Scan barcode
booshort's reviews
571 reviews
Gild by Raven Kennedy
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
I think I got around 10% in and DNF’d it.
I then VERY VAGUELY skimmed the rest of the book. By that, I mean I searched up summaries, reviews, and recaps and then did not regret sticking this one out.
I think this book has the most serious trigger warnings I’ve read (/skimmed). TW FOR DESCRIPTIVE RAPE SCENE. Ya I’m good with avoiding that thanks. I found the writing very juvenile to an almost mocking degree. It sometimes came off more satirical of a dark fantasy romance, rather than and *actual* dark fantasy romance.
I’ve heard each book gets better; I might continue, I might not. But I know for sure I won’t continue any time soon.
I then VERY VAGUELY skimmed the rest of the book. By that, I mean I searched up summaries, reviews, and recaps and then did not regret sticking this one out.
I think this book has the most serious trigger warnings I’ve read (/skimmed). TW FOR DESCRIPTIVE RAPE SCENE. Ya I’m good with avoiding that thanks. I found the writing very juvenile to an almost mocking degree. It sometimes came off more satirical of a dark fantasy romance, rather than and *actual* dark fantasy romance.
I’ve heard each book gets better; I might continue, I might not. But I know for sure I won’t continue any time soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Giant Days Vol. 1 by John Allison, Whitney Cogar
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Nothing great, nothing terrible. It’s hard to get into a comic series with every issue being it’s own small story line, though I enjoyed the small nods to issues previous.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcohol
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
dark
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ok, I get it. I get the hype. Ahem…
HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS BOOK.
I hadn’t felt this *addicted* to a book in a LONG fucking time. I saw a tiktok before reading this, saying that it was like the 2010 era of reading. Where you’d essentially be counting down the minutes until school was over so you could RUN home and get back into whatever incredible world you’d been immersed in. And now, after finishing Fourth Wing, I couldn’t agree more.
Every. Single. Page. Was crack cocaine. It was an entirely new story to me, yet was giving me nostalgia to my early reading years where I just couldn’t put a book down.
Is it completely original? No. Is it full of tropes? Yes. But they don’t feel obvious. The tropes are woven through the story where it feels natural. There’s a reason why it’s enemies to lovers. There’s a reason why Violet is an underdog. So many other books with similar tropes, don’t seamlessly integrate them as well as this one did. It feels like a fluid cohesive story, and nothing stands out to me as being blatantly shoehorned in.
~ SPOILERS BELOW ~
The Characters
Violet: I can relate to her. While my disability is not physical, every emotion and reaction she had to what she could and couldn’t do regarding her disability was something I have experienced. The constant need to prove to yourself that you’re just like everyone else in your abilities is overpowering sometimes. I too, push myself more than I should, to an idiotic amount, just to prove a point that is only in my head. I loved the disability representation, and most of all, I loved the fact that she still accepted help when needed. Her ability to stay on Tairn is a great example. Push yourself all you want, but sometimes you need some accommodations, and nothing is wrong with that.
Xaden: I really liked his interactions with other characters; we don’t get to know much about him until later in the book, and even then, not that much, so I really hope we get to learn more in the future books. But as for the interactions with others, I loved that he stood up for Violet’s capabilities, and I loved that it wasn’t all of the time; that he mostly let her stand up for herself. He pushed her to her limit a lot, but seemed to back off if he sensed it was getting too much. He called out people for their ridiculous babying of Violet, and I appreciated that.
Tairn: 10/10 perfect father figure that I never had. I can’t believe he had Andarna in a baby bjorn. Mrs. Yarros, please make him real.
Andarna: like Xaden, I hope to see more of her. I was a bit confused as to the aging process of dragons. I was under the impression all “baby” dragons were gold and had feather tails, and then would molt(?) their gold scales and grow into whatever type of tail they would end up having. But I guess we’ll see.
Rhiannon and Ridoc: this is how I like friends to be written in stories. While a lot of books write the “best friend” in these situations (boarding school/any new environment), to be the first ever person they meet, which admittedly is Rhi, I thoroughly enjoyed Ridoc’s slow integration into the group.
Dain: who?
The Writing
While I wouldn’t classify it as anything incredible, I also wouldn’t say it was terrible. So often I find with fantasy novels, that when the MC goes through any sort of pain in battle, that each time it’s described as horrendous, and the author gives it paragraphs and paragraphs of long tortuous agony, whether the incident is any mundane action or the climax of the story, the same goes for expending any sort of magical power. What I mean by that is, a lot of the time (I find SJM very guilty of this) the author doesn’t take into the account of the rising action. Each fight/release of magical power is treated the same as if it has the same stakes. I hope I’m making sense here… my point is Yarros didn’t do that. While Violet does go through an exceeding amount of pain throughout the book due to her disability and the nature of the riders quadrant, the action, wounds, and descriptions thereof rises with the plot. Other than that point, which I did think stood in contrast to other fantasy novels, I found her writing to be solid middle of the pack. Neither here nor there.
The last thing I want to say is the representation is impeccable in this book. Not just the disability and chronic pain rep, but the queer rep is also great. What I like most about this book is none of these representations are shoved in your face. As in, it’s never the defining factor in a character. Nobody outright says any sexualities, gender orientations, or other disabilities or illnesses. Sure, Violet is a special case where we see her struggle more because she’s the MC, but it’s always adding to the plot, and her disability is never a defining factor to her character. Just like none of the queer characters are only there to be queer.
This is the proper way to do representation.
HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS BOOK.
I hadn’t felt this *addicted* to a book in a LONG fucking time. I saw a tiktok before reading this, saying that it was like the 2010 era of reading. Where you’d essentially be counting down the minutes until school was over so you could RUN home and get back into whatever incredible world you’d been immersed in. And now, after finishing Fourth Wing, I couldn’t agree more.
Every. Single. Page. Was crack cocaine. It was an entirely new story to me, yet was giving me nostalgia to my early reading years where I just couldn’t put a book down.
Is it completely original? No. Is it full of tropes? Yes. But they don’t feel obvious. The tropes are woven through the story where it feels natural. There’s a reason why it’s enemies to lovers. There’s a reason why Violet is an underdog. So many other books with similar tropes, don’t seamlessly integrate them as well as this one did. It feels like a fluid cohesive story, and nothing stands out to me as being blatantly shoehorned in.
~ SPOILERS BELOW ~
The Characters
Violet: I can relate to her. While my disability is not physical, every emotion and reaction she had to what she could and couldn’t do regarding her disability was something I have experienced. The constant need to prove to yourself that you’re just like everyone else in your abilities is overpowering sometimes. I too, push myself more than I should, to an idiotic amount, just to prove a point that is only in my head. I loved the disability representation, and most of all, I loved the fact that she still accepted help when needed. Her ability to stay on Tairn is a great example. Push yourself all you want, but sometimes you need some accommodations, and nothing is wrong with that.
Xaden: I really liked his interactions with other characters; we don’t get to know much about him until later in the book, and even then, not that much, so I really hope we get to learn more in the future books. But as for the interactions with others, I loved that he stood up for Violet’s capabilities, and I loved that it wasn’t all of the time; that he mostly let her stand up for herself. He pushed her to her limit a lot, but seemed to back off if he sensed it was getting too much. He called out people for their ridiculous babying of Violet, and I appreciated that.
Tairn: 10/10 perfect father figure that I never had. I can’t believe he had Andarna in a baby bjorn. Mrs. Yarros, please make him real.
Andarna: like Xaden, I hope to see more of her. I was a bit confused as to the aging process of dragons. I was under the impression all “baby” dragons were gold and had feather tails, and then would molt(?) their gold scales and grow into whatever type of tail they would end up having. But I guess we’ll see.
Rhiannon and Ridoc: this is how I like friends to be written in stories. While a lot of books write the “best friend” in these situations (boarding school/any new environment), to be the first ever person they meet, which admittedly is Rhi, I thoroughly enjoyed Ridoc’s slow integration into the group.
Dain: who?
The Writing
While I wouldn’t classify it as anything incredible, I also wouldn’t say it was terrible. So often I find with fantasy novels, that when the MC goes through any sort of pain in battle, that each time it’s described as horrendous, and the author gives it paragraphs and paragraphs of long tortuous agony, whether the incident is any mundane action or the climax of the story, the same goes for expending any sort of magical power. What I mean by that is, a lot of the time (I find SJM very guilty of this) the author doesn’t take into the account of the rising action. Each fight/release of magical power is treated the same as if it has the same stakes. I hope I’m making sense here… my point is Yarros didn’t do that. While Violet does go through an exceeding amount of pain throughout the book due to her disability and the nature of the riders quadrant, the action, wounds, and descriptions thereof rises with the plot. Other than that point, which I did think stood in contrast to other fantasy novels, I found her writing to be solid middle of the pack. Neither here nor there.
The last thing I want to say is the representation is impeccable in this book. Not just the disability and chronic pain rep, but the queer rep is also great. What I like most about this book is none of these representations are shoved in your face. As in, it’s never the defining factor in a character. Nobody outright says any sexualities, gender orientations, or other disabilities or illnesses. Sure, Violet is a special case where we see her struggle more because she’s the MC, but it’s always adding to the plot, and her disability is never a defining factor to her character. Just like none of the queer characters are only there to be queer.
This is the proper way to do representation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, and Gaslighting
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.
DNF @ 46%
If I could give this book negative stars I would.
Someone please point me in the direction of the plot, I seem to have lost it entirely.
The Writing:
11% in, I had a feeling I wouldn’t like this book. I really should’ve trusted my gut. If you like books holding your hand through the entire process, this book is for you. There is not one iota of *showing* in this book. There is literally only *telling*.
There’s no description of any surrounding scenery, people’s emotions or expressions; there is only the brief description of each characters appearance when they’re introduced, but you better have a notebook handy, because it’s up to you to remember who is who after that. At one point there wasn’t even a physical description, the FMC was meeting the hockey team members and eventually just said something along the lines of “I mean how else do you describe a hockey player other than big”… and that was it.
Good luck trying to remember who is who and what they look like, because there is about 50 characters that have no reason being there. The author went about describing a group of people at one point leaving an auditorium because they were not-so-subtly called out and shamed by a school admin giving an assembly. We got to know each one of their names, what their situation was, and where they lived… and that’s it. That was the first and last time I had ever heard of those characters.
There is also an obscene amount of time skips, not altogether too long, but the POV character will just offhandedly mention having a conversation with another character “off-screen” so to speak, quite a lot. And it’ll vaguely describe whatever the conversation was, even if it was conflict that could’ve been added to the non-existent plot, it was just swept under the rug as an “oh ya and this happened, anyways…”
The “Plot”:
Now don’t get me wrong when I say this, I in fact am a large consumer of smut and plot-light romance books and I do thoroughly enjoy them; but believe me when I say that this book seriously has *zero* plot.
The “conflict” is the hockey and figure skating teams have to share one ice rink because the other one is broken or something. But they very quickly compromise and are able to build a schedule for both teams without really effecting anyone too much; all within about one chapter. Now everyone is fine, they get their practices in, they just see one another more often.
This all happens and is “resolved” within about the first 15% of the book.
The only other conflict I witnessed other then meaningless drama Anastasia created, was Aaron claimed to be beat up by Nate and he wouldn’t be able to skate anymore. Everyone backed up Nate when he said Aaron was lying, Aaron had literally no proof of anything, but Anastasia believed him. Aaron was skating the next chapter.
So like, why is this book 429 pages?
The Characters:
Jesus Christ the characters. None of them are interesting, the ones you remember are either extremely unlikable or kiddie pool shallow. I know some people are saying Nate and Henry are the only saving grace, and I could agree with that if they were actually well written characters.
Let’s go through the ones I can remember:
FMC/Anastasia: rude, mean, no reason for any of her actions. I get what the author was trying to do, I really do. I struggle with some abandonment issues myself, and I could see how some people would want to avoid it at all costs by being non-committal. What I don’t understand is her being able to pick and choose. She commits to being in a figure skating partnership and *LIVING WITH* one of the most annoying and abusive characters I’ve ever read (more on Aaron later). But can’t commit to people who care and want to support her in a healthy way. Ex. She’s about to go to funky town with our MMC Nate. Nate, responsibly speaks up and says he doesn’t want to have sex with her while they’re both drunk, but that he does want to have sex when they’re sober. Anastasia cries, pretends to go to sleep, but tries to call an Uber after Nate falls asleep. The next day Nate feels like shit, and Anastasia is mad at him. She just seems to be mean, lash out, tease, or cause drama for no apparent reason, yet claims she likes and is good at talking about her feelings. K.
MMC/Nate: hockey guy. Seems nice. I would hang out with him I guess. Deserves better in the love interest, and the writing department.
Aaron: blatantly harassed, belittles, and emotionally/mentally abuses and manipulates people. But *NO ONE* calls him out for it. And if they try to, or start to, Anastasia stops them, or gets mad at them. This man just flat out lies and Anastasia believes it because…?
Lola: stereotypical theatre nerd. Can’t remember anything else.
Ryan: fuck buddy of Anastasia. Actually might be the only side character I thought was written well. Not counting how he slept shirtless with a woman who wasn’t the girl he was dating. Don’t care if it’s right at the beginning of the relationship, if you’re gonna write sus things in your books, those characters better be explaining themselves.
Robby/Bobby: Robby is in a wheelchair but it’s only ever mentioned once. And he was kinda a dick to his best friend to threw him a sick birthday party. I have no idea who Bobby was, but their name kept popping up and I kept getting confused.
Rose/Briar/Kitty/Summer/Aurora/Liv: random women whose only purpose was to sleep with a guy. I think one of the names is unintentionally made up by me, and one is from the synopsis of the second book. I can’t remember which for each.
Henry: oh dear. Let me preface this by saying I am a professionally diagnosed autistic woman. Now, how do I put this without going into a long diatribe about autistic representation in media. I don’t think I can. So I’ll try to keep it to bullet form;
- he is an autistic-*coded* character. And a poor one at that.
- His only reason for existing in this book is to be autistic.
- He has no personality other than “I am blunt and speak my mind no matter what”
- Every other characters reaction to him flip-flops between “omg he’s so cute/quirky!”, “wtf he’s such a dick”, and “we must protect him :,(“
Safe so say I was not happy with this representation. If you’d like to read well written romance books about autistic characters, please read Helen Hoang.
If I could give this book negative stars I would.
Someone please point me in the direction of the plot, I seem to have lost it entirely.
The Writing:
11% in, I had a feeling I wouldn’t like this book. I really should’ve trusted my gut. If you like books holding your hand through the entire process, this book is for you. There is not one iota of *showing* in this book. There is literally only *telling*.
There’s no description of any surrounding scenery, people’s emotions or expressions; there is only the brief description of each characters appearance when they’re introduced, but you better have a notebook handy, because it’s up to you to remember who is who after that. At one point there wasn’t even a physical description, the FMC was meeting the hockey team members and eventually just said something along the lines of “I mean how else do you describe a hockey player other than big”… and that was it.
Good luck trying to remember who is who and what they look like, because there is about 50 characters that have no reason being there. The author went about describing a group of people at one point leaving an auditorium because they were not-so-subtly called out and shamed by a school admin giving an assembly. We got to know each one of their names, what their situation was, and where they lived… and that’s it. That was the first and last time I had ever heard of those characters.
There is also an obscene amount of time skips, not altogether too long, but the POV character will just offhandedly mention having a conversation with another character “off-screen” so to speak, quite a lot. And it’ll vaguely describe whatever the conversation was, even if it was conflict that could’ve been added to the non-existent plot, it was just swept under the rug as an “oh ya and this happened, anyways…”
The “Plot”:
Now don’t get me wrong when I say this, I in fact am a large consumer of smut and plot-light romance books and I do thoroughly enjoy them; but believe me when I say that this book seriously has *zero* plot.
The “conflict” is the hockey and figure skating teams have to share one ice rink because the other one is broken or something. But they very quickly compromise and are able to build a schedule for both teams without really effecting anyone too much; all within about one chapter. Now everyone is fine, they get their practices in, they just see one another more often.
This all happens and is “resolved” within about the first 15% of the book.
The only other conflict I witnessed other then meaningless drama Anastasia created, was Aaron claimed to be beat up by Nate and he wouldn’t be able to skate anymore. Everyone backed up Nate when he said Aaron was lying, Aaron had literally no proof of anything, but Anastasia believed him. Aaron was skating the next chapter.
So like, why is this book 429 pages?
The Characters:
Jesus Christ the characters. None of them are interesting, the ones you remember are either extremely unlikable or kiddie pool shallow. I know some people are saying Nate and Henry are the only saving grace, and I could agree with that if they were actually well written characters.
Let’s go through the ones I can remember:
FMC/Anastasia: rude, mean, no reason for any of her actions. I get what the author was trying to do, I really do. I struggle with some abandonment issues myself, and I could see how some people would want to avoid it at all costs by being non-committal. What I don’t understand is her being able to pick and choose. She commits to being in a figure skating partnership and *LIVING WITH* one of the most annoying and abusive characters I’ve ever read (more on Aaron later). But can’t commit to people who care and want to support her in a healthy way. Ex. She’s about to go to funky town with our MMC Nate. Nate, responsibly speaks up and says he doesn’t want to have sex with her while they’re both drunk, but that he does want to have sex when they’re sober. Anastasia cries, pretends to go to sleep, but tries to call an Uber after Nate falls asleep. The next day Nate feels like shit, and Anastasia is mad at him. She just seems to be mean, lash out, tease, or cause drama for no apparent reason, yet claims she likes and is good at talking about her feelings. K.
MMC/Nate: hockey guy. Seems nice. I would hang out with him I guess. Deserves better in the love interest, and the writing department.
Aaron: blatantly harassed, belittles, and emotionally/mentally abuses and manipulates people. But *NO ONE* calls him out for it. And if they try to, or start to, Anastasia stops them, or gets mad at them. This man just flat out lies and Anastasia believes it because…?
Lola: stereotypical theatre nerd. Can’t remember anything else.
Ryan: fuck buddy of Anastasia. Actually might be the only side character I thought was written well. Not counting how he slept shirtless with a woman who wasn’t the girl he was dating. Don’t care if it’s right at the beginning of the relationship, if you’re gonna write sus things in your books, those characters better be explaining themselves.
Robby/Bobby: Robby is in a wheelchair but it’s only ever mentioned once. And he was kinda a dick to his best friend to threw him a sick birthday party. I have no idea who Bobby was, but their name kept popping up and I kept getting confused.
Rose/Briar/Kitty/Summer/Aurora/Liv: random women whose only purpose was to sleep with a guy. I think one of the names is unintentionally made up by me, and one is from the synopsis of the second book. I can’t remember which for each.
Henry: oh dear. Let me preface this by saying I am a professionally diagnosed autistic woman. Now, how do I put this without going into a long diatribe about autistic representation in media. I don’t think I can. So I’ll try to keep it to bullet form;
- he is an autistic-*coded* character. And a poor one at that.
- His only reason for existing in this book is to be autistic.
- He has no personality other than “I am blunt and speak my mind no matter what”
- Every other characters reaction to him flip-flops between “omg he’s so cute/quirky!”, “wtf he’s such a dick”, and “we must protect him :,(“
Safe so say I was not happy with this representation. If you’d like to read well written romance books about autistic characters, please read Helen Hoang.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Minor: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Pregnancy, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
What the actual fuck.
Where was this book when I was in all of my previous fantasy book slumps?
The first ~7 chapters were fine enough, it felt like any other fantasy read, really. Jumping in to a new world, learning terms, and just sort of accepting things as they come up. Oh there’s vampires with different types of wings? Ya sure. This big mega vamp wants this rando human child as a pseudo child of his own? Go wild. But once you’re securely in the trials that take place in this book, *you get hooked*. The world is simple but still feels so real with the way Broadbent describes it. It was almost a theme while I was reading; expecting something shallow due to how little this book/author has been talked about in the mainstream until now (thank you booktok), but then being utterly surprised when proven wrong. Each chapter just revealed more and more strings and important details and connections and and and. I am thoroughly amazed.
I know many people are comparing Broadbent’s series and their respective tones to Sarah J Maas’ books, but there really is no better parallel. I’ve yet to read any other books by Broadbent, but there is no doubt I will collect as many as I can get my hands on.
Seriously though, if you are a fan of SJ Maas, give this author a go.
Where was this book when I was in all of my previous fantasy book slumps?
The first ~7 chapters were fine enough, it felt like any other fantasy read, really. Jumping in to a new world, learning terms, and just sort of accepting things as they come up. Oh there’s vampires with different types of wings? Ya sure. This big mega vamp wants this rando human child as a pseudo child of his own? Go wild. But once you’re securely in the trials that take place in this book, *you get hooked*. The world is simple but still feels so real with the way Broadbent describes it. It was almost a theme while I was reading; expecting something shallow due to how little this book/author has been talked about in the mainstream until now (thank you booktok), but then being utterly surprised when proven wrong. Each chapter just revealed more and more strings and important details and connections and and and. I am thoroughly amazed.
I know many people are comparing Broadbent’s series and their respective tones to Sarah J Maas’ books, but there really is no better parallel. I’ve yet to read any other books by Broadbent, but there is no doubt I will collect as many as I can get my hands on.
Seriously though, if you are a fan of SJ Maas, give this author a go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and War
Never Never by Tarryn Fisher, Colleen Hoover
5.0
Since I read this a while ago, and I’m just now getting to reviewing it, I’ll try my best to channel my past self so I can aptly review it...
WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ
HUH?
I’M SORRY WHAT?
SAY AGAIN?
... Ya that about sums it up.
WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ
HUH?
I’M SORRY WHAT?
SAY AGAIN?
... Ya that about sums it up.
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
4.0
Simultaneously the one of the stupidest and funniest books I've ever read. I definitely need this series, and this author, in my life.
Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 26%
Boring. Predictable. Asshole, sexist "love interest". I'm disappointed, but I'm glad I waited for this to be on sale before I bought it.
Boring. Predictable. Asshole, sexist "love interest". I'm disappointed, but I'm glad I waited for this to be on sale before I bought it.