venusinlove's reviews
330 reviews

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

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adventurous reflective 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

3.25

I think the only appreciation i have for this book is for being probably the first gay book that's become fairly popular. putting that aside, it was so confusing. and also disgusting. mainly disgusting. 

i don't think i fully understood the part where Elio literally declares how much he HATES Oliver and what they did. and his own feelings toward Oliver but then in the next chapter, out of nowhere btw, he still feels "in-love" or whatever you might call it. he's still warm with Oliver and doing stuff with the man. i do not get it. i was just so confused and tried to find the meaning of these moments but found nothing. maybe it was future Elio explaining and declaring that hate because it was their first night together? i am unsure. 

i disliked how unnecessarily disgusting some of the moments the two men share are. like? the one with the peach? i shivered with disgust while reading it. and the next one where Elio licked Oliver's eyelid? fucking hell man... was that needed? i hope they skipped over that part in the movie. 

the relationship was far too romanticized for me to like. especially the slightly
pedo and rape-y
stuff. i know that I've read many books on such topics but i think it bothered me here so much because they were both willing to continue. Oliver could have spoken in a non-encrypted way! he warned Elio, yes, but what about? Elio didn't even know what he meant. also the
rape
part was that first night to me. and i feel like to Elio was too he just didn't know to interpret that as such an act. 

all in all, it was entertaining but most certainly not for me. maybe i'll try the movie but i didn't hear many good things from my friends so the bar is set LOW.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

weird, i have not left a review on this book... probably because i don't have that much to say about it? going back I'm even taking 0.25* from it simply because it was pretty boring. imo, it was really easy to read but damn, that was not my favourite classic. 

it had some good banger lines. like the ones where the "monster" was telling Victor that he didn't want to be created and to be alive. it was not his will. that kind of made me upset for a good moment. other than that i think everyone is trying to portray the creature as someone nice and not that scary but he was not that kind... so that threw me off. 

I'm doing my best not to compare this book to Dracula but it is not at that unique level. I'm sorry, Victor, your story kind of sucked. also i do not remember the end, oops.
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 2%.
Literally only 10 minutes in and it is far too cringe-y for me to continue. Idk who recommended this to me but man, please look into some better literature.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

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

2.5

I've never heard of this classic. The only thing I remember is being gifted the book when i was like 15? And I've left it on my shelf so I could pick it up now, i guess, only because it was on my "Out of your comfort zone" graph on here. Maybe i should thank StoryGraph for making me finally read it. 

It wasn't anything special, sadly. One thing i enjoyed about it was that it very much so reminded me of Dracula based on the writing style (although this one's was much more easier to comprehend). The story itself was a bit boring to me and i feel like i missed most of it or slept through it(?).

Most of the reviews i saw say that the movie with Johnny Depp was great so I'm going to try that one to make up my mind fully as to is this story actually good. 

Nevertheless, it was creepy and i should have read that around Halloween instead of in the middle of February, lol.
Art Matters by Neil Gaiman

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hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

Neil Gaiman, the man you are! firstly, this book is a precious gift from my brother, making me love it even more. it's just a perfect little book about art and all. 

the way this man speaks, oh my god! he can turn anything into magic. also, what the fuck do you mean you just spelled Caroline wrong and thus Coraline was born?!?! are you insane? yes, insanely talented and freaking amazing! i love this man with all my heart, i hope he never seizes to make art and create magic. i'd give all the stars to him.
Come Close by Sappho

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad fast-paced

4.0

If you don't romanticise the hell out of your life then what are you even living it for? 

Finally made myself read some good Sappho poetry. We need more lesbians to write good lit. :) In any form, btw.
She and her Cat by Makoto Shinkai, Naruki Nagakawa

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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? No

4.75

Maybe it was because I'm a happy cat owner but this book was just so good! Apart from the whole "cat being in love with its owner", i think the book was really intriguing. Especially the parts where we could read each cat's POV. Most of my notes on those pages were just me wondering if my cat sees me the same way as these tiny ones do see their owners. 

It was refreshing to read such a lovely work. 

One of the rhings i liked the most was the way the  stories were connected to one another! I've said it many times but to me it's almost like a puzzle that I'm trying to solve and this one just hit the right spot! The characters were v sweet
except that one guy who tried to do inappropriate things without consent to one of the girls
.

I really hope i find more books like this one! Very cute, indeed.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

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  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

absolute masterpiece. i didn't know what i was diving in but oh my god! so gooddddd. loved the different angles between the stories and the one at the end where it's as if you're the protagonist! that's honestly some fun writing right there. i want to add some things about each of the family members but of course, i'll hide them bc of spoilers. :)

About Cass first since she's the starting character in the book.
I really do feel like she's Frank's child. I felt so bad for her because nobody paid any attention to what she did and what substances she was abusing. which also makes sense if she's Frank's child.


PJ, poor boy. it's almost the same with him -
the parents were too into their own problems to care about their children, which is truly sad... he deserved so much more, from his sister too. god, the times i caught myself almost crying at how they just didn't care about him. and that part with him and his "friend" which he tried to meet up with, fucking hell. that's so much more common to happen than we think. another thing i want to bring up here - his part of the story was the only one that made me feel deeply. meaning, the parts where he was going through hardships because his family was getting poorer and poorer each day is very relatable to me. as a person who's lived in poverty, that shook me the most. 

I kind of don't want to say anything about Imelda but here we go.
she was not my favorite character at all. she had an awful background, literally so shitty to the point of me throwing the book at the people who hurt her, including her dad. but still, something about her being too selfish and money-driven (in a very negative way) just made me feel angry. the parts with cass made it worse. that's all I'm going to say.


Dickie...
mannnnn, where do i even begin with this one... his story was the most interesting one to me, honestly. the fact that he was not the man he was trying to portray at home? fucking sad. i felt him very close because the way he didn't want to deal with business and that one in the family is very much like my own family. also the fact that he was saying out in uni. that one incident though, I'm not sure if the author wanted to add it purely to show that not all gay people are good? i don't know tbh but it hurt a lot. dickie's story was all ups and downs and it was a wild ride! loved it.
the fact that the two men were named willie and dickie? lmaoooo, that's not very original but go off, author. is that a real spoiler? idk, i'll keep it as it, it was funny.

istg, this book didn't have a moment where i felt like it was going to be chill. there was always something happening and i never expected whatever it was. even at the end. it may have been very obvious to many people but oh my god???? that ending was amazing. i have some theories on it but i'll keep them to myself so i don't spoil anything else. 

p.s. forgot to add: fuck elaine.
she had to die instead of some other people
:)
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

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

4.0

to me, this book does not have much of a plot. i have not read any other reviews on it but i know it is very loved by many people. i simply liked it because it had such nice winter vibes. it was pretty easy to read and it fit the moment since it was -14 degrees out here, lol.

i'm not sure how i feel about the "story", if i could even call it that, between the two main characters... it wasn't anything significant but it felt a bit disturbing as it seemed that the girl was far too young for this mysterious man. 

one more thing that bugged me was the relationship between the mother and the daughter. i've read my fair share of Asian lit where that exact relationship is pretty messed up and borderline abusive (be it mental or physical) so this was a bit unfinished(?).

good winter vibes, that's the main thing i have to say about this book. :)
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

so that was fucking creepy. tbh, i didn't know what was happening most of the time but the language that was used was pretty neat and the story was fucked up so what more do you need in a story? if you were me probably an lgbt character (which i was confused if there was one but let's say maybe). 

it was not a bad book but
stealing a doll from a child is fucking evil
. do not do that.

i think i can give my honest-est rating once i watch the movie. maybe it would be slightly better, we'll see after i actually commit to it, lol.