apollo0325's reviews
290 reviews

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.25

Heard a lot of good things about this one, but I don’t think it hit quite as hard as I had hoped. The pacing was VERY fast, but this story suffered the most from having waaaay too many characters for such a tight story with some convoluted plotting here and there and some middling world building.

It was a quick read though and the narrator’s voice definitely fit the tone of the novel; she was pleasant to listen to. Wasn’t a bad book considering how fast I read it. I wish the romance had developed more as I felt they only had a couple of mediocre interactions before there were some sudden declarations of love.

Ghost Music by An Yu
Did not finish book. Stopped at 36%.

Right now, not really for me. Will try to revisit in the future though!

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

adventurous challenging fast-paced

3.5

It’s a fairly solid short story collection with some good, some middling, and few that weren’t necessarily bad but didn’t really add much to the collection as a whole. This was my first exposure to Ray Bradbury, and I think he does an excellent job of describing environments and physicality especially in The Long Rain.

I’m looking forward to trying more Bradbury after this one. Shout out to Derek for lending me his really cool, older paperback copy.

My favorite stories in no particular order:

The Rocket Man
The Fire Balloons
The Long Rain
The City
The Rocket / Zero Hour (I found these two to almost be thematically similar in the ideas of imagination and parental guidance/influence)

Hide by Kiersten White
Did not finish book. Stopped at 71%.

I actively have disliked most of my experience with this book, but I think the 130+ minute chapter broke me in a way an audiobook or book has never done before.

Aside from the excessively long chapter(s), the pacing was fast but jarring and the spontaneous changing of POVs at the flip of a coin was even more jarring. Character motivations and internal monologues varied from over-explanation/exposition to Generic Character Trope #1. I disliked most of the characters except for Brandon and Legrand (?) and I found the unnecessary romantic subplot to be unnecessary. This book read very juvenile to me. If you asked me to give this an age audience, I would have said YA.

Spoiler

Brandon’s sacrifice was SO FUCKING STUPID. They realize that this game is NOT what they were told it is, yet they feel like the rules of that game still apply?? I may have missed a part where maybe they ran into Ian or the journal, but G O D that death was so frustrating. I stopped after that because how are you going to go in depth about how this sweet boy just wants friends and a family and people who love him for him and then KILL HIM LIKE THAT???? So fucking STUPID.

Generally speaking, I tend to give authors a second go if I didn’t like the first book I read of theirs but sorry Kiersten, it’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Edited review: Okay so after reading the wiki plot summary, now I understand what’s happening and I understood a lot more than I gave myself credit for.

Emily St John Mandel continues to write about the human experience in a very lyrical way. Her writing style shines and she easily puts you in the mind of the characters.

But I just didn’t care about anyone except maybe Olive? Especially during Olive’s recounting of quarantine. Even my caring about Olive wasn’t really that deep. I blasted through the audiobook because my Libby hold was only for a week, but I still struggled with it.

I still believe I may have felt differently about this novel if I had read it in a physical format, but idk. It was fine?

Original review: It doesn’t feel right putting a star rating on a book where I really had no clue what was happening. This is not a dig at the author, but the audiobook format may have not worked for my ADHD brain. I may revisit this novel in the future but in print form. Maybe I’ll better absorb information that way.

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I hope Maddy and Kenny live a good life together and Wendy finds peace in this world.

Fuck Jules frfr

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

challenging dark tense fast-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

5.0

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this book. If you’re reading the reviews to determine if you want to read this book, keep this in mind: think of this book as a character study, not a mystery or a plot-centric book. It’s got a read of a thriller though, especially with how utter delusional and unhinged June is. It’s absolutely fascinating in a “I gotta watch this train wreck and see the resolution” way that reality TV kinda gives. There were a few times I caught myself thinking “I feel bad for June” and then I remember: she did this shit to herself.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Compared to Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic, I found the Daughter of Doctor Moreau to be lackluster and plain. There really wasn’t enough of the science fiction element for me. The biggest issue I had was the dual POV for the first half of the book where something would happen with Carlota or Montgomery and then it would flip to the second perspective to just reiterate what just happened in the last chapter without adding much to the commentary. It grated on me, and while it stopped being like that by part 3, this book felt like a slog to get through.

Also the tension between Carlota and Montgomery was… 💀 It was not good, which is unfortunate because I think Moreno-Garcia CAN write a pretty good romance as evidenced in GOJAS but this one — which was basically a one sided love boarding into weirdly obsessive — did nothing for me.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

adventurous informative lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.25

It was fine. I didn’t necessarily enjoy it, and I found the romance to be very lackluster as a lot of their scenes together were very same-y (aka Emily being exasperated of/confused by Wendell and Wendell being exasperated of Emily). The scenes with them eventually became very tiresome to listen to.

However, I really enjoyed the faerie lore throughout the book. Younger me would have been obsessed with this series. Me now though, I got pretty bored. The book feels way longer than it needs to be.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Congratulations to Winter for being my longest audiobook yet!!!! AND IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!! Rebecca Soler did an amazing job of creating such an awesome audiobook experience, and while the accents were off-putting at first, she really did a great job of bringing the characters to life. Honestly, it’s so impressive that she was able to make me feel like I was listening to a multi-cast narration.

Of course the book itself is still a banger and I love this series very much. Scarlet and Wolf, you will always be my MVPs 💖💖💖