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mousereads's Reviews (2.14k)
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will be posted on my blog on October 11th, 2021
Caitlin Starling is a master at crafting a tale in which the words themselves are beautiful. Of course, the plot itself was fantastic. However, Starling uses creative phrasings to create a world in which you are enraptured. This is a slow build-up to insanity, and it was done incredibly well.
Jane Lawrence is the perfect main character for this book. Her life is ruled by numbers, rules, and logic. This is truly tested throughout the book. Her husband, and catalyst, Augustine was both loveable and frustrating. He wanted to do what was best for Jane, but he consistently was selfish in his own guilt and grief.
This is one of those books in which reviewing its contents is tricky when you do not want to spoil the story. The pacing was interesting, as it would seem to come to a peak and then lull, in a way that tricked you into feeling safe. Overall, this was a fantastic horror story that kept me on my toes and gave me the ending I wanted.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My full review will be posted on my blog on October 11th, 2021
Caitlin Starling is a master at crafting a tale in which the words themselves are beautiful. Of course, the plot itself was fantastic. However, Starling uses creative phrasings to create a world in which you are enraptured. This is a slow build-up to insanity, and it was done incredibly well.
Jane Lawrence is the perfect main character for this book. Her life is ruled by numbers, rules, and logic. This is truly tested throughout the book. Her husband, and catalyst, Augustine was both loveable and frustrating. He wanted to do what was best for Jane, but he consistently was selfish in his own guilt and grief.
This is one of those books in which reviewing its contents is tricky when you do not want to spoil the story. The pacing was interesting, as it would seem to come to a peak and then lull, in a way that tricked you into feeling safe. Overall, this was a fantastic horror story that kept me on my toes and gave me the ending I wanted.
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this book with the expectation that it would be practical routines and ideas for everyday magic, as the blurb stated. However, what I got was a collection of the authors blog posts about self-care. It feels as though it fell into any other mindfulness practice based book or blog, and very minimally about magical practice. I can recognize where there is magic in the mundane, and the self-care. This has already been heavily apart of my own practice. I expected there to be something new and refreshing here, but I didn’t find any of it.
There was also a heavy focus on the “woman who does x” or “the divine feminine” and so on- I don’t identify as a woman. I don’t identify within the gender binary. Which makes these statements feel as though they are no applicable to me- even with the afterthought that was often added to these statements. There was also a focus on the deity Eros, and Greek deities as a whole. I don’t work with this group, which also felt like it was not applicable to me.
That’s alright, I’ve ready plenty of magical books that didn’t feel like I could relate to them- but they didn’t bring anything new to the table with this one.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I went into this book with the expectation that it would be practical routines and ideas for everyday magic, as the blurb stated. However, what I got was a collection of the authors blog posts about self-care. It feels as though it fell into any other mindfulness practice based book or blog, and very minimally about magical practice. I can recognize where there is magic in the mundane, and the self-care. This has already been heavily apart of my own practice. I expected there to be something new and refreshing here, but I didn’t find any of it.
There was also a heavy focus on the “woman who does x” or “the divine feminine” and so on- I don’t identify as a woman. I don’t identify within the gender binary. Which makes these statements feel as though they are no applicable to me- even with the afterthought that was often added to these statements. There was also a focus on the deity Eros, and Greek deities as a whole. I don’t work with this group, which also felt like it was not applicable to me.
That’s alright, I’ve ready plenty of magical books that didn’t feel like I could relate to them- but they didn’t bring anything new to the table with this one.
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Cold was an interesting thriller, in that the POV writing was a bit unique. We transitioned from the first and third person, depending on the chapter. Our third-person writing was from the ghost perspective, and I've personally never seen this done before. With this story specifically, when this worked it really worked, and when it didn't...it was bad. Tamaki's prose is incredible, and it really shows from the ghost perspective. However, from Georgia's perspective, some of this prose feels detached from the character's personality. Not that we really even get to understand much of her personality, to begin with.
For a ghost story, unfortunately, this wasn't particularly scary or even sad. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters, and the mystery was an easily solvable one. Everything was very surface level, and I think with more in-depth character development, I would have been able to feel a bit more about the whole thing. This wasn't the case, though, and thus the 3-star rating.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Cold was an interesting thriller, in that the POV writing was a bit unique. We transitioned from the first and third person, depending on the chapter. Our third-person writing was from the ghost perspective, and I've personally never seen this done before. With this story specifically, when this worked it really worked, and when it didn't...it was bad. Tamaki's prose is incredible, and it really shows from the ghost perspective. However, from Georgia's perspective, some of this prose feels detached from the character's personality. Not that we really even get to understand much of her personality, to begin with.
For a ghost story, unfortunately, this wasn't particularly scary or even sad. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters, and the mystery was an easily solvable one. Everything was very surface level, and I think with more in-depth character development, I would have been able to feel a bit more about the whole thing. This wasn't the case, though, and thus the 3-star rating.
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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 Stars, rounded up!
This was a really fun historical thriller. There were moments where the pacing was a bit off for me, but I still enjoyed it a lot. I also really appreciated that our main character really stuck to her primary wants and needs with regards to the entire plot, not letting romance become a focus. However, the mystery is a bit easy to solve early on, and that really limited my ability to enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 Stars, rounded up!
This was a really fun historical thriller. There were moments where the pacing was a bit off for me, but I still enjoyed it a lot. I also really appreciated that our main character really stuck to her primary wants and needs with regards to the entire plot, not letting romance become a focus. However, the mystery is a bit easy to solve early on, and that really limited my ability to enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
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BLOG|INSTAGRAM|TWITTER|YOUTUBE
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book surprised me with how interesting and fast-paced it was. I was worried that it would quickly become a contemporary-based story around cults, but then we got into the chapters about Teacher, and I had a physical reaction. The details in this story are gritty and horrifying. Yet, it's the backstory that truly would create the ultimate recipe for a toxic wellness-based cult. I found our main character in the first half less interesting, but as the plot developed, things got more and more intriguing. Personality-wise, though, she still falls flat. She is not nearly as interesting as her sister- which turns out to be, more or less, the point. This was hard to put down, and incredibly enjoyable for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book surprised me with how interesting and fast-paced it was. I was worried that it would quickly become a contemporary-based story around cults, but then we got into the chapters about Teacher, and I had a physical reaction. The details in this story are gritty and horrifying. Yet, it's the backstory that truly would create the ultimate recipe for a toxic wellness-based cult. I found our main character in the first half less interesting, but as the plot developed, things got more and more intriguing. Personality-wise, though, she still falls flat. She is not nearly as interesting as her sister- which turns out to be, more or less, the point. This was hard to put down, and incredibly enjoyable for me.