reading – Page 2 – Book Reviews for Bookish People

Posted on May 18, 2024 by bookreviews628

She has all the confidence a deadly thing should: Reviewing Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

Hello everyone! I’m back much sooner than I thought I would be. I try to pace myself when I read, but I get excited and speed through books. That means more content for you all, though! This book has also been on my TBR for a long time, so I’m happy to have finally gotten around to it. I’m going to go on for too much longer. Let’s talk about Mary: An Awakening of Terror.

Content Warning: Violence, Gore, Disturbing Imagery, Child Death, Animal Death, Discussions and Depictions of Misogyny, Discussions and Depictions of Ageism, Sexual Assault

Mary has been feeling miserable lately. She’s starting to go through menopause, she’s lost her job, and she is incredibly lonely. That isn’t the only thing wrong with her, though. Every time Mary looks in a mirror, she sees the ghosts of dead women looking back at her and hears voices telling her to do awful things. An opportunity for a new chance at life arises when her estranged aunt calls, asking for her to be a caretaker. Mary packs up her little collection of porcelain figures and heads to her hometown. Everything gets worse. Soon, Mary is plagued by nightmares and begins auto-writing the same bizarre phrases that echo those of an infamous serial killer who died in her hometown. When a spate of murders happens soon after she arrives, Mary must find out how she is tied to these deaths and uncover some deadly, long-buried secrets.

Mary: An Awakening of Terror is a rare combination of insightful commentary and a full-blown splatterpunk gore fest. (If you are sensitive to gore, this is not the book for you.) This book ticks off so many horror sub-genres that it almost feels like it completely shifts from slasher horror to cult horror to existential horror. I appreciated the messages revolving around self-worth and self-doubt (even if it is in a warped and twisted way). It is a fast-paced read with plenty of gruesome action. What I appreciated the most about this novel was how the protagonist was a middle-aged woman just trying to cope with a part of life that most people don’t really address or think about. Women, in particular, have a particularly tricky relationship with aging and I liked how Nat Cassidy (who is a man) approached the particular topic without making any assumptions or playing into any stereotypes. Mary: An Awakening of Terror is unlike any horror novel I have read and I definitely recommend that you experience this one for yourself.

Posted on May 14, 2024 by bookreviews628

To tend and to mend: Reviewing A Power Unbound (Book 3 of The Last Binding Trilogy) by Freya Marske

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I’m back sooner than expected. Before you read this review, check out my reviews for the first two books A Marvelous Light and A Restless Truth. I don’t know about the rest of you but I love completing a series. It’s always satisfying, regardless of whether the ending was good. Now, I won’t ramble on too much. Let’s talk about A Power Unbound.

Content Warning: Explicit Sexual Content, Harsh Language, Violence

Jack Hawthorn, Lord Alston and Earl of Cheetham Hall, went out of his way to avoid any unnecessary chaos. He just wanted some peace after losing his twin sister, losing his magic, and fighting in a war. He finds himself right back into the world of magic when he learns of a ritual threatening every British magician. Now, Jack lives with a ragtag group of disgraced upper-class magicians. The really wild card of their group, though, is the charming, albeit non-magical, journalist Alan Rossi. The two immediately butt heads over their class differences. They must, however, put their differences aside to save the future of magic in Britain as they know it.

A Power Unbound neatly wraps up Freya Marske’s enchanting trilogy. I could tell that Marske put a lot of thought and consideration into creating this world, which was fun to see through to the end. The romance between Jack and Alan was particularly intriguing as it was definitely an “enemies to lovers” with just a little bit of roleplaying. Aside from the spicy parts of this book, I liked how this was an ensemble cast featuring characters from the previous books. I would rather an author develop existing rather than create brand-new characters. The entire trilogy was super fun to read. If you want a series with plenty of action and romance, The Last Binding trilogy is absolutely the series for you.

Posted on February 16, 2024 by bookreviews628

Let’s DNF together! It’s okay to stop reading!

Hi all! I’m coming at you with a completely different post than my normal reviews. I’m sure most of you on this side of the internet are familiar with the term DNF but, if you need a refresher, it stands for Did Not Finish. You don’t necessarily have to apply it to books but it is mostly regarding books. I have some free time at this moment so I have been watching different “Book Tubers” talk about their worst or DNFs of 2023. I felt inspired. I am a bit of a completionist when it comes to books. I like to see things through to the end because a book could surprise me or it could justify any negative feelings I have while reading. I might have said this before but I go into every book I read hoping it will be my next favorite. Not everything pans out, though, and I certainly wish I had stopped reading certain books. I am making it a point now to be okay with DNF-ing a book for whatever reason. Now, I will present my most recent DNFs. If you have different thoughts or you agree, feel free to leave me a comment either way.

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – You might have heard the hype surrounding this book and its daunting size. The book is about 1,000 pages. I was fully prepared to tackle this book and read about 25% of the book before giving up. It was so bloated and I didn’t care about the court politics of the book. I wanted dragons and was barely getting dragons. I don’t know if I will ever tackle this book again but I’m going to hold on to it, just in case. If a book is over 1,000 pages, it really needs to work double overtime to justify why it is 1,000 pages.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth – This is another case of a book just being too long and not losing my interest. I also didn’t care for the fourth wall-breaking narrator who kept being cheeky and omnipotent. The book goes back and forth between two groups of characters (one set in the past and one set in the present) and I was only interested in the characters from the past. I do really want to give the book another shot because I like the overall premise but the narrative voice annoyed me so much.

Rhapsodic by Lauren Thalassa – Everyone and their mother currently loves dark “romantasy” with fairies who are just hot people with wings. I thought I might give the genre a shot and I am learning that dark romance is not exactly for me. This book was a slog to get through and I was annoyed at how slow the burn was. I flipped ahead and the two main characters didn’t get together until about chapter twelve of a book that was just shy of thirty chapters. Also, the main character’s best friend was a stereotype and that bothered me throughout. I’m not bothering with Laura Thalassa again.

Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert – This book had two things that I should have loved: vampires and Katee Robert. I still stand by my reviews of her other books as “guilty pleasure” books. I thought that this book would be a no-brainer, instant love for me. Let me explain what I like about the Dark Olympus series: in every book, regardless of the circumstances, the couples always have a discussion about consent and boundaries. I truly appreciate all of those conversations and how Katee Robert works those in. In Court of the Vampire Queen (spoiler/content warning) the main character literally walks into the main vampire love interest’s house and he jumps on her, then they just have sex right there. There was no “hi, how are you” nor did he even introduce himself. They get nasty right there and she brushes the whole thing off?!?! It was so icky and I gave that book away as soon as I could.

Phantom by Greer Rivers – Does all dark romance suck? This one was on me for falling for a premise. This book was advertised by the author herself as a re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera that is set in modern-day New Orleans and it had some mafia elements. I put this book down after the first sentence of the first chapter. Now, I fully understand that dark romance is meant to be a little unhinged but I don’t appreciate the male main character fantasizing about assaulting the female main character. It was a major ick and I’m mad at myself for falling for this book.

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This one is simply a case of “not feeling it.” I’ve been trying for months to read this book and I’m just not super interested. I do really like the premise so I might just save this one for a different time. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s books so if I don’t finish this one then I might try I different book by him. The book gives me major Stephen King vibes, for better or worse. I really wanted to read it for October but I found other books that I just liked better.

Well, that is my current DNF list. If you have any suggestions for other books I might like instead then feel free to leave those in the comments. I wish you all the best!

Posted on October 18, 2018 by bookreviews628 · 1 Comment

How I Pick My Novels

Hi everyone! I’m both glad (and not so glad) to be back home. I had spend this past weekend in New Jersey and New York. One of my college graduation presents was tickets to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway so I was beyond excited. I also got to visit Sleepy Hollow. Overall, it was a very exciting weekend. Now that I’m back, I decided to do a blog inspired by a author/Youtuber I follow, Jenna Moreci. Some of you may have heard of her as she has recently released her debut novel, The Savior’s Champion. She is very funny so I definitely recommend you look up her channel. She recently did a video called “How I Choose My Novels.” Naturally, I’m copying her. All credit goes to Jenna Moreci for this.

Genre: Like the rest of you, I have preferred genres. All of them fall under the fiction category. Within that, I like to see which genre I haven’t read recently so I can mix it up. I also like to see novels that break genre. I want to give myself a variety, as well as you who read my blogs.

Author: Normally, I don’t concern myself with authors too much but, obviously, I do gravitate towards my favorite author. I also like to know which authors are up-and-coming so I can hop on a bandwagon. I like being a part of fandom, as do a lot of you.

Reviews: There are many books I’ve picked up solely because I heard many people enjoyed it. Reviews really do have an impact on which books I choose. In fact, your reviews have helped me pick books. I prefer to read book by average readers rather than professional critics. I feel like professional critics can be “too” judgmental at times. I just want to know if a book was good or not. I don’t want an analysis.

Book Length: As much as I would love to read super long books, I don’t always have the time or the patience. I tend to have a short attention span so I’ll avoid thicker books. I would love to buckle down and read something like Les Miserables or War and Peace but, let’s be real, my last three brain cells wouldn’t be able to handle that.

The Blurb: Ah yes, the might blurb! I must read the blurb of every book in the store before I make a decision. A vague blurb isn’t going to interest me and a long blurb is going to lose my attention. I need a nice sized-blurb with just enough detail. The blurb is what’s going to sell your book.

The Cover: Unlike the popular phrase, I do judge books by their cover. I even did a post where I talked about book covers. A nice, eye-catching cover is the first thing that makes me pick up a book. I’m not going to gravitate toward something with a bland cover or a cover with too much happening. I will most definitely avoid a book with a movie poster as the cover. (I think it’s tacky but that’s just me.) We do judge books by their covers and we can all admit it.

Posted on August 1, 2018 by bookreviews628 · 3 Comments

The Best (and Worst) Books I Read in High School

Hello everyone! While I would prefer to have a book review by now, I feel like I just haven’t had the time or energy to continue reading. Closing shifts are the worst. Anyone who has worked retail can relate to how I feel. I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to do something like this. I thought about making this about my required reading in grade school but I really don’t remember much of what I read back then. I do, however, have very distinct memories of my Honors English classes in high school. I had some very interesting teachers who had some interesting teaching methods. I can get more into that in another post if you want. (Note: I’m also going to be including plays I read on this list).

The best books I read:

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Sophomore Year)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Junior Year)
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (Sophomore Year)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Junior Year)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (Senior Year)
The Color of Water by James McBride (Sophomore Year)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Freshman Year)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Senior Year)
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Freshman Year)
Fences by August Wilson (Junior Year)

The worst books I read (with explanations):

Anthem by Ayn Rand: I know a lot of people of Rand but I just couldn’t bring myself to enjoy her writing. This book, in particular, is very confusing as it is written without singular pronouns. That is an important aspect of the book as it is a dystopian novel but it doesn’t make it any less confusing.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: I just found this book to be way too sappy for my tastes. I understand the sentiment behind the story but it was just too depressing, even for me.
Black Boy by Richard Wright: It always sounds bad when I tell people I didn’t like this book but it’s not because of the subject matter. This book is his autobiography and the first half of the book is incredibly interesting. The second half of the book, however, is all about Communism and it just gets super preachy. The end just felt like a let down.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros: I’m not a huge fan of poetry but I can always appreciate. This book, however, was too abstract for my tastes. Again, I understand the subject matter but I just thought it was so vague.
Seven Events that Made America America by Larry Scheikwart: This book was so bad that my teacher decided to not have us even finish it. It’s written from a very Conservative standpoint and also the events weren’t even that important. The entire book is just this guy ranting about the “liberal media.” It was not something that I cared for in high school and not something I care for now.

Let me know if you read any of these books in high school or tell me your favorites or least favorites. I had some odd experiences in high school English so my experience is probably very different that yours. I’d love to hear about it though.

Posted on March 19, 2018 by bookreviews628 · 3 Comments

Types of Literary Narrators I Hate

Hello everyone! I am currently catching up on the last new novel I got so, hopefully, I will be giving you a review of that soon. I’m coming up on spring break so I might wait till then. In the meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about certain story telling styles I don’t click with. These mostly apply to first person narrators but there are some things in third person stories that I can’t stand. There are certain things writers do when it comes to their narrators that just piss me off and make the story less enjoyable. Now, I’m going to share with you the kind of narrators that I am tired of reading about.

The Skeptic: The is narrator mostly shows up in horror or science fiction. From the beginning of the story, they have to remind you that they don’t believe in the paranormal or supernatural. This narrator has to remind you every other sentence that they have always thought ghosts were stupid. You don’t have to remind me every five seconds that your are skeptical. This is when the “show, don’t tell,” rule should come in to play.

The Philosopher: This narrator loves to ask sweeping, broad questions or statements in order to get the reader thinking about the meaning of life or something like that. When a story begins out with some line like, “since the dawn of time, there have aways been things hidden from humans…” then I start to roll my eyes. If you want to incorporate philosophy in your story, that’s fine but there’s a way to include without immediately boring the reader.

The Romantic: This narrator has the biggest crush on another character in the story and they will stop everything to go on and on about the love of their life. Their crush breathes and the world stops turning. Their crush has the most amazing eyes in the whole entire universe and not a single other person’s eyes compare to it. Listen, I like romance as much as the next person but there’s a better way to convey a relationship between two characters.

The Pessimist: Life sucks and this narrator won’t let you forget it. This narrator is hard to read because you start to feel depressed over fictional things. I want to enjoy a book to a degree and I can’t do that when the narrator won’t give me anything to enjoy. Believe it or not, there’s always some sort of “silver lining.” Don’t let this narrator get you down.

The Narrator Who Is Not Like Other People: This narrator is just so unique and different. They are not like average people. They are so extraordinary because of whatever talents or features they have. You mostly find this narrator in YA novels because teens want to live vicariously through this super special character. The author takes great care to let you know how different their character is from the rest and it’s exhausting. Again, “show, don’t tell” is a good rule here.

The Hardened and Angsty Soul: This narrator is a step up from the pessimist. This narrator has seen some sh*t in their time and everything they do comes back to whatever traumatic even they experienced. They always refer vaguely and bitterly back to this event and all of the other characters tell them that they need to move on but they just can’t because angst. I’ve seen this one pop up in plenty of detective stories and it’s pretty common in action movies as well. You’ll probably know who I’m talking about.

Note: This is not meant to shade any specific authors. These are just observations I have made while reading. Feel free to debate me or agree with me in the comments. I like to hear your feedback.

Posted on August 22, 2017 by bookreviews628

Some Quick Updates and Miscellaneous Thoughts

Hello my fellow bloggers. This is my first update post. Don’t feel any pressure to read this but if you’re interested then I appreciate it. On Sunday, I move back to college to complete my senior year. This ought to be a fun but hectic semester that I’m looking forward to. With this will come bigger gaps in between my posts. Hopefully since I’m mainly reading novels this year, I will be able to give you more reviews. Just be aware that I will not be able to keep up as much with my posts.

The next thing I wanted to address was something I have been thinking about for a while. I was thinking about doing movie or t.v. show reviews. Most of the things I watch are comic book based so it would still be relevant to my blog style. Not that I have that much of a blog style, but still. I’m a movie buff and an avid t.v. fangirl so I would like to share those with you all.

Now we are at the last matter of business. I just wanted to thank you all for reading my reviews and dealing with my book tags. I really love your blogs too and I love hearing feedback. I hope you all had an enjoyable summer. To those going back to school, I wish you the best of luck and hope that you achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself.

Posted on July 31, 2017 by bookreviews628

How My Reading Habits Have Changed Over the Years

I don’t know if any other bookworms have done this but, on occasion, I realize how much my taste in books or the way I read books has changed since I was young. Now, I do certainly have staples. I still generally read fiction and I’m always reading more than one book at a time but some slight changes have come up in my reading life. Maybe some of you have experienced similar things or maybe you haven’t. Here is a quick list of what I’ve noticed has changed.

Series: I haven’t read a book series in a rather long time. As a kid, I read a lot of series and I believe the most recent one I read was The Song of Fire and Ice series, which I read back in high school. Most of the books I read now are standalone. Why is it that there are very few series for adults? Maybe I’ve simply lost patience for book series. I still have favorites but I haven’t been interested in any book series in a while.
Romance: I’ve never been a huge fan of romance novels but I used to get more invested in romantic relationships in books. Now, unless it’s intended to be a romantic novel, I could care less if my characters are in relationships or not. Is that weird?
Fantasy: I do still like fantasy novels but it no longer catches my interest as much. I don’t pick up books solely because they belong to a particular genre I enjoy. I used to do that more when I was younger. Fantasy elements no longer hook me in like they used to.
Trends: When I was kid, the Twilight phenomenon had struck the pop culture scene and I was one of the many preteen victims. Like others, I do regret it now but it made me think that I can’t think of any book trends that are popular right now. Harry Potter is making a comeback, which is great, but I haven’t noticed any huge trends in the literary world. Maybe I’m just getting old and I no longer notice this stuff.
Classics: I’ve found myself wanting to read more classic novels. You know, authors like Woolf, Hemingway, Austen, the Brontes, Dostoyvesky, and other authors that are worshipped by writers and readers alike. I almost feel like I have an obligation to read these authors. I don’t know if I’ll enjoy any of these or not but I would like to try at least.

That’s my stream of consciousness for now. I’m still stalling until I read enough to write another book review. I would definitely by interested in hearing if any of you other book worms feel the same way that I do or maybe you haven’t noticed any changes in how or what you read. Either way, don’t stop reading what you love.

Posted on July 5, 2017 by bookreviews628

The Hidden Side of Hollywood: Reviewing Postcards From the Edge by Carrie Fisher

I hopped onto the Star Wars craze a bit late. It wasn’t until the seventh movie came out that I realized I had been missing out on something. While I’m still not a die hard fan or anything like that, I found a new appreciation for the iconic movies series. Within that, I discovered that Carrie Fisher was a novelist. I sadly didn’t know about this until after her death but my curiosity was peaked and I wanted to remember her for something other than movies. I decided to read Postcards From the Edge and I was pleased to find Fisher’s other talents.

Suzanne Vale is an actress who knew she would end up in rehab at some point. It all started after an incident involving Percodan and scallops. Alex is a writer who doesn’t think of himself as an addict, despite his obvious love for cocaine. Their two stories come together as they reflect on their lives before rehab, their hopes for the future, and their fears of losing everything in the fickle entertainment industry.

Though this novel is relatively short, it packs a large punch of humor, honesty, and poignancy. Fisher provides these two narratives with plenty of unfiltered commentary about Hollywood and drug addictions and everything in between. There is no doubt that Fisher took a page out of real life in order to provide the profound revelations in her writing. Even if you aren’t involved in Hollywood, it is still easy to sympathize with Suzanne and Alex as they struggle to put their lives back together. Fisher’s humor and insight knows no bounds as she explores certain taboo topics. It is easy to remember why Fisher was so loved by many after reading this novel.

Book Reviews for Bookish People

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