spinstah's reviews
1317 reviews

North Woods by Daniel Mason

4.5

Really enjoyed the structure of this story, and the paranormal elements that popped up from time to time. 

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

4.0

Very fun and absurd. I enjoyed this but the sense of humor will definitely not be for everyone. Interested to see what book club thinks. 

The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo

3.75

The writing was great and stylistically felt very Gatsby -esque.  It I wanted a little more world building, especially for the magic system. 

Dead Space by Kali Wallace

3.75

I thought this ended a little abruptly, it would have been interesting to see an epilogue that gave you a sense of what else happened without the details. There were a lot of characters that it was easy to mix up because they didn’t engage with the main part of the story much. But I still enjoyed this, it was an interesting look at AI and corporate greed. 

Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

4.0

Charming but felt a little more hectic than the first one. Almost a little too much going on. 

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza

4.0

There’s maybe a little too much going on here, but I’m also not sure what I’d suggest cutting. I did enjoy seeing the parallels and echoes between generations play out, and I thought the characters were very sympathetic. 

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

4.0

This is a charming set of interconnected stories, all focused on people finding new meaning in their life. I do wish we’d gotten a final story about

the librarian or the library assistant

, though. 

Butter by Asako Yuzuki
Did not finish book. Stopped at 77%.

This was moving pretty slowly and didn’t really feel like the plot was going anywhere. There was some good character development, but overall I just wasn’t super interested. I thought I’d skim to finish but decided against it. 

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

3.75

I really should have read a summary of the previous books because I had a hard time remembering the relationships and past events. While I did eventually settle in and just decide to go along for the ride, this was a little disappointing in some ways. The series is building up to a huge war and at a certain point I was like…..there are not enough pages left for that. I wish some side plots had been cut or just gestured at, rather than a huge moment that ended the war happening off the page. Anyway, I still enjoyed this but not quite as much as the others. 

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

4.0

I was never a huge Britney fan, but I was curious about how her conservatorship came about. It takes a while for the book to get to that point, but you can see all of the things that led up to it. Which turn out to primarily be post-partum depression, grief, and awful, gaslighting parents who wanted her money. Anyway, this is worth the listen if you’re curious, Michelle Williams does a great job narrating.