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obscurepages's Reviews (410)
I received an e-arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much Tor Teen!
Last Girls is a wonderfully written story that will take you for a thrilling ride, keep you on your toes, and surprise you until the end. It’s brilliant!
First of all, let me just say that all throughout the book, I kept thinking, “This would look so good as a movie!” or “Damn, I want to see this as a movie.”. Now that I think about it, I believe it’s because Last Girls has a unique and palpable suspense that will have the readers (or the viewers!) hold their breaths or clutch the armrest or send their minds reeling. From start to finish, the author managed to project that same suspense and tension onto me as the reader.
The characters were amazing, and not just the Juniper sisters, but the minor characters as well! Honey, Birdie, and Blue are tight knit; these sisters would do everything to stay together. I loved Honey’s protectiveness and determination, Birdie’s passion and spontaneity were something to behold, and Blue’s clairvoyance and calmness completed their dynamic relationship. As for the minor characters, Remy was just the sweetest, Ansel was a good guy caught up in a messy situation, and Toby’s determination added to the heartfelt touch of the story.
The plot was easy to follow, and it was also mysterious, suspenseful, and exciting! The Juniper sisters and their mother are preppers—people who are actively preparing for the end of the world every day. They just didn’t expect that the real and immediate danger would come from within their compound, and that’s where it gets interesting. I loved all the foreshadowing, tiny revelations, and little mysteries in this book! The author did such a good job with them, and I was always thinking about all those tiny details or I kept going back to certain parts of the book to confirm my suspicions and theories. I was so invested in them and it blew my mind every time I come across a plot twist or revelation.
I also loved the writing style of this book and the way the story was told. The story was mostly told in Honey’s perspective, but there were also a few chapters featuring Toby. At first, you might get confused and it may take a little while to build up, but the two perspectives will connect and the story line will have a whole new meaning. Best of all is that, at the core of Last Girls is the importance of family and sticking together no matter what. I loved that.
Check out my interview with the author here!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)
Last Girls is a wonderfully written story that will take you for a thrilling ride, keep you on your toes, and surprise you until the end. It’s brilliant!
First of all, let me just say that all throughout the book, I kept thinking, “This would look so good as a movie!” or “Damn, I want to see this as a movie.”. Now that I think about it, I believe it’s because Last Girls has a unique and palpable suspense that will have the readers (or the viewers!) hold their breaths or clutch the armrest or send their minds reeling. From start to finish, the author managed to project that same suspense and tension onto me as the reader.
The characters were amazing, and not just the Juniper sisters, but the minor characters as well! Honey, Birdie, and Blue are tight knit; these sisters would do everything to stay together. I loved Honey’s protectiveness and determination, Birdie’s passion and spontaneity were something to behold, and Blue’s clairvoyance and calmness completed their dynamic relationship. As for the minor characters, Remy was just the sweetest, Ansel was a good guy caught up in a messy situation, and Toby’s determination added to the heartfelt touch of the story.
The plot was easy to follow, and it was also mysterious, suspenseful, and exciting! The Juniper sisters and their mother are preppers—people who are actively preparing for the end of the world every day. They just didn’t expect that the real and immediate danger would come from within their compound, and that’s where it gets interesting. I loved all the foreshadowing, tiny revelations, and little mysteries in this book! The author did such a good job with them, and I was always thinking about all those tiny details or I kept going back to certain parts of the book to confirm my suspicions and theories. I was so invested in them and it blew my mind every time I come across a plot twist or revelation.
I also loved the writing style of this book and the way the story was told. The story was mostly told in Honey’s perspective, but there were also a few chapters featuring Toby. At first, you might get confused and it may take a little while to build up, but the two perspectives will connect and the story line will have a whole new meaning. Best of all is that, at the core of Last Girls is the importance of family and sticking together no matter what. I loved that.
Check out my interview with the author here!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)
QUICK THOUGHTS: It took a while to build up, but y'all, the last several chapters were W I L D. That was brilliantly done! I can't wait for the sequel!
Full review will be posted on my tour stop at the blog tour for A Song of Wraiths and Ruin hosted by The FFBC.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
Full review will be posted on my tour stop at the blog tour for A Song of Wraiths and Ruin hosted by The FFBC.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
QUICK THOUGHTS: This was amazing! I'm a little bit conflicted with the writing style, but the message and the core story of this book is just beautiful and powerful.
Full review will be posted soon on The Nerd Daily.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
Full review will be posted soon on The Nerd Daily.
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
Funny, wholesome, rich, diverse—all things that describe The Henna Wars. This queer contemporary romance will make your heart flutter.
~
I was so excited to read this book! An f/f romance YA novel with the rivals-to-lovers trope? Count me in!
The Henna Wars is funny and light, however, there are also moments that provoke emotions and keep the mind running. It’s the perfect balance for me! However, though the writing style is good, I can’t help but feel like something’s lacking. I kept waiting for something that will truly enthrall me.
Despite that, Nishat is a likeable and relatable main character and all throughout the book, I can’t help but feel for her. We see Nishat go through new feelings for this old friend and navigate the new, complicated relationship they found their selves in. We see her suffer through her parents’ conservative views. We see her deal with racist and ignorant schoolmates, we see her make mistakes and bad decisions. And we see her try to grasp the realness of her sexuality and the need to make her parents and other people realize that it’s still her and she hasn’t changed at all.
I also loved learning about the Bengali culture in this book—how Nishat’s family keeps their culture and tradition alive even though they’re not in Bangladesh anymore, and also how different lives and environment are.
The romance is good, although, I feel like Nishat fell for Flavia a little too fast. Not exactly insta-love, but she was quickly smitten.Although, maybe this is just me not liking the insta-love trope in general. In any case, the romance was cute and sweet (and of course, the tension!).
Bottom line is I really enjoyed reading this book and I just know others will, too!
Check out the book playlist I made for The Henna Wars here!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm as part of The Henna Wars Blog Tour.
~
I was so excited to read this book! An f/f romance YA novel with the rivals-to-lovers trope? Count me in!
The Henna Wars is funny and light, however, there are also moments that provoke emotions and keep the mind running. It’s the perfect balance for me! However, though the writing style is good, I can’t help but feel like something’s lacking. I kept waiting for something that will truly enthrall me.
Despite that, Nishat is a likeable and relatable main character and all throughout the book, I can’t help but feel for her. We see Nishat go through new feelings for this old friend and navigate the new, complicated relationship they found their selves in. We see her suffer through her parents’ conservative views. We see her deal with racist and ignorant schoolmates, we see her make mistakes and bad decisions. And we see her try to grasp the realness of her sexuality and the need to make her parents and other people realize that it’s still her and she hasn’t changed at all.
I also loved learning about the Bengali culture in this book—how Nishat’s family keeps their culture and tradition alive even though they’re not in Bangladesh anymore, and also how different lives and environment are.
The romance is good, although, I feel like Nishat fell for Flavia a little too fast. Not exactly insta-love, but she was quickly smitten.
Bottom line is I really enjoyed reading this book and I just know others will, too!
Check out the book playlist I made for The Henna Wars here!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm as part of The Henna Wars Blog Tour.
Camp is a wonderfully queer YA novel that will teach us not only how to be ourselves, but also to never let anyone’s prejudice define us. And also to kick toxic masculinity to the curb!
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First of all, Camp was funny and so wonderfully queer that I want to hold the physical copy in my hand and just hold it.
The writing was good; it was light-hearted and funny, and was able to give the reader a personal connection to the main character. I have to say though, I struggled to like Randy, especially in the early parts of the book. There were so many things wrong with his “I’m-going-to-change-myself-and-make-Hudson-fall-in-love-plan”, and more often than not I wanted to shake him and tell him, “No, you don’t need to do this!“. I also didn’t like that he seemed to have forgotten about his friends in the midst of going with this plan. I was really rooting for him to get that character development. And he did, mostly. While Randy achieved character development, I still feel like it lacked. I was waiting for him to acknowledge some of his own faults/wrongdoings, but it didn’t exactly meet my expectations.
I did love the other characters, though: George, Ashleigh, Paz, even Brad! I’ve been wary about Hudson since the first page(he likes only “straight-acting” guys, and I’m just appalled), but I did get to know him at the end of the book and he achieved character development, which was really nice.
Despite a few shortcomings, I loved the core message that Camp was trying to send to the readers. At the very heart of this book is the idea that we should not hide our true selves and succumb to the faulty logic of those who are narrow-minded. This particularly applies to those who think masculine gay guys are better than those who are gender nonconforming. This toxic masculinity is so much more harmful than we realize, and I’m so glad the author chose to tackle this in the book, and in Randy and Hudson’s story.
I also loved all the discussions about sexuality and the freedom of being queer depicted in the book. In a way, I felt like one of the characters, like I was at Camp Outland as well, and I could simply be me.
Overall, Camp was such a great read and it’s such a necessary book tackling necessary issues within the queer community.
~
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm as part of the Camp Blog Tour by The FFBC.
Find me: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
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First of all, Camp was funny and so wonderfully queer that I want to hold the physical copy in my hand and just hold it.
The writing was good; it was light-hearted and funny, and was able to give the reader a personal connection to the main character. I have to say though, I struggled to like Randy, especially in the early parts of the book. There were so many things wrong with his “I’m-going-to-change-myself-and-make-Hudson-fall-in-love-plan”, and more often than not I wanted to shake him and tell him, “No, you don’t need to do this!“. I also didn’t like that he seemed to have forgotten about his friends in the midst of going with this plan. I was really rooting for him to get that character development. And he did, mostly. While Randy achieved character development, I still feel like it lacked. I was waiting for him to acknowledge some of his own faults/wrongdoings, but it didn’t exactly meet my expectations.
I did love the other characters, though: George, Ashleigh, Paz, even Brad! I’ve been wary about Hudson since the first page
Despite a few shortcomings, I loved the core message that Camp was trying to send to the readers. At the very heart of this book is the idea that we should not hide our true selves and succumb to the faulty logic of those who are narrow-minded. This particularly applies to those who think masculine gay guys are better than those who are gender nonconforming. This toxic masculinity is so much more harmful than we realize, and I’m so glad the author chose to tackle this in the book, and in Randy and Hudson’s story.
I also loved all the discussions about sexuality and the freedom of being queer depicted in the book. In a way, I felt like one of the characters, like I was at Camp Outland as well, and I could simply be me.
Overall, Camp was such a great read and it’s such a necessary book tackling necessary issues within the queer community.
~
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm as part of the Camp Blog Tour by The FFBC.
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WOAH. This was so good! The writing style and the tone is chilling and melancholic, and although the plot seemed simple and short, it was still interesting and puzzling. The world-building and the fantasy element as a whole were also great! Oh, and I loved the asexual rep as well! I would love to physically read this though. I feel like I missed some details and I didn't appreciate it enough.
Though I feel like it lacked in plot and world-building, The Angel of the Crows is entertaining enough to get you invested. (Actual rating 3.5)
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The Angel of the Crows is a good read! Did it blow me away as I hoped it would? No. Was it entertaining? Definitely! Did I get invested with the characters? Oh, yes.
As a whole, the story was entertaining. But I’m going to be honest and say that it has no real or main plot. Maybe the part about Jack the Ripper was supposed to be the bigger picture in the story, but it felt disjointed. It also wasn’t fleshed out for me (or maybe I was just looking for closure since Jack the Ripper was never caught in real life and I wanted to see how the author will go about it). The whole book is a series of different cases taken by Doyle and Crow, and we see them meet various people and creatures and solve one problem after another. For me, this allowed the book to be character-focused. It’s not exactly character-driven per se (since there were various sub-plots that moved the story forward), but as a reader, I was able to focus on the characters and get to know them. I adored Doyle and Crow as individual characters, and I also loved their tandem!(I also keep seeing gay subtext between, but that could just be me.)
As for the world-building, oh how I craved for it. It was good, but I wanted more! Details about the other creatures are vague and lacking. There was enough background about angels, but as for the others, no.
To my surprise, there’s also LGBTQ+ rep in The Angel of the Crows.Doyle was assigned female at birth, and said he’s neither a man or a woman in the later part of the book (I presume this is in regards to his gender identity). Crow is also an asexual being, considering he is an angel and angels feel no sexual attractions. It was also stated that angels can be both male and female. Though it was nice to see these representations, I feel like the author could have expounded more on it.
The author also said in the Author’s Note, that this story began as a Sherlock wingfic. Now, I’m not a fan of Sherlock Holmes (because I’ve never read the book, watched the movies, or anything), but I am very familiar with fanfics (as a fanfic reader myself!) and it was another pleasant surprise for me! Wingfics are fanfictions where characters (usually human) are reimagined with wings. I thought it was great that the author managed to create this story from what was once a fanfic. On the other hand, this also made me understand others’ sentiments about this book being a Sherlock “retelling”.
Overall, The Angel of the Crows is wonderful read. And if you feel like this book will suck you in, please read it!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
~
The Angel of the Crows is a good read! Did it blow me away as I hoped it would? No. Was it entertaining? Definitely! Did I get invested with the characters? Oh, yes.
As a whole, the story was entertaining. But I’m going to be honest and say that it has no real or main plot. Maybe the part about Jack the Ripper was supposed to be the bigger picture in the story, but it felt disjointed. It also wasn’t fleshed out for me (or maybe I was just looking for closure since Jack the Ripper was never caught in real life and I wanted to see how the author will go about it). The whole book is a series of different cases taken by Doyle and Crow, and we see them meet various people and creatures and solve one problem after another. For me, this allowed the book to be character-focused. It’s not exactly character-driven per se (since there were various sub-plots that moved the story forward), but as a reader, I was able to focus on the characters and get to know them. I adored Doyle and Crow as individual characters, and I also loved their tandem!
As for the world-building, oh how I craved for it. It was good, but I wanted more! Details about the other creatures are vague and lacking. There was enough background about angels, but as for the others, no.
To my surprise, there’s also LGBTQ+ rep in The Angel of the Crows.
The author also said in the Author’s Note, that this story began as a Sherlock wingfic. Now, I’m not a fan of Sherlock Holmes (because I’ve never read the book, watched the movies, or anything), but I am very familiar with fanfics (as a fanfic reader myself!) and it was another pleasant surprise for me! Wingfics are fanfictions where characters (usually human) are reimagined with wings. I thought it was great that the author managed to create this story from what was once a fanfic. On the other hand, this also made me understand others’ sentiments about this book being a Sherlock “retelling”.
Overall, The Angel of the Crows is wonderful read. And if you feel like this book will suck you in, please read it!
(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm.)
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
What's the most perfect book that beautifully tackles gender and sexuality from childhood to adulthood, and why is it this book?
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING ? I can't believe I haven't read this earlier! Dean Atta really knows his craft. He knows how to steal the readers' breaths away and wow our minds with only his words. I loved everything about Michael's journey—his mistakes, his experiences, his self-realizations, his achievements, his drag queen person, everything! Plus, the way gender and sexuality is talked about in this book is just amazing, enlightening, and wholesome. Such an amazing read!
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING ? I can't believe I haven't read this earlier! Dean Atta really knows his craft. He knows how to steal the readers' breaths away and wow our minds with only his words. I loved everything about Michael's journey—his mistakes, his experiences, his self-realizations, his achievements, his drag queen person, everything! Plus, the way gender and sexuality is talked about in this book is just amazing, enlightening, and wholesome. Such an amazing read!
Find me elsewhere: Blog | Instagram | Twitter
