Take a photo of a barcode or cover
kalventure's reviews
522 reviews
Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter
The book is told in the first person perspective of Liz Buxbaum, a head-in-the-clouds romantic daydreamer who's childhood crush has moved back into town a few weeks before senior prom. Trouble is he still thinks of her as "Little Liz" the neighborhood weirdo, and he's been getting close to another girl Laney. But that's no matter to Liz! (Ugh, don't do this.) I appreciate that Liz's best friend Joss calls her out on her shitty plans instead of just going along with it.
This is a book where the first person POV didn't work for me, unfortunately. I found the narrative to be a little repetitive at times due to its inner monologue style, and being inside the head of an unlikable (to me) character is always a little painful. That being said, I really enjoyed Liz's character growth and development and it felt earned. I just was more interested in Wes as a character and would have loved to have some chapters from his point of view!
While I wasn't a fan of Liz, I really appreciate how much of the book focuses on the complicated grief from a loss of her mother in the fifth grade and how milestones are tinged with sadness because you can't share them with loved ones who've passed. Watching her open up and share with Wes, who shows Liz time and again how thoughtful he truly is, was a joy. Love is truly what happens when you aren't looking.
Content warnings: bullying, car accident, depictions of grief, loss of a parent, smoking, underage drinking, vomit
eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley for my honest review. This has not affected my opinions of the book nor the content of my review. Quotations are from an unfinished proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
3.0
A book for the lover of romantic comedies, Better than the Movies is a cute and fun story of romantic expectations, chasing your dream love interest, and falling for the one who was there all along. Yes friends, this books is enemies-to-lovers fake dating.
"Neighborhood friends were like that. You grew up with them, running over hot sidewalks and yelling to each other over fresh-cut lawns, but once you got older, you became acquaintances born of proximity with nothing but a surface level of basic knowledge."
The book is told in the first person perspective of Liz Buxbaum, a head-in-the-clouds romantic daydreamer who's childhood crush has moved back into town a few weeks before senior prom. Trouble is he still thinks of her as "Little Liz" the neighborhood weirdo, and he's been getting close to another girl Laney. But that's no matter to Liz! (Ugh, don't do this.) I appreciate that Liz's best friend Joss calls her out on her shitty plans instead of just going along with it.
"'Sometimes we get so tied up in our idea of what we think we want that we miss out on the amazingness of what we could actually have."
This is a book where the first person POV didn't work for me, unfortunately. I found the narrative to be a little repetitive at times due to its inner monologue style, and being inside the head of an unlikable (to me) character is always a little painful. That being said, I really enjoyed Liz's character growth and development and it felt earned. I just was more interested in Wes as a character and would have loved to have some chapters from his point of view!
While I wasn't a fan of Liz, I really appreciate how much of the book focuses on the complicated grief from a loss of her mother in the fifth grade and how milestones are tinged with sadness because you can't share them with loved ones who've passed. Watching her open up and share with Wes, who shows Liz time and again how thoughtful he truly is, was a joy. Love is truly what happens when you aren't looking.
Content warnings: bullying, car accident, depictions of grief, loss of a parent, smoking, underage drinking, vomit
eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley for my honest review. This has not affected my opinions of the book nor the content of my review. Quotations are from an unfinished proof and are subject to change upon final publication.
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Gore
Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent
Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
Did not finish book.
The book begins with people being led to a ship docked in Batavia (modern day Jakarta) and readying to return to the Netherlands. Yes, this is historical fiction and true to the era but it is written purely from the white conqueror perspective, whitewashing the towns and not even addressing the issues of colonialism. Indigenous people are referred to as 'natives' a only white people were physically described.
Please take my feedback and experience with a grain of salt as I did not finish the book. I wanted to push through and finish the book because of these issues so I could give a full review on how the book addresses colonialism and sexism, but the pacing is dreadful and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's possible some of the text was corrected in final publication, just as it is possible that the main character actually challenges the colonialism and sexism which is intertwined in the text, but I won't read the book further to find out.
Content warnings: (for first 12%) inferred spousal abuse, beating, torture, imprisonment, sexism, colonialsm
eARC provided to me by the publisher via Edelweiss for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 12%
I am so incredibly disappointed that this book didn't work for me. I tried, boy did I try... but it was like pulling teeth to get to 10% in the book and then it took me 6 weeks to even try to pick the book back up. I'm super bummed because I absolutely adored Turton's debut The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, but this book is not for me.
The primary reason that The Devil and the Dark Water did not work for me is the pacing and confusing mess of characters. People are introduced with no context and I was either trying to figure out who these people were or raging at the colonialist and sexist narrative. Because ultimately, a book written by a white cis man with characters who may (? IDK) be people of color and a woman's perspective reaffirming her place in society is... off-putting at best and infuriating at worst. I was maybe 2 pages into the book before red flags starting flashing. Two. Pages. I read 12% of the book and have 26 annotations.
The primary reason that The Devil and the Dark Water did not work for me is the pacing and confusing mess of characters. People are introduced with no context and I was either trying to figure out who these people were or raging at the colonialist and sexist narrative. Because ultimately, a book written by a white cis man with characters who may (? IDK) be people of color and a woman's perspective reaffirming her place in society is... off-putting at best and infuriating at worst. I was maybe 2 pages into the book before red flags starting flashing. Two. Pages. I read 12% of the book and have 26 annotations.
"The dowry was too large. Unbeknownst to her, she'd been bred for sale and fattened like a calf with manners and education. She'd felt betrayed, but she'd been young. She understood the world better now. Meat didn't get a say on whose hook it hung from."
The book begins with people being led to a ship docked in Batavia (modern day Jakarta) and readying to return to the Netherlands. Yes, this is historical fiction and true to the era but it is written purely from the white conqueror perspective, whitewashing the towns and not even addressing the issues of colonialism. Indigenous people are referred to as 'natives' a only white people were physically described.
"Thirteen years ago, he'd purchased the village that had stood here on behalf of the United East India Trading Company. No sooner had the natives signed the contract than he'd put a torch to it, using its ashes to plot out the roads, canals, and buildings of the city that would take its place. Batavia was now the Company's most profitable outpost, and Haan had been called back to Amsterdam"
Please take my feedback and experience with a grain of salt as I did not finish the book. I wanted to push through and finish the book because of these issues so I could give a full review on how the book addresses colonialism and sexism, but the pacing is dreadful and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's possible some of the text was corrected in final publication, just as it is possible that the main character actually challenges the colonialism and sexism which is intertwined in the text, but I won't read the book further to find out.
Content warnings: (for first 12%) inferred spousal abuse, beating, torture, imprisonment, sexism, colonialsm
eARC provided to me by the publisher via Edelweiss for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No