deafchipmunk's reviews
234 reviews

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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

5.0

I hated this book five stars
Twisted Love by Ana Huang

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dark emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

3.5

Wasn't expecting much going into this, ended up being somewhat pleasantly surprised. This story follows Ava and Alex's dynamic, and every book in this series focuses on each girl from Ava's friend group. I'm not against getting the 2nd book since this was entertaining and enjoyable for the most part which was my intent reading this, but I don't think it was all that rememberable as a story. Alex's subplot with his family drama got me hooked, but Ava's subplot with her family drama didn't?? Not sure how I wounded up to only show interest in one and not the other. But it was fun nevertheless. I found that the start was a bit cringy and Ava was slightly annoying at the beginning, but both aspects withered away as the book progressed and I think that's what ultimately made me give the rating an extra 0.5 stars.

This review is just a bundle of my thoughts sewn together, even if it's not sewn well. But I think it wraps up my reasoning for my rating. The next book follows Bridget and Rhys, in which Rhys is her bodyguard and it's a forbidden romance?? Colour me intriuged. 
Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

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dark medium-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

1.0

There were few parts I enjoyed but when I finished it I felt absolutely nothing, and even started regretting wasting my whole day reading it so I’m sorry but I have to give it 1 star. 

Also, who in their right mind is giving a book which romanticises r@pe more than 1 star?? I'm baffled as to how many good ratings there are to this.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A wedding set up for perfection on a beautiful island can't go wrong, right? Well the table flips as one unfortunate person dies mysteriously, and you are left to figure out who did it through the perspective of 5 people, who are all somehow connected—wether it be directly or indirectly—to one terrible person. To add on to that, the island is heavily cut-off from mainland (like Daisy Darker!), making the story feel unsettling and suspenseful, knowing the characters can't escape. With this premise, I was sure it would keep me hooked from page 1. And while it didn't keep me hooked continuously and I could feel that it did drag at some points, I was definitely invested. Every guest attending the wedding had secrets and hidden grudges towards other guests that all came together in the end which was no less than satisfying. Though I wish we did get more foreshadowing on who would end up killing the unlucky person. It wasn't random to say, just a bit uncooked. But nonetheless satisfying. 

A book I would suggest to anyone who likes whodunnit type of mysteries with shocking realisations that all add up in the end, leaving you jaw dropped. 
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

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adventurous dark medium-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

4.0

I can definitely see how this is so popular. While I wasn't head over heels, I still really enjoyed my time with this book and can see myself recommending this to a friend who likes heavy fantasy with major romance subplots. I found the world quite compelling and well built on (with the cute touch of the map; adored that), the characters to be well built on and all exciting to read about in their own unique ways, and the writing to be very descriptive which fit what the book was going for well and coherent. There was nothing wrong with this inherently, I just can't bring myself to give it an extra star since it didn't offer anything that would make it 5★, but I've heard from many people that ACOMAF and ACOWAR and better than ACOTAR so I'm interested to see if they will in fact be better once I get to them.

BUT FINALLY I CAN SAY I'VE READ THIS AFTER IT'S BEEN SHOVED IN MY FACE ON YOUTUBE, TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM
Namesake by Adrienne Young

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I was wrong to assume this would live up, let alone be better than Fable. I don't know man, this just disappointed me. The charm that Fable(the book not character) had is that is was such a simple plot but was still so engaging and intriguing, and that charm completely vanished in Namesake. I was confused 50% of the time, and the other 50% I just kept coming in and out of focus, trying to comprehend what was even written on the pages because I just didn't care. All my love for these characters (Fable, Willa, Austen and Paj, even West ect. ...) wasn't as intense nor even really there for this book, and I was so sad to come to that conclusion. I'm still giving this 3 stars because I still enjoy getting transported into this pirate esc world(even if I wasn't focusing a lot), and I just can't bring myself to give it anything lower, but damn disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Also the ending just flew past my head? The pacing is steady throughout but the last 30 pages was just a flash and boom the book had ended. Weird.

I was considering getting my own copies of Fable and Namesake, don't think I'll be doing that anymore. Still would recommend since the world is built on quite well and just so good to escape to, but yeah, damn.

By the way this is all just my opinion. You might like both books or only this one. That's totally cool. I just shared my thoughts and reading experience.

BRO AND IT ESPECIALLY SUCKS I GOT DISAPPOINTED FROM A BOOK I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO READ ON MY GODDAMN BIRTHDAY
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, Vol. 1 by Aka Akasaka

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

4.0

It was v fun to follow along our 3 main characters; Kaguya, Shirogane and Chika in this highly prestigious school called Shuchiin Academy where Kaguya and Shirogane refuse to confess their love to one another as whoever confesses first is considered the ‘loser’, like in a war, which is why the manga name is Love Is War. I laughed out loud quite a few times and while this wasn’t anything life changing, I think this was a great first volume to the series. Can’t wait to pick up the next volumes!! ❤️
Read Me Like a Book by Liz Kessler

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

5.0

This book holds a lot of important messages that are very commonly thought of as 'not a big deal' which in reality actually sustain a big impact on someone. I definitely think this book had some sort of charm, whether it be the realistic humane characters or the subtle & simple but prominent writing which made the reading experience just so good and engaging. Overall I think it really just boils down to if you could relate to the themes presented in this book or not; either way, those said themes were important, but they varied in levels of personal important whether or not you can relate.

But the beauty of this book for me was that I felt emotional for Ashleigh (and even the rest of the characters) based on things happening to her that I couldn't correlate with at all. I don't know how Liz Kessler did it, I rarely feel emotion while reading books, and I'm really not in the right mindset to delve deeper into that, but she did it. Sure this was just a personal experience and everyone reading this book will certainly not have the same reading experience as I did, but this is just my experience with this wonderful book, and for that, I give it 5⭐️s.

And look, I don't care all that much if everything ended up too neatly or some of the characters were questionable or whatever. I wasn't looking at this book from that perspective once I started feeling WAYS I NEVER DO WHILE READING LITERATURE. My singular complaint is the blurb. It didn't actually summarise the premise of the book that well... iykyk if you've read it. But even then it's not anything world shattering and at the end of the day I don't care.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read something as relatable as this at this perfect time where I was able to relate to this, and I'm also so glad I read this at this perfect time because my last read was absolute DOG SHIT:) (so yay I'm not going to get into a reading slump)
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

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

1.0

I haven't read ACOTAR and I just know as a fact that this book being compared to ACOTAR is offensive and a crime.

The best way to describe this book is recycled and definitely written with the goal of appealing to Booktok primarily. It was just your average romantasy book that is completely reused with the same concepts and tropes from other, better books. And it wasn't even done well. I actually felt part of me dying reading this because I just wanted it to end and nothing about this was good enough for me to think "oh, this is an original piece of work". And yes while I can understand why people loved Oraya and Raihn's romance so much, they just didn't appeal to me. They were obviously very passionate about each other but their relationship as a whole was one-dimensional and had little to no depth.

And the worst thing is that I was slugging my way through this book to the extreme. I'd say there was one point in the whole story where I found myself a bit intrigued which was around the start when we got the world and characters introduced to us. But after that I was just dreading reading this and putting it off a lot. I was reading this on my kindle since this is a KU book, and I kept checking how much longer I had until I was finished because I was just so done already.

OMG I ACTUALLY FOUND THIS SO ANNOYING. So basically when Oraya won the Keraji and had the wish, I was thinking to myself like you gotta say you wish Raihn would resurrect and this dumbass bitch said 'I wish Raihn won the Feraji instead of me'. NOW IF SHE SAID WHAT I HAD BEEN THINKING THEN THE WHOLE ENDING WHERE VINCENT DIED AND EVERYTHING WENT TO SHIT AND RAIHN TOLD EVERYONE HE HAD BEEN RAPING ORAYA (I know he didn't mean it BUT STILL) WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. BECAUSE IF HE JUST CAME BACK TO LIFE THEN HE WOULDN'T OF WON AND HE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO MAKE THE WISH. This actually infuriated me to my core. Yes Oraya didn't know that he would make that catastrophic wish but the ending as it is now feels so cheap, knowing that everything that happened wouldn't of if Oraya just rephrased her wish.


To sum things up, this was incredibly unoriginal, frustrating 99% of the time and wasted my time. Please don't read this unless you like stale story-telling and plots and characters that fit the exact template of a typical Booktok book.
My Hero Academia, Vol. 29 by Kōhei Horikoshi

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5.0

Chapter 285 left me feeling unexplainable emotions and feelings in 2021 and it left me the same way now in 2023. OH MY GOD THAT CHAPTER BRO IT’S RUINED ME

Giving this less than 5 stars would be a crime