illiterate_lobster's reviews
15 reviews

The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

The Suicide House by Charlie Donlea

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

A solid, resounding, meh. It had a lot of promise initially, but the writing and concept quickly became repetitive and predictable. Like, seriously repetitive. It’s like it should have been half as long but the author tried fattening it up by just restating things multiple times. The twist at the end was okay, I guess, definitely didn’t expect it, but it didn’t seem like there was much build-up to that result and was followed by an anti-climactic ending. Which sucks, because it really did have me guessing at points and I was really excited to find out more about the man in the mirror game, and how it played into the plot (spoiler alert;

Spoiler

it doesn’t. It’s literally a set piece. There aren’t any ghosts, either, despite being pretty explicitly talked about in the beginning

). The final nail in the coffin for me though, was the abysmal handling of Rory’s OCD and Autism. I don’t think it could’ve been written any worse. Constantly referring to her as broken? Calling it an affliction? Good God, dude, you published this book in 2020. The way he describes her neurodivergence you can almost smell the 1940s asylum on him. It is actually sort of pissing me off right now. The only consolation is that I kept imaging Lane as looking like Will Graham which was a nice bonus. Overall, would not read again, but if you want an okay murder mystery you can read the first half or something. The ending you come up with in your head is probably better anyway. I know mine was.

Content Warnings

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I’m giving it a 5 bc it was very good but the main character shamelessly writes incest fan fiction so I’m spiritually deducting a star

Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium by Clive Barker

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.0

It felt..unfinished. The writing wasn’t bad in any capacity, but it read as if someone had taken a good author’s scraps and notes for a future project and just published it as is. There was a chapter summary quite literally the page after the chapter in question, as if it was meant to be multiple separate installations of one story. I like that Agonistes guy though, he seems chill. I think he would wear a kiss the cook apron.

Dis Mem Ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

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challenging dark inspiring mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

Most were pretty good and riveting, Crawlspace and Situations were pretty confusing however. I’m not sure what was going on in those. Great Blue Heron was banger though. The time periods are hard to discern just because of Joyce’s writing style, so keep in mind everything is set roughly in the present. It also seems very terf-ish.
GBH is pretty much the only reason I gave this book five stars, but turns out JCO actually is a terf so now it’s getting a 4

The Communist Manifesto: But Tony Hawk Can Keep His Stuff by Dick Cody Heese, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels

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challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

A crucial update to a text that is already more valuable than its weight in gold.

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

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dark funny informative medium-paced