Sarah
really enjoyed reading this even if i didn't connect to it as strongly as i would have liked to. interesting explorations of grief, community, and growth. the morality of protection vs choice. the idea that our memories make us who we are. Porter is an excellent author and i look forward to even more of her work.
right off the bat, i have to recommend you go into this book completely cold. i went in knowing nothing about it except that i was pretty sure it was supposed to be creepy – and it delivered on that front. the first 90% was absolutely immaculate in its tension, even during ‘dull' moments i was at the edge of my seat trying to decipher what was going on. at one point you'll think you know – but you don't, really. unfortunately the reveal kind of killed it for me. i just wasn't a fan of the resolution. although it was bizarre enough that i immediately re-read the book (something i don't think i've ever done before) to look for the hints along the way. and there are plenty, if you know what to look for. but the tension is lost once you know the outcome. still, i enjoyed the majority of this SO much that i definitely recommend it and will be thinking of it for a long time. in fact, i'm adding it to my favorites bookshelf, which i never do with non-5-star reads.
4.5 ⭐️
I keep struggling with how to review this. The Thick and the Lean is the first I've read of Chana Porter's works and has definitely put her on my radar – I'm now very excited to pick up The Seep soon. I can see this not working for many, but the themes of sex, queerness, and taboo worked so well for me here. I felt so wrapped up in these stories and connected so strongly with the characters. I just loved this book.
i just genuinely did not think this was a good book. it had completely unhinged vibes, so if you like your thrillers to go off the deep end, this might hit better for you.
i also had a lot of issues with some ‘problematic' elements of the book. for one: the main character explicitly describes being sexually assaulted but it is literally never acknowledged to be SA. it was really bizarre to me that we were apparently supposed to ignore the assault itself and focus only on the aftermath. there was also one scene that was clearly trying to be super woke – all the characters introduce themselves with pronouns and then the MC ponders how she hasn't even thought about racism until recently. it just felt completely out of place and ‘look i know how to be progressive!' and wasn't even really relevant to the rest of the book. which is ironic, considering the predatory gay trope is all over the place in here. and then on top of that, there's a ‘jewish girl falls in love with a nazi' substory tucked into the middle.
this really could have gone through another round of edits and didn't really work for me on any level. the only pro is that it's super readable and i was able to get through it very quickly.
3.5 ⭐️
I wish the cover didn't make this seem like a haunted house book, because it's really more of a psychological thriller type horror. I was wrapped up in this start-to-finish and the tension was absolutely immaculate. I spent so much of this so confused but when things started fitting together I was like [leo pointing meme] so many times. Sad and disturbing and devastating.
2.5 ⭐️
this was... weird. i knew the premise, but i didn't fully realize how many people Pestilence would kill over the course of the book and how ruthlessly he would do so. it felt impossible for me to look past that. also i was completely hung up on the fact that “human technology broke,” “our electronics never recovered” and then there are fridges and TVs and newscasters and electricity. it was just weirdly annoying.
i struggled a bit with this one. i didn't connect as much emotionally as i did with this arc in podcast form. i also had some trouble deciphering some of the panels, partly due to the art style and partly due to the placement of word bubbles. i don't think i'll ever dislike an installment of this series, though.
1: Bird Box ★★★★★
#2: Malorie ★★.5
Bird Box was a 5-star read for me, but Malorie didn't really live up to that. to be fair, this was incredibly readable and i got through it in just a day. the story itself felt repetitive and the ending was way too tidy. i had an inkling that this might just be a cash grab of sorts and my reading experienced really reinforced that. the weirdest part was Malerman's afterword/acknowledgements section where he goes on for paragraphs about how he's a ‘Prolific' which just means that he writes constantly and doesn't edit. idk.
this was so meandering; i can understand how it wouldn't work for some, but i had a great time following the threads of connections Mandel wove between her characters. i found this surprisingly gripping, on paper this isn't a book i'd ordinarily be interested in. i'm glad that the high praise delivered by many of my friends led me to finally pick this up. i'm very excited to give Sea of Tranquility a shot next!
4.5 ⭐️
i blew through this in one sitting at a coffee shop. this is a highly compelling and very weird story of a man whose consciousness gets pulled into slack. yes, the computer app. my sister read it the week after me and we had some extensive discussions about the characters and the plot; there's a lot that's up to interpretation. this is definitely a book which warrants a reread, which is something i like in smaller books because it feels like you get more mileage out of them that way. there is so much you won't pick up on that will become more glaringly obvious as you leaf back through. i was initially worried this wouldn't work for me but am so glad it did.
3.5 ⭐️
this was such a fun YA romance with a great concept. i don't usually reread the blurb before starting a book so i wasn't sure how Adler would play out both options, but the alternate timelines was a great way to do it. i couldn't even decide which version of Natalya's summer was my favorite, which speaks to how well both of the love interests (and settings) were developed. definitely recommend this to YA lovers!
note: i received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for review consideration.
3.5 ⭐️
I found the later sections helpful, but as a psych major most of the attachment sections felt repetitive and covered a lot of what I already knew. I also noted that the author had a fundamental misunderstanding of asexuality – Fern states “[they] do not engage in sex with others” and puts this group in the “high sexual exclusivity” category. Some asexual people have sex, some don't. Some basic research could have corrected this assumption. I do recommend this book otherwise, though; it contains a lot of helpful information and I'll be referencing it a lot in the future.
I've seen people say that it feels like this was meant to be a duology that Blake had to expand into a trilogy and I agree with that sentiment. Thinking back, I remember almost nothing that happened in this book. It was a lot of talking, repetitive conversations, and exposition, I guess? This suffers immensely from second book syndrome and the only thing that kept me going was the characters and their relationships. Thankfully I still found myself deeply invested on that front. I expect the next book to be more cohesive and plot-filled. And as always, I ship the polycule. ❤
disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration.
Releasing next month, Such Pretty Flowers was a solid thriller (with some horror elements) that moves along steadily as we follow Holly in the search for the truth about her brother's death. Holly becomes obsessed with the enigmatic Maura, who her brother Dane was newly engaged to. This was a quick read – I devoured it in just two days. My only qualms were that I found myself bored at parts and that some of Holly's actions seemed a little absurd to me. I know characters often make ridiculous decisions in thrillers but I was often internally screaming at Holly as she continued to fall in deeper and deeper. I definitely recommend this to thriller fans, especially those with an interest in botany.
