Churie

Another fantastic read from Patrick Radden Keefe. Though I'm not a huge fan of true crime, this felt thoroughly researched rather than sensationalised, setting the tales of billionaires and dirty money against a very intimate family portrait.

Despite still being very binge-able, I would say this is weaker than Say Nothing or Empire of Pain. Some of the threads felt like dead ends, lacking the payoff, and others were meandering too far from the central thread.

It's also written from Zac's parents' perspective which is fine but a little limiting, as none of their own actions get the same scrutiny as everyone else's.

• Might reread, perhaps as part of a big PRK reread
• Might recommend - though would recommend Say Nothing first

I'd be lying if I said this didn't make me a little teary at the end, but to get there is a slog. The protagonists' voices aren't particularly distinct, the constant repetition of "you only live once" gets very tiresome, and the murder plotline is incredibly contrived. The compressed timeline also doesn't help matters as I was not super convinced by the central "romance" - it felt more like two individuals coincidentally chained together for the day rather than real chemistry. Honestly, I kind of preferred the side story chapters. Overall - just ok.

> No, I won't reread, and probably wouldn't recommend.

This is a solidly OK read. It leans on a lot of tropes and meta humour, so I would only suggest this to existing fans of the genre.

Story notes (spoilered):

Yue Wuhuan is the yandere love interest courting a sweet and oblivious main character Song Qingshi. Anyone familiar with SVSSS will know this dynamic already, and I don't think they expand much beyond these known tropes, leaving them feeling a tad bit flat. With the addition of An Long, it makes a very typical love triangle hitting all the expected story beats with few surprises. I do wish Yue Wuhuan had been suspicious of Song Qingshi's intentions for longer, if only to add a little more tension.

Additionally, the prose is nothing remarkable - there's a lot of telling instead of showing, with some internal monologues being extremely on the nose. It makes for an easily digestible read, but not as moving as I think it could have been.

And for pettiness' sake, it's worth mentioning that I really did not like the illustrations inside the book. The cover is gorgeous, however most of the other illustrations felt very incongruous with my mental image of the two main characters. And while I'm airing out petty complaints, this is also a short book and a very quick read - I finished the whole thing in approx. 3 hours. I usually don't mention book prices, but I feel I have to when this volume is £18 and is so slim.

That being said, it's a relatively well executed story. Their relationship is sweet and caring, with appropriate room given for Wuhuan to slowly heal from his extensive trauma, and compassion shown both ways (if with different motivations). As a devourer of SVSSS fanfiction I am squarely in the target demographic for this book, and I would consider it a 3/5 (-0.5 due to aforementioned petty complaints).

> MIGHT reread once the full series has released.

> NO, would not recommend unless they were a fellow SVSSS enjoyer

An absolutely devastating read, and now one of my favourite historical fantasy reads possibly ever. This is NOT a romance (I can't stress that enough), and I fear the marketing is doing a disservice by implying that it's a tragic romantasy with comparison titles like 'Song of Achilles' - this is definitely a grimdark fantasy with a focus on court politics, abuse perpetuating abuse, and the corrosive effects of power.

We cut between current day political manoeuvring and the struggle for survival, and excerpts from the past recounted by others. Narration is very unreliable, and in bits and pieces the full, horrible truth is revealed. Terren, the tyrannical second prince, is such an incredibly complex character handled so carefully by the author, where the cruelty and hurt he has inflicted is never minimised or glossed over, yet simultaneously his past being revealed made me so viscerally upset for him. All characters, including side characters, are fully fleshed out with their own motivations, and secondary plot lines continue in the absence of our main character for a richly detailed world. Every thread is followed to its gruesome end.

Without giving away any spoilers, the ending is agonising. Having finished this book a few hours ago, I'm currently alternating between being mad that the author could do that, and resignation that this was the best way forwards. It's absolutely gutting and relieving in equal parts, and will be living in my brain for the indefinite future.

> YES, I will be rereading this once I've gotten over the immense emotional pain that I'm currently suffering through.

> YES, I will be recommending this to absolutely everyone who likes fantasy and is in the mood for a serious read. Please heed the content warnings before starting!

This honestly disappointed me. It wanted to be like My Dark Vanessa, and touched on some of the same topics as Lolita, however I feel those 2 titles handled the material far better.

Although I really liked McCurdy's prose in her autobiography, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much here. The constant tangential observations often felt like filler. Many of the explicit scenes were pure shock content rather than progressing story or character. Themes such as self-image, toxic relationships, and shopping addiction were dealt with in a heavy-handed way - it was a repetitive cycle, all done very literally, and never really felt like it progressed. In fact, the ending seemed more like the natural end of infatuation, and driving off leaving unfinished business and loose ends really hammered in the fact that I don't feel Waldo actually developed much as a character at all through the story - only the relationship changed. If we want to continue the theme of Waldo making her mother's mistakes and the cycle of abuse, then judging by the ending, Waldo also seems doomed to fall into the same patterns rather than breaking the cycle, which made the whole book feel a bit unsatisfying.

Additionally the 'voice' of Waldo felt the same voice as in McCurdy's autobiography to me, which also detracted from the story she was trying to tell. Combined with some shared plot points such as Mormonism and single-parent families, I wish it read as more distinctly different.

Furthermore, as pointed out in another review on GR (that I think describes the issue far better), Mr. Korgy almost falls into being a tragic romantic at times in the story, which was absolutely not the intention (I can see he was meant to be more pathetic groomer). However that doesn't change the fact that I didn't completely like his portrayal, and once again I feel this was handled better in other works I've read before.

Overall I don't think this was bad per se, just I personally didn't like the prose or handling of the subject matter, and as a result after enjoying her previous autobiography so much it was a bit of a let-down.

> No, I will not be rereading (or re-listening)

> No, I would not recommend

This was, put nicely, not very good. (I proceeded to add the rest of the series to my TBR after finishing this.)

There are so many things that just don't make any sense (the whole mafia subplot for one), a significant amount of "edginess" that made me cringe, and basically everything about Andrew baffles me. The medication side effects (plus the circumstances under which he takes said medication), randomly attacking people, his behaviour that gets forgiven by everyone around him? Not to mention it's chock full of plot holes and timeline confusion.

This writing very strongly reminds me of fanfiction I used to read in the early/mid 2010s, which is why I think I'm being entertained so much by it, and I have a soft spot for both slow burn and angst which this book has plenty of. If you don't interrogate the plot too critically I think this can be a fun read.

> NO, I won't reread this

> NO, I wouldn't recommend this

TV adaption did this justice - I cannot get enough of yearning, and Ilya and Shane make me absolutely sick (positive) with the amount of pining. BE WARNED this is a very smutty book but a lot of it genuinely drives the story forwards and comes with a lot of emotional baggage.

My only criticism is that towards the end I wish they sometimes sat with their feelings a bit longer rather than it continuing to be as explicit, though I think that's just my personal preference for sappiness.

> MIGHT reread alongside a TV series rewatch in the future

> YES would recommend to existing fans of the genre

I'm typically hesitant to pick up a book billed as "funny", however this had some genuinely very witty and clever writing that made me physically laugh out loud. Many of the plot elements are absurd, yet they follow on from each other on a way that somehow makes sense, along with excellent foreshadowing that keeps building and building to make a really great lighthearted read.

> YES will likely reread at some point

> YES would recommend - can personally attest it was a great holiday read

Full of schemes and misunderstanding, this is a delightful read, though it did exercise my brain to process all the social manoeuvring. Definitely requires you to take your time as there's some fantastic subtle insults that made me laugh over 200 years on after publishing. I adore the unreliable narration of Emma and was guessing the whole way on what I thought she was missing - just the right balance of hints towards a twist!

0.5 deducted due to it dragging a bit at times, for rapid-fire introduction of names that had me a bit dizzy to start the story off (before they were individually introduced later on), and for 'I loved you since you were 13' - according to social norms this was fine at the time so I won't judge too harshly, but it did make me cringe and it put a bit of a damper on what was otherwise a fantastic ending.

> YES will likely reread after completing Austen's other novels

> YES would recommend to those looking for a classic romance

Short but powerful, we slowly uncover the schemes of the past through remnants and trinkets left in a dead woman's once-residence. Despite the length it covers a lot both plot and character-wise, and it ends on a rather bittersweet note that hit me much harder than I was expecting from a novella.

As a side note, it reminded me a little of The Waves by Virginia Woolf, where each scene is a turning point for the characters involved, from the perspective of a character. Personally I'm a fan of this structure, where each time we 'see' the characters they change and develop a little more.

> NO, I probably won't reread unless I decide to read the full series.

> MIGHT recommend for someone looking for a character-driven short read

Rating this 2.5 stars makes me feel like a killjoy, however it went way too far into cosy escapism for me, and ended up falling completely flat. Though I actually liked the central couple, I was completely disinterested in the story by the end of the book.

For positives, the dual protagonists had distinct voices and good character arcs. There were enough challenges to their relationship that some stakes were introduced but nothing felt too heavy to handle. Overall the heart of the story is a feel-good romance that was a light read.

Unfortunately though, I had enough issues with this book to warrant a list:

• This is billed as enemies-to-lovers, however not only did they stop being enemies and turn to lovers less than a third of the way through the book, but it never really felt like enmity to me - just a bit of one-sided jealousy that was very quickly overcome. The main obstacles they face are not because they're 'enemies' but instead external societal/familial pressures that they rally against together. The enemies-to-lovers tagline feels a bit like false advertising to me, especially as someone who prefers a true slow burn romance.
• There are no real consequences. This was intended by the author, but felt very 'and then everyone clapped'. Even things that you would expect to have severe negative consequences with huge ramifications turned out completely fine, to a suspension-of-disbelief breaking level - in particular the confrontation with the Queen. And if nothing has any stakes, then nothing feels like it matters in the story, either.
• Many of the political statements have aged like milk. They were jarring enough that I paused my audiobook to text my friends a few times with direct, unfortunate quotations.
• Predictable plot twists. This, combined with the lack of real consequences for any of the twists, made the plot deflate for me towards the end, and I ended up just wanting it to wrap up since the tension was gone.
• Nitpick: British slang usage. Most of the instances of 'bloke' had me cringing a bit, and I recall it being used multiple times by supposedly very posh characters speaking with the Queen's English.
• Another nitpick: the audiobook narrator's British accent. The pronunciation of some words threw me off; mostly I would say the narration was fine, but it was just another thing about a book I already wasn't feeling fantastic about.

To conclude, I would recommend for someone looking for a cosy romance that's not too serious. Ultimately I think I went into this in the wrong frame of mind which really impacted my enjoyment of this, but it's not a bad read - just not really a standout for me.

> NO, I wouldn't re-read

> MIGHT recommend to someone looking for cosy romance

(note: it also reminded me of Hetalia USUK fanfic... IYKYK)

Not an easy read, but was rewarding.

Throughout the novel there is vivid imagery of a gritty dystopian future completely controlled by corporations, with technology restricted and used for the perpetuation of crime and violence. Some aspects are anachronistic (funnily enough usually the technology itself), but the social commentary has - perhaps unfortunately - remained relevant.

The plot is confusing at times, particularly with the amount of jargon continually launched at the reader, making it a dense read that really requires attention. However past that, the plot is paced well, gradually revealing more of the scheme Case and Molly are trapped in. Alongside the plot, the character arcs also progress well, and I genuinely felt quite emotional at the ending.

Additionally I have to mention some of the descriptions of settings are fantastic, truly defining Cyberpunk. In the context of this being a foundational work of the genre from 1984, I enjoyed this read.

> MIGHT reread (if I read the full Sprawl trilogy)

> YES would recommend to fans of the Cyberpunk genre