twistykris's reviews
94 reviews

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

adventurous funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, and Death

Minor: Slavery

Never Lie by Freida McFadden

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, Stalking, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

Always Isn't Forever by J.C. Cervantes

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Moderate: Car accident, Violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood and Toxic relationship

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

emotional funny hopeful sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Dementia

Pen Pal by J.T. Geissinger

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

Wow, this was NOT what I was expecting at all. I went into this thinking it was just going to be a smutty read with little to no plot (which is what I wanted). But this gave me SO much more. I won't go into details because I think not knowing adds the experience of reading this rollercoaster. Please do read the trigger warnings though and take the author's note seriously.

There are certain aspects that made me take away a star though (and I might change my rating after I've thought about this more):

1. The FMC Kayla is.. kind of oblivious. And it feels really hammed up at the end of the book
   Spoiler

   (she doesn't know who Dante Alighieri is or what Dante's Inferno is and says that because she's never heard of him/ it, it must not be that good . Then makes a dumb joke about how Dr. Suess wow l wrote the greatest verse in history.)
   . It just rubbed me the wrong way how she was written almost as a "dumb blonde" stereotype.
2. I don't even remember if Kayla was described at all. We get descriptions of Aiden and others, but I could not tell you what she looked like. It felt like these characters were not really fleshed out and knowing what I know now, I wish we got less sex scenes and more character-building and development.
3. I dislike how paranoid schizophrenia was depicted and demonized. A character commits heinous acts (including physical abuse, causing a miscarriage, and murder) because they were off their meds. It felt fear-mongery, and could have been left out, with that character just being an asshole, no mental illness needed.
4. And this is just a me-thing, but there is a TON of "primal play" in this book and Kayla is called "bunny", and it's just not my kinda smut, so at times it felt awkward- but again, that's just me!

Positives though, this book genuinely made me sob. It broke my heart, it freaked me out, it made me question EVERYTHING, it made me laugh, and there were genuinely some really sweet moments that got me kicking my feet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Toxic relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Murder, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

dark sad tense slow-paced

3.75

The abuse and torture so many endured at the hands of Shelly (and Dave) is absolutely horrific. A very difficult read for the content involved (PLEASE check trigger/ content warnings).

I understand how difficult it must have been to compile all of this information from multiple people, but at times the book felt very repetitive and used a lot of unnecessary metaphors. 

Also, I have

Spoiler

VERY little sympathy for Dave. Yes, he was abused by Shelly and being a victim of someone so terrifying can alter your mentality, I know. But you CANNOT tell me he didn't know that what she was doing was so fucking wrong. He literally shot and killed his own nephew because she told him to. He watched his wife abuse her children and grown adults. He says he didn't know bleach was bad for the skin and thought it was fine that Shelly made Ron soak his feet in boiling water and bleach?? HUH?! And the fact they're both OUT AND FREE? Disgusting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism and Animal cruelty

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Slavery

Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pedophilia and Grief

Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Mary Best

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I think I went into this with too-high expectations. I saw it at the library, LOVED the cover, saw it was "for fans of The Darkness Outside Us (one of my top reads of last year) and Knives Out" and it just.. felt short for me. The only real connection I could see with TDOU was the outer-space aspect, and a tiny bit of Knives Out with the murder-mystery.

The romance was cute but much faster than I anticipated and felt pretty shallow. The representation was wonderful, but I would have loved to have gotten more about Cass's and Amaris' friends. The world-building left much to be desired, with lots of planet name-dropping without much context (and not in the fun Gideon/ The Locked Tomb kinda way). I predicted the killer fairly early on (not necessarily a flaw) but it felt so rapidly "resolved" in a way that wasn't very satisfying. I wished there was just... more to this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

Moderate: War, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Infidelity, and Child death

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, War, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death and Grief