Parris

Okay, so I know that as a reader, I'm not owed some sort of happy ending, or have the uncomfortable encounters of racism resolve themselves in the end on an uplifting, optimistic note.

But boy oh boy is it not fun to read about every single person in Wallace's life being outstandingly selfish idiots and let him down again and again. Like, not one, not a single person in this book gives him the benefit of the doubt, or tries to sympathize with him, or defends him when he's being belittled or stereotyped. I'm not being hyperbolic... there is literally no one in this book who truly makes the effort to get to know him beyond the bare minimum, it's almost comical.

What was the point?

Ehh... I was enjoying my time until about half way through when the fight scenes were getting to be multiple pages long and the m/m romance turned out to be poly-but-it's-not-really-poly-it's-a-BOND shenanigans.

I don't have any gripes with the unapologetic and sometimes explanation-missing world building, though it was a bit rough in the beginning. The characters were okay, minus the lack of fully fleshed out female characters, but nothing to rave about. The plot was pretty straight forward, but there was a point where I had to stop and think “why is everyone fighting again?” which is never a good sign in fiction.

Basically, the most three that ever threed. I think I'm good on not hitting up the sequels!

This book was a huge endeavor riddled with endless waves of heartbreaking disappointments with brief moments of calm and inklings of progress. I'm no more closer to the answer of what ultimately makes life worth living life than Henry was, but I guess that's somewhat the point; we are all okay until we are not.

I have a feeling this story will rattle around in my head for the next couple of days, but I really just wish we could get more than the tiniest glimpse that Henry was on the way to better days. He deserves it.

I don't really like anything about this book. The times my eyes glazed over as I thought to myself “so fucking what” as each character went through their arcs. A lot of the character development is half baked; no one actually gets the room needed to fully realize their character because a lot of the already limited text is prioritized to really dumb chatter about things that don't matter. This was such a miss.

Sorry not sorry, I really liked this book!

I have to admit, the beginning was a bit rough. I was seeing a lot of potential plot holes or shaky plot set up, couples with a ton of characters introduced that I couldn't keep up with who was who. Mack is also a bit of an too-edgy-4-me protag to begin with.

But as the story progressed I got more and more into it. Someone of these characters become really fleshed out with their back stories, especially LeGrand, Brandon, and Ava. I felt myself rooting for them, and their motivations to keep interacting with the plot despite high stakes became fully realized in the last third of the book.

The plot has all the factors I love about horror, and additional social commentary on the horrors of white privileged old geezers was more than welcome. The “lore” was a bit info-dumpy at times but I was really into it so I didn't mind. Pacing was ok!

Not a 5 star, but I would easily round this up to a 4.5. I'm looking at other reviews now and seeing a lot of low scores, man, my feelings on recent books have been complete opposite of general opinion, do I have questionable taste? Lol

This book was a bit of a slog tbh. If you're okay with knowing the ending ahead of time, but about 200 pages of characters convincing themselves they don't deserve happiness, well by all means dig in. While i did enjoy the real look at depression and learning how to self-love, the severity of the depression shown by a certain character was so intense that it made it hard to believe when the ending worked out so neatly. The lows were frustrating and the highs didn't really do it for me. 3/5

This book should actually be called “Aristotle dives into the waters of the world with his mother and father and loving family and friends and oh sometimes Dante is there idk”

The relationship between Ari and his mother and father was the true treasure in this book. The way they continue to learn how to be with each other, understand each other, not always agree but always respect each other. It was honestly beautiful. Then, Ari slowly letting down his walls to let his sisters, his school friends, even classmates that were complete strangers in, and they overflowing love they showed him in return was really great.

Now for Dante... it didn't work for me. The pages dedicated to him or conversations between him and Ari were so miss for me. We all love banter but sometimes I would be sitting there like “How are you all talking so damn much but doing zero communication?” Some dialogue was cringey, this letter writing to Dante instead of, I don't know, talking to Dante... was getting on my nerves. And that camping scene... what actually was that lol.

I'm glad I read this, and I'm glad the book is what it was; a coming to age story with a gay boy who's trying to love himself and those around him. But in my honest opinion, this didn't work as a story about two boys who loved each other, and my rating might have been lower if that's all I wanted heading into the book.

Went into this book blind and was NOT expecting a story like this!

The world building and characters were top notch, and I felt my heart aching as Seth's backstory became more apparent. Tomasz and Regine were such wonderful, fully fleshed out characters, and I really began to cherish the three as a trio to the point where I didn't want them to separate, ever.

There were a few parts of the overall story, both plot and, I guess, lesson to be learned? that fell just a bit flat for me, but it was nonetheless a crazy ride that I for the most part enjoyed quite a lot. I choose to view the outcome/Seth's growth as positive.

Will definitely check out more by Patrick Ness!

I guess “cozy” means “plot with no friction”?

This mystery was a miss for me. I feel like I could really go into it.... Hmm... let's go.

- I don't remember any of the characters except for Molly, her mom, love interest, and her aunt. There were like 20 other characters and they all felt the same.

- Everyone in this book, including the prose itself, sounds like a middle aged woman. No one yells “Stop! Stop I say!” in the middle of a chase.

- Protag is American and explains every British slang/phrase to the reader... Why couldn't an actual British person have explained it to the character instead? This was really cringey and you know what, the words “fit” and “mate” don't need an explanation... please give us readers a little bit of credit.

- Book feels like the entire world revolved around Molly. She gets her way every time, her suggestions go universally accepted and unchallenged, makes friends with and is trusted by everyone instantly, tags along with people or to events that she doesn't have a natural reason to be there... it's kinda crazy

- This author has the weirdest writing style where things are overly and unnecessarily described: “I slurped my beer to lower the level”, “I uploaded the photos to the cloud, for easy access”, “Keiran showed up with my beer and we stood at one of the high tables to drink them.”

- Murder mystery was kind of boring, and the reveal and Scooby-doo monologue from the culprit explaining their motive and confessing to everything they did REALLY took me out if it.

- Insta love from Keiran, despite Molly being really boring.

- Not sure if intentional or not but there are times when Molly would say something pretty blunt or rude, and it really gave this feeling of “American in another country not caring about social norms”. If this was intentional, than touche, author.

2/5, not really interested in another book by this author

Yo, this bitch, literally SECONDS after hearing that her best friend Simon has died, does this:

“Clary scrambled to her feet. Jace's jacket hung off her shoulders, the back of it nearly shredded through. She shrugged it off impatiently and dropped it onto the floor. It was ruined, the back scored through with a dozen razored claw marks. Jace will be upset that I wrecked his jacket, she thought. I should buy him a new one. I should—“

Are you fucking kidding me.

Everything in this book that had to do with Clary and Jace sucked, Simon was PAID DUST, and the small moments between Isabell, Alec, Magnus, Luke, and the Lightwoods were good. I'm still positive on the world building and getting into it.

Also it's so obvious the author is building up to this “oh, we AREN'T siblings? time to fuck!” and its gross and i'm so fucking over it. Someone please tell me future books put Clary and Jace on the back burner cause I'd literally watch paint dry instead of reading about them.

Edit: Oh yeah when Jace outed Alec, what a piece of shit.

This book is pure garbage. The writing is abysmal, not one likable or distinguishable character, and the plot/world building? We don't know her.

Nothing in this book is deserved. Silvera doesn't take the time to flesh out anyone's personality or back story so when people die or go into some emotional monologue you feel absolutely nothing. The characters makes mistake after mistake after mistake as the bad guys just waltz their way to victory again and again. Also anytime the book focused on Brighton I wanted to gouge my fucking eyes out... what an absolutely enraging character. He constantly talks about how he loves and will do anything to protect his brother while every single action he takes in this book hurt or hinder his brother in some way.

Lastly, if you were recommended this book or are interested in it because of “gay protagonist” feel free to skip along... There is nothing gay about this book at all. Emil for some reason trusts the first bad guy he runs into, said bad guy is sketchy, they talk for 2 mins about how much it sucks to be them, and now they're bonded and Emil is pining for him in the last 20 pages. That's it. That's fucking it. What the fuck!!

Sorry, but this actually makes no sense. I have loved all of Silvera's other books but this one is such a travesty. Who okayed this? Who picked this up for a three book series? It feels like some publisher offered him a large amount of money and said “but it needs to be fantasy” and then Silvera said “but i don't know how to write fantasy but ok” and then Silvera's editor suddenly forgot how to read/think/exist and the book was good to go. Absolutely baffling.

That ending though... just because you can come up with a twist doesn't necessarily mean you should go ahead and always do it.

I enjoyed the world and lore that the book set up and I think that will push me to give the next couple of books a read. Because this book was released in 2007, I'm really hoping that the overarching plot continues to get fleshed out, and the way that characters are written and the author's overall writing style will continue to grow, because if it doesn't, I'll probably hop off at some point.

The goods:
-World and lore
-Fast paced plot and a page turner (1st half only)
-Alec and Magnus Bane, the few seconds we get of them

The not greats:
-Clary and other female characters in the book are not great, a lot of girl vs. girl perspectives from Clary
-Men control the plot, and Clary spends the entire book going from place to place because male characters will it
-The love triangle is SO STUPID and i'm just sitting here thinking thank god i'm gay every second of it
-Pages upon pages of people explaining things in unnatural ways so the author can explain something to the reader

The can't forgives:
-Weird contemplation about “I wonder why there are no fat or ugly vampires”
-Weird unprovoked line “[maybe] he's a killer transvestite who molests cats” like girl WTF.

3 star rating with cautious anticipation for the series.

“Stop telling me to let you go,” said Alec. “I will never listen. I want to be with you. I never wanted anything more in my life. If you fall, I want to fall with you.”

——

Hoo boy did this book get me GOOD. Not only did the chemistry between Magnus and Alec ignite something inside of me within the first two chapters, the book features a bunch or really interesting and strong characters. And SO many characters! Funny thing, half way through I looked up a “suggested reading order” for the series and apparently this book is number 15... oops. Time to start from the beginning!

I LOVED the dry humour and sassy remarks from many of the characters. There is a lot of dead pan humour here but also over the top camp, and it just never missed for me! I found myself smiling a lot as I read and getting really invested into the lives of these people.

Ok but also I feel I need to address that I am complete Alec trash and would do anything for him. What a hunk ughhh, the perfect mix of boyish innocence yet willing to throw it all away for the man he loves. I'm sat. Great characters great book great story great everything!!

——

“Only the Great Poison, he who is handsome and wise and charming and handsome, can lead the faithful to Edom. So cater to the Great Poison with food and drink and baths and the occasional massage.”
“They wrote ‘handsome' twice,” murmured Alec.

Poems of which many are so deeply personal that I won't even pretend I understood. Some of them had me mesmerized as I read, some my eyes just glazed over as I didn't understand how any of the words connected together to make meaning.

Personally, I felt the most emotionally engaged during “Kunstlerroman”, and I loved how effortlessly he painted a movie in reverse. “The tape skips and I see, on the screen, a sheet of dust shoot up from the surface of a river, then gather into a cloud under a bridge, before funneling into the copper urn cradled in the man's arms” ... wow. “Ars Poetica as the Maker”, “The Punctum”, and “Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker” also gripped me as I read through, each hitting its themes simply but relentlessly.

3 stars out of 5 because I would say I only had the kind of reactions above 3/5 of the time. “Dear Rose” seems like the big finale the book is working its way up to, but it did absolutely nothing for me. I don't know enough to even grasp the small insights he's giving me into that relationship, and that's ultimately fine. Other readers might be able to read between the lines better than I could. Will definitely read more Ocean Vuong in the future.

An average read; compelling enough that I wanted to see how things wrapped up, yet sometimes dragged and wasn't very interesting. For anyone on the fence or who has started reading but wants to dnf, you don't really get a chance to know what's going on until the last 100 pages.

I have nothing else to really add; it wasn't bad but I didn't necessarily like it either. This review is a mess lol.

GREAT book where both leads learn about who they are as individuals first before learning how to work together in a relationship. A lot of topics covered here: family pressure, unrealistic expectations, (mild) exploration of queer labels, standing up for what you believe in. And the story was fun, definitely would recommend to those who feel more at home with a story with a clear plot path and points to be wrapped up by the finale. 4 stars!

A capable thriller/mystery that keeps the pages turning, but the last minute plot reveal at the ending left me a little unsatisfied.

I think I enjoyed the story for what it was, but I wonder if more fully fleshing out the relationships between key characters would have elevated this into a four star. While the author did an okay job at creating flawed characters, there were times where I would roll my eyes as people made certain decisions. There's also this thematic element tackled of women not being taken seriously by men, while at the same time, the main (female) character gets talked down to by both her boyfriend and brother, and she gives them a pass for it almost every time... hmm. It's your 3 star mystery novel.

Interesting book! While the start is a little hard to get into, and the end left me wanting a little more finality, the middle had me super invested as the pieces started coming together. It's a short book, but i'm not sure if it being any longer would have benefitted the story in some way.

Time to head to reddit to see if people think “A” or “B” about Piranesi's story!

I really struggle to see who this book is for. While I can appreciate the tying together of horror elements, survival, and trying to make an identity for yourself, this book was so fucking long.

It felt longer than A Little Life despite being half the length. Imagine a book being about driving a car somewhere. After the first 100 pages you get into a car crash. 200 pages of you contemplating the predicament you're currently in. Then the car explodes and you're on fire. 150 pages of you on fire. Then the car, on fire, teeters off a cliff. 100
pages of you on fire and falling to your death.

The characters are not very like able, and even though we're supposed to be rooting for Jonathan, on his “journey”, he treats the people around him pretty shittily and lacks compassion when he's also simultaneously hoping for compassion from others.

I feel like I could go on and on but this book was NOT for me and I should have dnf'd at some point but i'm stupid and wanted to have another book/number of pages added to my 2022 reads. I need a sappy gay romance to cleanse the pallet like ASAP.

A good book that does a lot of things right, but also a book that I just couldn't get into.

I think the representation in Cemetery Boys will mean the world to a lot of people. I enjoyed the love and support Yadriel receives from his friends and family, and the book does a good job of showing how to treat someone in exactly the way they want to be treated, and why that's important. The story of being accepted as a brujo in the clan, as well as a son to his father, was sweet and I felt was handled well.

One of the biggest reasons for my 3 star rating is pacing. I really had to struggle to finish this book. You figure out where the story is heading pretty early on, and it just drags getting there. Getting from point A to B in this book's plot doesn't require a lot, so the middle gets padded out with the characters running around from place to place doing things that aren't really all that significant. You could argue that these scenes are there to build up the relationship between Yadriel and Julian, but man... I wasn't feeling the chemistry. It felt like Yadriel was willing to fall head over heels for anyone that would accept him, and Julian went from scary and standoffish to extremely sweet and accepting in the speed of light. I am more than willing to accept that this might just be me on this one, especially seeing all the high ratings from my GR friends.

An attempt was made to depict high school students crumbling under the pressure of school, but the result was a story that was almost entirely just as stressful to read. The romance didn't really cut it for me, and felt at times as if the romantic scenes were only added as a soothing reward for making it through the drama. I dunno, it was ok.

It's cliche but a part of me changed when I read this book. Khorram writes about depression in a way that I have never experienced before, something so honest and in such plain terms that it really hit me hard.

I wanted to hug and protect Darius just as fiercely as his Mamou did. Every struggle between Darius and his father was soul crushing and you're just sitting there praying they could understand each other a little more.

The depictions of Yazd were so easy to visualize in my head, and I loved the often gentle hand holding through various Farsi words and phrases and cultural customs. I want to try eating everything mentioned.

The deadpan humour and Darius' inner commentary about the things that happen around him are hilarious, and I definitely let out a lot of little giggles here and there.

This book made me cry three times throughout, and then a fourth time in the afterword. It's just a really beautiful, tender book. It's definitely the best book I've read so far this year and will absolutely be right there whenever someone asks me for a book recommendation.

I dunno, I just found the entire story, premise, characters, and final reveal to be bland.

I never got fully invested into the story because the characters and their daily lives (?) were just not interesting. The book doesn't start leaving breadcrumbs leading to the final reveal until about the last 1/3 of the book, and when it's revealed I just couldn't be bothered to care. It's a little hard to feel for the death of a character we didn't know about, and even harder to find sympathy for the culprit who is just as guilty.

I think ultimately a little more time on fleshing out each character and giving us a chance to grow attached to them would have really helped.

Minus points for FBI agents acting really dumb, minus points for an unprovoked and unchallenged utterance of the R slur, and minus points for just being so bland!

Yo this book was great!! Really good chemistry between the two leads, and I loved the constant ribbing but also support from all of Mickey's friends and family. The book did such a good job handling issues like family pressure and depression, and I think a lot of people could relate to Mickey's struggles throughout the book.

Whenever a book has you panicking because there's only 50 pages left and you just do NOT want it to end, you know you've got a winner on your hands. 5 stars!

Everyone in this book is a bad person and they should feel bad for being so ridiculously bad. A page-turning 4 star read until the end where the author decides to hit us over the head with a “hey, see what i did? did you see? should i explain it? yeah let me explain it for you.” Your suspension of disbelief will be needed for this one.