rnbhargava's reviews
389 reviews

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

5.0

This book has a fantastic story that has you see the narrative of the story from a multitude of points of view but honestly it doesn’t get confusing. There’s even points where you recontextualize earlier points in the story where things weren’t exactly what you thought they were.
This is honestly one of my favorite reads in years. I now need to find Simon Jimenez’s first novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

The layering of potential triggers is heavy in this book. There are figures that are dead/potentially dead. There are figures that are mixed with animal appearance. There’s cannibalism. There’s borderline self loathing/coming to grips with being homosexual. There are points where characters are in each other’s heads. The villains are brutal and unforgiving. Even some of the supporting characters aren’t fully trustworthy at points. This book’s narrative is intense.

It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense 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

3.5

Seeing how Lily and Atlas fully commit despite Ryle’s behaviour which he comes to work on is beautiful in a way. I like both books equally for slightly different reasons.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, and Gaslighting

There is some slight forms of domestic abuse in this sequel albeit it’s all briefer because it’s in different contexts compared to the first book. There is some violence and vandalism depicted in the book as well.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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? Yes

4.25

I quite enjoyed this book throughout. It’s fairly well thought out. It’s not perfect as many have suggested it is. However the characterizations and a good portion of the world building is done really well. These characters already are very memorable to me. I honestly can’t wait to get to the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

There are references to the potential for SA throughout the book. Also, there’s literal references and allusions to slavery and the types of work involved in real life slavery also happening in this fictional world. The nobles are also quite misogynistic at times.

Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad tense 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

3.25

The strong aspects of this book are on level with the first book. That said, much of the pacing for the first half is unbalanced. The protagonist also makes choices and voices feelings that come across fairly inconsistent with where the first book left off and they’re not really even partially addressed for half the book. I ultimately had fun so I went 3 stars but I took a long break from reading down the middle of this for several months and I was mulling a DNF. I was even considering a 2 star once I did resume but it picked up.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi
Did not finish book. Stopped at 45%.

Been too long since I last read it. I’ll just restart whenever I want to try this series again. 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.25

Excellent collection of interrelated short stories in this cozy novel. They’re quite inventive albeit, many of them only get a little room to breathe. I wouldn’t mind if some of them were a tiny bit longer. That said, most of them do the job at tugging at the heart and engaging the mind. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

These stories deal with specific things that could cause sadness and regret. There are examples of tragedy throughout albeit the tone of the book is overall quite upbeat. There’s plenty of melancholy in this.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

5.0

This is a fantastic read. It’s a perfect life affirming dramedy that tiptoes in the fantastical. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

There’s themes of generational suicide tendencies and alcoholism/drug abuse.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

4.0

This is an excellent follow up to Psalm for the Wild-Built. That said, it’s marginally less impactful. It’s mostly about remembering to take time for yourself and for those dear to you. Also, enjoy moments with new people at times too, you never know what might happen. It’s lovely, There’s less extreme discovery in this instalment. Well worth the time but less of a revelation as the first. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Xenophobia, Alcohol, and Classism

This instalment is mostly about enjoying time beyond work and Mosscap discovering various things about how humans experience the world. It’s really well done, marginally less good than the first book.

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

3.5

Is it the greatest writing? No, it isn’t. However, the characters are well rounded and the storyline is propulsive. Frankly, I think I’ll read the sequel too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

This whole book is ultimately about domestic violence and why one wouldn’t give up on the other person immediately. Keep that in mind.

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Deluxe Edition II by Nagabe

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really liked this volume quite a bit. Going with 4 out of 5 because it’s more of a transitory volume rather than one leading with initial ideas. There’s excellent build up. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Many of these triggers are a mixture of overt and suggested. There are also characters that mean to kidnap another character but as of yet are unsuccessful. There are characters that have degenerative physical and mental issues and they are oppressed violently at times.