mint_renegade's reviews
168 reviews

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood

Go to review page

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

3.75

How can you, from the comfort of your too cold bedroom, dare to rate history?
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Go to review page

adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

reading slump rescue,  I love the desert,  thank you very much. 

but unnecessary romance plot. strange pacing - too little in the middle too much at the end, I guess to hook second book. only motivation to read rest of series would be fomo. who is nahri beyond a con artist? no connection to characters and therefore plot.  i should have loved this, but I didn't, it just disappointed me which is worse than hate. no visceral emotions elicited, already receding from my memory. 
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

One to haunt my 3am walks through dark hallways to and from the bathroom. 

Interspersed with too much reality to shrug off as simply fiction. 

A tragic play on revisited trauma, inherited afflictions left to fester.
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, Michael Gamer

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Go to review page

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

Degenerate filth. 5 stars 
My Girl and the City by Sam Selvon

Go to review page

lighthearted

3.0

Harrow County Omnibus Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn

Go to review page

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

4.0

Hoa Tulilp Đen by Alexandre Dumas

Go to review page

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

4.0

Don't misjudge books left long unread. On the eve of an anniversary or the simple dawning of a new day, you'll finally open that dormant book, you'll doubt the pages yet to come by the first, or the last as is your wont; then you'll turn that page and read, turn and read, turn then read.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful informative reflective 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? It's complicated

3.0

"Round up the usual suspects". What is to become of Rostov's friends? Out of character, Rostov appears indifferent to the ensuing imprisonment/torture. What good is gold when their lives are at stake? What good it gold when all it will do is incriminate? "Round up the usual suspects"

A gentle unfolding of a story, too fantastical in its account of time and country. But it was a fiction, perhaps it'd be too much to ask for historical accuracy. Nonetheless, my mind, unbidden, will hop-skip-and-jump to a reality that is not so gentle in its unfolding for those left behind.
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini

Go to review page

adventurous reflective relaxing tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Not all favourites are littered with annotations, not all are poetic, not all are about delving into the dark recesses of the heart. Some, simply and well told, have you scampering at the early hours, fighting against the dawning darkness. This, this was such a story.