eleana's reviews
468 reviews

Vertical Mind: Psychological Approaches for Optimal Rock Climbing by Don McGrath, Jeff Elison
Did not finish book.

Been too long, need to restart

Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect by Jonice Webb

challenging reflective medium-paced

3.25

I found this book interesting in many ways. I can imagine this being very helpful to someone picking this up who's never been in therapy before, and I'll definitely take some bits of advice from this as well. I did find it a bit uncomfortable how trauma is simplified in this and not particularly acknowledged. Dr Jonice herself acknowledges there's no research on Emotional Neglect and if you look at her references at the end of this book it's all about trauma and attachment theory, so it did feel a bit odd how little those are mentioned. This was marketed at the person with "no trauma, but something is wrong" and it did feel like she was trying to sell herself as an expert in something new, but this is well studied. It's hard to put my finger on it exactly, but it felt a bit more insidious than other psychology books I've read that deal with similar issues and the constant mentions of her website and the expert of book 2 on emotional neglect (which has an identical intro to this one!) made me all the more uncomfortable. For those reasons I wouldn't necessarily recommend this unless you read a lot more psychology and self help books first and form a fuller picture. 

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I went into this having some, not very good, preconceptions about Colleen. I've seen as much hate as love online about this author, so I hate to say I believed blindly her writing would suck. I was very pleasantly surprised by this. The writing itself was choppy and very cringe for the first 20% or so, but it found its rhythm and became gripping and sensitive. I also expected this to be extremely smutty, mostly due to booktok, but coming into this after an Elsie Silver book, the sex was much more tolerable. I don't love a sex scene in a book still, but did find I enjoyed parts of these.

I loved many characters, Atlas, Lily and Alyssa and loved and hated Ryle in equal parts. I think the ending was perfect for these characters

All in all, I'd read more Colleen Hoover in the future. This one may be worth the hype

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy

Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

challenging emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

The first half of the book felt like a slog. I hasten to say this, because I get the impression from the author photo that Maggie may very well be a self insert, but nonetheless I found her incredibly unlikeable. Her complete lack of real self reflection and empathy, probably relatable to some, didn't resonate with me. I kept wishing we'd just get to the part where she actually looks at her behaviour critically, but that took soooo much longer than expected. It was satisfying to finally see her learn something at the end though, despite the first 250 painful pages. I enjoyed the addition of the special chapters. As for the other characters, there sure was a lot of description of them and anecdotes, but I did struggle to bond with any of them as I only saw them through Maggie's detached and jealous perspective. Overall, the book left me with a bit of an icky feeling after finishing it. The prose was descent though. 

Wild Love by Elsie Silver

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

Enjoyed it, was a very relaxing read. Nothing to write home about, but I had a good time with it and the characters

Loveless by Alice Oseman
Did not finish book.

Library loan run out. Will go back for it at some point 

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

Not great, not terrible. The characters are all unfortunately very unlikeable. The plot is very slow, nothing actually happens until halfway through the book,it's just characters talking about what will happen. The writings style itself was not great either, lots of very long rambly sentences. The characters, though annoying, were reasonably realistic and fleshed out (though I don't think we get much physical description for a lot of our characters). The ending also felt incredibly rushed. So many characters storylines unresolved. All happens in 5 pages, feels like the author got bored 

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

So touching so beautiful, I can't say anything new about it that isn't plastered on all the back of the book reviews. They are all correct. It's become an instant favourite and the best book I've read in a while. It's incredible how you can expect a book to devastate you and even so it still catches you by surprise when it happens 

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.25

This was a great read, the prose is beautiful, the story captivating. The horrors, oh so horrific! I found myself very attached to the characters and their success in making a better world out of the terrible situation they're in. This could have been a 5 star read if it wasn't for some lazy bits of writing. Andrew seems to know how to write well, where he gives detailed descriptions he paints a vivid picture, but often I'd find small continuity errors in the text or descriptions that didn't give enough to accurately imagine the scene. So for those errors it was in parts confusing.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-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

4.5