natreviews's Reviews (445)

I actually wanted to read the book "Things Have Gotten Worse Since The Last Time We Spoke", but all copies I can find have been sold out, and a new edition will be coming out soon, so I decided to read You've Lost a Lot of Blood in prep.

I do like how the stories come around in a circular way. This book is separated into three different story telling ways; a novella, poems, and audio tapes. I could see how the novella ended about half-way through. It took until the final audio tape though to understand some mistakes that were in the novella (words missing, character names not being how they should be, etc.). 

I would say this book would have probably been a 5/5 if I hadn't read Exquisite Corpse first. This book reminds me a lot of that. If you are too nervous/scared to read Exquisite Corpse, I highly recommend going with this novel first, seeing if you can handle the material, then moving on. It has a lot of similar themes, but is less mature and graphic than EC. 

A lot of this is the same as my last Pretty Little Liars review. This is getting the slightly less rating of 3.75 though because these parents are awful. Talk to your kids! Let your kids explain things, and don't just go zip it and be pissed off at them when you don't have the full context of things!

I really, really like this book. The cover and the catch that it was a book about a fictional cult originally got me, but it's so much more. This books deals with all (if not most) of the social issues faced in the Black community. I honestly don't want to speak too much about it as it's just a book you should read.

The reason why it didn't get 5/5 stars is because it falls a bit flat in the third act. After

Ollie's death

the book really slows down and tries to wrap itself up within the last 40 pages. It feels a bit rushed considering how the rest of the book is paced. 

So I originally started watching the show around the time season 4 came out (watched it on Netflix) and then stopped when the whole Ravenswood thing tried to happen. Now, after watching Mike's Mic doe his recap of the Pretty Little Liars TV Series, I decided to go back and read the books.

They are very 2006. Which is when the original story was published. So, ya, welcome back to the days of PSP's, CD's, and flip phones. Where BlackBerries are still a widely used thing and seeing 16-17 year old's smoke is normal. By the way, it's important to remember that in the flashbacks they're around 12-13, and in modern day they're around 16-17. Really makes a lot of the men, mainly Ezra and Wren super crusty looking back, and how both the books and the show tried to gaslight us that it's perfectly normal for a 16-17 year old to try and date a 24-25 year old. Yuck.

Anyways, this is a good book. It has good turns if you aren't familiar with the story, and I would say is a bit more mature than the show was. The target demographic I would say is 15-18 year old's who are just getting into mystery/murder novels. The first book is basically the first episode of the series (ya, they pretty much used one book for one episode), and it's going to be interesting to see where the series goes, as I've heard at some point after season 2 or 3 the book and the show diverge. 

I am planning on getting the rest of the books and reading them, as they are a nice quick read. Time will tell when that will happen though.

Very cool concept. It was one of those books that just hooks you in immediately. 

The only real issues with this is that you an tell it was written by a first time author. That's not saying it's badly written. You can tell that this was the authors first book, mainly by the language she uses. Again, not a bad thing. The main issues here is continuity. For example, in one scene two characters are talking at a counter, and then suddenly they're at a table leaning forward. This happens multiple times through the book, as well as some pages seem to be missing a paragraph or had a paragraph deleted and then the following one wasn't re-written. It doesn't ruin the story, but just makes it apparent that this is a book by a first time author.

That being said, I did already order the second book in the trilogy, and will be continuing reading this story.

So... I don't know what I just read. It started out really compelling, then in the final third just went off the rails. I really don't understand what just happened. I don't get it. After I finish writing this review, I'm going to look up an explanation for the ending.

Before the final act, it was good. The scary bits were super intense and played on my anxieties fears right away. Other than that, the book was really boring and was just people talking with nothing really going on. Then in the final act (a.k.a. the school) things just... stopped. Like, it stopped making sense. I really am confused as to what actually happened. 

Originally I picked this up for the cover. It's an amazingly beautiful cover and I am sometimes the person that does judge a book by it's cover before reading the story. This one was worth it.

I loved how not only did it focus on the perspectives of those in Troy, but those in Greece, blaming and not blaming both sides in the war. It's amazing how each perspective was written, different enough that each character had their own distinct voice, but similar to not break the flow of reading.

An excellent read that more people should pick up.

Okay. So this book. 
First, I saw the twist come right away. That's not a bad thing, but it was super predictable. By the end of the third chapter I knew what the twist was. This is because if you're familiar with the plot line and have seen any movie or read a book with the same plot line, it is super obvious.

The writing was a bit everywhere. You would have fourth wall breaks and the character was such a Nice Guy TM that he wasn't lovable, just okay most of the time and a dick the rest of the time.

I will say, the last line saved this book from being rated a 2.75. It did still the ending from <spoilers>Inception, where you don't know if they made it out or not</spoilers>, but it made sense and worked for the ending of this novel.

The last thing I'm going to say is that this dude didn't do any research into schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder (used to be referred to as multiple personality disorder, and is referred to as that in the book), and bipolar disorder. It's super obvious in how he writes <spoilers>the delusions and how long they last, plus what having multiple identities actually is like and how it works</spoilers> that he did no research. I mean if you're going to have those featured in your novel, you walk the extremally fine line of misrepresentation. This novel stepped about five steps over that line.

I originally picked it up since I thought it was a cool concept, I liked how it reminded me of the show Superstore, but I'd skip out on this one.

So another BookTok recommendation. I found this on a video labelled most disturbing books I've ever read and thought I would give it a go. To be honest, I didn't find it too disturbing. Pretty much, if you know the more gruesome details of the Jeffery Dahmer case (including pictures, I highly recommend the Murderous Minds episode on Dahmer) then you can handle this book. Speaking of, Dahmer was a huge inspiration for this story. Without going into too many details from the book, you have the picture taking, younger victim pool, PoC as victims, cannibalism aspects, plus an entire short scene that is pretty much straight from one victims account. (If you want to know the exact victims situation that got translated into this book, the victims name is Konerak Sinthasomphone)

It's told from four different perspectives. Three third-person, one first. Two murderers, one victim, and one the victims ex-lover. It was really interesting to read it this way. It was an interesting stylistic choice that actually ended up working. With also having the background set in 1990's New Orleans during the AIDs crisis, it's an interesting read just from a historical standpoint. 

I will give you the warning that you will need to read the last 60-100 pages in one sitting. On the final day/night the book takes place, it really ramps up and is just better in one sitting.

I gave this book a 5/5 not only for the story (because even though it's extremally disturbing, it still is a good story), but for how it's written. It's a read that is worth it if you can handle it, but, like Tender is the Flesh, is a book that I don't think I will read again. Once was enough in my opinion.

OH MY GOD THIS BOOK! This was another BookTok recommendation, and I'm so happy I followed up on it.

It's a Victorian/Regency era (not 100% sure which) sapphic scientific story. It is written brilliantly and it will captivate you from page 1. The plot twist at the end of the book was amazing and unexpected.

I know Olivia Waite has written 2 other books in this series so far (all standalone books, but all Victorian/Regency sapphic stories) and I honestly can't wat to read them. This book was very well written. I also thought romance novels weren't for me, but maybe it was just heteronormative romance novels.

For queer romance novels, I'm also thinking of letting you know if it's a Happy Ending or Bury Your Gays (a trope that was started in the early 1900's for same-sex relationship novels to be published; by publisher request the characters at the end had to either die, realize they were straight, or break up at the end. The first major publication to go against this was The Price of Salt or Carol). So...
Happy Ending or Bury Your Gays:

I'm happy to report it is a Happy Ending