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marslotus's reviews
24 reviews
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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
1.75
I think after the fourth or fifth time they say "final girl," before you even get 1/4 of your way through the book, the phrase loses any unique factor it initially had.
I felt constantly frustrated while reading this because of how contradictory it was in its efforts to A.) Have an unreliable narrator as the protagonist and B.) Have a mystery with multiple plot twists. Very often these "twists" amount to nothing and when you begin reaching the end of the novel, there's a new twist every couple of chapters that overrides the previous one which made me feel like I was wasting my time taking each one seriously. Lynette is meant to be the over-prepared, paranoid protagonist with a backup plan for any scenario, but oftentimes I felt she was all talk and was constantly failing at the tasks she has so much confidence in. Maybe that's the point, but she wasn't even paranoid to a realistic point where I felt I had to be paranoid for her in certain scenes because she wasn't being careful. I wanted to feel for her, but she was also constantly lying to others and to the reader, the secrets she kept from any sort of omniscient narrator just felt like lies as opposed to satisfying twists because there's hardly any type of hint to them so they come out of nowhere. I don't understand how everyone is so understanding of her by the endwhen it's directly her fault they're in this scenario because of her genuinely mean-spirited book. I don't know if I could ever forgive someone for that.
And can we talk aboutthe supernatural elements of this book? Hello?? I wouldn't even be against it if it was actually explored instead of being shoved into the plot for 5 seconds because of course we need a Nightmare on Elm Street reference! Like, what do you mean Heather can teleport in her sleep?! What was in that room?! Dear God, this makes me wish this book had multiple POVs or something, or maybe didn't rely so heavily on direct references to real slasher movies and instead just made some up.
All in all, I thought the protagonist Lynette was often very ignorant in her deductions on who is behind the plan so when she finally figured it out, I almost didn't believe her because of how often she was consistently wrong. I don't think she had an arc, I feel her actions were more or less justified by the narrative and as a result, there was no change or arc her character had to go through. I had an empty feeling by the end of the story, especially when the antagonists could have been so much more interesting, but that would sacrifice the whole "It's this person! No, it's this person!" aspect of the novel which of course we couldn't do without *sarcasm*.
If this was a book about paranoia, if wish it was written that way. If it was written to be a whodunit, I wish it was written that way. Unfortunately, it felt like it was written with twists as its highest priority, that it sacrifices the best aspects of a horror mystery novel.
I felt constantly frustrated while reading this because of how contradictory it was in its efforts to A.) Have an unreliable narrator as the protagonist and B.) Have a mystery with multiple plot twists. Very often these "twists" amount to nothing and when you begin reaching the end of the novel, there's a new twist every couple of chapters that overrides the previous one which made me feel like I was wasting my time taking each one seriously. Lynette is meant to be the over-prepared, paranoid protagonist with a backup plan for any scenario, but oftentimes I felt she was all talk and was constantly failing at the tasks she has so much confidence in. Maybe that's the point, but she wasn't even paranoid to a realistic point where I felt I had to be paranoid for her in certain scenes because she wasn't being careful. I wanted to feel for her, but she was also constantly lying to others and to the reader, the secrets she kept from any sort of omniscient narrator just felt like lies as opposed to satisfying twists because there's hardly any type of hint to them so they come out of nowhere. I don't understand how everyone is so understanding of her by the end
And can we talk about
All in all, I thought the protagonist Lynette was often very ignorant in her deductions on who is behind the plan so when she finally figured it out, I almost didn't believe her because of how often she was consistently wrong. I don't think she had an arc, I feel her actions were more or less justified by the narrative and as a result, there was no change or arc her character had to go through. I had an empty feeling by the end of the story, especially when the antagonists could have been so much more interesting, but that would sacrifice the whole "It's this person! No, it's this person!" aspect of the novel which of course we couldn't do without *sarcasm*.
If this was a book about paranoia, if wish it was written that way. If it was written to be a whodunit, I wish it was written that way. Unfortunately, it felt like it was written with twists as its highest priority, that it sacrifices the best aspects of a horror mystery novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Car accident, and Gaslighting
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Borrasca (S1 & S2) by C.K. Walker
Did not finish book. Stopped at 67%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 67%.
Lost interest partway through season two, the character dynamic got a bit annoying :/
Smaller Sister by Maggie Edkins Willis
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
So it's taken me a good few days to think about what to say about this book, because I did like it I won't lie, but I've said before I feel that this is the weakest entry of the Hunger Games Trilogy and I just wanna talk about what issue bothers me the most (also apologies if this all sounds really negative, I'm better at wording my negative thoughts than my positive ones haha).
A lot of my problems with this book were often very small things that stacked on top of one another until it felt like a substantial pile of issues, but there was one problem I felt really stood out. A part of me feels like the knowledge ofPrimrose's death before it happened may have attributed to my feelings, but I was very disappointed in her lack of character. I knew Coin and Prim would be dying by the end of Mockingjay, but when I was about 90% through the book I thought, "Would both deaths really be happening along with large, emotional ripple effects in the last few pages of this book? There's not pages for that and an ending, maybe they only happen in the movies?". And yet it all happened and a part of me feels like I can't judge the pacing of it cause I was literally waiting for it to happen, but the last quarter of the book felt like it forced way too many things in such a short about of time. The realization I came to however, especially with Prim, was that I felt no emotions about either death whatsoever. It further made me realize how flat Prim was in comparison with the entire cast, she is a person with no faults and nothing negative to say to Katniss and I firmly believe that if Katniss was a male character we would be chastising the author for making a female character with so little dimension but are told she means the world to the protagonist. When Prim died, I think a friend of mine put it best where it felt like it wasn't Primrose Everdeen who died, but Katniss's sister. I understand she is quite literally meant to be the symbol of innocence in this series, but if I'm meant to feel something for her, I really need more than her existing just so we feel sad about Rue, or so we feel sad for Katniss when she dies because I feel like those are the only two things her character really accomplished. I'm especially saddened by this because Prim is Katniss's root throughout the entire series, (or at least was supposed to be, sometimes it felt like Katniss literally forgot about her sometimes when she would think about her life without Peeta) she is the main reason Katniss does the things she does.
Something I feel would greatly improve this issue is to just give Prim the slightest bit of conflict with Katniss, an easy way of doing this would be for Prim in Catching Fire to be mad at Katniss for volunteering for the games in her place. Even though Katniss came back alive, maybe there could be some sense of "How could you make me think you would die, I watched you every day hoping you'd make it," and she could feel conflicted about voicing that opinion cause she didn't even go through the games, so what right would she have to complain. All of this could be hanging over Katniss's head until the Quarter Quell is announced and maybe Prim realizes being mad about this isn't worth it, but it's too late and Katniss is gone. I don't know, I wanted Prim to be more that just some pure, healing angel ora lamb sent for the slaughter. She felt so nothing to me that I feel as though sometimes she could have only existed in Katniss's mind and not much would have changed.
Also I didn't like how Peeta was kind of just...thrown into Katniss's ending. I never really felt like they really reconnected again and him being in District 12 felt a bit weird. It makes me feel like for the past two books we were given something we were meant to look forward to as an audience, a meaningful relationship between Katniss and Peeta (not even necessarily a romantic one!), but everything in the end of the book was so rushed. I really wish a lot of the ending moments happened just a bit earlier in the book so we had time to think about it all. But I dunno, maybe this just wasn't my thing. I'm not the biggest fan of war stories and when like 10 characters were introduced to very obviously die so we'd feel bad about the horrors of war, I'm so upset to say I felt nothing. I know there was probably no where else for the series to go, but I kinda wish it wasn't a war book.
A lot of my problems with this book were often very small things that stacked on top of one another until it felt like a substantial pile of issues, but there was one problem I felt really stood out. A part of me feels like the knowledge of
Something I feel would greatly improve this issue is to just give Prim the slightest bit of conflict with Katniss, an easy way of doing this would be for Prim in Catching Fire to be mad at Katniss for volunteering for the games in her place. Even though Katniss came back alive, maybe there could be some sense of "How could you make me think you would die, I watched you every day hoping you'd make it," and she could feel conflicted about voicing that opinion cause she didn't even go through the games, so what right would she have to complain. All of this could be hanging over Katniss's head until the Quarter Quell is announced and maybe Prim realizes being mad about this isn't worth it, but it's too late and Katniss is gone. I don't know, I wanted Prim to be more that just some pure, healing angel or
Also I didn't like how Peeta was kind of just...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and War
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
There's not much to say but that I really REALLY enjoyed this book. One unique thing I found is that most of this story is Katniss dealing with this newfound paranoia she's gained as a result of her trauma from the last book (as well as Snow's first visit in the second chapter ) and I think most stories, especially when it's a woman dealing with this, the character suffering from paranoia would spend their time learning why it's wrong and to open themself up to good opportunities. Which is why I really love how validated the narrative portrays Katniss, she has every right to be paranoid because most of the things she imagines happening to her are carried out by Snow in some of the worst (best narratively) ways possible. She's never punished longterm for her thinking because it's not a flaw, it's necessary for her situation.
And I appreciate Peeta, he's not a perfect guy he ignored Katniss as much as she ignored him but I think he understands better than Gale how bad her trauma is (since he shares a lot of it) and how he's fully aware she has no intent to lead him on, it's just a horrible situation. they're both in that doesn't leave much room for romance. They're both still teenagers and I get so heartbroken how hard Katniss has been pushed by the end of the book where she doesn't think twice aboutmurdering Peeta, Beetee, and herself just to be spared of a torture she has, BY THE WAY, never seen and only imagined.
Literally the only complaint I have is like, one sentence in chapter 2 that I feel like could be worded better. Everything else is so great.
And I appreciate Peeta, he's not a perfect guy he ignored Katniss as much as she ignored him but I think he understands better than Gale how bad her trauma is (since he shares a lot of it) and how he's fully aware she has no intent to lead him on, it's just a horrible situation. they're both in that doesn't leave much room for romance. They're both still teenagers and I get so heartbroken how hard Katniss has been pushed by the end of the book where she doesn't think twice about
Literally the only complaint I have is like, one sentence in chapter 2 that I feel like could be worded better. Everything else is so great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Kidnapping
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
adventurous
emotional
sad
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and War
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Dathan Auerbach has such a masterful handle on suspense and mystery, I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of this read. I remember first listening to this years ago, back when it was a creepypasta YouTubers made into online audioreads and I'm so happy to return to it as an adult knowing it's just as creepy and engaging as I found it was when I was a kid. Even in moments where you can guess ahead of the narration what the horrifying reveal of each chapter will be, it still feels so earned and equally as terrifying. My only complaint is that it's not longer!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Stalking, and Car accident
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Blood
Playground by Aron Beauregard
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I cannot express how disappinted i was with this book, so here's me making an attempt.
To start off, if I had a quarter for every time I rolled my eyes while reading, I could probably pay for my groceries. I believe the book was trying to do something clever, or just for the sake of writing explicit scenes, by not adhering to traditional story structure when introducing the antagonists and their motivations. We are seemingly meant to view the character Rock Stanley as the main character (I only assume so because the book starts and ends with his perspective) despite the fact he is an obstacle for the cast we are supposed to root for, therefore making him an antagonist (“his” side are the ones issuing most of the narrative challenges, not the children/parents who are facing them). We're shown through his detailed narration the horrible situation he has been raised in and how he longs to be free of it, as well as well as his abuser's motivation and history for why she's doing these things to him and to the protagonists. Showing these thoughts from the very beginning as opposed to discovering them alongside the protagonists leads to the issue of padding, something the book's middle suffers greatly from. The antagonists are already on the precipice of change (or stagnation in Geraldine's case) and are simply waiting for that last push towards either the dark or light, something that only comes at the end of the book. This creates scenes that are an absolute chore to return to over and over with the antagonists restating the same things they're feeling with different words. I feel like this could be easily rectified by focusing more on the protagonists experiences with the antagonists and find out their backstories either ⅓ or halfway through the story. This way, there's more things for the parents to do in the middle than cry or scream at each other and Rock thinking some form of “Maybe I'm on the wrong side” again and again.The fact that Molly is able to piece together that Rock is a victim is so ridiculous to me because even though we the audience knows hes been horribly abused, she uses such little evidence to come to the same conclusion. If I was in her situation, I'd be pissed at him for only deciding to defy Geraldine after all of my children have been killed. I would not know his internal struggle and the fact that from the parent's perspective he changed his mind out of no where should infuriate them!
Additionally, this book has a serious problem with telling instead of showing. From the moment the author decided to describe a 7-year-old girl as sadistic, I was so curious how that description would have been built upon,especially thinking about how she could be an unexpected competitor against Tanya in Geraldine's twisted perspective. Tanya may have been smart, but perhaps Sadie would be the only one with the headspace to be Geraldine's protégé is the thought I had the entire book. But it seems that such a strong word would mean nothing and would never be touched upon again. It annoyed me because not one time do we see Sadie act out of line or abnormally from a standard little girl, we're simply told she's sadistic because the author didn't feel it necessary to create real examples. There's so many more examples of this borderlining on comedic in such an unpurposeful way. The fact that the author couldn't show us how evil Dr. Fuchs is by his deeds alone, but instead has to throw in the fact that he's a literal nazi and compares the suffering of the children to the suffering he saw in concentration camps is so cartoonish, I literally could not believe what I was reading.
This book very rarely struck fear or horror in me which I find so upsetting because I love being horrified. I will give the author the fact that he's talented in describing the gore and injury these characters go through as well as establishing traits that make me care and hate certain characters (though the “telling not showing” issue occasionally arises in the latter aspect). I just wish it was all structured a bit differently, that horror was the utmost goal of the narrative and not a simple gross-out attempt.
To start off, if I had a quarter for every time I rolled my eyes while reading, I could probably pay for my groceries. I believe the book was trying to do something clever, or just for the sake of writing explicit scenes, by not adhering to traditional story structure when introducing the antagonists and their motivations. We are seemingly meant to view the character Rock Stanley as the main character (I only assume so because the book starts and ends with his perspective) despite the fact he is an obstacle for the cast we are supposed to root for, therefore making him an antagonist (“his” side are the ones issuing most of the narrative challenges, not the children/parents who are facing them). We're shown through his detailed narration the horrible situation he has been raised in and how he longs to be free of it, as well as well as his abuser's motivation and history for why she's doing these things to him and to the protagonists. Showing these thoughts from the very beginning as opposed to discovering them alongside the protagonists leads to the issue of padding, something the book's middle suffers greatly from. The antagonists are already on the precipice of change (or stagnation in Geraldine's case) and are simply waiting for that last push towards either the dark or light, something that only comes at the end of the book. This creates scenes that are an absolute chore to return to over and over with the antagonists restating the same things they're feeling with different words. I feel like this could be easily rectified by focusing more on the protagonists experiences with the antagonists and find out their backstories either ⅓ or halfway through the story. This way, there's more things for the parents to do in the middle than cry or scream at each other and Rock thinking some form of “Maybe I'm on the wrong side” again and again.
Additionally, this book has a serious problem with telling instead of showing. From the moment the author decided to describe a 7-year-old girl as sadistic, I was so curious how that description would have been built upon,
This book very rarely struck fear or horror in me which I find so upsetting because I love being horrified. I will give the author the fact that he's talented in describing the gore and injury these characters go through as well as establishing traits that make me care and hate certain characters (though the “telling not showing” issue occasionally arises in the latter aspect). I just wish it was all structured a bit differently, that horror was the utmost goal of the narrative and not a simple gross-out attempt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Minor: Fatphobia
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 7%.
I am so sad I didn't finish this. I PROMISE I WILL COME BACK TO IT...... <3
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Wanted to finish the final quarter of this book after not finishing it months ago as recommended by Quinton Reviews, and I'm very glad I did. I'm not usually one for reading autobiographies, but Jennette has a such way with words that it's so compelling to read her story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, and Gaslighting