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merlimarlo's reviews
23 reviews
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-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
i don’t know what to say. what a beauty of a read. this is a love letter to the world, a love letter to love and all that it touches. wow. genuinely no words. this was delicious and beautiful and so so so tender. the time travel element made me cry and love this story even more. it all reads like poetry. so beautiful and so deeply profound that there is no way it could be anything less than a 5 for me. i will think about this for the rest of time.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
i had a lot of fun with this! the reason my rating is this low is because to me the story was quite predictable, often a little unrealistic, and sometimes too “teen” for me (this is of course my own fault for reading ya ;-)). loved the characters though, and loved the relationship between pip and ravi, as well as all the other characters close to pip. this was a real feel-good story in that aspect and i really loved reading about her parents and friends, and ravi of course, all of it very cute and wholesome! i might pick up the other two instalments in this series just to read more about that!
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
i did enjoy reading this for the most part, although it really isn’t very good at all. there were a lot of things that could’ve been done better or been fleshed out more. i thought the ending was boring and predictable. i also thought that the guy in the yellow hat would turn out to be much more interesting and i think what he ended up being (just some guy) didn’t really make any sense. for a second there i thought maybe mira was actually dying/ in psychosis/ some kind of dream state / etc. which would’ve been more interesting. the guy in the yellow hat would then be some sort of death figure (her aunts wallpaper in the hospital was also yellow, he had the same smell as the hospital did, disinfectant and death, etc.) & also the world around them felt sometimes surreal, since they didn’t really interact with many people and those they spoke with seemed off, in a way. was quite disappointed by everything being so shallow in the end. i feel as though this also could’ve been much more tense and scary, much more creepy, and that felt like a missed opportunity.
Five Survive by Holly Jackson
dark
sad
tense
fast-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
3.75
i enojoyed this! it was scary, tense, emotional, i cried a little. the ending felt a bit rushed to me and i also didn't like the conclusion that much, but overall it was really solid. red was a compelling main character, and all the characters and relationships felt fleshed out. ALSO i hated oliver so so much and was happy when he died at the end, it felt cathartic