whatchareadingheather's reviews
707 reviews

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

A near-perfect collection of intense stories that I think everyone needs to read. Some of these I can absolutely see being turned into full-length films, and I definitely found a bunch of authors that I want to add to my TBR from this collection.
Best of Luck by Jason Mott

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

3.75

1000% wish that this was a full-length story. Hoping that this gets adapted to a movie in the future so the story can be expanded upon.
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

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

4.25

A great balance of happy (the entire romance) and sad (Clementine dealing with the concept of grief). Highly recommend ‘Oona Out Of Order’ by Margarita Montimore as a companion book.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare

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

5.0

I'm forever going to have to read plays in audiobook form because of this. Bravo! Also, I need to rewatch 'The Lion King.'
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

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

3.0

I'm sorry, but the whole romance aspect that got shoehorned into the plot REALLY put a dent into how much I enjoyed this book. I also think that this would have been benefitted from not being categorized as 'Young Adult' so our lead character could be aged up. I did really like the whole mystery/crime aspect and thought the author's writing was engaging enough for me to want to give their other books a chance so there's at least some positives that came from me reading this.
In Bloom by Paul Tremblay

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

1.0

I KNOW this author is better than whatever this was! It's like Amazon just asked him to write something really quick to publish and submitted this outline version of a story and called it a day.
Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen

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lighthearted reflective fast-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

4.0

This did a great job with showing how much preserving religious identity is forced upon us over preserving cultural identity, but I wish this delved more into Mia’s journey with learning about her indigenous identity.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer

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challenging informative slow-paced

5.0

I learned more about Native American history in the one book than what was taught me during my entire school career. How fucking sad is that? I liked that this had a good balance of notable events and notable people because it really gives a humanizing quality that some history-focused books lack. A must-read for those trying to unlearned the colonizer's version of American history that was shoved down our throats our entire lives.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

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

5.0

I’ve owned this book for so long and I am so glad that I finally got to read it. This paints such a vivid picture of life in Afghanistan pre- and post-Taliban in beautiful and heartbreaking ways. Definitely one of the best historical fiction books I’ve ever read and I encourage anyone that is trying to diverse their reading to add this to their TBR.
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

3.75

A fun, fast-paced tale of the unconventional things we try to hold onto purely because we associate it with helping us through some kind of trauma. Definitely read like a movie and I'm excited to continue reading more of his work.