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lochanreads's reviews
309 reviews
The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.0
Gritty and full of suspense, The Girls I've Been is a punchy, fast-paced thriller, written in an urgent, sometimes non-linear, way that continually draws you in. The open ending made the book's core theme of survival really resonate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Cute, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously. Good book for getting you out of a reading slump if you like grumpy-meets-happy romances with an academia twist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual harassment
The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.0
A morbidly dark young adult fantasy about the mysterious world of alchemy, set during an acient Chinese empire. Fan Zilan is a merchant girl from the poor South, who performs illegal resurrection alchemy, with the help of her cousins, so her family can afford to live. She has an unwavering desire to climb the ranks and become a royal alchemist, despite the bigoted hostility she faces because of her mixed heritage. But the more she pursues her dream, the more she discovers bone-chilling secrets about the royal court and herself.
Lee Baker's writing is graphically vivid and full of suspense as we read about Zilan constantly having to surmount the next obstacle that comes her way and deal with the many twists and turns that are thrown at her.
I believed in the close sibling-like yet fraught relationship between Zilan and her cousins, Wenshu and Yufei, who were both endearing characters to read about. And the shy romance that started to surface was an embracing relief from the relentless depictions of death and decay and rotting corpses, which became very stale the more I read.
I thought the ending was both strange in a way that didn't sit well with me, but also clever in it's unexpectedness. However, it did diminish the feeling of high stakes that the novel would've otherwise had. Overall, I liked the intensity of the story and how well it sets up the next book in the duology.
Lee Baker's writing is graphically vivid and full of suspense as we read about Zilan constantly having to surmount the next obstacle that comes her way and deal with the many twists and turns that are thrown at her.
I believed in the close sibling-like yet fraught relationship between Zilan and her cousins, Wenshu and Yufei, who were both endearing characters to read about. And the shy romance that started to surface was an embracing relief from the relentless depictions of death and decay and rotting corpses, which became very stale the more I read.
I thought the ending was both strange in a way that didn't sit well with me, but also clever in it's unexpectedness. However, it did diminish the feeling of high stakes that the novel would've otherwise had. Overall, I liked the intensity of the story and how well it sets up the next book in the duology.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death and Child abuse
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
The Deep is an imaginative, haunting and captivating piece of speculative fiction that imagines an aquatic life, deep beneath the ocean for the progeny of drowned Black women slaves, during the transatlantic slave trade.
Diamond Hill by Kit Fan
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Set during the 80s, a disgraced man flees British-occupied Hong Kong for the streets of Bangkok, where he falls into a life of addiction, until he is taken in by a monk called Daishi in the temple of Wat Arun. Several years later, the man known as Buddha returns to Hong Kong, sent back by Daishi to make peace with his past. Residing in a nunnery in Diamond Hill, a shanty town that was once 'the Hollywood of the Orient', Buddha's life becomes entangled with that of four troubled women.
Written with both beautiful and uncomfortable prose, Diamond Hill is a stark depiction of loss and hope in a slowly dying world.
Written with both beautiful and uncomfortable prose, Diamond Hill is a stark depiction of loss and hope in a slowly dying world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Sexism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Body shaming and Racism
uses some politically insensitive language at times like 'f*g'.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I am sufficiently shocked and horrified from reading this book and I don't think I'll ever recover from that ending. A deeply disturbing, dystopian horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Rape, and Death of parent
Warning: this book also contains themes of human experimentation
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I Feed Her to The Beast is a sinister, villainous story about a girl who is willing to sacrifice anything to succeed in the punishing world of ballet. I liked how the flawed, dark energy of Laure, the protagonist, was applied against the book's cutthroat yet opulent environment. The more unforgiving and discriminatory the ballet institution treats her, the more Laure thirsts for the dark power of some enchanted blood-lake to make them all accept her as the best. I wasn't satisfied with the culmination of some story arcs, where it felt like the mystery was left unresolved, but overall this was a subversively alluring read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Torture, and Blood
Moderate: Gore, Racism, and Abandonment
Bisexual Men Exist: A Handbook for Bisexual, Pansexual and M-Spec Men by Vaneet Mehta
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Bisexual Men Exist aims to validate bisexual and multi-gender attracted or m-spec men, who often have their sexual identity erased and stigmatised. It’s very holistic in the way it covers the many issues that bi and m-spec men face and it provides practical, first-hand advice and experience on things like coming out, sexual health and relationships. An important and affirming read.
Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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
3.0
An endearing and inclusive 'opposites attract' teen romance with an ending to make readers swoon.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia and Lesbophobia
Minor: Outing
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0