madamelacy's reviews
127 reviews

Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier by Patrick Grant

challenging informative medium-paced

4.25

Really thought provoking. As someone who sews, this has made me think about my fabrics more. I’ve also looked around me and am reassessing how much I need.

The buy it cheap attitude in the UK and the throwaway culture are thoroughly analysed in this book.

The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Beautifully written reflection on the aftermath of her brother’s accident, which resulted in him spending years in a vegetative state. It was sad, thought-provoking and inspiring to read.

Content Warnings

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.75

This book took me ages to read and the ending was so underwhelming that I’m sorry that I persisted. It started off as a book about witchcraft, so I was really confused by the title. But when the Leviathan question is answered I think I was no less confused. It was such a melée of ideas and just didn’t work. Some characters were totally irrelevant to the story. The dual timeframes was confusing at times because I didn’t have a clue what was happening in the later timeframe initially, but then this timeframe gave spoilers so I pretty much had all the answers I wanted or needed.

My summary would be that it was interesting in parts but tried to do too much so that it became under-developed and confusing.

The House of Sorrowing Stars by Beth Cartwright

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I enjoyed reading this book overall, but I found aspects of it frustrating. I’ll start with what I did like: the setting for the bulk of the story was really interesting, I loved the aspects of magical realism and I really enjoyed the stories within the stories.
What I didn’t like: it felt very predictable and contrived rather than a story that unfurled organically. The romance between Liddy and the Keymaker just wasn’t credible as they’d barely interacted and it felt so twee. The story took ages to get going, so I nearly abandoned it a third of the way through. The answer to all questions was ‘the sorrowing stars’. The descriptions were a bit lacking at times, so I just couldn’t picture what was being described. The relationship between Vivienne and the shopkeeper was under-developed. Finally Rosa… who? She was obviously mentioned early on but was very unmemorable.

Content Warnings

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

This book had the potential to be a good dark academia, but it was so sloooow. The reactions to events just didn’t seem plausible. The denouement was really not gripping. I think my total lack of interest in tarot cards maybe didn’t help.

Just Sayin': My Life In Words by Malorie Blackman

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely loved this book!!! It was beautifully written. At times I felt like I just wanted to hug Malorie Blackman. I had to put the book down a few times to sit with my emotions. There were sections in the book which left me feeling such rage at how Ms Blackman was treated!!! I’m a similar age to her and I also believed that racism would flounder and die out; racism just makes absolutely no sense to me.
I already hugely admired Ms Blackman, but I finished this book just in awe of her!!! I think I’d be totally tongue tied if ever I met her 😂

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced