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val_theburrowofstories's reviews
353 reviews
Educated by Tara Westover
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
- Happy International Women’s Day! I didn’t plan to read this for this day, but I’m so glad that I did because Tara Westover is such an strong woman.
- This book was so powerful. This was Tara owning her story and telling it the way it was from HER perspective, the way she lived her life. I have so much respect for her, this was published in 2018 and I would not be surprised if she's still healing.
"You can love someone and still choose to say goodbye to them.
You can miss a person every day, and still be glad that they are no longer in your life."
-Tara Westover
- I'm genuinely surprised she didn't talk about menstruation. And I have to admit I was so scared for her when she was a child that Shawn would rape her, then I was scared he would kill her. Can we talk about how she barely looked or talked to boys and yet when Shawn said she had a "reputation" they were horrified of her being pregnant, SHE thought she was pregnant and looked at herself in the mirror... The lack of sexual education. And then when they confirmed she wasn't??? I'm scared of just thinking how they confirmed it.
- I feel so so sorry for those kids of the siblings who don't support her. but especially for the ones of Audrey and Shawn, because they are just the living image of their parents which means their childhood will be just like hers unless they run.
- She is right by mentioning that this is not about Mormonism. Maybe religion played a role in this, but her brother and parent’s evil in my opinion belonged to them, not to any Satan and of course is not the will of any God they believe in.
- I have to admit that I didn’t cry. I understand the moments that I “should’ve”, I understand why other people would’ve cried. But I’ve never lived abused so I can’t say I was reliving something, and I’ve always been the “strongest” child who didn’t cry easily because I had a “cold heart”, that’s how I view myself and maybe there’s something wrong with me too that I can’t see, but that’s the truth.
- I didn’t cry, instead I was shocked, stunned, angry, I could not believe it, it was all just so crazy. When you think of stories of more kids living like this, that’s it, they’re just stories you hear of someone else living far far away, they didn’t happen to you, you don’t read about them with more detail in a book. It’s is eye opening to finally read this story and realize “this is real, this has happened, this is still happening not only in her family but probably so many others”
- I can’t stop thinking on how powerful this book is and how more people should read it, yes it was Number 1, yes it’s acclaimed, yes it has Awards, and somehow it’s not enough. It will neve be enough.
- I want this book in my library, highlighted with tabs, with annotations written by me and other people, I want to have discussions around it, I want to check on it from time to time. I want to highlight with a pencil all the obstacles, and with colors her support system, her quotes, her growing up and changing her mind. There’s so many things to point out, so many things to discuss.
- I feel so overwhelmed by this whole book. She’s powerful, she’s brave, she’s inspiring. She got over the obstacles, she got her education. Education IS a privilege and it could be life changing for some.
- The fact that she dedicated this to her brother Tyler, because he was always nice to her, he always supported her, he is the one who kept telling her to go to college.
- This is so far away from my fantasy books, hell I WISH this was some dystopian shit, but it’s a MEMOIR and I just can’t stop thinking about it. This is not fantasy, and yet this is one of the few examples of why I must keep getting out of my comfort zone tbr every once in a while, to discover stories (fiction or not) like this one.
- I want to keep reading so many reviews now, from all the ratings. I need to read more opinions. I even want to read the thesis she presented for her PhD.
- This makes me think of the kind of parent I would be, consuming books, blogs, podcasts about parenting the second I learn I was pregnant. I almost want to study psychology just to help kids.
- I'm thankful my healthcare and education were priorities in my family. I'm thankful I was not forced into any religion. I'm thankful I was loved. I'm thankful I didn't live an abuse like this and I pray I never will, thankful that I can recognize the signs of when something is wrong and I must ask for help. I'm thankful for my family (we are not perfect, and of course I have many complains about them lol but I'm thankful for them)
- I keep thinking and thinking and thinking, and there is no denial to me. I can’t rate the same way I do my fantasy books (or any other fiction book for that matter). I can’t even compare it to other non fiction I’ve read because they are self help, and I’ve read just a couple of memoirs. So this is a very unique book to me, and as such it has to be rated for it’s own reasons. At the beginning I thought how difficult it would be to rate it, but now I think it's a 5 ⭐
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Blood, Medical trauma, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol
Please read the trigger warnings before reading the book (there might be spoilers here):
- Emotional abuse / Physical abuse / Child abuse: The way the mother and father (especially) raised the children had me sick, the emotional and physical abuse those kids had to endure…
- Domestic abuse / Violence: Her brother would beat her up and humiliate her.
- Gaslighting: I swear her parents were living in another reality, all the stories they got in their heads and the lies of how the world worked (the end of the world, how the government was evil and it was dangerous to go to school or the hospital)
- Racial slurs: Her brother kept calling her by the N word because when she worked with them she got her face dirty…
- Animal death / cruelty: Her brother killed his dog with a knife, who the fuck does that.
- Injury detail / Blood / Fire Injury: When she was a child she had to help her brother with his leg because there was another “job incident” with their father. And later her father is near an explosion and ends up pretty bad. Her other brother also injured his head twice.
- Mental illness: She’s convinced her father is bipolar.
- Car accident: As children they had not one but TWO car accidents. And then his brother had yet another car accident on his own.
- Sexism / Misogyny: Basically what her father and brother are. Her father treating her like shit inside the house because she was a woman and she could not even have short sleeves. I don’t know a lot of stupid ideas about women and how they should behave.
- Medical trauma: From all the injuries, accident, simply being sick and going to the hospital for the first time.
- Panic attacks: She experienced this at college.
- Cancer: One of her grandmothers had cancer and died of it.
- Adult / minor relationship / Pregnancy: Her brother was like 27 with a 17-18 yo he ends up marrying. And later she has two dangerous pregnancies.
- Drug abuse / Alcohol: Her brother, of course.
- Toxic relationship: Pretty obvious with who (her family)
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I predicted that this would be a new favorite book, sadly it isn’t, but still I really liked it and it’s a 4 ⭐ for me.
I remembered so little of the synopsis I thought this was set in a time before Christ even or in just a little town in the middle of nowhere with very few civilization, I was very surprised when I saw that this was set in the second half of the 1900’s.
I didn’t understand at first why so many women turned into dragons, I thought it was magic, but the fact that it’s presented as part of their BIOLOGY is crazy to me, it’s such an interesting concept. I don’t blame them at all for turning into dragons and leaving because it was mostly to escape men, but there were also some cases where they turned because it just made them happy and feel free and there was no men involved.
The way Alex’s father made my blood boil so many times in this book… he got an easy death for what he deserved. Then there’s her mother who is just… shit at communication, the only good thing she did was not abandoning her but I almost wish she did and killed her father in the process, maybe the girls would’ve been better off that way. He made me so mad I almost wanted to DNF, but this isn’t about him and I would’ve given him the power he doesn’t deserve, so he can go to hell and I’m glad I kept reading.
As Taylor Swift once said: fuck the patriarchy!
Her aunt Marla fits so perfectly the “stereotype” I just knew she loved women, and good for her because damn men are shit in this book, they’re all either sexist or misogynist, that’s the description of the society here to be honest.
We almost never see any representation of menstruation in books, so I was glad to have that here.
I can’t begin to explain what I felt reading how Alex had her friend Sonja and how they clearly liked each other, you know? Like the first innocent love as a child. And when they are together again when they grow up I was just so happy for them.
Alex is so incredibly strong because to Beatrice she was her cousin, sister and mother. She was a child raising another child and she did such a good job on her own and still stayed a good student. I felt sorry for her by the circumstance but at the same time I was proud and just wanted the best for her.
This is a book I would love to have in my library and recommend to every girl, I feel it’s such an important read because it shows how a sexist and misogynistic society was and is, talks about menstruation, about how lucky we are to have education for little girls and women, the importance of family, girls loving girls, having a support system, being free… there could be so many conversations around this, and I love that.
Dragons coming back is something I didn’t expected and it was so interesting to see how people reacted to this and changed their lives and spaces so dragons could study, work, be part of society. I really liked seeing Alex learning to live with and love her new family.
I loved the ending for the sisters and reading who they grew up to be.
Finally, I’ll just like to say that I absolutely LOVE this narrator, I loved picking up this audiobook and hearing her voice again, it was just so comforting and soothing, I will be checking out more of her work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism
I’ll make a list of the trigger warnings and how they appear in the book.
- Death of parent / Grief: A bit of an spoiler, but if you wanna know,
- Abandonment: When women transform into dragons they leave to the abandonment issues these kids grow up with is crazy. And her father can go to hell.
- Sexism / Misogyny: This whole society.
- Cancer: I think her mother has breast cancer.
- Death: Sometimes dragons killed their husbands.
- Gaslighting: The way adults in society collectively agreed in silence to never speak about dragons and make children believe they didn’t exist.
- Fire injury: Obviously, there’s dragons lol
- Homophobia / Lesbophobia: Once again, her father can go to hell.
- Alcoholism: Aunt Marla married and alcoholic.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
For months now I’ve been meaning to start reading The Lord of the Rings and recently I found out there’s audiobooks narrated by Andy Serkis and I just knew I had to listen to that version and I’m happy I did!
I watched the movies two years ago and I remember few things so I was comparing it to that at some points, there’s some things here I know didn’t happen in the movie and a couple others that were modified, it was interesting to see that. I was hoping to see more of Arwen but her appearance was so brief here.
I love to see that Sam's loyalty and devotion towards Frodo is the same in the book. While having Pippin and Merry in the adventure is like having two little kids in the company lol
I didn’t know Frodo leaves Hobbiton when he’s 50 years old, just like Bilbo did when he went on the journey with the dwarves 🥺
My rating is 3.5 ⭐, it was entertaining and I love the audiobook, but I have to admit at some points I had no idea what was going on, and that’s because this is slow and (i’m sorry!) a bit boring sometimes lol so I lost my focus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Grief
Here’s the three main trigger warnings in my opinion, I’ll be explaining a bit of how they appear in the book without much spoiler.
- Violence: They have to fight to escape other creatures.
- Grief / Death: One of the members of the Fellowship dies in the 3/4 of the book and in the rest of the book we see how the others are grieving.
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
1.5
I almost feel like I don’t want to do the review for this book because I’ll rather just forget it exists. It makes me sad to think how I waited so long to read this one and I was so excited… and then I read what I read… I was 5% into it and I wanted to DNF so badly but I’m so freaking stubborn I continued and then it was a bit addictive and then the ending was just that?? well. I even had this as one of my 5 stars prediction, stop 😭
Please read the trigger warnings before picking up this book because it’s insane and I felt sick the first 100 pages, I don’t enjoy reading about a town full of sexism, misogyny and let’s be honest, pedophiles. And then this book was way darker than I expected.
Every year girls who are 16yo are sent to their Grace Year which is basically leaving them on their own in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with little to no supplies while they’re being hunted by men, and all so they can release their “magic” and then come back and be proper women who marry the boys who picked them before leaving.
So the book revolves around this girl named Tierney because it’s her grace year and we see how the town behaves just before they all leave, and then the group of girls when they leave. It’s divided in the 4 seasons of the year and then the return of the girls alive.
I hate that this book is promoted as “fantasy” because I kept waiting for the magic but there is none!! This “magic” translates to “this little girls are becoming women and the men are pedophiles who can’t control themselves and use it as an excuse to make the women behave”. But I would say the genres of this book are dystopia and horror, and there’s this little romance.
I don’t even want to look at my annotations because I was SO angry at everyone here 😭 the more I think about it I keep reconsidering my rating.
I’m just realizing the fmc did have the “I’m not like other girls” thing and in the end she ended up being just like the other girls and there was no character development lmao. But what makes me mad about the end is how NOTHING changed, everything stayed the exact same so where’s the so called revolution and changed she wanted to make? She’s supposed to join her family in this secret organization but we don’t see that and she says how her child will change things for the future, girl, YOU were supposed to be the change for her!
If it wasn’t because of the writing, the audiobook and my stubbornness, I would’ve DNF this, but yeah this is a 1.5 ⭐ for me because at least it was addictive and it was something…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Infertility, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism
Here’s a list of all the trigger warnings, I’m going to be specific about how they appear in the book and I’ll be hiding some spoilers:
Misogyny and sexism: from the very beginning that town is just full of it from both men and women, the way the town works is based on hating women.
Pedophilia: This made me so sick but yeah these men are all pedophiles and you can’t change my mind, the way they looked at the girls or talked about them was sickening.
Sexual assault: In the beginning is mentioned the story of a girl who was taken and she screamed and fought but no one helped.
Cannibalism: They fucking eat the girls parts?? When the girls leave for their grace year they’re hunted by poachers and they skin them alive and cut them in little pieces and sell them to be eaten wtf
Suicide: After the girls leave for their grace year, this girl kills herself in the river.
Death, child death, violence, gore and blood: That grace year is way more dark than I expected 😭 (the girls killed each other or cut their fingers as punishment, the poachers skin the girls alive, the girls fight, etc)
Sexual content: Some nudity and
Pregnancy:
Infertility: This is minor, but her older sister is mocked by some woman because it’s been years and she hasn’t had any baby yet.
Lesbophobia: One of the girls kissed another and she was "dirty" ever since.
The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran, Michael Lennington
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
(Tried to read this in February 2024)
- You know what’s funny? I was doing so well on my own 12 Week Year (actually 10) plan I created after watching a couple of youtube videos, then I attempted to listen to this audiobook and I haven’t done anything from that plan for almost 2 weeks 🧍🏽♀️
- This was SO short, I started it at breakfast hoping to finish it that same day but this was so damn slow and boring, then I picked it up again after five days and I was so over it, every sentence felt like an eternity.
- I truly dislike non fiction books lol I went through my TBR again after DNFing this and deleted some.
- The thing that truly made me DNF this is the fact that I was not retaining a single thing from the information here, and I do have a good memory! I could recall an entire book I read years ago but I can’t tell you a single lesson from this even when I was actively reading this lol
The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I started The Last Bookshop in London this day just to listen to something while I was working and ended up in my bed in tears finishing the last chapters of this book. It was so good it gave me back that feeling of loving books so much and how special they are to me.
I can't believe it's been 10 days since I read this book and I haven't done the notes yet. It's just as if I don't want to get over it, objectively maybe it's not the best book out there, but I know I really liked it and it meant so much to me.
The way I picked up this book after I watched Pearl Harbor and I wanted some historical fiction and then I made Shannel choose one of the little papers from my tbr jar lol
I had listened to this narrator before in When We Had Wings and I already knew the audiobook was going to be great, I'm excited to listen to more books narrated by her.
I honestly don't think I can't put into words how good this book was in my opinion. Like just for this book I have lost the ability to write reviews, but I'll try.
"Out there you safe lives, in here you safe souls"
This book is about Grace Bennet, a young girl who went to live to London just before the war got to them and finds a new job at a bookshop with this grumpy old man who didn't want her at first and yet she's determined to do a good job. So we see how the years go by and she lives with her mom's best friend and has to adapt not only to a new city but a city in war, desperate to do her part to help people she joins kind of a night watch to do so. But she did not only helped people that way, she saved people's lives by building a little community around books, during those years in the bookshop she learned to love books and reading, the old man became like a father figure to her and he recommended her books, she started to read for people when the city was being attacked and every afternoon to help them get through it. That’s basically it, but the connections between the characters are so special and emotional to me, I feel like she ended up with a little found family and so much support from different people.
I love love love reading historical fiction books set in WWII, I keep learning new things about that time with each book, I get to meet these incredibly strong characters and feel so much empathy for them hoping they and their loved ones will survive.
Grace getting to a new city and working on a bookshop while she had a support system back at her new home just made me want to do it too and have the same things!
I think one of the most especial things in this book for me was the way the author talked about books, about reading, about being a reader and the way she built a community around these stories Grace would read them. I just absolutely loved that. I wanted to immediately start reading so many classics after this.
This book truly reminded me of how much I love books and how especial they are to me, it made me want to have my own personal library and people I could share the stories with, I love thinking of books as a love language 🤎
Reading my annotations from the last couple of chapters makes me so sad and almost in tears again, this book I swear 😭
I hope I can own my own copy someday in my little library <3
I have this author's other 2 historical fiction books on my TBR and I'm so excited, I love that they have something involving books on the title.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and War
Minor: Death of parent
Normally I would describe how the content warnings appear in the book, but since the book is set during World War II it's obvious you would have to expect: war, death and grief as the warnings, they're a constant in the story and it's better if you find out for yourself how they're present.
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
How did they even fall for each other I just don’t understand. They were together for 3 months when they were 19 and all they did was had sex and then a horrible break up, and for 9 years I think they idolize each other and are “in love” with the image they have in their minds of each other because now all they do is have sex and they don’t have even ONE meaningful conversation in the whole book, that’s what bothers me the most maybe, because okay I can take the smut, but where’s the connection, the conversations, the getting to know each other again as adults? Lost, just as their personalities.
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Let me start this review by saying that this book made me realize that COZY fantasy ROMANCE with SMUT, is simply NOT MY THING. Is not my thing at all.
When I think about this book I don’t think I really enjoyed it but I pushed myself to finish it because I had gotten so far and I kept waiting for it to be better, and it was just so easy and fast audiobook… but it was a 2 ⭐ for me.
Maybe I should’ve run from this book since the prologue but I was curious, I wanted to read about adults with magic but it almost felt like they were still just 19 years old with all the hormones, and that’s also because we know NOTHING about their personalities 9 years ago or even now, like this should be a detective book looking for this couple’s personality because it’s missing, it’s gone, it doesn’t exist at all.
How did they even fall for each other I just don’t understand. They were together for 3 months when they were 19 and all they did was had sex and then a horrible break up, and for 9 years I think they idolize each other and are “in love” with the image they have in their minds of each other because now all they do is have sex and they don’t have even ONE meaningful conversation in the whole book, that’s what bothers me the most maybe, because okay I can take the smut, but where’s the connection, the conversations, the getting to know each other again as adults? Lost, just as their personalities.
I don’t think this is an spoiler so I’m going to say it: when this ended and each was going their own way I was HAPPY because she said it herself, they don’t have anything in common and they were not leaving their cities for the other and it was too complicated, I think it was the best for them to just close that chapter in their lives. But then because this is a romance book and they have to end up with each other turns out they both think “you’re the one, the love of my life” and one moves to the other’s city and then the other who was so adamant to never leaving also offered to leave to their city and suddenly nothing was complicated, huh.
I love fantasy, but I’m starting to realize that I don’t enjoy books where so little to nearly nothing happens with that fantasy/magic, that aspect was a joke in this book and it was more for the “romance” (which I’m not a fan of the genre or the couple here). The only “action” in this book was the two characters acting like bunnies because they were horny 24/7.
I wish there was more moments with the magic: She learned about her mother being good with magic, but she never embraced being a witch. He is also a witch part of one of the most famous families in town, but didn’t use his powers once. His father was always mentioned as so scary and powerful, but then he got to town for 5 minutes and was just an old man who was put in his place by an small delicate woman. The whole curse on the town was such a powerful magic, but it was solved with the power of love. Sighs.
You could’ve taken away the fact that they’re witches and just say “oh when she was 19 her cousin found an old spell book and because she was heartbroken they cursed him” and I think that would’ve been way funnier if they as just humans had to fins a solution throughout the town and make it like a quest / journey while they talk and meet their adult version of themselves, because is not like these “witches” use their powers at all or are proud of being a witch anyways (at least in her case)
Anyways, I think that's all for this review. I know there's a second book about the cousin who I found funny in the beginning and I was interested on her story because she is bisexual and I love the representation, but I could not care less about it now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent and Alcohol
Here are the main content warnings I added:
- Sexual content: They’re horny 24/7.
- Alcohol: In the prologue she was drinking after the break up.
- Death of parent: In the prologue we learn Vivi’s mother died.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I’ve been pushing and pushing to finish the review of this book and say goodbye because I don’t want it to be over, even when it’s been a week and I’ve already finished this book and have watched the movies again, but I think it’s time. Remember I’m not here trying to be one of those men who super analyze it and sounds like a professional reviewer lol I’m just a girl-
I’m really not sure about the rating because it could be 4 stars for me but with the incredibly amazing narration of Andy Serkis I want to give it 5 stars, so maybe 4.5 ⭐.
When I watched the movies (The Hobbit and LOTR) for the first time exactly 2 years ago I knew I wanted to read the books and see what details are missing or what are some things that changed in the adaptation, and so that lead me to finally pick up the book in 2024.
The dwarves made me laugh so much, I love the journey and how they overcame the obstacles, I love Bilbo and his big heart always ready to help even when he’s doubted or underappreciated, also there were some aspects that made me relate to Bilbo.
When I re watched the movies I loved noticing the scenes that were in the book but not in the adaptation and how they changed some things and I still love it even more (unpopular opinion, I actually LOVE the movies so much)
I think if I would’ve read this book on my own I would’ve still enjoy it but I would’ve find the pace a little slow because of the writing.
But I really think that listening to The Hobbit with the narration of Andy Serkis was such an experience and it made this book way more magical and especial. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am that this is how I read the book. And I’ve found out that there’s new audiobooks where he narrates the LOTR books too so I can’t wait to read them!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
The third movie of The Hobbit is called The Battle of the Five Armies, so of course this has war, death and violence, I don't have anything else to say.
Foster by Claire Keegan
I’m just not one of those people who connected with this or want to over think / over analyze this book, I swear some reviews feel longer than this book lmao
I felt so sorry for this little girl, I wish she could’ve stayed with the foster couple, but at least she has learned new things in life she will never forget and it will be useful for her to survive with her family.
Overall I liked this book , it was fine, and is 3 ⭐ for me, but I’ve realized with this that short literary fiction is not my thing and I’m okay with going through life without reading this kind of books.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It’s been a week since I read this and I already forgot what happened?? I guess at least this was good for my progress in my reading goal.
I’m just not one of those people who connected with this or want to over think / over analyze this book, I swear some reviews feel longer than this book lmao
I felt so sorry for this little girl, I wish she could’ve stayed with the foster couple, but at least she has learned new things in life she will never forget and it will be useful for her to survive with her family.
Overall I liked this book , it was fine, and is 3 ⭐ for me, but I’ve realized with this that short literary fiction is not my thing and I’m okay with going through life without reading this kind of books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Child death and Pregnancy
I’m going to explain how the content warnings were present in the book (and some might be spoilers):
- Grief / Child death:
- Pregnancy: The little girl’s mom is pregnant, which is the reason why she was sent away in the first place.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
It’s such a short story and yet the pace of the story was a little bit slow, but I listened to this as an audiobook so it helped because the narrator does such a good job.
I did not read the synopsis of this book before starting it (I added it to my TBR a year ago so I didn’t remember) and I did not expect to find fantasy and magic with demons and angels, but I liked that aspect of the book!
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I actually liked this book, not as much as I hoped but it was entertaining at least. It’s a shame all my latest sapphic romance readings are 3 ⭐ (which is not bad, just not what I expected from them)
It’s such a short story and yet the pace of the story was a little bit slow, but I listened to this as an audiobook so it helped because the narrator does such a good job.
I did not read the synopsis of this book before starting it (I added it to my TBR a year ago so I didn’t remember) and I did not expect to find fantasy and magic with demons and angels, but I liked that aspect of the book!
This actually reminded me of Supernatural with the whole demon deal thing and an angel controlling a human lol it made me miss the show so much.
This book is divided in 5 acts, and I was invested in the first 3, but by the last 2 I was falling sleep (I was very tired) and I wasn’t paying that much attention, I just know I was mad at the MC’s brother lol men have to ruin everything I swear, honestly I thought this went from being about a warlock woman with her girlfriend trying to solve a crime, to it being about him and what he wanted and he was annoying as fuck and ungrateful. Maybe I missed the point because I was falling sleep, but that’s how it felt.
And that ending… well I’m going to accept it just because I wasn’t that invested in these characters, I’d like to think that after ten years Edith also makes a deal with the demon so they can have 10 more years together and then they all go to Hell lmaooo
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent
I don’t think these are spoilers because they’re mentioned in the first couple of chapters:
- Blood / Murder / Death: There’s a serial killer out there killing people and leaving the crime scene full of blood.
- Car accident / Death of parent / Grief: Helen’s parents die in a car accident.