simonlorden's Reviews (1.38k)

I received an ARC through NetGalley and my review is voluntary and honest.

This wasn't really scary or thrilling, just miserable. 

Amanda is a disabled war veteran with PTSD. Unfortunately, she is also abusive and delusional. In the first chapters of the book, she goes to the house of her ex-husband, who has told her he doesn't want to see her and doesn't want her anywhere near his two young children (who are not hers). He opens the door only partly, and she thinks about how that's stupid because doesn't he know that she could just break the door down if she wanted to go in? Despite this, she somehow acts offended when Patrick tells her that she scares him and he doesn't want to talk to her. Amanda then proceeds to spend most of the book thinking about Patrick and how he's being unfair and he should take her back and let her explain. I was 0% surprised when it was revealed that she hit him at least once. She's a walking collection of red flags.

The rest of the plot was mostly just miserable, with lots of bestial rape, mutilation, and Amanda's whole hometown being a religious cult. It could have been interesting, but it wasn't, and I was too annoyed by Amanda's pining over and blaming Patrick to really get into it.

CW: bestiality, rape, murder, death, mutilation, underage prostitution, drugs, dead babies, probably more

I received a copy through NetGalley and my review is voluntary and honest.

Unfortunately, I made it one quarter into this book, but it didn't manage to make me care about any of the characters or the world, and I found myself skimming more than actually reading, so I don't think I would like to continue. I think switching POV every chapter made it difficult to actually get to know or care about any of the characters, and there was too much worldbuilding information to process at once. But I also just didn't find either the dialogue or the descriptions very engaging.

To say something positive, my favourite POV from the parts I read was Ilumi, a young woman who leaves her tribe to move into the city and prove her intelligence and skill. I liked the descriptions of her culture shock on her first visit to Luminocity.

I received a copy through NetGalley and my review is voluntary and honest.

This book made me understand the hype about dark academia.

An Education in Malice follows two young women (20-21 years old) at an elite school who get tangled in a bloody relationship with both each other and their captivating poetry teacher. The book itself reads like poetry, full of electric prose and rich language. 

I was absolutely enamored from beginning to end, with Laura and Carmilla's developing relationship, and their attraction to Ms D. I also really appreciated the developing dom/sub dynamic between Laura and Carmilla.

If I have any complaint, it's that the ending surprisingly softened the professor/student relationship, when I was maybe led to expect something more complicated/darker.

Content warnings: professor/student relationship (no underage), blood, murder, sexual content, public sex, light D/s relationship

i think i might die if i have to read another smut scene in my native language

this was a cool book though. nothing beats two guys realizing the other is gay bc they recognized the same gay porn

I received a copy from the publisher and my review is voluntary and honest.

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't make myself finish it.  Somebody who doesn't get too caught up in the characters' anxiety would probably enjoy this book more than I did. Also, might help if you enjoy YA books - see my last note.

I liked the way polyamory was normalized in this future world, and I really loved Lane's relationship with her sister, her little flashbacks about cooking together and such. Those were nice.

The book is very diverse sexuality-wise and racially, although that diversity was sometimes introduced strangely. As one example: "that was before she had transitioned, just like X and Y", which was a pretty convenient but kind of weird way to reveal 3 characters as trans at once? Similar sentences to this happened with other marginalized characters.

Mostly though, I had to put this book aside because the constant frustration was affecting me. Most of this book is Lane's grief, anxiety, insecurities, and most of all her constant conflicts and frustrations with her parents. And it was just... not fun to read, I'm sorry. The sci-fi plot is really dwarfed in comparison to the (largely negative) emotions and inter-personal conflicts.

I was also annoyed by the part where I felt Lane used racial diversity as a weapon. No, actually, I don't think "it's weird that you're targeting a Black guy and his mixed girlfriend" is a good comeback when you literally also agree that the girl was acting suspicious.

As a last note, I imagine this is due to the protagonist being only 20 and quite sheltered, but emotionally and conflict-wise this felt a lot more like a YA book than an adult book. I don't believe YA books are inherently worse, but that wasn't what I was led to expect from this one.

I received an advanced copy through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

"I was very sad without you."

Oh, I loved this. The Fox Wife is a magical story about fox spirits, but also about a mother's love for her child, but also two love stories in one. I gasped when the lines between the two POV characters connected, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the reunion.

I loved the dynamic between the three foxes, and all the hints about their past that slowly forms a story, and the way the puzzle was gradually put together. I loved all the myths and magic around them, and the ending was just so soft and gentle, I won't quote it here because everyone should experience those final lines themselves.

My only complaint is that the three foxes didn't end up polyamorous like they absolutely should have (in my mind).

This book was okay, but so so so long and kind of slow.  I liked some of the twists and mystery, but I think I would have liked it more in 400 pages.  Also, Laura is truly a miserable person.

tw: murder, fatal car accident, child death, prostitution, drug use, more

Bess is a witch's daughter during the witch hunt, a doctor during Jack the Ripper's murders, and a doctor during the first world war. Those were my favourite parts, the lives of people in these historical periods, although the book was darker than I thought it would be. There's multiple explicit sexual assault scenes, as well as bloody murder and adults and children dying of the plague.

I have two pet peeves with this book that I couldn't get over while reading:
1. Idk what Publishers Weekly is on, but an immortal woman living linearly through 300 years is not time travel. This is not a time travel story.
2. The blurb in the book says the present-day timeline is in 2012, but in the book it's actually 2007.

These are both small things, but they felt like kind of lazy mistakes.

definitely a nice twist on the princess in the tower story