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dododenise's reviews
359 reviews
In het vervloekte hart by Rima Orie
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Most of this book left me a little bored.
I love that it is inspired by colonial Suriname, definitely not something you usually see. However, that is also where its specialness stops. I also felt like its commentary on colonialism was a bit immature. This book is intended for 15+ readers, but much of it felt like “did you know kids, colonialism really sucks”. I hoped for more in depth exploration of dutch colonialism within a fantasy world and I think Rima would know how to do it, yet it felt like the commentary of a children’s book in a book that otherwise is truly made for more mature readers.
The world building otherwise is solid. It did its own thing where it was needed to tell a fantasy story while still having a lot of historical elements. Overall it did not feel like that much of a unique world as I expected it to be and in many respects is a very basic high fantasy world.
Priya definitely isn’t my favourite main character. At some point her constant back and forth of feeling inferior and feeling like she is failing everyone and then to being like one of the strongest characters in the story was getting too much. Yes those character arcs are quite normal, but it was laid on too heavily here. I didn’t get attached to any of the other characters either. I’m already forgetting most of them to be honest.
I love that it is inspired by colonial Suriname, definitely not something you usually see. However, that is also where its specialness stops. I also felt like its commentary on colonialism was a bit immature. This book is intended for 15+ readers, but much of it felt like “did you know kids, colonialism really sucks”. I hoped for more in depth exploration of dutch colonialism within a fantasy world and I think Rima would know how to do it, yet it felt like the commentary of a children’s book in a book that otherwise is truly made for more mature readers.
The world building otherwise is solid. It did its own thing where it was needed to tell a fantasy story while still having a lot of historical elements. Overall it did not feel like that much of a unique world as I expected it to be and in many respects is a very basic high fantasy world.
Priya definitely isn’t my favourite main character. At some point her constant back and forth of feeling inferior and feeling like she is failing everyone and then to being like one of the strongest characters in the story was getting too much. Yes those character arcs are quite normal, but it was laid on too heavily here. I didn’t get attached to any of the other characters either. I’m already forgetting most of them to be honest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Slavery
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
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
5.0
The Hunger Games: Special Edition by Suzanne Collins
adventurous
dark
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
5.0
Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was a bit of a rollercoaster of my enjoyment. I started out really enjoying a cute fluffy story, but quickly got annoyed by the protagonist. Then I started realising that the story is not actually fluffy at all, but about a toxic relationship. Realising that I started liking the book a lot more. While it is hard to read about abuse, I think that part of the story was well done. While I never truly warmed up to Noah, I was a lot more okay with reading about him.
What annoys me about Noah’s character is that it almost seems to mock teens. Give teens some credit, because Noah was a naive ass who really doesn’t know how life works outside of the internet, and is obsessive over social media. Idk, as someone who was and is in fandom a lot, it felt insulting to read about such an unbearably helpless character. Teens really aren’t that stupid. Some of it got better with some character development but it still wasn’t great.
What annoys me about Noah’s character is that it almost seems to mock teens. Give teens some credit, because Noah was a naive ass who really doesn’t know how life works outside of the internet, and is obsessive over social media. Idk, as someone who was and is in fandom a lot, it felt insulting to read about such an unbearably helpless character. Teens really aren’t that stupid. Some of it got better with some character development but it still wasn’t great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Transphobia and Vomit
Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Wow this was an unsatisfying book… Badly written. The plot not catching me because of it. The world building lacking. And then the end was a bunch of nothing. We didn’t solve the mystery of falling angels and the resolution of the family problems and grief was lacklustre.
I thought it was cool to tell a story about falling angels but that just ended up being a plot device, whereas the concept itself was not nearly dealt with enough. Because teacake couldn’t speak we basically don’t know anything about the angels. So yeah, this was a waste of time ngl. I’m glad I decided to just skim read at some point because this was not worth it.
I thought it was cool to tell a story about falling angels but that just ended up being a plot device, whereas the concept itself was not nearly dealt with enough. Because teacake couldn’t speak we basically don’t know anything about the angels. So yeah, this was a waste of time ngl. I’m glad I decided to just skim read at some point because this was not worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
Minor: Racism
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Very solid!
I really enjoyed the magic system and not something I’ve seen before.
The world building was also really interesting and I liked how you were fed the pieces bit by bit, so you could enjoy the story right from the start without the 100 pages of confusion you often get in high fantasy.
The book painted beautiful pictures of a beautiful world.
The characters weren’t the most likeable but I found them very interesting. I’m especially hoping for more character development for Yeeran in future books. Her military mindset is so deep in her and I’d love to see her let go of it more and more and see the problem of the war.
The romance elements of the story could have been better but wasn’t too bad. Especially the back and forth between Yeeran and Furi was a bit too much for my liking. But I can see myself liking them more as time goes on and they both go through more development.
Definitely going to continue the series!
I really enjoyed the magic system and not something I’ve seen before.
The world building was also really interesting and I liked how you were fed the pieces bit by bit, so you could enjoy the story right from the start without the 100 pages of confusion you often get in high fantasy.
The book painted beautiful pictures of a beautiful world.
The characters weren’t the most likeable but I found them very interesting. I’m especially hoping for more character development for Yeeran in future books. Her military mindset is so deep in her and I’d love to see her let go of it more and more and see the problem of the war.
The romance elements of the story could have been better but wasn’t too bad. Especially the back and forth between Yeeran and Furi was a bit too much for my liking. But I can see myself liking them more as time goes on and they both go through more development.
Definitely going to continue the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and Medical content
Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Forget Me Not by Alyson Derrick
sad
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
4.0
This was a rough read. The heavy homophobia and other bigotry certainly does not make this an easy read. The characters were lovely and I kept wishing them all the best, so I kept pushing through so I could get to their happy ending. And I’ll always be a sucker for the lesbian’s himbo best friend <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content and Abortion
UnDivided by Neal Shusterman
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I kept thinking about how to review this last book in the series and I didn’t come to any solid conclusions. I think there is still a lot I need to process about the series to really form a rounded opinion. This series said so much, I feel like the series, therefore, deserves a big review. However, I do not feel up for actually writing that as good and thoughtful as I want it to be. So I’ll just drop some smaller thoughts instead.
What still stands is that I love the concept.
Lev turned from a character I didn’t care about into one of the most interesting.
The plot did not do a lot of new things this book. I would have liked some more different takes on the way things were done, without necessarily introducing new ideas or concepts. Just something newer to round off the story.
I hated the casual assault and taking away some of the girls’ bodily autonomy when it comes to sexual relations. I know it was done by horrible people but the book did not deal with it more critically than that.
I liked how all the pieces came together in the end, building a satisfactory conclusion. Especially how something that we said earlier in the series, about how it will take a lot of random events to eventually actually change things, did indeed turn out to be the solution.
What still stands is that I love the concept.
Lev turned from a character I didn’t care about into one of the most interesting.
The plot did not do a lot of new things this book. I would have liked some more different takes on the way things were done, without necessarily introducing new ideas or concepts. Just something newer to round off the story.
I hated the casual assault and taking away some of the girls’ bodily autonomy when it comes to sexual relations. I know it was done by horrible people but the book did not deal with it more critically than that.
I liked how all the pieces came together in the end, building a satisfactory conclusion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Police brutality, and Medical content
UnSouled by Neal Shusterman
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I liked this a lot less than the previous two. A lot of this book was just the road to something and I did not feel that the road was all that interesting or gave the story all that much.
Added to that I really don’t like what the book did with Bam and Risa’s roles in the story. So much of it is within the love entanglements and playing with feelings and boys playing with their feelings. Especially Cam doing everything just so Risa will like him and not because he believes in the cause at all and the rivalry that it creates with Connor was exhausting. It just reduces the girls into love interests even though they are so much more.
Added to that I really don’t like what the book did with Bam and Risa’s roles in the story. So much of it is within the love entanglements and playing with feelings and boys playing with their feelings. Especially Cam doing everything just so Risa will like him and not because he believes in the cause at all and the rivalry that it creates with Connor was exhausting. It just reduces the girls into love interests even though they are so much more.