check out future works from this author!
✨ Representation: Sam and his family are Japanese; multiple BIPOC side characters; two queer side characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Minor: Alcohol
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you, too, grew up with a weird crush on Goliath from Gargoyles, this is probably for you.
This short story is definitely heavy on smut, but it also features some incredible yearning and a bit of angst that I sincerely need more of. I can't wait for the full story of Flint and Harbinger because in the short span of this story, I fell head-over-heels for both of them and I NEED more time with these two monstrous lil' beans.
This short story is definitely heavy on smut, but it also features some incredible yearning and a bit of angst that I sincerely need more of. I can't wait for the full story of Flint and Harbinger because in the short span of this story, I fell head-over-heels for both of them and I NEED more time with these two monstrous lil' beans.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Vomit
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Festering Ones kicks off with a bang, following our main character Faith as a child who's just been forced to sit helplessly by and watch her father get dragged off by some ungodly creature in the woods. Years pass, nobody believes Faith, and she grows up to try her best to forget what she saw — until her mother passes away, and her mother's belongings include documents that stir up old memories and questions for Faith. Naturally, she's always wondered what happened to her dad, so she sets off on a mission to discover the truth.
I love cult-themed stories, and this story in particular had some interesting twists surrounding the cult that I really enjoyed. The descriptions of the creatures are a lot of fun, and I was certainly kept in suspense a lot of the time. That said, the characters felt a bit flat to me (though I did love Sasha, who I kept picturing as Cybil Bennett from the Silent Hill movie) and I found myself a little frustrated with how many questions I was left with in the end. If there's ever a sequel, I'll be first in line to pick it up because I would LOVE more answers, but as it stands, the ending felt unreasonably abrupt.
Despite the loose ends left untied, I definitely recommend The Festering Ones for a quick, fun read, especially if you like cult horror, and I can't wait to read more from S.H. Cooper!
I love cult-themed stories, and this story in particular had some interesting twists surrounding the cult that I really enjoyed. The descriptions of the creatures are a lot of fun, and I was certainly kept in suspense a lot of the time. That said, the characters felt a bit flat to me (though I did love Sasha, who I kept picturing as Cybil Bennett from the Silent Hill movie) and I found myself a little frustrated with how many questions I was left with in the end. If there's ever a sequel, I'll be first in line to pick it up because I would LOVE more answers, but as it stands, the ending felt unreasonably abrupt.
Despite the loose ends left untied, I definitely recommend The Festering Ones for a quick, fun read, especially if you like cult horror, and I can't wait to read more from S.H. Cooper!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy
#0.1-#0.5 The Assassin’s Blade ★★★★★
#1 Throne of Glass ★★★★☆
A few weeks after Celaena discovers Arobynn’s treachery, she and Sam are living happily on their own, but there’s one problem: to leave Rifthold and Arobynn behind forever, they must leave the Assassin’s Guild, and that costs coins that are going to require one last, dangerous job. Just… see what I said about the last story: with SJM’s writing, sometimes you know something horrible is well on its way, but there’s nothing you can do besides waiting patiently for the heartache. I didn’t think I had grown quite so attached to the characters in this collection until reaching the end of this particular novella, but I found myself devastated and immediately wanting more. I think this was a brilliant story to end this collection on, and it cemented my beliefs that The Assassin’s Blade is the perfect opening to this series.
#0.1-#0.5 The Assassin’s Blade ★★★★★
#1 Throne of Glass ★★★★☆
Celaena thinks that she and her colleague Sam Cortland are being sent to meet the Pirate Lord to seek repayment for a slight he’s caused the King of the Assassins. Upon arrival, the teens learn that they’ve been tricked into an escort mission for a batch of slaves that Arobynn is hoping to sell. I thought this was an fantastic introduction to Celaena’s character, and it immediately made me fond of her as a protagonist. I loved that she was willing to risk her career and her name to free a few hundred strangers, and the ending set a wonderful stage for her relationship with Sam and his willingness to follow her, no matter the cost.
Assigned reading for MLIS 7421: Multicultural Youth Literature.
I don't know if the problem is me, this book, or just my expectations. I went into it expecting a standard nonfiction book, but what I received was a textbook on the history of North America, slightly watered down to be child-appropriate. It's factual, it's informative, it's not poorly written, it's just dreadfully boring. I found myself trudging through no more than a chapter at a time because it literally read like a school textbook, and if I wasn't assigned to read this for a class, I would have DNFed it within the first 100 pages.
Not only is it boring, it had so much of what seemed like filler material to me; there was a fair amount of repetition, and the author constantly quoted people, though rather than quoting them in a citation-friendly manner, it was usually worded like, "As an Irish peasant woman once said..." or "As a Native American chief once wrote..." Maybe it's a weird pet peeve of mine, but it kept reminding me of when you're a student writing an essay and trying to meet your word minimum, so you throw in arbitrary quotes that offer no value to the work and simply repeat what you've already paraphrased.
Mad respect for the author and his successes in life, and I definitely appreciate the fact that this exists, but I never want to read it ever again.
I don't know if the problem is me, this book, or just my expectations. I went into it expecting a standard nonfiction book, but what I received was a textbook on the history of North America, slightly watered down to be child-appropriate. It's factual, it's informative, it's not poorly written, it's just dreadfully boring. I found myself trudging through no more than a chapter at a time because it literally read like a school textbook, and if I wasn't assigned to read this for a class, I would have DNFed it within the first 100 pages.
Not only is it boring, it had so much of what seemed like filler material to me; there was a fair amount of repetition, and the author constantly quoted people, though rather than quoting them in a citation-friendly manner, it was usually worded like, "As an Irish peasant woman once said..." or "As a Native American chief once wrote..." Maybe it's a weird pet peeve of mine, but it kept reminding me of when you're a student writing an essay and trying to meet your word minimum, so you throw in arbitrary quotes that offer no value to the work and simply repeat what you've already paraphrased.
Mad respect for the author and his successes in life, and I definitely appreciate the fact that this exists, but I never want to read it ever again.
Assigned reading for MLIS 7421: Multicultural Youth Literature.
Gabi is the kind of story that really took me by surprise; I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this incredibly body-positive, sex-positive, feminist, heartwarming, gut-punch of a coming-of-age story. There is so much important content packed into such a quick read, which I couldn't help but appreciate, even if I didn't love all of the executions:
1. Fat rep: I have no idea if this rep is own-voice, but it felt authentic enough. She suffers constant shaming from her mother, aunt, and classmates, and lives in fear of her own skin. Did it feel honest? Yeah, absolutely - as a plus-size woman, I related so hard to everything and anything she said about her body. Was it healthy? No, not always. Gabi shows serious symptoms for an eating disorder with the extent that she takes her emotional eating to, but it's never addressed openly - it feels very swept under the rug, when her relationship with food is not healthy, nor does it automatically come with the territory of being fat.
2. Gay rep: Gabi's best friend Sebastian comes out at the beginning of the book, and we go through a bit of his struggles with his family coming to terms with his sexuality as he is actually kicked out of his home and moves in with Gabi for a little while, early in the book. I loved the rep for the first half of the book, but once it hit around the halfway mark, he became a background character who was almost never on screen unless it was to talk about sex or his boyfriend. I was just kind of bummed to see him reduced to what felt like a token character by the end.
3. Slut-shaming & teen pregnancy: There is a lot of slut-shaming or sex negativity throughout this book, from the very first page to the end of the story. This was actually the aspect that I thought was handled most efficiently, as we watch Gabi comes to terms with herself as a sexual being, and from the beginning, she has no tolerance for the viewpoint that any sexually active teen girl is immediately "trash", as many of the side characters seem to believe. This was, hands down, my favorite aspect of the book. There's even an abortion at one point during the story, which the character is never shamed for, and I appreciated seeing that in a YA novel, because it's a real, honest part of life that people need to stop putting such a heavy taboo upon.
4. Drug addiction: Gabi's father is a meth addict, and while we don't see a lot of his character, or what brought him to this point, we do get to view the whole dynamic from Gabi's point of view and watch her mourn the fact that she's basically watching her father waste away and become a stranger. It's totally heartbreaking.
5. Suicide: Major trigger warnings, there is a suicide in this book, and it's a pretty big point of the second half or so of Gabi's story. It's never known if it is intentional or accidental, but it's hard to read and comes out of left field. I was listening to the audiobook while cleaning when it hit the point at which the person's body is found, and I literally had to stop and just absorb the blow for a few minutes because it is so sudden and heartbreaking. I think it's handled really well, though, especially when Gabi decides to write letters to the deceased character, telling them how much she misses and loves them, and that she will remember the good times. This, too, was one of the most gorgeous facets to Gabi.
6. Race: I'm not a Latinx woman, so I can't speak to this rep, but I loved reading it. I enjoyed how casual the use of Spanish was, without the author feeling the need to translate or explain (and thereby "other" the characters speaking it). I loved the descriptions of the delicious foods, and the culture, even when the topics were a bit more painful in that aspect.
7. Rape: There is a rape in this book that occurs off-screen. I had a feeling it was coming from the beginning of the book, but it still hurt my heart when it was revealed. I thought it was handled pretty well - Gabi actually attacks the rapist and outs the victim publicly, without consent, and it's addressed in a way that forces Gabi to recognize that it wasn't her story to tell, and she betrayed the trust of a loved one. I thought this was such an important detail to add, and really appreciated it.
All in all, when it came to tough topics, this story was full of them, and it executed most of them well; however, the problem I faced was that there was so much happening in such a short span of pages that each issue felt glossed over very quickly, for the most part. I think the book would have benefited from either another 50 pages, or one less talking point, just so we could've fleshed each facet out a bit better. That said, it was definitely an enjoyable (and quick!) read, and if you do pick this up (which I totally recommend, if it interests you!), I strongly suggest the audio format, as the narrator is a delight.
Gabi is the kind of story that really took me by surprise; I don't know what I was expecting, but it was not this incredibly body-positive, sex-positive, feminist, heartwarming, gut-punch of a coming-of-age story. There is so much important content packed into such a quick read, which I couldn't help but appreciate, even if I didn't love all of the executions:
1. Fat rep: I have no idea if this rep is own-voice, but it felt authentic enough. She suffers constant shaming from her mother, aunt, and classmates, and lives in fear of her own skin. Did it feel honest? Yeah, absolutely - as a plus-size woman, I related so hard to everything and anything she said about her body. Was it healthy? No, not always. Gabi shows serious symptoms for an eating disorder with the extent that she takes her emotional eating to, but it's never addressed openly - it feels very swept under the rug, when her relationship with food is not healthy, nor does it automatically come with the territory of being fat.
2. Gay rep: Gabi's best friend Sebastian comes out at the beginning of the book, and we go through a bit of his struggles with his family coming to terms with his sexuality as he is actually kicked out of his home and moves in with Gabi for a little while, early in the book. I loved the rep for the first half of the book, but once it hit around the halfway mark, he became a background character who was almost never on screen unless it was to talk about sex or his boyfriend. I was just kind of bummed to see him reduced to what felt like a token character by the end.
3. Slut-shaming & teen pregnancy: There is a lot of slut-shaming or sex negativity throughout this book, from the very first page to the end of the story. This was actually the aspect that I thought was handled most efficiently, as we watch Gabi comes to terms with herself as a sexual being, and from the beginning, she has no tolerance for the viewpoint that any sexually active teen girl is immediately "trash", as many of the side characters seem to believe. This was, hands down, my favorite aspect of the book. There's even an abortion at one point during the story, which the character is never shamed for, and I appreciated seeing that in a YA novel, because it's a real, honest part of life that people need to stop putting such a heavy taboo upon.
4. Drug addiction: Gabi's father is a meth addict, and while we don't see a lot of his character, or what brought him to this point, we do get to view the whole dynamic from Gabi's point of view and watch her mourn the fact that she's basically watching her father waste away and become a stranger. It's totally heartbreaking.
5. Suicide: Major trigger warnings, there is a suicide in this book, and it's a pretty big point of the second half or so of Gabi's story. It's never known if it is intentional or accidental, but it's hard to read and comes out of left field. I was listening to the audiobook while cleaning when it hit the point at which the person's body is found, and I literally had to stop and just absorb the blow for a few minutes because it is so sudden and heartbreaking. I think it's handled really well, though, especially when Gabi decides to write letters to the deceased character, telling them how much she misses and loves them, and that she will remember the good times. This, too, was one of the most gorgeous facets to Gabi.
6. Race: I'm not a Latinx woman, so I can't speak to this rep, but I loved reading it. I enjoyed how casual the use of Spanish was, without the author feeling the need to translate or explain (and thereby "other" the characters speaking it). I loved the descriptions of the delicious foods, and the culture, even when the topics were a bit more painful in that aspect.
7. Rape: There is a rape in this book that occurs off-screen. I had a feeling it was coming from the beginning of the book, but it still hurt my heart when it was revealed. I thought it was handled pretty well - Gabi actually attacks the rapist and outs the victim publicly, without consent, and it's addressed in a way that forces Gabi to recognize that it wasn't her story to tell, and she betrayed the trust of a loved one. I thought this was such an important detail to add, and really appreciated it.
All in all, when it came to tough topics, this story was full of them, and it executed most of them well; however, the problem I faced was that there was so much happening in such a short span of pages that each issue felt glossed over very quickly, for the most part. I think the book would have benefited from either another 50 pages, or one less talking point, just so we could've fleshed each facet out a bit better. That said, it was definitely an enjoyable (and quick!) read, and if you do pick this up (which I totally recommend, if it interests you!), I strongly suggest the audio format, as the narrator is a delight.