Reviews by kristin_boren | The StoryGraph

318 reviews by:

kristin_boren

Tender Is the Flesh

Agustina Bazterrica

3.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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: Complicated

Is this maybe a book that was 5 stars in terms of writing, probably. But because this is a journal of sorts for me it gets 3 stars and I hated the way every moment of this book made me feel. It's good I guess but it's mostly disgusting and incredibly depressing. That doesn't make it a bad book just a bad book for me personally. So if you're into dystopian, government run cannibalism you might like this?

Twisted Love

Ana Huang

3.0

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

3.5
I believe a quote from Winston Schmidt of New Girl best sums up this book... "who let the dirty slut out of the slut house?"

But for real this is quality smut. It meets the two most important good smut qualifiers:
1. Truly bananas premise
2. Well written

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

As with anything written in the 1930s, some stuff is dated. The ending slaps though. She is the queen of mysteries.

Blink

Christopher Sebela

3.0

dark mysterious fast-paced

Very very cool illustrations. Unfortunately the story was genuinely confusing at times and I kept getting lost in spots. Great concept though and the illustrations are really something cool. I'd maybe rent this from the library rather than buy

Real Easy

Marie Rutkoski

3.0

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

3.5
Not a bad thriller honestly. Maybe too much time on side characters that really didn't matter at all. I did appreciate that the biggest focus of the book was on the lives of the victims and potential victims but I think there could have been a teensy more backstory on the killer. And I'm probably just dumb but I was genuinely pretty surprised by the killer reveal. Again though, I might just be stupid. Read it in a day so it is a fast read for sure. Changing perspectives moves the story along at a fast pace.

Carrie Soto Is Back

Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.0

emotional 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

I was genuinely pretty shocked by how much I enjoyed this story of a somewhat frustrating woman grappling with the idea of loss and pride. I didn't think the intense tennis focus would hold my attention but as per all TJR books the relationships at the heart of it all made me fall in love with everyone, including tennis.

Mister Magic

Kiersten White

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

You know when you read a book that just has that indescribable quality about it? This book was so unsettling in all the best possible ways. I read it in a day because I was HOOKED. I needed to know more, I wanted to discover the past as Val finds the little crumbs leading to answers. This book is eerie, unusual, and filled with love (like a shocking amount of it considering how you feel for most of the book). Worth the read for sure.

Someone Is Always Watching

Kelley Armstrong

3.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really liked the premise of this one. It started off pretty strong then lost a little momentum for awhile. It felt like the main characters kept doing the same thing for awhile without much purpose. It was definitely a fast read. Not bad, but not top of the class. Very mid.

Quietly Hostile

Samantha Irby

5.0

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Thank you netgalley and Vintage Anchor for this ARC.

THIS. WAS. FANTASTIC. So genuinely funny and such a unique voice. I really love a humor essay collection and this was without question one of the best I've ever read. Samantha Irby writes with the humor only someone with several traumatic life experiences is capable of. A deeply relatable essay collection to every tired, middle aged, fat lady (as noted by me a tired, middle aged, fat lady). Don't skip this book. Give it all the love and then keep it around to make you laugh when you remember life kinda sucks and it super hard all the time but at least Samantha Irby essay collections exist.

The Donut Trap

Julie Tieu

3.0

hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

3.5
Donut miss out on this sweet story! Very cute romance with lots of time spent on family dynamics and what it means to make your parents proud.

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