kriss_knows_all's reviews
901 reviews

emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

3.0

Listen, I love a fast paced book but this needed more time for me. I needed the magic system more fleshed out.

I liked Gray enough but there were times she was hard to root for lol Same can be said for Pike. He can be really arrogant but she can be very stubborn. Probably why, together, I rooted for them.

I loved the aspect of being out in nature and the refuge and saving animals. All of that was great. Compared to her first novel, this isn’t bad, but I think the magic system just doesn’t hold up to the first novel because I wasn’t given enough of it.

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 8%.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

I thought I would love how this was written but I actually found it tedious to read every to/from/date line.

The ending confuses me

as to why Izzy takes the blame. That just doesn’t make sense. And it doesn’t make sense to me how everyone is just ok with Helen doing what she does, how Paige seems to not know anything about her own kid, or why Tish basically saw a ghost of Sam in Africa?

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to figure out the whodunnit of it all. But it mostly just left me with questions or anger.

Bummed about this one.

A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo

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emotional reflective slow-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

3.25

I always seem to love the story and endings of Malinda Lo’s books but they always feel too long to me. I’m not big on lengthy descriptions of scenery or setting and this book had a lot of that. I think for a lot of people this will be a 4 or 5 star read and I love that for them! This book is good but just not up my alley.

As for what everyone seems to hate and why they rate it so low -

the cheating - that honestly didn’t *bother* me. Like it doesn’t feel good that it happened and I don’t like it but that’s not why this book isn’t a 5 star for me. I can’t imagine eating a book low because some of the characters made shitty choices.

I do think calling this a companion novel to Telegraph Club is a stretch.

Getting the small update was sweet but felt out of place, and like it was there just to be like “here’s what happened!” 🤷🏼‍♀️

Five Survive by Holly Jackson

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced