natreadthat's reviews
383 reviews

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

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couldn't get into it 
That's Not My Name by Megan Lally

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

3.5

Eerie vibes, a case of amnesia, a boy desperate to right his wrongs, and some Nancy Drew detective work. 
 
Mary can’t remember who she is, where she came from, or how she woke up bloodied up in a ditch. Fortunately her dad shows up breathless and disheveled to the police station after trying to find her for hours. Only time will tell when her memories come back, right? 
 
Drew’s entire town is against him when no trace of his missing girlfriend, Lola, turn up after five weeks. Determined to find her—alive—Drew starts his own investigation to bring her home. 
 
That’s Not My Name is a quick, YA thriller. The author does a great job making you feel how truly uncomfortable Mary is without her memory. Drew’s chapters dragged on a bit in the beginning, but picked up when he set off on his own to find Lola. I was mostly blindsided by a few things until right before they happened, which is always fun. Great if you love a mystery! 
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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

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

4.0

Elsa makes the tough decision to leave everything—the family farm, her in-laws, life as she knows it—and do what’s best for her children during the throes of the Great Depression: head west to California. There, she hopes to find work and settle down in the land of milk and honey. It’s only when they arrive that reality sets in. They’re seen as filthy migrants only good for working in the fields for next-to-nothing pay, left constantly trying to claw their way out of poverty. 
 
It did not go unnoticed how easy it is to see the parallels of Elsa’s story and the events from ~90 years ago and what is still happening today. Environmental disasters, years of economic hardship, and flailing political solutions aren’t just a thing of the past. This book does a great job of reminding you that sometimes even hard work isn’t enough when you’re stuck in a disastrous cycle. 
 
I can’t say I enjoyed The Four Winds. It was a sad, harrowing look into how the land turned against those who called the Great Plains home and left them desperately choosing between abandoning everything or risking death by dust pneumonia. It did, however, vividly tell the story of hardship, bravery, and comradely of everyday people who are forced to be resilient in times of desperation. 
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The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.5

This was pretty much the only “spooky” book I read in October, and a compelling one it was!

Barbara Van Lear, the rebellious, misunderstood daughter of the wealthy owners of Camp Emerson goes missing one summer morning. Through the eyes of different characters and timelines, we follow leads as they come in piece by piece. 

Linear timelines can be notoriously hard to follow, but I had no trouble switching POVs nearly every other chapter. Each character was unique with important pieces of the story, or at least dislikable but interesting enough to not skip over. The book was on the longer side, really allowing for character development, and threw in a few delicious twists that readers might be able to pick up on. Overall, the summer camp vibes made me a bit nostalgic and the mystery kept me entertained to the end!
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Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

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

4.0

This story is framed around a mystery but really comes down to the love of a close-knit family. 

When Mia’s fourteen year-old, non-speaking brother, Eugene, races home after a day at the park with their dad, she’s just excited to see him running. Later that night, when realization sets in that their dad never returned home, the family goes into survival mode: find Dad at all costs. I was very quickly invested in the family, the missing person case, and the characters’ growth. 

There’s so much in this book. The slow burn mystery, told from future tense, keeps you on your toes. Eugene’s character, who has autism and Angelman syndrome, begs us to reevaluate how society—and you and I—equates intelligence. The missing person element questions if it’s better to be realistic or positive. The father’s pursuit of happiness asks what it means to be happy and if there’s different aspects to happiness. All of this (and more) were surprisingly deep. I love when a book makes me philosophical! 
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If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin

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dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

I read “If He Had Been With Me” last year and loved it, so I knew I’d be reading the sequel eventually. The first book left me feeling nostalgic of the big feelings that come with falling in love in high school. Unfortunately, this story didn’t hit as hard as the first one. I was excited to read from Finn’s totally lovestruck POV, but instead found it a bit underwhelming. Most of the story could easily be deduced from the first book, which left me wishing there were new pieces to Finn and Autumn’s love story that we hadn’t seen before. But alas, no dice. Nowlin did portray all-consuming grief really well, which was sad of course, but necessary for the storyline. 
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Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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

3.5

What if? A tale as old as time. 

Hannah Martin is putting together the pieces of her life—she has no career, has just broken up with her (married) boyfriend, and is moving for the seventh time since graduating college. As she heads to her hometown of LA to live with her best friend, two parallel universes take shape. 

The concept itself was enjoyable; I liked seeing how Hannah’s decisions played out in two different ways. It was a fun little read, I just wish I were on a beach while reading it!
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The Year of the Buttered Cat: A Mostly True Story by Lexi Haas, Susan Haas

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challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

A powerful memoir about Lexi, who is growing up without bodily-control or the ability to speak due to a brain injury she suffered as a baby. The timeline jumps between thirteen year-old Lexi as she prepares for her second brain surgery and five year-old Lexi in search of the gifts she believes will grant her the use of her body. The memoir was heartfelt, funny, sad, and inspiring. It packs a punch—sometimes literally via the superheroes Lexi vicariously lives through and is currently obsessed with. It’s a look into disability and the uncertainties many disabled folks face throughout their lives, along with the not-usually-recognized hard work their families endure to ensure their loved ones have the best lives possible. 

The Year of the Buttered Cat reminds readers, as Lexi writes, that "people with disabilities, even severe ones, have interesting internal lives and a lot to offer as friends.”
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Flock by Kate Stewart

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I did not like this book, but I persevered through the entirety of it because a friend recommended the series and live-texting her was fun. I did go into this thinking it was fantasy, perhaps that’s why I disliked it so much? No, it was the characters. I simply couldn’t get behind the Cecelia; she lacked common sense to the point where I found myself shaking the book and questioning her decisions out loud. The MMCs? Not much better. They’re the hottest, most secretive dudes on earth—and they share a mysterious raven tattoo. I wanted to rid Cecelia (and myself) of them almost immediately. 
 
Anyway, the plot. Cecelia has to work for her estranged multi-millionaire father in Middle of Nowhere, USA for a year to get her hefty inheritance that she’ll use to take care of her fragile mother. While there, she falls in love (in like five seconds) and the rest is “a twisted fairytale”. 
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Here After by Amy Lin

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I typically don’t read sad stories on vacation. I usually save them for quiet moments at home, often when it’s gloomy outside and my mood is melancholy. But it has been on my TBR for quite some time and at the forefront of my mind as of late, so I started and finished it in a single sitting. 

Here After is, as you may have surmised, a love story that ends as all of them eventually do: death. Amy Lin is 31 when her 32 year-old husband collapses at a half-marathon and never wakes up again. It is the gut-wrenching story of drowning in grief mixed into the memories she holds so dearly to; a hard and soft reminder that we—you, me, our partners, our parents, our friends—are not guaranteed life. 

This book reminded me, as I too often forget, that we must love fiercely. Despite it all—the light and the dark in our world—we must strive to love hard. We’re only human after all.
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