taylasversion's reviews
65 reviews

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book is constantly described as The Secret History meets Girl, Interrupted but honestly it isn’t like either of those at all. The absurdity of it all reminds me more of Nightbitch and the writing reminds me of My Year of Rest and Relaxtion.

Bunny is so insane that I don’t even know what to rate it, I don’t even know what I just read. The writing itself is beautiful, I’m just so confused. What just happened??

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.75

Although this was written first, it’s hard not to compare it to The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, which I didn’t particularly love but I did like its story more than this one. It’s so long, and honestly it only going during the last 20% of book, if it was all like that ai may have liked it more.

I don’t understand why to this day this book is marketed as a whodunnit murder mystery when it’s very much not. I think finding that out so soon in really set my feelings toward this book. It also makes it seem like Julian is a major plot point to this movie, but he simply isn’t. He’s there at the start, and pops up towards the end but has no real impact on the story.

The characters were honestly all very one dimensional and interchangeable, I found myself struggling to remember which one thing that set them apart belonged to which name. In honesty, Bunny’s character was the only one who was uniquely himself, and his was the most insufferable.

I do love an unreliable narrator, and figuring that out for yourself throughout the book is fun.

I’m quite new to reading dark academia, and I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be accessible to people who aren’t all up with the particular academia it’s in relation to to be able to understand the references, because lord I had a terrible time not knowing what was being talked about.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

When I first heard the premises of this book before it came out I had JUST finished ‘The Plot’ and it sounded literally the same, but upon reading and finishing ‘Yellowface’ I knew this was in a whole other league. Yes, they’re both grounded in the same story, someone stealing the story of someone who had died before they could publish it, but Yellowface is a great commentary on the book world, booktwt, booktok, Goodreads etc; as well as racism, cancel culture, fame. It’s a little on the nose, yes, but entirely accurate.

Some parts seemed like they could’ve been brought up earlier, say where over halfway through the book we find out that Athena used Juniper’s real life story that got published, surely June’s first reasoning of using Athena’s ‘The Last Front’ would be ‘Oh, but she stole my story that got her start in the beginning so she owes me’ or something?

Anyway I had a great time.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced