kalienareads's reviews
33 reviews

Never Lie by Freida McFadden

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dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

wow wow wow i should’ve known a mystery writer wouldn’t make it THAT easy to guess what happened hot damn

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Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The relationship between Thomas and Andrew is so wild but also intense. The ending actually hurt my heart so much it made me wanna scream, but I was reading an ebook.

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Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

it took me a while to get into it but once i did i couldn’t stop thinking about it

Outdrawn by Deanna Grey

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

The Young World by Chris Weitz

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

3.5

this book is a YA novel written by an adult man. that is the best way to put it. the fact that i knew he was a screenwriter first, novelist second made it easier for me to accept the rushed pacing of everything (it was literally just one thing after another, the way a movie or mini-series tries to jampack things into a space) and to accept that it was, well, a result of its time.

while its expected for a post-apoc/dystopian book to be similar to the others of its time, it really doesn’t veer far from it. i don’t agree in regards to the language and sexual content of the book — it wasn’t clean, but they’re teenagers given sudden freedom. we’ve all seen how rumspringas and kids with super strict parents go; kids can get raunchy af, so i don’t think that’s a problem so much as, well, the rest of the tropes that are just tossed on the page.

i forgot jeff was japanese for most of the book. i would’ve kept forgetting if the other characters didn’t mention it, if i’m being honest, it wasn’t something required of him. and seethrough being called that bc people mocked her for wanting to he called sifu was a microaggression at best and racist af at worst, especially considering she was as talented as her father. overall, the characters were fun, their dynamics were entertaining, but they weren’t particularly life changing.

though

chu hua’s death was actually fucking painful

, so i’ll give him that.

an attempt was made, and it was a fun, silly book to read through but nothing i’d add to a must-read list.

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