strabbyfieldz's reviews
63 reviews

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

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

2.0

i would've adored this book were it not for the bit about América Vicuña and all the other uncomfortable or wrong elements like the racism (I could be wrong but man, some of the descriptions of the Black characters felt anti-Black and also one of the main protags was like fairly racist???). Regardless of messaging or whatever with América, it felt pointless, uncomfortable as heck and rendered the touching(??) love story of the main protagonists much less easy to root for freely. 
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Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

the interviews at the back were so sweet and interesting, and I loved a lot of small bits of the book but there were a few bits of like... "ironic" racism/homophobia things for me to really enjoy it. the series is good.
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The Princess Bride by William Goldman

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

3.5

cannot believe that the whole morgenstern / goldman meta is this effective purely because goldman's narration suuuuuucks so hard and 'morgenstern's' doesn't lol
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Tomie by Junji Ito

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

4.5

a little repetitive (which I kinda love because it reflects how Tomie continually regenerates until she's an idea, a concept, an echo of the former school girl malleable to the shape of whatever society demands) and definitely rough around the edges (which again I can forgive because on a meta-level it works as a way of Tomie's identity being completely consumed and her influence and power growing stronger as the art style improves) but man do I love this manga. idk if its a Duchess of Malfi type deal where the intent was more to be shocking and ended up with loads of really interesting ideas about being a woman, but dang Ito really did strike gold and wrote something evocative, horrifying and also pretty tragic. 
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The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

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

3.75

some parts of this book made me want to cry because I had no other way to express how I feel, it was such a strange overwhelming feeling of connection to an idea to a person to a theme that it hurt in a way. but then other parts jarred with me, especially spencer's plot line... why did the book frame him becoming a landlord as a good thing??? also idk something about Francis and his narrative felt strange in that he only really came into focus at the end. BUT that being said I got so absorbed that my eyes now sting from reading for like 3 hrs lol
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Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

there was a lot of dubious stuff in this one tbh, but the Rampion crew dynamic is really fun I wish there was more of that 
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Cinder by Marissa Meyer

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

OK so I have to first say that, thanks to Asian reviewers writing on the world-building of Cinder (reviews like this! https://noveltoybox.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/review-cinder-lunar-chronicles-1-by-marissa-meyer-2012/) it's messy and pretty offensively not very accurate esp because Meyer kind of just smushed lots of cultures together. also Levana straight up just being the western beauty standard in her super beautiful form?? no thanks. its not good or okay, obviously. I love and hold a special place in my heart for the characters, I just wish that the world they inhabited was a bit better thought out, instead of an aesthetic coating. 
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Beloved by Toni Morrison

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

4.5

the final part of this book filled me up and then emptied me out again, Toni Morrison's style and wielding of chronology is like no others. a really powerful exploration of the trauma that inevitably follows slavery.  
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The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre by John Polidori

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dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

some of these stories actually did make me feel a physical impact of shock or just sadness after reading them, and some of these stories were My Hobby- Rather in which a cat tries to eat a corpse and that's it. That's the story. OoOoOoOoo(?)
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The Vampire: A New History by Nick Groom

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challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

so well-researched and broad that it hit on something from every part of my a level course 😳 slightly spooky! if it was a little less repetitive, info-overload-y and better organised in terms of chapters this would be a 5/5 for sure but as it is I recommend any humanities student, let alone literature need read it!! there really is something for everyone here. 
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