kylieqrada's reviews
752 reviews

Severance by Ling Ma

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Yup, works for me! My weird shit era is upon us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use, Racism, and Death of parent

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-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

Well, that broke me. 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Police brutality

Minor: Drug use, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Truth really is stranger than fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Racism

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Slavery

Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Definitely creepy, but didn’t strike the right balance that I like in horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, and Suicide

Mister Magic by Kiersten White

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

 I was genuinely creeped out by parts of this book but the ending did not do it for me. Always love a religious twist in horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Racism, and Fire/Fire injury

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

I didn’t like it, but I didn’t hate it. I’m mostly just astounded that this came out of someone’s brain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Domestic abuse, Trafficking, and Death of parent

The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

challenging dark emotional funny sad medium-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

3.5

I love Victor LaValle’s writing, and the commentary in this one was super strong. It just seemed a bit long, though it kept my attention throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, and Self harm

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

I’m such a Chuck Tingle fangirl at this point it’s not even cute. The ace rep in this one pushed it over the top for me. Love is real.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Homophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, and Outing

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, and Acephobia/Arophobia

How to Get a Girlfriend (When You're a Terrifying Monster) by Marie Cardno

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

A sad case of right book, wrong time. I think I would have liked this a lot more if I was in the mood for a cozy fantasy romance. I will definitely be continuing in this series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Death, Car accident, and Death of parent

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

So I’ve pretty much narrowed my horror taste down to what I would classify as social horror and snarky horror. Rachel Harrison and T. Kingfisher are going to be my go-tos for the latter. So fun, so creepy, so relatable, so wild. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Blood

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, and Alcohol