Reviews

The Contortionist by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

kristineel's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

ceena's review

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3.0

Series review/thoughts

My absolutely favorite series by this author. Yes, this may seem difficult to believe because this first book I only rated 3 stars, so I'm really glad I continued on. Simon is over-the-top and so out of his mind and I love him. Cora is so strong-willed, I love her journey in this series.

Remember though this is a villain romance and there is no redemption here.

sleepytimetay's review

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

4.5

fairyofbao's review

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dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

calliek_reads5's review

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4.0

I'll give it a solid 4 for sure. While the writing was perhaps a little repetitive on some ways, the story was enough for me to keep up with it. I'm already looking forward to reading the rest of the series for sure.

A strong MFC visits a carnival she drives by every day but was not open until now? Hmmm... well that's where we head. And it's a pretty entertaining storyline.

september_red's review

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This author is just not for me.

pdreed's review

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

2.25

betelguese's review

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slow-paced

cardaisy's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Impossible for me to imagine Simon as a sexy man when I couldn't stop thinking of him as Alastor from Hazbin Hotel 

My thoughts on this book are that I remain intrigued but wary. I'm trying not to be *too* nit-picky because this is a dark romance, but there are some things that just kinda rubbed me the wrong way

Nice to see some disabled representation, and that it's ownvoices as the author has talked about having chronic pain and fatigue, but the FMC definitely has some internalized ableism that's not really addressed 

I think that the other representation also leaves a bit to be desired. Trent is basically just the stereotypical gay bff, with little else to his personality than being promiscuous and self-centred, and we get very little to make us believe that the FMC and him are actually best friends. There's another male character that's mentioned as being queer in passing and he's also described at one point as being very promiscuous, and also his former partner (a man) is notably dead. We also get 2 descriptions of non-white people (there could be more that haven't been described yet) and one of them is that notably dead man, while the other is being set up as an antagonist in the series. So, like I said, intrigued, but wary 

I also think that the plot felt a little bit too dragged out, as this was mostly just set up for the next book and feels like it should've instead been the first act of a longer book. Also the FMC was just a bit too dense at times. But anyway I read this in one sitting, so it was an easy and enjoyable enough read 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

aszramek's review

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

3.5