neni's reviews
386 reviews

I didn't expect to love this books as much as I did. The writing style and the general vibes are like nothing I've ever read before.
The  way the author weaves the story around this extremely complex political situation while infusing it with this incredibly deep religious imagery is a stunning phenomenon to experience. The richness of the world building and the complexity of the characters are truly amazing.
I enjoyed the narration style immensely as well, it was almost ominous in its seriousness but also felt almost like a religious text with a lot of emotion thrown in, which is just a perfect combination considering what the themes of the book are. I especially liked that at the start of every chapter we had an excerpt of an fictional text within the text, which provided subtle hints into the future of the characters and their stories. It really created this atmosphere of mystery and anticipation. What a journey! I am excited to continue this series, although I think I shall take some time to digest all this information. I'm sure I won't be forgetting this story anytime soon!

 I cannot believe I read this OMG I HAVE NO EXCUSE, I HAVE HIT ROCK BOTTOM LMAO
Honestly, I think my years of extensive queer fanfic reading have spoiled me for most of the straight romance genre because this shit doesn't even come CLOSE to the quality I'm used to. It's not even about the writing, which, while definitely not great, is not atrocious. But the ABSENCE of COMMON SENSE. The complete lack of believability in ANYTHING that is happening, including the character's thoughts and behaviors. I even forgive the generic plot because what else was I expecting from a "mafia romance", it's a classic trope for a reason. But JESUS. None of the main characters are remotely likeable!!! The dialogue is ABSURD. They talk like porn AI's in a shitty buggy online video game. I was actually surprised this was written by a woman because the whole thing felt like the "male gaze" on CRACK. THERE'S A WHOLE PARAGRAPH WHERE SHE'S JUST LOVINGLY DESCRIBING HOW MUCH SHE LOVES HIS DICK, in like EXCRUCIATING ANATOMICAL DETAIL. LIKE EW GIRL. I'm pretty sure the dude compares himself ejaculating to a rocket lifting off. I AM NOT KIDDING. So cringe, so not sexy at all. The complete lack of healthy communication between the characters. The love interest being like "I don't plan to abuse my wife" and then proceeding to DO JUST THAT. THE CONSENT ISSUES. AH MAN. It's so bad on so many levels. 
HOWEVER, I will give this 2 stars because it was kind of fun  to trash it in my head, laugh at the ridiculousness of it all and just generally turn my brain off from the sheer stupidity of what was happening. I kinda want to laugh just thinking about it. Might be one of those "it's so bad you kinda wanna read it just so you can completely trash the hell out of it for fun?" Yeah. 
 

 This was quite disappointing, but then again, considering the title and the genre, I suppose I might have had too high expectations. 
I enjoyed the first few introductory chapters, where the author introduced the themes around living alone and the challenges it poses, as well as its potential advantages. There were some interesting tidbits of information around statistics and cultural preferences regarding living alone. The chapter on Spirituality was also, surprisingly, not terrible. With a somewhat unoriginal, but quite well put together, narrative on different perspectives around spirituality, and what it can mean for different people (minus the "energy visualizing exercises" which I just can't, for the life of me, take seriously).
However, the rest of the book was a complete waste of time. The pacing is practically non-existent, the themes are all over the place: it goes from general platitudes about the importance of exercising, to food recipes, to advice about interior design. It felt very cliché, generic and basic, with the structure and depth of a shopping list.  Most of the advice was either completely ridiculous and unrealistic (more on that later) or just so basic and obvious, I was struggling to figure out what the intended demographic for this book was. I think most adults, even if they've never lived alone, know most of these things no? I refuse to believe most people are this incompetent at life. 
Every other page, there was an "inspirational" quote from some random known celebrity/historical figure (from the Dalai Lama to Dr. Phil and Oprah LOL), giving the impression that the author just went to a quotes website and started to put them in randomly throughout the book, in an attempt (failed) to make it more insightful and cultured. It had quite the opposite effect.
One of the things that annoyed me the most was how limited and privileged the author's views were. She gives off very clear "straight white American woman in her late 40s, early 50s, who thinks she's figured things out" vibes. I don't have anything against that exactly, but I was expecting her to not be so clearly focused on this stupid, shallow, superficial, consumerist, fake "woke" rhetoric, that Americans seem to love so much. Like, in the chapters about Finances and Spirituality she makes sure to reinforce how important it is to save money, to only buy things you value, to not get overwhelmed with the need to buy stuff. But then literally every other advice she gives on anything (hobbies, food, "self-care", home design and organization) is ALL about STUFF. About buying cute things and fancy self-care items. She also seems to think that because she's lucky enough to be an author and is able to work from home and control her own schedule, that everyone else also has that luxury. She seriously goes on and on about "morning routines" with like 20 steps (including meditation, of course!!), and making "themed international dinners" for yourself if you can't afford traveling. Like C'MON. Seriously? That's so out of touch AND condescending, I don't even know what to say.
Overall, this is not only super weak in terms of content, but incredibly out of touch with reality. While there are some interesting points in the middle of all this, they could have been adequately expressed in an essay, instead of this highly generic prototype of the self-care book with a ton of unnecessary info.
Maybe if you're a straight, white, fairly wealthy girl, let's say, in her late teens or early twenties, this MIGHT be useful to you, but I think you'd be better off just reading something else to be honest. 

The art is GORGEOUS, like seriously stunning and perfect for the Halloween season. I really enjoyed the use of color in the mostly black and white art, it was a joy to appreciate. The stories themselves were okay and sufficiently spooky, but the best thing about this book is for sure the art

I have no idea why I finished this book. Probably because it was short and I wanted to add one more read to my reading challenge. I think I saw someone on booktube raving about this as this really interesting creepy psychological mystery. I don't get it. It might just be one of those situations where this is just too "literary" and "complex" for me to understand, I'm not exactly an expert on these things, but the story just felt like an empty, convoluted rant about nothing at all. At the start it felt like there was the start of a plot but about a third of the way in things started to become incomprehensible, I don't understand anything of what happened or what the point of this was. I also don't get why this is supposed to be a feminist text, there is nothing feminist or empowering about this book at all.  I'll admit that the writing style is good and there were some beautiful sentences thrown in there, but overall it felt like a total waste of time in my opinion.

Great short read for Halloween. The gothic haunted manor vibes were awesome, the inclusion of fungi as a horror mechanism worked really well with the setting and the main character was funny and likeable. This author is good at creating spooky stories with frequent funny dialogue in the middle which I like because it breaks the tension and makes the characters more likeable. The ending felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying but I understand this wasn't supposed to be an incredibly developed story. Reccomend if you're looking for a quick spooky read.

This was like nothing else I've read in a while. The narrative style was really cool and I enjoyed the way the reader gets to slowly put all the clues together in order to solve the larger mystery of what is happening. It was a great book to read around Halloween because of its creepy vibes and trippy atmosphere.