kaadie's reviews
173 reviews

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

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

3.5

I weirdly did enjoy this book. The narrative style was fun and the existential musings interesting. The end of the book was a little drab though. 
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

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

3.75

This book was very readable. Once I had picked it up it was nigh on impossible to put it down. However, it was quite sad and Elizabeth Zott was sometimes a frustrating character. Her tenacity and stubbornness in the face of sexist male colleagues was admirable and I did love how her faith in herself and her abilities prevented any person from being able to convince her that she was less than. However, I didn't like how obtuse she was sometimes to social cues. Women often can't afford to be such without facing severe exploitation  or abuse. Especially because she was so smart it was definitely something she could have learnt. 
I did also think that it was an odd choice to have most of the book revolve around Calvin Evans. Much of the plot depended on him and people's relationship to or preoccupation with. 

Six-thirty was without a doubt the best character. 
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

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

3.5

Plath deftly and vividly depicted depression and its pathology in her novel. It is a sad and suffocating read. 
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

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

2.5

Honestly this book just felt like a massive waste of time. The first few chapters were interesting and plot relevant but everything after Alina received the fetter to the final battle could have been summed up in a lengthy flashback. Also, everyone was really annoying in this book. 
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

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

3.0

I do still think the characters are all a little juvenile and could do with little more nuance but I did like the resolution of the main conflict. I thought it was insightful and unique, quite a pleasan  surprise. I also really appreciated the happy ending.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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

3.0

Shadow and Bone was a reasonably enjoyable read. It contained an interesting world with a well constructed villian and a relatively unique reiteration of the fantasy-scape. However, it also contained many of the more negative hallmarks of YA fantasy. The main character was naive, insecure, self-involved and painfully unsure of herself. She spent far too much time preoccupied with petty squabbles with mean girl tropes and her pretty poor love interests. 

The main character has a rare and essential ability and for majority of the book was more intent on using her abilities to impress a man as opposed to exploring her talent and making use of it for herself. She has the ability to make light literally shine out of her and she felt more proud of the fact that a centuries old man was interested in her (smh); cough cough grooming. What a creepy choice to make the Darkling a love interest. 

The character had very little agency and was really just buffeted from place to place. Where were her motives and desires? She had all of this power and influence and hardly ever made use of it. She really was just happy to go with the flow and believe that the people in power could be trusted for the most part. I suppose she is young and a peasant so she was raised to think highly of nobility but really?

I just feel that the author defaulted to tried and true YA character tropes and story lines. So guaranteed success but a relatively uninspired derivation of everything else currently available. 

Still, it's relatively fast-paced and very easy to read. 
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

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mysterious reflective sad 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

2.5

It was a good depiction of the complexities of adolescence. How overwrought and alone you feel. I liked that we were never told why the Lisbon girls killed themselves. It lent itself well to the general reflective and mysterious feel of the book.  The narrative style was interesting. I wasn't left feeling particularly moved by the book but I thought it was well written. 
Good Material by Dolly Alderton

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lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

3.0

I didn't find the book laugh-out-loud funny, like I didn't even chuckle but it was fun. The story did kind of lose me in the beginning. Andy whines a lot and while it is completely understandable 200+ pages of it is a bit much. However, I did highlight quite a bit and Andy's letters to Jon and Jen made me tear up. The book was definitely a good combination of thoughtful and lighthearted but generally speaking I was not enthralled. Nonetheless the last few chapters really pulled me in and Jen's perspective in particular was a lovely offset to everything we had experienced with Andy. So weirdly, while the first 200+ pages were a mediocre and semi-frustrating read everything thereafter was heartfelt, interesting and absorbing. A lovely and surprising journey.
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

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emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I did not enjoy this book, which is particularly disappointing since I was looking forward to it. I found it quite upsetting and I did not resonate at all with any of the philosophical assertions. 
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Bellies by Nicola Dinan

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emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

'Bellies' was a really good read. There were some lovely prose and I found myself highlighting lots. Perhaps some of it was familiar but Nicola Dinan has a refreshing reality to her writing while still mixing in some poetic embellishments. 

Ming and Tom were wonderful characters. They were so full and complex, which made the read so engrossing despite the actual happenings in the book being quite mundane. 

It was a lovely, quiet novel about two people navigating the world together and I thoroughly enjoyed it.