jarshi's Reviews (189)

The Oleander Sword

Tasha Suri

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I finished this book while eating cold chicken nuggets. I hope Malini thinks I’m gross :)

The Jasmine Throne

Tasha Suri

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Oh, I loved this! And I love Malini she's so hot I love women who are smarter than me.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Toshikazu Kawaguchi

4.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

Reading the endings of each of these stories felt like the emotional equivalent of being crushed by a steamroller. When I finished reading, it made me quietly sit down and contemplate the types of people that I want to write about and the interactions that they have.

Watchmen

Alan Moore

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Everyone in this story is highkey a terrible person.

The Genesis of Misery

Neon Yang

DID NOT FINISH: 20%

I don’t think I’m in the headspace to read this right now.

I noticed this in their Tensorate series too, sometimes Neon Yang’s prose is just… not good. It feels so clunky and complicated, and not in the enjoyable way that sci-fi and fantasy series can be. This is my own opinion of course.

Maybe I’ll pick this back up later. Maybe I won’t. Who knows!

The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

DID NOT FINISH: 20%

I don’t know it’s just giving me big “This was written by a man” vibes and I’m not super interested.

The Fifth Season

N.K. Jemisin

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The way the separate plotlines come together at the end of this book is so fucking satisfying.

Content Warnings

The Sunbearer Trials

Aiden Thomas

3.25

adventurous lighthearted 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: No

There were some aspects of characterization, world-building, and plot that don’t agree with my personal tastes. The writing was also kind of… meh in certain parts, which made some of the dramatic twists and emotional beats fall flat in my opinion. But overall, I thought the book was pretty good. Very cute.