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toastyghosty13's reviews
156 reviews

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 17%.
This is going to be a stupid reason but this book made me feel uncomfortable. I am not in the proper mindset to read and appreciate this book, but I would absolutely revisit it on a later date. It is obviously a commentary on the privatization of the prison system and how it exploits inmates, which everyone should learn about and its other slew of problems. 

In particular, I could not get further in the book because of TW: SA
some random man going up to Thurwar and groping her while she is handcuffed under the guise of being a fan of hers
. It really irked me and made it difficult to continue on without thinking of it, which makes it difficult to focus on the main point (even if that scene is representing its own point as well). I think I would consider starting from where I left off at a future date so I don’t have to reread that bit. 
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A Gallagher Wedding by Ally Carter

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

3.25

Really cute wholesome follow up to the end of the series that showed the wedding of Cammies mom and Joe. After all of the chaos of the end of this series, it was nice seeing a happy ending that happened quickly after the events of the last book. 
United We Spy by Ally Carter

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

3.0

This was a crazy ending to the Gallagher Girl series. I got a bit lost with all of the conspiracies that unfolded and what the main purpose was of the circle going through all of the trouble to push their agenda, but it still felt like a somewhat fitting end to the series. I think it was also time after so many books. This series has come a very long way since the first book being about using spy skills to learn how to talk to boys, and it felt like it matured at the same rate as its audience would have as the books came out in real time. This series and Heist Society will always have places in my heart, and I am sad to close them for now. 
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Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death by Caitlin Doughty

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dark funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

I have really grown to love Caitlyn Doughty’s works about her time in the funeral industry. This one takes it even further, a compendium of all of the strange death related questions she has been asked by children that we all want to know the answers to. 

I think this might be one of my favorite books by her, because it is so silly and childlike with the questions (probably because they were literally asked by children). I appreciated that the questions were so creative and that she had such lengthy answers to them. 

If you are interested in what happens to our bodies after we die, this is a great way to learn more without getting too deep and too serious about it. 
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The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Cute story about Camila Hect and Palamedes Sextus at age 13 each, solving a mystery that involves a recently unsealed office of a long dead Doctor Sex (lol)

This was cute, I loved both Camila and Palamedes in Gideon the Ninth so it was a fun time to see them without all the trials and tribulations of Canaan House and the pursuit of Lyctorhood. Definitely read if you are a fan of The Locked Tomb series!
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Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London

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

2.25

I could not care less about Tess or Callum or literally anything else in this book. I have found most of it to be boring and I think Tess is kind of annoying. I also have found a lot of the injections of tik tok and podcasts to be annoying with the exception of maybe 2-3 of them to be either funny or provide some context. The alternate NYC has been entirely boring and unmemorable for me. 

The pacing for Tess and Callum is entirely too fast and feels so forced and fake. They went from hating each other to being each other's most trusted confidants in the span of maybe 3 events?? and barely even spent any time together. 

This entire book is being saved by Joni and Octavia. They balance each other out well while also having good chemistry. I wish this was a book focusing solely on them. I urge the author to consider writing a book where they meet and solve some paranormal crime together, with it sprawling into a series where they solve more paranormal crimes using the bar between to visit new places and meet new people and creatures. That would be such a fun series. 

Joni and Octavia also have good pacing and chemistry. They have been working together to find clues in the outside world and so it felt a lot more natural and less forced when they became entangled romantically. 

 
Jade City by Fonda Lee

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adventurous 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? No

2.5

Objectively, this book is well written and has wonderful world building. However, I think its downfall is a common comparison of going into it with the idea that “you’ll like it because it’s like Mistborn”. The only similarities I saw was that there was a major city and the characters use a substance that gives them abilities. That is where the similarities end. In the end, this book was definitely not for me, so it very well could be for you. Fonda Lee is a good writer still, but the content was lacking for my own personal preferences.

I found the characters to be absolutely insufferable, with the exceptions of Anden, Shae, and Ayt. All of the other characters were
engaging in war over petty family squabbles, so I actually agree with Bero in looking upon green bones in disgust. They are all elitist and treat the city as if it’s their own personal battle ground while also demanding steep tributes from “stone eyes”, or regular people that cannot use jade. One example is Mr Une, who at the end of the book cuts off his ear because he defected to the mountain clan even though he was under serious duress of being murdered and having his decades old family business destroyed in flames. My feelings the entire main plotline were like the disgruntled citizens mad at spider-man for keeping the city safe when it resulted in damages to property and injuries (the villains wouldn’t even be there if spider-man wasn’t there, and there wouldn’t be clan wars if there were no clans). The only things these clans were keeping lantern men safe from was each other, and if neither existed there would be no reason to require protection.


I also disliked how little
jade actually played a part in the story. This changed closer to the end of the book, but even so the final battle felt lackluster for what it could have been. If you have these characters that are able to use a substance to become super powerful, why wouldn’t they use it every chance they get? It also felt like the few times they did use it for more than “wear jade get stronk” meathead type of abilities, it was only dwelt on for 1 sentence, or it was to perceive emotions which is so boring. Jade gives users the ability to make themselves lighter, deflect things, make the user hard as steel, plus more and you would think that a fantasy book would want to touch more on the thing that makes it unique. This made the battle scenes incredibly boring for me, on top of the already perpetual boredom of expecting an action fantasy but instead receiving a book on clan politics.


If I had known how much of this book would revolve around politics, I would not have even started. I expected at least some politics, but the ratio was way off. This was so lackluster for the excitement I felt going into this book and it felt like an absolute drag to finish. If you have read The Well of Ascension and disliked the middle 60% where it was all about politics then do yourself a massive favor and skip this one. 

Some other reviews talk about there being some massive twist; if the massive twist was
that Ayt was trying to kill Hilo all along, then that’s a pretty stupid twist. It even says somewhere when Mudt gives Bero his assignment to shoot up the gentleman’s club to shoot holes through Hilo’s car and not Lan’s if you pay attention to the model types of the cars.


The characters were hard to enjoy (with the few exceptions above), especially when
Hilo berated Anden at the ceremony for not taking Jade despite the history of his mother’s death and demise being public knowledge. Of course the boy doesn’t want to wear jade, and it makes him stronger for having the willpower to say so. I found it hard to feel anything but dislike or complete indifference for characters. I could not have cared less when Lan died and only was mildly curious about the mystery behind his reaction to the jade he had previously won that was making him volatile (although this is just chalked up to SN1 in the end anyways lmao). I was hoping for a lot more of Ayt since the reviews I have seen mention her a lot and she was one of the few characters I found interesting (she reminds me of Azula from ATLAB) but alas her presence was extremely lacking.


TLDR; if you are expecting and epic fantasy with action, DO NOT READ. If you are a fan of clan politics that boil down to petty family drama and minimal magic in a fantasy setting, go for it. At the very least, the city is cool. 
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Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

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

4.25

This was so much fun to read!! I thought this was better than the first book of the series. I love Evie and Trystan, and I am rooting for them to be together. 

There were a lot of things that happened in this book, it felt a lot faster than the first book. I don’t fully understand the leap with some of the tasks they figure out that they need to do in order to find answers (which is all the stuff they’re doing for like the entire book) but I am not here for deep lore. I am here for an adventure of defeating the bad guy while the 2 main characters fall in love with each other. I think the action and adventure in this book was better than the previous one. I also loved that
Evie and Trystan finally showed each other something about being in love with each other, albeit extremely limited and short lived :/. I hope there is more between them in the next book, since this is supposedly a trilogy and it would definitely bother me extremely if we got such a lack of romance besides the incessant pining for each other.


This was a joy to read, and I definitely recommend it!!
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

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challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.25

I read this book as part of a buddy read with my aunt, where we choose a book for each other and then come back and discuss. She chose this book for me, and it was pretty funny. I love a whodunnit and I also love Australian humor (see my love for Gideon the Ninth, even though I know Tamsyn Muir is Kiwi).

I recommend this to anyone that likes whodunnits. It was funny and had a good unique cast of characters for the main characters family, as a murder is committed and a body found while they are having a family reunion vacation getaway in a remote mountainous ski resort to celebrate the main characters brother’s release from prison — after the main character put him there. What ensues is a chaotic week of narrowing down suspects (all of which are family members of the main character, including his ex wife that left him for the brother he imprisoned), and uncovering secrets that have been kept for decades. 

I did like this and would be surprised if it didn’t become a movie, since it is pretty similar in vibe to Knives Out (another familial suspect pool for a murder) and was outrageously funny. There is a sequel which I will probably read in the future too. 

One thing I could have lived without was
the degloving of the main character. It happened in a grandeur scene and was mentioned in detail multiple times during and after in the rest of the book -_-
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Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood

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

4.25

I think this might be my favorite Ali Hazelwood book so far. Bee and Levi are so cute together and I really liked seeing more from side characters too. Rocio and Kaylee are funny too, and the whole thing was a nice mix of a silly goofy fun time with a book about awkward people in love. I wish this wasn’t stand alone because I was left wanting more with all of the characters because I enjoyed this so much. I literally read it in 1 sitting and I’m sad it’s over. 

If you like a cute funny romance, nerdy awkward supremely attractive men that are viscerally in love with the FMC, and an overall goofy time, read this!!
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