kristallmarie's reviews
232 reviews

I've been hearing everyone rave about this author for ages, but hoo, boy. The narration of this audiobook basically ruined it for me. The narrator with the American accent isn't supposed American? And the character who IS American talks in a really weird over-enunciated way that no American does? And the really terrible British accents? Oof. I should've known the narration would be bad, given who said narrator is. I've been annoyed by all their performances, at least in books. The writing is gorgeous and the story itself isn't bad, but the narration and the info dumps and the weirdly informal writing style? No, thanks. Just go read The Fall of the House of Usher and skip this not-very-good retelling. 

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an e-ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

I've been reading Luis Coelho's little kitty comics for ages, and I've been looking forward to this book for quite some time. You cannot imagine how absolutely thrilled I was to see it on NetGalley! And then when I was approved? The scream I scrumpt! 

There's not all that much to say about this book, given there's no story, but it was delightful anyway! The messages are sweet and the art is adorable, as always. "I will shit rainbows and do what I love" and "I would purr on this one" were my favorites!

Five stars out of five to The Book of Purrs!

Fun fact: I have three copies of this book, two of them vintage, but I've never read it. I've always meant to, but it just never happened. So when Hoopla suggested it to me, I thought I'd finally give it a shot! The audio version they had available was more of a drama than a proper audiobook, but I enjoyed it very much! 

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

That was fun! I love anthologies so much, and the fact that all these authors are POC is really cool! Most of these stories were really good, though there were a few that were just meh, which I will leave unnamed. I liked Best Served Cold and Everything's Coming Up Roses, and Hedge was my favorite. I had literal goosebumps at the end! 

Four stars out of five for The White Guy Dies First! 

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

Well, that was weird. 

The writing was nice, but the story was so meandering! And hoo, boy, these girls are not likeable at all. They're one-dimensional broke (And broken) country girls. And whose idea was it to talk about masturbation in a book centering on two underage girls? It's super gross and I very nearly quit reading over it. Maybe that's a me problem, as a sex-repulsed asexual, but yuck. 

Two stars out of five for Smothermoss. 

This is the third Goosebumps book I've read recently, and as much as I loved the other two, this one is definitely my favorite! It got surprisingly gory for a kids' book, and the narrator of the audiobook version I listened to did a really good job! I get the feeling I'm gonna be reading every Goosebumps book my local library has, because I'm having a great time with these! 

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!

Ooh, this one was fascinating! I'm a slut for all things Hollywood, especially when horror is included! And queer rep, too! What more could you want in a book? I liked Misha a lot (Though every time someone said his name, I was picturing Misha Collins), and his trauma was handled super well, which I really appreciate. That's hard to do. The bits with the lamb were my favorite! My only complaint was that Chuck Tingle has once again fallen into the bad habit of calling established characters by descriptors instead of their names, and while that's pretty annoying, it's not enough to remove a star. It deserves five! What a fun, spooky read! Perfect for Summerween! 

Five out of five stars for Chuck Tingle's Bury Your Gays! 

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!
This book was fine. Just fine. I'm sure it's great for some folks, but for me, it was just okay. I was expecting something fun and wild and electrifying, but nah, it's just some pop star doing basic pop star things. The potential was there, but nah. It wasn't a bad book by any means, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. 
My stomach literally dropped when our main character, Amber, is suddenly getting all boy crazy when she spends the first several chapters of the book fawning over another girl. This is the third book I've read this year that starts off giving sapphic energy just to give in and be heterosexual after all. It's immensely frustrating. 
Three out of five stars for Honey. 

This came so, so close to being a five-star read! The story was compelling, and the writing was glorious, and I adored Della! Her chapters were so interesting! I couldn't bring myself to care about Natasha, though. I just didn't connect with her, I guess. 

I'm so, so sad to say this is the first Neil Gaiman book I didn't care for. The writing is lovely, as it always is, and it was surprisingly funny, in a Douglas Adams kinda way, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about Richard or Door. Croup and Vandermar were fun, though, and I liked Anesthesia. This is one of those books where it feels like we spent the story focusing on the wrong characters. The performance was lovely, though. I love that Gaiman performs it himself, it feels so much more personal!