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curlykira's reviews
269 reviews
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
4.75
I don’t think I’ve ever sworn so much in the margins of a book before, especially when aimed at the main character. This book does not have a likeable main character. That’s not a spoiler, the blurb can tell you as much. What is surprising is how Kuang manages to take such a ignorant, pathetic and straight up infuriating main character voice and imbue so much satire into what she writes. She touches on issues of race, representation, feminism, social media and cancel culture whilst giving a deep insight into the world of authors and publishing and what it means to devote yourself to this calling. It is fascinating to read the opposing opinions of various voices throughout the book. The issues covered are nuanced and complex and challenging to come to a consensus on which encourages the reader to evaluate their own thoughts on such matters. I highly recommend this book
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass by Lana Del Rey
3.75
Reminiscent of Sylvia Plath, the long form poetry was beautiful, haunting and vulnerable. It reads like a Lana Del Rey song, especially “Hope is a Dangerous Thing For a Woman Like Me To Have” which is one of my favourite songs by her. My only issue would be the haikus at the end. They seemed unnecessary and tacked on to fill space. They didn’t have the same power as the rest of the poems. Maybe if they’d been scattered among the other poems it would have had a different effect.
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
4.0
When I started this book I really thought this book would get a max 3* because in places I struggled with the writing and I thought it was just an easy read BUT as the story played out I became invested in the characters and their journey. It was emotional and beautiful, highlighting the complex and often messy duality of loving someone, and it did manage to make me cry actual tears (which is rare) so it deserves a 4* for that.
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
3.0
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I thought this was going to resemble a wattpad novel but was genuinely surprised to find the writing much better than expected and actually quite poetic in places. I haven’t read any Ali Hazelwood before so my preconceptions were purely based on the blurb of the book but I now think I would like to try a standard Ali Hazelwood romance to compare. Sometimes I find the Were/Vampyre thing a bit corny and that was the case with this in places, especially with the spicy scenes (which are not really my thing anyway). The plot had some scope to be interesting, and there were some twists that I genuinely didn’t see coming but I felt like things were wrapped up way too easily and too neatly. This is predominantly a romance with a bit of plot sprinkled in to make the romance make sense. I would have preferred more of a storyline. This wasn’t a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination BUT I did enjoy reading it. The main character Misery has a sarcastic, dry sense of humour that did make me chuckle whilst reading. It’s a decent option of an easy read.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This book was recommended to me by multiple people in audiobook form and it definitely delivered a great audiobook experience. I’m always a bit wary of sci-fi being too full of jargon that I can’t follow (especially in audiobook format which I personally find takes more effort to comprehend) but that wasn’t the case with this. There is a strong scientific element to the story but it is explained well and not full at all. I loved this book so much. This is a story of one man trying to save humanity and it was equal parts high-stakes stress, emotional, funny and heart-warming. It’s full of twists and turns and was an exciting read from beginning to end.