mothumn's Reviews (377)

ARC REVIEW
This was such a treat to read! This is the type of book that sticks with you from when you had it read to you as a child all the way into adulthood, the type of book that you would keep with you long past you having grown out of it. The artwork is intricate and eye-catching, it's engaging for small children to admire but very impressive to adults as well. The story as well is heartwarming and important, with writing that is easy to understand the meaning of for small children and also very effective. This is definitely a book that I would love to have for my nieces and nephews and all the other young ones in my family and I will definitely look out for this as well as the author's other works in stores when shopping for them. Even though I’m an adult and well past the target audience for this story, I still adored it and would highly recommend this.

Arc Review
If you enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this is definitely the book for you. Especially if you enjoyed the old Hollywood rags to riches story with a complex and flawed protagonist, I think you’ll enjoy this. This had a very similar feel, but with a darker atmosphere and an addition of magic.

I really enjoyed the character of Lulu and her story. She was definitely very flawed and maybe morally grey, except I’m not quite sure what makes a character that. I did feel at times that the other characters could have used more complexity and depth but it didn’t take too much away from the story seeing as its focus was very much on Lulu. 

I found the magical element to be a very interesting addition but unfortunately it didn’t seem too important to the story. I think it either could’ve been done away with completely or built upon more so that it didn’t feel so much like just a side though thrown in. 

The writing really stood out for me however, it captured the atmosphere and the voice of the character excellently. I felt that the conversation on race, class, and queerness was done really well and clearly by an author who knows what they are talking about. It was added smoothly to the story and was made central to the plot in a way that felt justified.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and thought the writing and story was really well done. I would definitely recommend this to others and am interested to check out more of Nghi Vo’s work.

Very cliche and unoriginal, the writing wasnt bad but not enough to keep me interested 

Arc review for audiobook
Young Mungo is beautifully written and heartbreaking to read. I read Douglas Stuart’s first novel, Shuggie Bain, earlier this year and loved it, but I think that Young Mungo is somehow even better. So much is captured, both beauty and ugliness, violence and hatred and also love. It was at times difficult to read, I had to put it down for a bit because of what happened in it. But it was a very good, but difficult, read. Douglas Stuart is an incredibly talented writer who is able to capture the beauty in what many people would only see as ugly.

I also received an arc for the audiobook which I played along while reading. I don’t have much to say about it, I thought having a Scottish narrator helped to transport you into the story. Although at some points I felt the narration was a bit flat and lacked emotion, overall I didn’t have much of an effect on my reading experience.

hello maddie if ur seeing this 

ARC REVIEW

Thank you to Flatiron books and Melissa Albert for the advanced copy of Our Crooked Hearts in return for an honest review. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to read this ahead of publication, The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert’s other book, was one of the few books that I actually read in High School when I had a hard time reading anything and I absolutely loved it. 

Our Crooked Hearts follows Ivy and her mother Dana in duel timelines, the before and after of an event from Dana’s life (that I will not reveal it’s a big spoiler). I usually enjoy duel timelines but lately I have found that they’ve become a popular thing to use in books and often don’t really make sense to the actual story, but it definitely made sense and was done really well here. There were often hints at things that happened in the past or would happen in the future, it made it fun to try and gather these hints and try to figure out what was happening. The switches from past to present were also very seamless and didn’t feel confusing at all, there were never any instances where I wasn’t sure which timeline I was in. I really enjoyed how slowly the two timelines met at one point and it all made sense and fit together. The timelines were used expertly and effectively.

I also really loved the witchy vibes but in a summery coastal town setting. It felt different from most witchy books that always take place in the fall or early spring. It was very refreshing and worked well with the story. For fans of The Craft or Bunny, this has more modern witches and teenagers messing with magic that they don’t fully understand, with a unique story that I think you’ll enjoy. The writing was well written and descriptive, it really helped to transport you to this town. I really felt like I was there, driving down backroads on a summer night, or wandering around a 7/11 to escape the heat. Melissa Albert is very talented at descriptive writing and Our Crooked Hearts is no exception. 

It is a YA story which I know some people don’t like, however you can really tell when an author actually understands that age range, and here I found the dialogue never had that cringy, definitely written by someone who isn’t a teenager, type of writing. There’s no weird ‘teenage slang’ that no teenager would ever say, it always feels very real. In Our Crooked Hearts as well as The Hazel Wood, the teenagers always feel just like real teenagers. They real grown people but they also make the dumb choices and mistakes that teenagers do, she never makes them feel weirdly adult or way too immature that they’re not believable. When it came to the actual individual characters, I thought Ivy was a fairly good protagonist but I did wish Dana was a bit more flushed out. I found she lacked much personality and her friends seemed to overshadow her which was disappointing because I think she had a lot of potential. While I think the characters were believable as teenagers, I also think they could’ve been more developed. I would’ve loved to see Billy have more of a backstory and for him to be more than just a love interest and an aid to Ivy and the plot. I would also have loved to see more Hank, what was he doing this whole time lol.

The narrators for the audiobook did an excellent job of capturing the atmosphere and taking these characters from the page and making them feel real. Listening to the story elevated the experience and added to the tension and mysteriousness. I had read the book already once on my own, but listening to the audiobook made me enjoy it even more than I already did. I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to pick up this title to listen to the audiobook alongside.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4.5/5, the only thing I would’ve liked better was more character depth as I mentioned. The story was gripping and fast paced, with many twists and turns. I was constantly guessing at what would happen next and was each time shocked at what actually happened, and yet each reveal made sense and if you looked back you could see the clever hints hidden within the story. The audiobook was atmospheric and really just transported you right into the story. The ending wrapped it all up and was very satisfying. I can’t wait to read what’s next from Melissa Albert.

Our Crooked Hearts is out June 28!

ARC REVIEW

I don’t often read poetry and find some poetry difficult to understand what they’re trying to say but I found this collection to be quite accessible to the average reader while still being well written. I liked the themes throughout, ‘Duolingo’ and ‘Grow Your Own Little Forest’ stood out to me the most. I did find some of them to be a bit repetitive and to flow into one another in a way that made some of them difficult to distinguish from the other. Though I wouldn’t say it was that bad of an issue or took away from it very much. Overall, I thought this was a good collection that I would recommend especially to those trying to get into poetry.