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yolanda_h's reviews
292 reviews

Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

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emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.25

Content Warnings

Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold by Daisy Johnson, Emma Glass, Naomi Booth, Irenosen Okojie, Liv Little, Mahsuda Snaith, Kirsty Logan, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Eimear McBride, Natasha Carthew

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

I don’t often read short story collections and find it difficult to rate them. But I really enjoyed the majority of these dark, uncanny retellings of lesser known tales. Some are in conversation with folk horror, others seem to meander more. But each one had something unsettling, darkness or just the sense of something being ‘not quite right’.

Levende wezens by Iida Turpeinen

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

Slaap vatten. Hoe een slapeloze de nacht terugwon by Bregje Hofstede

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informative medium-paced

3.5

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Giving 3 stars for the concept and the whimsical world where nothing is as it seems. But it seemed to me that this story really wanted to be a Ghibli movie, and perhaps it would have worked better that way. After a strong start it felt like I was watching scene after scene with a same narrative structure and ending with a cliffhanger of a few words, with clunky dialogue between actors who don’t really show their inner life and with heavy handed devices to give hints or get the plot going. Some scenes felt unnecessary or out of place (the elevator, the moment in the pool).

The ending had great promise and made me really feel things for the first time with this book. For me it could’ve ended a few pages earlier.

There were profound moments, insights and some great prose as well. For me it just needed more.

Content Warnings