phoenix2's reviews
1251 reviews

'More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop' is the second book of the series and it works as a small treat for the fans of the first book. Though, I didn't find it as enjoyable as the first one, there were some moments of pure coziness and the story was warm and emotional.

'Hell Bent' is the second book in Alex Stern's series and it picks things up from where the last book left us.

I can't say that I enjoyed this one as much as the first book. It often felt like we were running around pointlessly and when something actually happened to push the narrative forward that was brushed off way too quickly. 

Still, I liked that we took a deep into the stories of the rest of the characters and the atmosphere was dark and moody. I would have liked it to be a bit more academic though, since this is dark academia and we are in Yale and there were some classroom scenes.

'Bring Me Your Midnight' is a classic YA fantasy romance that I fairly enjoyed. 

The story is intriguing, though I wasn't often lost as to what period this was taking place, as it felt kind of old-ish, but they had telephones and electricity (?), so it was hard to pinpoint the aesthetics. 

Also, the ending was rushed and I would have wanted a few more pages so that the story would breathe and feel more organically developed.

Still, it's an entertaining story with an interesting magic system.

'The Repeat Room' is a short dystopian story within a story with a quite disturbing subject and an odd narrative.

The book starts off vaguely. The reader is thrown into the set without prior knowledge and follows the main character as he is being trained to be a member of the jury. That part was filled with cut-off dialogue and super-quick scenes, and I do wish we explored the process a little more. 

But, as the story proceeds, it's obvious that the author wanted to emphasis more on the second part of the story, the culprit's narrative, and this is where things get weird, dark, and intensely sad. Again, the narrative wasn't my cup of tea and I felt at times that the author was trying too hard to compel the reader rather than let the story flow.

Big Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy!

'More Joy of Art: Keys to Appreciating Art' is a book about art and learning how to analyze it. Filled with colorful pictures, it's easy to read with a smooth narrative and cleverly divided sections. Pretty informative even for amateurs!

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story with many horror elements and a horrific ending. Creepy indeed.

The Canterville Ghost is a funny ghost story with a nice twist in the end and a spooky atmosphere.

Lady Windermere's Fan is a rather fascinating story with many twists and characters that prove to be different that what they appear to be.

Summer's End is a dark academia twist on the small town mysteries that the series has presented so far. It was overall, interesting and impressive.

Shady Hollow is a small town mystery with animals as the main characters. And even though I would have loved our heroes to be more 'animal' like, the story was pretty unique and the mystery was, predictable yes, but interesting nevertheless.