bookedbymadeline's reviews
929 reviews

I’m stuck between giving this 3 stars or 2.5 stars so for now it’s a 3. Strange writing style at times, occasionally telling over showing and the attempts at humor felt so out of place I ended up rolling my eyes.

Feels less like horror and more like fantasy in the beginning because of the fake country and  language, with Alex going on monologues about Gallacian pronouns. But it’s too short and not enough world building to be fantasy as the MC assumes we know things “as I’m sure you read in the Galician periodical” LIKE NO WE HAVENT BECAUSE ITS MADE UP TELL US?! While also not being scary enough for me to consider it horror-it is creepy but only for a very short time. I’d say it’s less horror and more gothic mystery as most horror I’ve read give me genuine nightmares and this was just eh 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Made it feel like the book was trying to do too much in such a short amount of pages. I think if the made up country and language was abandoned while keeping the queer rep, instead using the already established they/them pronouns, it could’ve been more focused on the mystery (or horror for some I guess)!

I didn’t love it or hate it, it’s a story that was engaging enough while reading it, and despite my initial desire to DNF it did get better by the 3rd/4th chapter. I didn’t have any strong feelings while reading most of it nor any strong opinions after finishing feeling like “that was it?” by the end. so for that it lacked in execution trying to juggle too many things making it a forgettable read as a result.

If you want something in a similar vein but that actually executes it well, I’d recommend reading Mexican Gothic instead. The author herself mentions it and why she set this book aside feeling like she couldn’t do a better job…she was right. She also mentions in the authors note that she hated how in the OG Fall of the House of Usher there weren’t explanations for things AND YET SHE ALSO DOESNT GIVE EXPLANATIONS! So much potential for this retelling but alas 

Love and Fury is the story of Mary Wollstonecraft’s life as she tells it to her newborn daughter, Mary Shelley. The novel is told in switching POVs between Mary Wollstonecraft and her midwife, Mrs B.

They have very distinct voices with Mary’s told in first person since she’s telling the story of her life to her daughter. And Mrs B chapters are told in third person POV. Mary W’s chapters are also told using different language/word choices which can be harder to understand at times. Silva is very talented in being able to write in two such distinct voices and use the language typical of Wollstonecraft’s time, through the dialogue. Although it was hard to understand at times and made me feel confused or overwhelmed 🙊

I did enjoy Silva’s crafting of our two main characters and watching them develop throughout the book! She also does a great job of building the historical world/time period without bogging it down with too many details; it’s just enough to feel fully immersed without being overloaded/bored.

Because I read on my phone I was often distracted so it took a lot longer to finish this than I normally would have for such a short book! Fell off a bit in the second half especially as it got to be more philosophical and meandering at times, which caused the novel to drag especially during Mary W’s chapters as they were much longer. I was also disappointed that we don’t get the story of how Mary and William Godwin (Shelley’s father) fall in love! Although it did have a decent ending line, even if I wish we got a bit more of Wollstonecraft’s life story prior to Mary being born.

This is a Historical literary fiction but the historical aspect is more the time period, I’d argue it leans more towards lit fic in terms of the writing style! I’d recommend it for literary fiction lovers and say historical fiction fans will only enjoy it if they also like literary fiction. Also recommend if you want a story about motherhood, womanhood, and strong women fighting to reclaim their power and make their mark on the world!

Many are comparing it to Hamnet which I haven’t read yet but hope to at some point! Overall it was a beautiful, moving story that made me really excited to read Wollstonecraft’s work!

TW/CW: childbirth, medical trauma, blood, infertility, child abuse, rape, animal death (brief mention), animal cruelty, alcoholism, chronic illness, child death, death, grief, bigotry, colonialism (brief mention), violence, depression, suicide attempt, sexism

Love that there’s content warnings at the start of the book!

It’s a spicy romantasy but I love that she gives the option that if you don’t want the spice scenes, she tells you exactly which chapters to skip that won’t affect the overall plot.

Unfortunately though this was a DNF. A bit too much telling over showing for my taste, and the dialogue felt unnatural at time. Nearly 100 pages in and I still didn’t care much about the characters or what was happening, I never felt fully engaged so just not for me.

Thanks to the author for the ARC

Tropes: fae, shifters, enemies to lovers, found family, why choose

Rep: bi MC, non-binary side character 

A fun, quick read perfect for the Halloween season! This is a YA fantasy inspired by Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, following the events after the movie. 

It could be repetitive and cheesy at times. Also based on the synopsis it’s not at all what I was expecting but it was still entertaining. I enjoyed the first half better than the second half! It’s definitely one of those “I said I liked it, I didn’t say it was good” type books 😂 you can turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride but it’s not some incredibly written masterpiece.

If you’re a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and don’t mind cheesy writing then I’d recommend it!

Pulled in by the beginning and I didn’t want to put it down! This is told in first person narration, as we follow our FMC Bodie reflecting on the past as well as her own culpability in having a career around true crime. 

She says “you” often which was both confusing and intriguing at first but eventually we learn who she’s talking to. Really thought provoking and complicated characters. There’s so much gray area and unlikeable moments that I had mixed feelings about the characters, especially Bodie herself! 

Some things did feel unnecessary? Like the MC romance with an Israeli guy was so random and the film class descriptions with references to classic films; It felt like the book was trying to do too much at once.

One of the subplots involving Bodie’s hypocrisy around victim hood and assault made me uncomfortable but was such an interesting exploration on things like “how do you define abuse? What would you do if a loved one was accused? How ethical is true crime as a genre?” Because for Bodie it’s literally her job to look at young women killed in Hollywood and mistreated/abused by men and she’s reflecting on the past where a young girl is killed by an older man she’s rumored to be involved with, so it positions how she views these things as wrong but then gets angry and defensive at the accusations against her sort of husband and accusing people of not understanding what “ACTUAL assault” looks like.

Intriguing, complicated explorations on grooming, abuse/assault of women, ethical issues around true crime, the US justice system and reliability on our collective memories! So many gray areas that make you think, and feel uncomfortable, but so important as well.

Overall I really enjoyed the issues brought up and even though I very often didn’t like Bodie, I couldn’t put this down! 

The first Hendrix book I’ve DNFd 😭 it’s just sooo bad! It’s overly descriptive with a whole lot of nothing. The synopsis sounded amazing, classic crossroads deal of selling your soul to the devil for fame?! But the first 3 chapters are just the main character going about her shitty life as a hotel clerk. This sentence was the nail in the coffin for me: “her brain was in neutral, stewing in a skull full of sleep juice, and she could feel the sleepy smell rising up from her chest.” Nothing grabbed me and I was so bored and irritated with the amount of minute details that didn’t lead to any sort of plot set up or character development

Thank you to netgalley and Harper Muse for the eARC.

This was a DNF because I honestly just couldn’t care enough about the characters or story to finish. It’s supposed to be about 3 different women but we really only get Demetria POV for most of what I’ve read. The other two aren’t fleshed out/ one dimensional, and I wished we had gotten to know them better/see them more! By part 2 I still wasn’t engaged and kept putting it down to read other books so I ended up DNFing after not feeling excited to get back to it. I’m sure many others will enjoy it more than me! 

I love epistolary novels and this sounded really interesting and unique! Unfortunately the execution was lacking for me. Through the use of obituaries and dictionary entries, it feels mashed together rather than a cohesive story. From reading reviews I understand now that the AI is the narrator reading through these articles/stories but that’s not being made clear. There’s no break between these entries to allow us to make a connection or get to know the narrator (AI Peregrine). The detached storytelling style and lack of cohesion led me to feeling confused and bored so for that I DNFd the book-great idea, poor execution 

I love the mixed media with the podcast and articles throughout the story! This was an excellent retelling of the horror classic “Carrie” in which our FMC Maddy has telekinetic powers that erupt after years of bullying and racial prejudice.

Jackson writes a moving account on issues like bullying and racism in this small town to the point where I felt enraged and sad on Maddy’s behalf. I loved the plot twists and thought it was well-paced! 

We get a few POVs from different characters, some of which were infuriating/annoying. Because of the number of POVs plus the podcast/newspaper articles and transcripts, we didn’t get to know Maddy as well as I would’ve liked!  

 I also wish we got more about Maddy’s background with her family because it’s alluded to at times but could’ve gone deeper. Lastly the romance felt very rushed and kind of out of the blue.

Overall this was a fantastic retelling and perfect YA horror/thriller for Halloween! Very much a “supporting women’s wrongs/female rage” book

The writing style isn’t working for me and my own tastes. The writing is choppy and repetitive, plus the dialogue feels unnatural/forced. There’s a lot of telling through the dialogue as opposed to showing. I really wanted to like this book and sounded up my alley but the writing style just isn’t for me