iridescencedeep's reviews
49 reviews

Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-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? No

3.75

In which we spend 16 pages (8% of the book) on a game of golf.

Good fun when its fun, which is about half the time because it's mind-bogglingly misogynistic and racist. (Truly: "Pussy Galore"? — and she doesn't even show up until the last 50 pages!)

Also, much more atmospheric than I expected. Lots of waxing philosophical about Bond's inner life, and lots of detailed visual description of people and places.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Go to review page

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

Go to review page

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

3.5

Huh

Japanese in translation always has such a clipped tone it's vdth interesting.
Do You Remember Being Born? by Sean Michaels

Go to review page

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

4.25

Hard Girls by J. Robert Lennon

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Sentences are just not v beautiful 
Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer

Go to review page

funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I don't even know where to start. 

"show, don't tell" - there was so much telling in this book. Honestly a good amount of showing, too! But soo much telling. The characters' emotions were demonstrated by their actions, and then helpfully described in exact detail. Hooray! 

But it is cute and I did read it quite quickly... And I liked the Jewish rep and the premise. 

Nit: three places in the book where a full sentence or paragraph is simply printed twice in a row, with no change. 

Explains every Judaism reference, which quickly became annoying. I understand why you did it, though. 

Please stop saying "rump"! 
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Lightstruck by Sunya Mara

Go to review page

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

2.0

Just not that good. Flat worldbuilding, very dumb characters. Vesper keeps making the same mistakes over and over. The romance
remains in the "tentative allies" stage of enemies-to-lovers for basically the whole book
, which is not super gripping. 
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Go to review page

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

4.25

Carrie Soto is a hard woman to love.
The things that are important to her at the beginning of this book - the importance of winning, of domination; that nothing else holds a candle - are not things that are important to me. But the book is about her growing past them


Reading the beginning of this book, about the training regimen her father designed for her beginning she was a toddler, made me cringe. But I do respect greatness.

And Carrie Soto is great. 

Jenkins Reid's writing is gripping; I read this book in two days. She does a great job of putting the reader on the tennis court, even if you don't care about tennis. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings