whatthedeuce's Reviews (1.39k)

Jade City

Fonda Lee

4.25

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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

Good Dirt

Charmaine Wilkerson

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The Dream Hotel

Laila Lalami

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

Blood Over Bright Haven

M.L. Wang

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Sarah Wynn-Williams

4.0

challenging informative sad tense medium-paced

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are egomaniacs who have not only allowed but encouraged and facilitated the uprise of far right political parties all over the world cuz of their greed and desire for power. FB sounds like an absolute nightmare to work for, and it needs to be monitored and investigated thoroughly by the American government.

The Coin

Yasmin Zaher

1.0

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I honestly have zero clue what the fuck I just read.

The Teller of Small Fortunes

Julie Leong

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Empire of Shadows

Jacquelyn Benson

4.0

adventurous funny informative lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I honestly would’ve preferred that one of the leads be a person of color because otherwise a series like this inevitably feels white savior-ish. I chose to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Ellie in my head, which felt more satisfying even though I know a Black woman (especially a dark-skinned one) would’ve been even vastly more hindered from scholarly pursuits back then than a white woman was. I definitely appreciated the disavowal of imperialism and colonialism by both Ellie and Adam throughout the book.

Two Twisted Crowns

Rachel Gillig

DID NOT FINISH: 12%

So fucking boring that my eyes were glazing over, and I absolutely didn’t feel like reading a whole romance between

Elm and Ione

, honestly. I already didn’t care enough about

Elspeth and Ravyn’s romance in the first book

The Marriage Act

John Marrs

4.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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