andat's reviews
363 reviews

What the Wife Knew by Darby Kane

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oooh, let me say this first. Darby Kane knows how to write a narcissistic mom. My skin crawled and I had to check myself more than a few times while reading this book. (It’s not from her experience as she notes on the dedication page, so she must have someone close to her that carries that particular trauma.) That right there is what sells this entire story and I am buying it wholesale. 

I love the flipping POV and even the time jumps are flawless as we find out just who (and how many) wants to kill Addison’s new husband, and how they were able to beat her to it. I tried guessing the twists and I couldn’t settle on one theory that would stick. I usually spoil myself (thanks ADHD brain) but this time…I got nothing. Now look, you’re gonna light on who probably did it early on. That’s not the mystery though. It’s all the little pieces falling in, the whole did what and set what part of the chain into action. Every single layer adds on to the big picture and it is delicious. And the last cherry on top, that is the twist that pulls it all into view. 

It’s fast, twisty, dark and oh so satisfying to read. Do yourself a favor and indulge in a little “eat the rich” murder mystery. You won’t be sorry you did!
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Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

I had been warned that this book will rip your heart out. I considered myself adequately warned. I dove in and planned to write a bit on the magic system. I loved the simplicity of the base magic that then built on almost a programming language with code, coordinates, and specific action limited around set parameters. I thought it was brilliant to layer in our modernity to something arcane and wild. And don’t get me wrong, it still is. 

But there’s a question posed around the mid point of the book. If two men die, one that intended good throughout his life only to have all his actions cause suffering and harm and one that went through life deliberately intending suffering and harm but those around him benefited from his actions, which man would be considered good? (I’ve butchered it but you get the gist.) That moral and philosophical dilemma is the crux of the entire system (magically and societally). And I’m just sitting here, gobsmacked because it’s so perfect and so complex that I can’t think of any other story that takes this question and weaves it so elegantly into a narrative. It’s brilliant, it’s beautiful, and it’s so, so brutal. 

“I’m not your glory, I’m your penance.”

Consider yourself warned, your heart will break. And you won’t want it any other way. 
Babel by R.F. Kuang

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I came into this book blind. I had heard it was good but nothing outside of it being dark academia with magic. But that doesn’t do it justice. It’s magic, it’s power, it’s how we use words and what they mean to the people we say them to. It’s the voices that say them and what they truly mean. 

Words can, and should change the world. 

I am also now convinced that R. F. Kuang can not write a bad book, even if she tried.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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challenging dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I picked this up because I had heard so many good things about this author and this book specifically. Reading the blurb it seemed like high-quality science fiction. And it is. What it does not tell you is that you are going to spend a large amount of time following the evolutionary advancements of a fucking tribe and planet of spiders. Spiders! (Shudder). I get it, it’s supposed to be about evolution after humans have destroyed their planet. But did it really have to be spiders!?!?

The sheer amount of research this must have taken on spiders and their socialization, breeding, reproduction, and colonies is staggering. Unfortunately the sections with the upgraded sentient spider population are exceptionally boring and dry. I found myself skimming to get back to the crew on Gilgamesh more often than not. 

It’s strictly middle of the road read for me. (Also still not happy about the spiders, evolutionary allegory or not.) I love the idea, but the execution gets a little too social commentary/ preachy for me to be fully immersed. I don’t think I’ll continue with the rest of the series.

Fucking spiders, man. 
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Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Everything here was perfect, except for me, and so they made me leave instead of changing enough to let me be perfect, too.”

I’d wondered if we’d ever get to see Kade’s world, and in this book we do. Beautiful and bittersweet, just like Kade. My heart breaks for him all over again. 

Vineta’s true colors came flying out in this one. Her flip from caring to cruel once Antsy was no longer useful to her was mind-boggling. (Tell me you lived with a narcissist parent without telling me you lived with a narcissistic parent. Right down to pitting the compliant and eager to please younger child against the one wise to the BS.) This one hit me just as hard as the last. Each story is more complex, more emotional than the last. Hurt people hurt people. But that’s not an excuse to keep hurting people. I love how Mislaid in Parts Half-Known ends, each of them a little older and a little wiser. 
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

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dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

McGuire’s Wayward Children series always has a tinge of sadness, a tribute to mourning the loss of childhood innocence. 

This one though. This one comes with a trigger warning. Grooming behavior and adult gaslighting, and bless the author for being up front and assuring the readers no harm comes to our main character. It’s clear she writes from experience (even if you skipped the dedication). I physically had to shake myself as the adult in Lost in the Moment and Found gaslights 6-year-old Antsy. The machinations of the stepfather to alienate and isolate her from her mother made my skin crawl. It was too vivid, too close to reality, too close to my own history. I had to remind myself that Antsy runs before anything happens and to keep reading. For that alone, this author wins my everlasting respect. Capturing that moment in a way that was so real and so validating. After all, what sane adult picks a fight with a 6-year-old?

Antsy finds herself through her own door and into the shop of lost things. Much of the story here can’t be revealed or discussed as it deals with not just Antsy but the mechanism around the Doors themselves. It’s beautiful, it’s mournful, and it’s truly about being lost in the moment and then found. 
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Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Shadow and Bone was fast and action-packed. Siege and Storm moved the story along and got Alina, Mal, and Nikolai where they needed to be. Ruin and Rising, that is where Leigh Bardugo cuts your damn heart out and feeds it to you. Despite reading this series out of order I still got blindsided by the revelations in the last quarter of the book. I got slammed, thrown around, and eviscerated and here I am begging for more. Damn you, Bardugo. Why do you hurt us so good?

I’m sad to leave the Grishaverse behind. You never do capture the delight and wonder of a first read twice, and this has been a hell of a ride. 

(Also where is my Inej duology? Please? Don’t make us beg. But also we will beg.)
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was fully expecting this to start out like The Bone Season, which was heavy with backstory and world-building. Nope. This one launches you straight in and gods help you if you can’t catch up. Paige is back in the mime-lord realm and struggling against the new world order and her trauma in Sheol I. Twists and turns abound, and we get a healthy dose of Jaxson and his shifty self. This is an edge of the seat read with will she or won’t she in just about every chapter. I am thoroughly sunk in this world! Onto the next!
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.
I wanted to like this. I was even excited for this to come out. 100 pages in and I hate it. It’s slow, it reads like a history textbook narrative and there’s no character building. And why was he so focused on their meals. Every. Single. Meal. I can’t do it. It’s a DNF for me. 
Winter by Marissa Meyer

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

5.0

Nope. I am not ready. I refuse to accept that this is the end of the Lunar Chronicles. The last book has been filled with laughs, love, friendships, heart-stopping action, betrayal and double crosses. 

Right this instant I am procrastinating instead of reading the final 10 pages of this 824 page conclusion. I can’t do it. I can’t say goodbye. This book (and series) has been such a welcome break from reality. It gives you the right amount of fairytale sweetness to the daring adventure of the team trying to bring the rightful queen to the throne and save the world. It’s been a true joy to read this series. my hat is off to Marissa Meyer for writing this story that I didn’t know I needed. Thank you for treating these princesses like the royalty they are.