245 reviews by:

parasolcrafter

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

this book is...fine. its not a standout, its not horrible boring; its simply fine. i think, overall, it suffered from characters with backstories that werent explored, personalities that were more or less flat, and an environment that wasnt used as well as it could have been; i literally forgot it took place in the 1920's for most of it because it wasnt very immersive :/ i also dont think the magic was used as well as it could have been; everything felt secondary to the plot which, itself, wasnt as good as it should have been. this book could have been so much better, which is really unfortunate :(
oh, and one thing that just struck me as weird is the way the author described sams body verged on being 'omg uwu hes chubby and soft uwu' which is something that annoys me personally.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

you know...i went into this book thinking i wouldnt like it as i HATE the only other book ive read by this author so i was pleasantly surprised to not hate it, but its not as if i liked it a bunch either :/
this book up until the last 7 or so chapters is just...a bunch of NOTHING happening aside from partying and drinking and drugs and horrible parenting and bad decisions on behalf of almost all the characters, and then its like everything starts happening simultaneously and none of it makes much sense at first because theres wasnt a gradual lead up of like...anything??? or, there was a lead up but it was so fukcing convoluted that it just ended up making things much more confusing. the hints that are dropped need hints to help understand them, i swear. the writing also isnt the best either. there are pockets of really good writing (i feel like the few snippets of poetry were really good, i would have liked more!!!) but for the most point its just kind of boring. and i guess its alright because this book is the first in a trilogy and it did sent things okay for more books, but just as the book is itself its definitely nothing special.
oh also i hated all the sexual scenes between the teens in this book. i dont wanna be reading about that!!!

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emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

i needed a good chunk of time to let this book sit with me because it was soooo impactful, and much more than i had prepared myself for. its just...living in its rawest state; learning to know a man in his own words as he comes to terms with his life in the past, present, but not future as hes very quickly dying...its a lot to read about but Paul Kalanithi had such a way with words and for that many people will always be grateful to him and he'll always be remembered. i wish the best to his family 💖

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emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this book was neither good nor bad, spectacular nor boring, annoying nor exciting. it is simply A Book that has A Story about A Guy like literally...i dont think i gained anything from this. i didnt lose anything either, but...its just such a nothing book. its a very weird full stream of consciousness narrated by a character who is annoying most of the time, gross at other times, and wholly sympathetic at other times as well. its...certainly very strange and i dont think it was necessarily executed in the best way, but i do think there is perhaps some nuance that couldnt be translated over, so maybe thats the biggest issue.

the ending was definitely my least favourite part. like he just up and leaves to tunisia? okay. sure. why the fuck not, i guess.

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

it always feels so odd to me, in some way, to talk about and rate memoirs because its somebodys life that youre, in essence, putting a number value on, so rather than try and do that ill just say that i loved the way Qian spoke about her life in the most intimate way that somebody can do; giving us the bad times, the good times, the scary times, and the times that maybe didnt paint her in the best light.

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challenging emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

this is another one of those books that ive read that i really dont know what to say because it really does speak for itself. i really appreciate how in depth it went into everything because North Korea really isnt a country i knew much about going into it and the atrocities that went on there, so this book is quite invaluable in the knowledge it has

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

im really not even sure what to say about this book because its just so...strange?? not in a bad way, but im just finding it hard to describe T~T its definitely not a bad book by any means and i loved the writing by this author but it was certainly a story all to itself. i do wish jean had been more like...exaggerated, i guess? like a part of me wishes she was more animated about killing her friends (please do not judge me on this) because i think it would have just added something more to the book if she were more of a caricature and less down to earth, but i guess she DOES want to be more practical so i understand why she was the way she was. this book though, man....... 

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i read this book mostly because i remember LOVING this series as a kid and i wanted to read it now that im older just for old times sake, and i have to say i really liked it! it was really interesting now, as an adult, to read about alice coming into her own after moving and starting a new school and with all the ups and downs that comes with, and also how she learns what it means to not judge a book by its cover and how someones outward appearance does not in any way tell you the kind of person they are.

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challenging emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

i will preface this by saying i didnt realize going into this that this book is geared towards younger readers so im not the target audience. that aside, i do think it was a very good read and i think it would be very effective at giving the right age group a book to read that they could a) identify with the characters strongly as theyre the same age, and b) its easy to read (not subject-wise, but the way its written is easy to follow!) and makes the subject matter more digestible (i dont think thats the proper words but i cant think of a better one) in a way that also doesnt trivialize the events of the book.

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dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

this book was SUCH a struggle to get through, my god. the author skirts around horror so much that none of the stories are actually scary at all; mysterious, yes, but scary??? not even in the least bit! they were all predictable and horribly boring. this is the second book by this author ive ever read and if this is what all her books are like i dont understand why people like her works so much. theyre not good. so glad im done with this!

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