ladylovestead's reviews
359 reviews

2/2/25: I loved this. Kayla Grosse develops her characters so well. They are complex and working through issues like any human being. The relationship build up, tension, and dynamics make sense. The family dynamics make sense and were honestly a healing experience for me to read. The only thing I didn't love was I felt like two epilogues got a bit excessive. 

2/1/25: I think this wraps up the series nicely. There was a really heartbreaking point at about the 75% mark that is a bit heavier than I like these books to be. It managed to end on a hopeful note, though. 

 1/25: I adore Magnus Bane and getting to spend more time with Tessa and Will was fun. I'm hoping we get to see more of James Herondale in the upcoming "The Last Hours" trilogy. Overall this story was fun and light but that's about it. 

1/24: I felt like this short story was never going to end.

1/24: 2 stars. Josh Malerman is just not for me. I don't think I will read anything further by him. 

Bela is supposed to be 8 but developmentally she reads more like a 4-5 year old. The adults around her speak to her like she's a friend. Since it is told from the child's perspective she spends sooooo much time pretending to be asleep so we can hear conversations between the parents in order to move the plot forward. And the parents talk TO her while they think she is asleep almost like she's a therapist. I don't know any parent who actually does that. It felt like lazy writing because that is the only trick Malerman uses to allow us the parents' perspective (Bela pretending to be asleep and them talking to her). It's just so weird and didn't make sense to me. There were lots of plot holes and unanswered questions in the end. I can appreciate an open ending but making this story open-ended felt lazy to me. 

1/22: 4 stars. Some of the characters I don't know so I'm guessing they are from the Mortal Instruments series which I haven't read yet. It was lovely getting to see Tessa and Will's little family. The Jack-the-Ripper story was well contained for a novella as well. 

1/21: 4 stars. I loved this. It was so much being back in the twisted brain of Marisha Pessl. I'm a little unsatisfied with the ending---I wanted Agatha to TALK to us! Other than that, this was fab.

There are a lot of applicable tools in this book. I found it helpful but I do wish she had touched on perfectionism and neurodivergence. In the last section of the book she acknowledges that she left a lot of important topics out of the book and I'm assuming neurodivergence was one of them. Why though? It's ok to write long books.

Does this book need to exist? No, but I'm glad that it does! I really enjoyed this, far more than I thought I would. 

-1/4/25: I liked the setting and characters. The unaliving was super unique--like nothing I've read in any other cozy. The unaliving doesn't happen until over 50% of the way in if that bothers you (it didn't bother me). It also features a ghost-hunting dog so I'm sold.