clovetra's reviews
198 reviews

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

this was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 and i was…. disappointed.

the entire book feels like it is a book trying so hard to be weird girl fiction, to the point where it feels like a parody with no further depth. weird girl lit isn’t just a book where the female mc goes fucking bananas and murder and death and eeeee crazy lady! no. there is more to a weird girl book. and although this book addresses the fundamentals of weird girl literature, it fails to expand on that and grow. it stays stagnant for most pages. i am a firm believer in meta-commentary is very fun and interesting, but it only works if the book itself is fun. i understand that the repetition of certain phrases, events, days, etc. for the mother is essential to the plot, as it exists as a mirror to her life — a repetition of her days exists due to being a stay at home mother, where every day is full of nappies, naps, cartoons, trains, and no time for her art. i get that. but in order to pull that off your book still has to be interesting. and this didn’t feel like that. it felt like it wanted all the glory of weird girl lit without the work.

every character in this book felt flat. the husband being flat? sure i get that one, meta-commentary her husband is useless blah blah blah. the other mothers? sure i get it, meta-commentary, she lacks friendships beyond the surface level small talk mhm. but the mother should have had more depth as the plot progressed, as she grew. and the son seemed to only exist as a plot device, where his change felt… random? unnecessary? odd in the context of the book?

where was the plot. i was waiting for some tension. something to drive the story. surely there would be something! i told myself. the answer? not really. by the end sure, we had the performance driving the narrative. but even then, that felt incredibly unexplored, and the rest of the story felt untethered and almost pointless.

additionally, there are just too many god damn unanswered questions.

for example, was jen actually the golden retriever? is nightbitch actually turning into a dog or is it metaphorical? why does nobody blink a fucking eye at a grown woman acting like a dog to the degree she does? why does the husband just accept it?

. i feel like these were left unanswered to add to the “mystery” of nightbitch, but instead it just made me feel like the writing was lazy.

although i’ve dunked on this book, beyond actual writing issues, i enjoyed myself. i had a good time. the mother’s internal dialogue was incredibly funny, and reading about her becoming more and more unhinged was enjoyable. even though i am not a mother (and will never be), i enjoyed the themes of motherhood, contrasting with the themes of being wild and animalistic, as well as the anger surrounding motherhood. i liked reading about the grittier sides of motherhood, where even the most open of people may shy away from expressing their feelings.

i felt like everyone hyped this up way too much. this book was fine. this book was not, in fact, the best feminine rage book to exist. hell it wouldn’t even be in my top 10, and i don’t even think ive read more than 10 weird girl books. but im not annoyed that ive “wasted my time” on this book — on the contrary, i had fun! i was just very disappointed when people were hyping this up. first bunny and now this 😕 yall need to rlly learn what weird girl lit is. go read maeve fly by cj leede.

anyways im having steak for dinner and ngl i almost want to eat it like nightbitch just for shits and giggles

Content Warnings

The Drowning Faith by R.F. Kuang

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i’m in spain but the s is silent

Content Warnings

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

was i on drugs reading this? did i slip into an alternate dimension halfway through this book? am i alive? what in the ever loving fuck?

the blurb of this book does not clue the reader in to what fresh hell they are about to read. oh my god. i thought i was about to get something like severance and instead i got…. man i don’t even know what the fuck i got. what the fuck.

that’s all that’s going through my head — what. the. fuck.

i think its best if i break this review down into the three parts of the story, because honestly i have different views on all of them. although i will say OOOO i love when books have different POVs where all the characters eventually line up at one point in the story. like they meet each other at the midway point of the novel. i love it.

anyways, onto the first part with erin. easily the best part of the book. which makes sense because i believe snyder workshopped this for ages to the point where it was its own standalone. it was so good. i enjoyed erin’s characterisation, the plot, where it was going, the worldbuilding, everything. once the horror elements came in i was READDYYYY. i was loving it!!!!! esp the scenes with betty WHOOO didn’t expect that at all! ummm and then i think the author took crazy pills for the last chapter because then i was so fucking lost. hey what in the hell just happened? why is my pandemic book now turning into… god i can’t even describe what. i kinda felt like the ending ruined the perfection of erin’s story. like seriously what in the ever loving fuck happened. sure i know NOW what ended up happening but…. Cmon.

savannah’s story. Huh. i like how there was a link to erin’s story, although not directly, but the way savannah ties into this whole story….. yeah it’s a miss. some dialogue choices very much felt like i was reading the world’s worst booktok novel. like im sorry why is she talking about her father’s jizz after murder. at some point it felt like in savannah’s story, snyder decided to just write whatever fucked up thing popped in their head, and went with it without thinking if it would fit tonally or even make sense! like from here we went WAYYY beyond sci-fi and dystopias into god knows what. and i have to talk about that entire page where savannah sounds incredibly stilted after killing a black woman…. a direct quote from savannah is literally “that’s why i killed a strong, accomplished black woman who was pretty much the embodiment of the american dream”. that is the most hamfisted line i think i have had the displeasure of reading. savannah was a funny protagonist at times, but im so serious if it was her story alone this book would be a 2-star rating if only for the lols.

and the third part…….. it wasn’t even horrifically bad like savannah’s part, but it was just…. Meh. at this point i fully felt like i was taking every single hallucinogen known to man whilst reading this. mareva was pretty much a blank slate character, making her incredibly boring. coupled with the fact now suddenly there are aliens and shit, and time travel????? like what in the ever loving fuck is going on. at this point i was just waiting for the book to end. i do think the horror here was pretty good, defo better than what was in savannah’s part, but like i said, nothing came close to erin’s part.

this book is so fucking wild. so odd. you really have to suspend your disbelief to have a good time with this one. erin’s part did prime me for the horrors of part 2&3, but honestly parts 2&3 felt like they were apart of their own book away from part 1. overall, the writing was fun, vibrant and sardonic, although at some points it felt like the characters would almost break the fourth wall to then preach about something completely irrelevant. plus all the mentions of the covid-19 pandemic kept throwing me for a loop, as this book kept feeling like it was in an alternate dimension, yet it kept reminding me it is almost contemporary in its time period.

this was weird. but i’d say i had a good time.

Content Warnings

Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight by M.E. Thomas

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reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

i am hesitantly skeptical regarding this book. let me get that out of the way first and foremost. if you are looking for a completely factual and scientific novel about sociopaths, this is not for you. do not go into this expecting a perfect crystal clear insight into a sociopath’s mind.

however, with that being said, i did thoroughly enjoy this book. taking everything with a grain of salt, i do feel like this is a respectable insight into the mind of one sociopath.

many online criticise this book for the author not being diagnosed, which i really don’t get because… she literally is. it’s the first page. she has an entire chapter going over the diagnostic process. secondly, people criticise the fact the author was (at the beginning) anonymous. as time has passed and M.E. thomas’ identity has been revealed, obviously that point is moot. but even if she was still anonymous, how many people can confidently sit there and say they wouldn’t have a negative gut reaction to someone in their life saying “oh hey i wrote that book. a book that details some horrible things i have done. and some thoughts that are definitely not considered normal. and how i have no empathy. and i view people as objects. yeah i wrote that.” even if everyone in the world read this book, you cannot sit here and tell me society is not prejudiced against diagnosed sociopathy. and the final criticism i often see is that this book reads horribly. it reads like it is written by an unreliable narrator who is a raging narcissist. and like…. yeah it is! thomas literally discusses that. of course it reads like it’s written by a narcissist, that’s literally a “diagnostic criteria” for being a sociopath. oh it reads like she thinks she’s better than everyone? she does! that’s like a big thing of being a sociopath! oh she’s an unreliable narrator? duh. if you are taking every single story thomas proposes as gospel…. that isn’t her fault.

even though i do disagree with online crackpot theories that she isn’t a sociopath, i’m also not a psychiatrist, so i do want to take everything not posed as facts in this book with a grain of salt. but this was incredibly fascinating. i’ll say even if thomas is a “faker”, this defo has begun to make me see sociopaths in a different light. what with all the studies she cites, as well as her explanations of things such as how a sociopath experiences “love” and how to be a high functioning sociopath, i do think this book has really opened my eyes to a lot of my own biases. that isn’t to say this book has completely shattered my bias, as like i said i don’t want to completely trust this book, especially since it is not written by a professional but instead one person’s lived experiences, but this book has started the process.

at the very least, i can confidently walk away from this book and say my preconceived notions of what it means to be a sociopath have changed. at the most, i can say this book has piqued my interest to the point i could almost see myself basing my honours degree on sociopathy.

i will say, however, completely unrelated to the actual material itself, that this book does use some outdated terminology, namely “aspie”, “aspergers” and “transgenders”. that isn’t to say this entire book should be thrown out because of it, but yet again, it makes me question how relevant this book still is, especially in terms of research and theories posited by thomas herself.

tldr; a good read for those with an interest in psychology, but don’t consider this a bible on sociopathy.

Content Warnings

The Apothecary Diaries, Volume 1 by Nekokurage, Itsuki Nanao, Natsu Hyuuga

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funny mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

2.0

not that interesting so far, but hoping it gets better as the series goes !
only thing i care about at this point is maomao 🤞🤞

Content Warnings

Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec

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challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

fellow melburnian book!!!!!! i really loved that this book is written not only by a fellow young person, but a young melburnian!!!!! shout out to kgshak akec 🔥🔥 also shout out my library for having a copy of this 💪💪

i really enjoyed the characters, they were truly at the heart of this book. santo was probably the most compelling character, as he had layers to his character, and went through the most change. i do think this book started strong when the family were in egypt, but once they came to australia, they lost all their spark. this is probably best seen in both akita and taresai, both with different issues. taresai became quite one dimensional, repeating the same phrases and sentiments, and not really saying anything new. akita’s character did grow, but it felt like her dialogue was incredibly juvenile the entire time, even by the end of the story.

i also think the pacing of the story was slightly off. akita starts the story as a toddler and ends in her early 20s, but with 346 pages, it feels like we breeze past a lot too fast. i think her childhood in egypt was paced well, but once in australia, everything flew too fast without further exploration. it became a book of telling, not showing. the rest of the siblings almost had no personality whatsoever, occasionally having some dialogue but even then it was very generic.

there really was no story or plot like here. i think that’s really the fatal flaw with this. before the deng’s arrived in australia, the plot was following them in egypt, with ashanti in the hospital and struggling to get by. the minute we arrive in australia its almost like the plot dissolves because there is nothing there tension-wise. with the constant time skips, there really IS no tension, and instead i feel like im reading a not very interesting memoir.

that sounds so shady oh my fucking god.

i feel at times there was a lot of context missing too. it felt like the book almost touched on issues facing immigrants on a surface level, where it went nowhere. i wanted to truly dig deeper and explore more, but it felt like there were only the beginnings of conversations, not anything more than that.

i feel so bad writing a negative review for smaller authors. i really wanted to love this seeing as it’s set somewhere i know. like the mention of melbourne uni i was like “Oh!!!!! 👆 I know that place!!!!” or even like the beach i was like “I’ve been there!!!!!!”. so i really really tried to adore this. i do feel this is a story needing to be told, and a story that truly did open my eyes to things i didn’t even consider regarding immigrant familiy dynamics that are different to mine. but sadly i don’t think this book exactly pulled it off.

i want to rip my eyes out i feel so bad writing this

Content Warnings

Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.0

oh how i wanted to love this. BROM HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME.

tldr; this reads like a worse version of slewfoot (even though this came out before slewfoot SHUT UP I READ THAT FIRST)

now here’s the long story: i really didn’t like much about this book. let me go over what i did like. which is mainly isabelle. simply because she is pookie pie. she is the love of my life and she could get it. also i am a sucker for “eternal being being mesmerised by things we find boring in the modern day” trope. krampus is a himbo at times i said what i said.

there were also a few scenes i really adored. namely the moment in the general’s hideout. you know the one. also the little moment with krampus at the bar???? did not expect that in this book but wow was i happy to read about it. i loved those two scenes A LOT.

ummmm and that’s about all i can say i really loved about this book. so let’s go over what i didn’t love 😟

jesse. what an asshat. yes i recognise the story is very likely supposed to give him a strong redemption arc where he goes from an unlikeable protagonist to someone the reader roots for. but i did not give a flying fart about what happened to him. honestly there were many times i kinda wished he died. and so many situations jesse got out of seemed incredibly unrealistic. like it just threw me out of it all. idk it feels like his redemption arc… didn’t exist? where was his being a good guy? oh wow he helped krampus? therefore he is redeemed? nah im gonna need more than that actually.

krampus felt very much like samson from slewfoot. almost too similar for me to not keep referring back to samson and thinking “oh he was written so much better”. like at least samson’s motives made sense there. why the fuck is krampus doing anything beyond his own goals. actually scratch that, he isn’t doing shit, which brings me to another issue — it felt like most of this book was filler. nothing ever fucking happened. and if something massive was built up, it either was incredibly disappointing in reality, or instantly reversed by the necessity of the plot, making what i had just read pointless. like yes we’re doing this massive showdown where we’re supposed to be worried for krampus….. but also he’s fucking immortal. so why do i care if he gets hurt when you’ve sent up he kind of can’t die. 70% of this book is krampus bitching, 20% is jesse bitching, and the remaining 10% is where anything actually interesting happens. the plot is literally this: krampus and gang go to a location. they encounter shenanigans. they rest up. jesse winges about dillard. krampus and gang go to another location. wash rinse repeat. and krampus’ motivations beyond “spreading cheer” and “killing santa” don’t exist, meaning you have no idea why the fuck he’s just pissfarting around for most of the story.

can you tell i didn’t like the plot?

so much of this book is just slewfoot but written by someone who has never written a book ever in their life and has also never been taught fundamentals in literature. because why do both books feature a human who is first an unbeliever and is hard on their luck when x supernatural creature appears and decides to help the main character get revenge on all those who have wronged MC,

then supernatural creature turns MC into one of them, murder murder, lots of lore dumps about their origins in folklore

hell, even the way krampus & samson’s dialogue appear are so earily similar i wouldn’t have been surprised if a twist was that they were straight up the same guy.

i am so thoroughly disappointed and annoyed. disappointed because i know brom can do better, as evidenced by my love for slewfoot, and annoyed because i wasted so much time on a book that could’ve been like…. 100 pages shorter.

i’m actually pissed what the fuck was that.

Content Warnings

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

i have never in my life read a book where the story spans the perspectives of more than three generations. to follow seven generations, fourteen individuals, each with their own story, was mesmerising. gyasi has such a way with words, and i was enamoured.

the amount of history intertwined with stories that are fictional in nature but very likely true in facts was amazing to witness. i only know bits and pieces about history — a fact there, a war here, an eventful date occasionally. so i really enjoyed this insight into a world ive never traversed.

honestly i was on the fence hearing about this synopsis. honestly, i usually am not a fan of stories about families. i find them to be offensive contrived and generic. but this? this needs to be hung up in a museum. holy shit. i really felt like i was there. i felt like i was with H in the mines. i felt like i was there with marjorie in the water. i was able to see the scenes laid before me so vividly at times i forgot i was reading. like ofc i know im reading im using my eyeballs but like i was that immersed in the story nothing around me mattered.

the only thing holding this book back for me is, funnily enough, the format. did i absolutely adore following this family through seven generations? yes! did i also feel like almost nothing i was reading truly mattered because the next generation had to come, meaning the chapter i was reading would always have the same resolution - a child. yes hardships would occur and the events that occurred were very different between chapters. but for me i felt like the stakes were quite low even when the book was trying to tell me they weren’t, and it was hard for me to be concerned for the characters. i still felt anguish, joy, anger, etc., but i was never truly worried for the characters, as i knew they had to persevere until they had a child so the next chapter could continue and on and on.

ya gyasi is, dare i say it, one of the best writers of this generation. go and read this god damn book.

Content Warnings

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

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adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

wow does atwood come back with a BANG. holy shit.

this book was like straight up crack to me. i couldn’t get enough. if i didn’t have a test to study for, i easily could’ve finished this in a day or two.

the shining star of this book is EASILY aunt lydia. she is by far the most fascinating character in this story. i’ve never watched past the show’s first season other than a few tiktok clips hear & there, but wow is she intriguing. i love to hate her, as it were. she is so complex and so full of character, and her chapters following the inception of gilead were by far the most gripping.

the other two protagonists…Meh. i’ll say by far daisy was my least favourite. she seemed bland and generic. agnes felt like this at times as well, making their chapters seem incredibly juvenile. which duh yeah they’re children that’s the point. but also with atwood, i expect the cream of the crop. and having aunt lydia, the perfect picture of why atwood is so good, next to agnes and daisy? it was a bit.. disheartening. i enjoyed agnes’ chapters a bit more simply because she had eventful plot points going on around her, but even though daisy’s plot did have some significant events, they felt boring and shoe-horned in for me. idk i also found daisy quite unlikeable so maybe i just wanted to dislike her 🤷 idk sue me.

the plot was great! like i said at times this book felt a bit juvenile, especially those last 20 chapters, but overall i was gripped and dying to know what was going on.

i really had fun with this book. for me, the only thing holding it back is that it feels a bit too unrealistic at times. gilead is hinged on possibilities that seem so fantastical to us in the real world but also could realistically happen to society, yet with plot points surrounding the connection between gilead & the rest of the world it felt flat, and took me out of the story. not to mention the entire climax felt almost like a waste of time? idk i wish there was an additional epilogue. i do like the current epilogue as is, but i don’t think it was strong enough to exist on its own without a final chapter fully concluding the story. but hey that’s just me.

all that is to say, margaret atwood i am telepathically kissing you for creating one of the best, most fleshed-out and realistic dystopian worlds. queen shit.

Content Warnings

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

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challenging informative slow-paced

2.0

this is my first sacks’ read and honestly i’m a bit let down. now this might be because i study psychology at uni but my god was this a drag at times.

for one, it reads like a textbook. the amount of times i wanted to cry because he mentioned the basal ganglia is higher than id like to admit. psychology is a special interest of mine but my god did i want to dnf this so many times simply because it felt like homework.

also, i sadly think sacks’ writing style isn’t my cup of tea. at times he overexplains something quite simple, with pages and pages of quotes essentially saying the same thing. it felt like groundhog day at times where i’d just keep reading the same thing but reworded slightly. i do enjoy case studies, but at some points specific cases dragged on. less is more sometimes sacks.

i’ll be honest and say i did cry reading this though, simply because of clive’s story. fuck that one hit me hard.

sadly though, me crying because one story resonated with me does not save this book in my mind. honestly i feel like i used less brain power writing an essay on the complex cognitive changes on OCD. like i’m so serious id pick this up and immediately get a headache.

i might try another novel of sacks, but my god was this a SLOG for me. i’d defo rec it to someone with a love of music and/or psychology, but this was not a fun experience for me LMAO

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clovetra's reviews 198 reviews

clovetra's reviews
198 reviews