clairebartholomew549's reviews
693 reviews

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book centers on four different women: three wealthy women raised in Nigeria, two of whom live in America and one who still lives in Nigeria, and one of the women's housekeepers. Some of the book takes place during the first stages of the pandemic, but we jump around a lot. The plot is not really the engine of the book per se: each section is a deep dive into each of the women's lives and psyches.

I enjoyed this book and found its ruminations on racism and classism very interesting. Adichie really interrogates the ways in which the African American experience is so different from the African experience and how the world perceives each of the women. It did feel disjointed at times -Kadi's storyline could easily have been its own novel - and the emphasis on finding love felt a little off. But I did appreciate how deeply this book explores the ways we twist ourselves into pretzels to make romantic partners happy, and as always Adichie's writing is beautiful.

Also, lots and lots of trigger warnings here for gender and sexual violence in many forms.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A fascinating premise, done very well. In the somewhat near future (no year is specified, but it doesn't seem that far off from present day), surveillance is everywhere. Sara is a museum archivist with twin toddlers, returning from a business trip in London. She is stopped at LAX by "Risk Assessment" agents, who tell her that her dream data has been flagged because she's dreamed of killing her husband. She is baffled and pushes back, but she is put into "retention" for 21 days so she can get "risk score" back down. Of course, her sentence gets extended time and again.

This book reminded me of The School for Good Mothers, which I found utterly devastating and so impactful. Similarly to that book, we follow Sara as she adjusts to life in a place that is "not a prison," but so extremely strips away one's rights and humanity that the distinction has no meaning. Sara's every move is surveilled and interrogated, and the goalposts keep moving. Sara learns quickly that anything she and the other women do can be seen as defiant, and the attendants at the facility have such discretion that they can basically make up rules whenever they want. 

This is definitely a read that wore me down, but I found it fascinating and compulsively readable nonetheless. It's terrifying to think of our already horrible criminal system being made even more horrible by even more surveillance than we already have, and this book also made me think about how our conceptions of "normal" are entirely dictated by people with power. Of course that's not an original thought, but I thought Lalami did an amazing job of depicting how arbitrary it all feels. 

Sara's emotions about being away from her family, feeling betrayed and like no one trusts her, and being incredibly angry all resonated, and I really enjoyed her relationships with her fellow confinees. It's hard to describe this as enjoyable because so much of the book I wanted to punch every single person who worked at the facility, but Sara's revelations about state power and technological creep are really interesting, and the plot moves fast enough to keep you going. All in all, glad I read this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames

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

4.0

This book is aptly described as akin to Howl's Moving Castle: full of whimsy and dynamic world-building, this story follows Foss, a butcher's daughter in an unremarkable village, who becomes a sorcerer's housekeeper in his magical, ever-evolving house. For as long as anyone can remember, sorcerers and sorceresses have come to various villages and harvested people's hearts for their magic, which they use to protect the kingdom and its people. Foss falls victim to this and of course becomes embroiled in the kingdom's growing issues, and shenanigans ensue.

This book was so fun to read. The world-building was succinct yet detailed, Foss was an easy protagonist to root for, and the side characters were truly a joy. The pacing was great - a lot of times in fantasy romance books the last 25% is so jam-packed that you get lost and the emotional notes don't quite hit, but here the build felt natural and the stakes high. Eames does a wonderful job of maintaining a cozy atmosphere while not making it feel too schmaltzy, and the whole story feels very unique. I loved this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell

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

4.0

This book made me so excited for this coming summer in New York, which is a crazy thing to say considering how gross it gets here, lol. But this story is just brimming with appreciation for that quintessential New York feeling: you never know what the day will bring, and every neighborhood is so different. Sawyer and Nick's experiences of New York are so different, and through their summer Fridays spent together, they discover an entirely new New York.

Nick is kind of a douchebag (even filtered through the 1990s lens), but I was more interested in Sawyer's growth anyway, both in her career and her relationship. The chemistry and connection between Nick and Sawyer is very believable, and even though there are times where their choices are not the most sympathetic, Rindell does such a good job exploring the complexities of the characters that you root for them anyway. This was just an overall pleasant read.
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A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

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hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book is fun, sweet, and a love letter to the joy of reading, so obviously I ate it up. The main romance is definitely a bit insta-love, but not so much so that it really bothered me, and the town of Eloraton is so cute and depicted so well. I don't know if this will be a book I remember, but I really enjoyed it while I was reading it.
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I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong

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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
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really, really loved this book. Jack Jr. wakes up from a two-year coma to find that he's lost his job, his apartment, and his fiancé, and that he really only has his family left - family he hasn't spoken to in years. As he gets back on his feet, he moves in with his father and starts working at the Korean sushi restaurant his parents have owned for years. Along the way, hilarious shenanigans and emotional breakthroughs ensue.

The premise of this book sounds really depressing, but this was actually one of the funniest, most heartwarming, and most uplifting books I've read in a long time. Jack Jr.'s interior dialogue is snappy and straightforward, and the insight we get into family dynamics and each character is so deep and interesting. This narrative explores how to move forward after catastrophic loss and life changes; getting along with your family when you feel so different from them and everyone is always disappointing each other; the chaos and joy of running a restaurant; falling in love when you don't really know who you are anymore; and so much more. The relationships between Jack Jr. and his various family members made me smile so much - how he wants his father to be proud of him but also chafes at his expectations, how he and his brother have no idea how to relate to each other, how he becomes a safe place for his teenage nephew, etc. This really made me think about how families change over time, and it also was just so much fun. It made me crave sushi so much - the descriptions of Jack Jr. and his father slicing fish and preparing omakase were truly meditative. I highly, highly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller

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

3.0

Orri is a teenager in rural Iceland who grew up helping his parents run an always-struggling farm. He goes to Reykjavík for college, but towards the end of the first year he comes home, ostensibly to assist his father but also because he feels lost. Over the next several months, he learns a lot about himself and his family.

Unfortunately, this was another book I just couldn't get into. It didn't help that I was reading this book in the middle of the busiest work period of my year, but I just didn't really want to read this book. I didn't find Orri's interior life very interesting - I would have preferred being inside his mother or father's heads much, much more - and although the farm details initially intrigued me, I got bored quickly and found it meandering. I also have no idea why Orri's love interest enjoyed him as much as she did; I found him pretty whiny, all things considered. It's possible I just wasn't in the head space for this book, and I did find the writing lovely and atmospheric. I'm sure others will love this book - it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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The Immortal Woman by Su Chang

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

3.0

This book follows Lemie, a teenager in 1950s Shanghai who becomes a reluctant Red Guard Leader in her high school, policing her fellow classmates and ensuring everyone's fidelity to communism and the Chairman. Later she becomes a propagandist for a newspaper that essentially functions as a state mouthpiece, and then her life is ripped apart in the space of one year after she witnesses horrible violence at Tianamen Square and experiences great personal trauma and tragedy. We fast forward to her daughter Lin, who has gone to college in America to fulfill her mother's dream of her daughter living the American dream. The story is told mostly from the perspective of Lemei and Lin, with occasional interludes from other people in their lives.

This book is a pretty brutal read, involving relatively vivid and disturbing depictions of state violence, sexual assault, post-partum depression, racism, Sinophobia, colorism (both external and internalized), and other tough subjects. It's also really moving in its descriptions of what it's like to be a first-generation immigrant: the push and pull between your native country and where you end up, the disillusionment with both countries, the feeling of not belonging anywhere, disagreeing with your parent about your home country and your new country, etc. I found some parts of this book profound, but overall I was confused throughout much of the book and wished the book had more emotional resonance.

Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anansi Press Inc. for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things by Breanne Randall

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I love a good witch book, and this was a good witch book. Calliope is the youngest of three sisters who come from a long line of witches, but their mother cryptically left them 15 years ago and they know no other witches. They've been tasked with protecting the town by casting spells, but every spell requires them to sacrifice a memory. A threat comes to the town, and Calliope and her sisters have to stop it - with the help, of course, of a powerful witch from a rival coven who happens to be really hot (a tried-and-true formula).

This book is a joy to read - it's fast-paced, the sister dynamics are deep and complicated and well-explored, the town feels like Stars Hollow (complimentary), and the world-building feels accessible but not too simplistic. There were times where the book felt just a tad too cutesy, and the central romance moves a little too fast from enemies to lovers, but overall, I really enjoyed this! 

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This may be my favorite Ali Hazelwood book ever, which is really saying something because I have given several of Ali's book five stars, and I devour everything she writes with a passion. She just has such a knack for writing chemistry, and her sex scenes are definitely the best I've ever read. This book stands out from Ali's incredible (and incredibly prolific) oeuvre for so many reasons: the world of competitive swimming and diving is sketched so well, Scarlett's mental blocks about diving resonate so deeply and feel so interesting, the growing relationship between Scarlett and Lukas is truly just swoon-worthy, the intimacy serves such a purpose and feels so rewarding, and every sex scene is the hottest thing I've ever read. I also loved the insights into family dynamics and about needing different things from romantic partners at different times in your life, and I just loved Scarlett and Lukas. I will be screaming from the rooftops about how much I love this book!!!
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