sicksadlit's Reviews (527)

"Why are you so good to me though? I know I'm your niece, but we hadn't seen each other in so long."
"Because I love you, Takako." He said is without any hint of embarrassment. He seemed almost distracted. "I know, for you, I might be some relative you don't know that well but for me it's different. For me, you're an angel."

I LOVED this book. I wanted a cozy, sweet, Japanese read and that is what this book delivered in spades.

It was quite short and the storyline was simple. It clearly reads as a translated works with unusual language choices that can feel a little jarring, but for me, that is what added to the charm of this beautiful story.

Knowing that it was originally written in Japanese, and being able to identify many of the cultural nods and idiosyncrasies made me smile and in the end, I found myself tearing up with the profound weight of the message. It surprised me that I could be brought to tears by such a simple story, but I think that's what made it so powerful.

This is a story about family. About books. About facing your fears and feeling your emotions.

I related to Takako so many times, particularly when all she wanted to do was pull the covers of her futon over her head and sleep through the rest of her days.

In those moments, I wish I had an Uncle Satoru to love me unconditionally and pull me out of my thoughts and back to the surface.

This is a story I know I will return to and reread time and time again when I need a cozy reminder of what truly matters in life.

WASTE MY TIME 2K24

HOW did Donna Tartt write this at just 29 years old?! 

 

 

Never before have I read a novel where the world is painted so vividly, that it feels like rather than reading the story as an outsider, you’re actually inside the book watching each scene play out. 

 

I felt I could almost reach out and touch Richard, and he feverishly slept off the effects of alcohol and narcotics combined. Or smell the earthy, wet mud, caked into the knees of Henry’s pants. 

 

The writing is truly exquisite. 

 

Nothing in this book is there without a reason. Every single word exists to move the story along. 

 

There’s not a ton of dialogue, but Donna Tartt so expertly designs each scene that the characters are already leaping off the page and those careful, curated moments of dialogue only further reinforce each character’s motivations and desires. 

 

I can see why people don’t like this book. It’s a slow burn from start to end. But I do believe that those that don’t like it are (I’m sorry to offend but it’s true) missing the point entirely, as well as missing out on a true modern masterpiece. 

 

Donna Tartt is an artist and words are her medium. 

 

I have not read a book so expertly crafted,  perhaps ever, and I want to climb inside these pages and live within this book. 

 

Five stars. No notes. Sheer perfection. 

I liked this!

There were definitely some weird plot holes with Peyote and Cal’s storyline, Cal in particular. Like, what tf was up with her dad/ the General and who were the brothers and where did they come from and how did we get from the OG camp to that etc etc

But aside from that, I enjoyed this as an easy, entertaining read.

brb learning how to play chess.

Ok I loved the Chess setting of this book so much. It was fun and a pleasant change from the usual academia setting. But, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Ali Hazelwood. Her books always kick off with a hiss and roar and if there's one thing about Hazelwood, it's that she's gonna build the picture of her characters and their world QUICKLY and compellingly.

But where she falls short time and time again is exploring the complexity of any characters other than the main female lead, beyond the mid-point of the book.

Our main character, Mallory Greenleaf is an 18-year old auto mechanic who has taken on the responsibility of caring for her younger teenage sisters Darcy (12) and Sabrina (14). We learn that this is because Mallory's mother (I literally can't remember her name omg) has severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and as a freelance Technical Writer, is largely unable to work or raise her children due to her condition and their inability to afford adequate healthcare.

Mallory is a Chess prodigy who has sworn off the game for the last four years following an initially unknown and mysterious event involving her Chess-mentor/Father.

However, she agrees to participate in a charity tournament at the urging of her best friend Easton and takes the world by surprise as she easily wipes the floor with the current World Champion and #1 ranked Chess player, Nolan Sawyer.

 Fun premise! But truly halfway through the book, Easton disappeared off the face of the earth (returned later but BRIEFLY), with zero exploration to unpack this when the pair had apparently been best friends forever, and there is virtually no depth to Nolan and he truly serves as more of a plot device than a fully fleshed out character.

It is frustrating that after so many books, these same gaps with the character development keep coming up...

THAT BEING SAIDDDD, I will still read anything Ali Hazelwood writes because I cannot deny that it is fun escapism. And honestly, I have come to enjoy spotting the formula I can see she follows.

So, she's a 4 out of 5 for me.

I really wanted to like this!!! I did! 

The premise is interesting: 
Our lead Brooke is kidnapped off the street just moments from walking through her front door, held captive and forced to role-play her captor’s mother in this sick and twisted recreation of the old woman’s childhood. She’s been stuck there for 10 years. 

But sadly, right from the first page the text was riddled with cliches, it felt overly contrived and more like a high school creative writing experiment than a well-constructed and considered adult fiction novel. 

There is so little depth or exploration within any of the characters that not a single person is interesting or likeable. When new characters are introduced they are flat and two-dimensional with next to nothing by way of description of their appearance let alone their inner world and story.

I did not care about a single character in this book.

Not a single one. 

This was not a good book in my opinion which is a shame, and really boiled down to the writing not being expanded and explored deeply enough. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Ticking Tock Press, LLC for the advanced copy. I wish I had better news for you. 😂

Of the three of Ali Hazelwood's books that I've read, this one was my favourite.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into it based on the mixed reviews, but in my view, Love on the Brain had the most compelling plot that was driven by a decent mix of character development and storyline.

In all honesty, Ali's female lead characters are almost always the same but with a different name and slightly different quirks. But I felt much more drawn to Bee who had a lot more self-assured confidence and wasn't afraid of her own sexual desires. It was a good change of pace from the usually, almost annoying, uncertainty her other female leads tend to carry.

The trade off seemed to be that Levi, the male lead, took on those tendencies instead.

Of all Ali's male leads, Levi was sadly, my least favourite. I wished there was a hotter build of sexual tension in the first third of the book, and I felt Levi to be the most two-dimensional of all.

There wasn't as much character development either and it was disappointing to leave the arc of his messed up family unresolved.

We're introduced to Levi's family about three-quarters of the way through the book and it's meant to demonstrate why he acted so badly towards Bee in grad school and how far he's come since. But I felt there was a missed opportunity to circle back to the story of his family. There were loose threads around why his mother and brother behaved differently away from his father and what that would look like. 

I also wished we could have explored Levi's decision to seek therapy to unpack his childhood, to understand what the catalyst was that lead him there.

Levi had the most potential of all of Ali's male leads as a complex character with an interesting story arc that ultimately remained untapped and unresolved.

That brought the overall score down for me to a 3.5 from what would have been a 4.5.

Ali Hazelwood wrote in her author's note that she struggled to write this one and honestly, it shows. 

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but there were many moments that hit a lull, and I began to get frustrated with Elsie's naïveté/gullibility/plain stupidity?! For a doctor, she could be quite dumb a lot of the time which had me gripping the page in annoyance.

Elsie's tendency to mould and shape herself to suit whatever someone wants felt overly contrived and became her whole personality (along with eating nothing but cheese apparently). I wished Elsie had more meaningful, complex character traits that weren't just things she liked to eat or watch on tv.

Like many of Hazelwood's books, I felt there were unresolved plot lines. The biggest instance being the constant mention and build up of 'Kirk' who Cece is fake-dating. In almost every chapter there is a build in the story which we expect to get some sort of big, satisfying payoff around, some big reveal on who Kirk is. But it felt like Hazelwood rushed to finish the novel and "tied up" this loose thread in a throwaway paragraph which felt like a huge let down after getting so invested in this storyline throughout the book.

There's definitely a pattern of unresolved storylines across Ali Hazelwood's books and characters. Missed opportunities to explore the complexity of the characters that she does well to build in the first two thirds, but seems to lose track or give up in the final third.

Perhaps this book is just not meant to be taken that seriously, but taking the time to fully explore the characters immediately surrounding the female lead would result in an ultimately far more satisfying pay off.

Instead, I'm left a little disappointed.

That being said, I did especially like the conversation on normalising fake-dating as a side gig, as well as the extremely cute friendship between Elsie and Cece which was my favourite of all.