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dckathleen's reviews
268 reviews

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

This felt reminiscent of a combination of Stephen King's Fairy Tale plus various Gothic novels based around a creepy house and messy family trees...but it was good, and if you like this genre you'll like this too.
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The premise is great, there are humans with various animal mutations which slowly or quickly turn them into that animal. Our main character's husband is turning into a shark in the year after their wedding. It's a good metaphor for long term illness or other cataclysmic things that shift our relationships with those we love. How do you love someone who is turning into a cartilagenous apex predator? What lengths do you go to? What is their life like afterwards? 

Where the book lost it's way for me was in the telling of our main character's childhood. I see how the author was trying to reveal the story, but some things didn't hang together for me. Still a great book. 
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

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hopeful informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.5

A book about taxonomy and seekinh inspiration in the face of personal failures...and also murder, eugenics, and proving that the category of fish isn't accurate. Oh, and a very flawed hero. 

CW for self harm. 
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What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.
My Husband by Maud Ventura

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 23%.
Exhausting. I get it, but am not into it. 
Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Ingredients: Moon landing,  steadily escalating dinosaur extinction conspiracy theory, ex CIA cryptographer turned monk, rogue secret government agency, murderous ex con, illegal fossil hunting, kidnapping, and obsure yet findable random mineshafts and caves. 

This book would have benefitted from either good editing or more writing. It was too short to make these bonkers components make sense, so they should have lost several elements...or added 200 pages and really developed the characters and storylines so it made sense. 

Points off for descriptions of a large person that were over the top, the use of the R word (so we know a bad guy is ignorant), and the most central casting descriptions of rough and tumble men and snub nosed women. Also, everyone is white. 
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None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

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

4.0

This is one of those books that gives you an uneasy feeling the whole time because you know it's building up to something bad. The story builds well, has some twists, and was good overall. 

This book definitely has several content warnings! 
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Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

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emotional reflective sad slow-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

Yara is a Palestinian American woman who reflects on the curse which plagues the women in her family. On the outside her life looks perfect, nice husband, two beautiful children, a comfortable life. Internally she is struggling with the feeling of disconnection in her life. She's depressed and constantly feels inadequate, she's haunted by memories of her childhood. 

I found the book extremely repetitive. If this had been 25% shorter it would have been a much better book and literally nothing substantive would have been lost. Maybe this is just Rum's writing style. 

CW for domestic violence and generational trauma. 
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How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

What if your parents die and you go to settle their affairs only to find that nothing is as it appears and your estranged brother gets in the way and things in the house are very strange. 

This is the story of loneliness and family secrets and generational trauma, but also haunted stuff....
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

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

4.5

A father and his non-verbal teen son go missing in a park in Virginia. After some misjudgements, his family doesn't notify anyone that he's missing until later. In the course of the search for the father, we learn more about the son's capabilities and what he and the father were doing together. This is a lovely story about communication and competence within a family, told from the perspective of the young adult daughter. Highly recommend.