rcsreads's reviews
720 reviews

Hunted by Suzanne Wright

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 57%.
Why are the people in paranormal romance novels always like 300 with the emotional intelligence of a 19 year old? The enemies to lovers in this one is resolved very quickly because "enemies" actually meant she's mean to him because she fancies him!
 I can't be bothered to finish this. I do not care about any of the characters or the plot and the smut is very much they're sexy but psycho which is extremely problematic. Also, everyone has telepathic powers and just seem to use it like WhatsApp to send unsolicited dick pics. 
 If you are into tattooed men who can shape shift into horses and don't understand consent then this one's for you!
The Troubles With Us by Alix O'Neill

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slow-paced

2.0

I presume this book was published to cash in on the popularity of Derry Girls. If you're interested in the Troubles I wouldn't recommend it, despite the covers claims, it's much more about 90's drinking culture and I did that and other people's stories about drinking Brerzers till they barf aren't interesting!
The structure of the book was also quite confusing as it frequently jumps around in time for the sake of a pointless anecdote.
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I enjoyed the bits of the book about Alix's mum who would be a much better subject for a memoir or biography. 
Carrie Kills a Man by Carrie Marshall

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informative slow-paced

3.0

Carrie Marshall's constant need to tell me that "women should dress for the age they are, not the age they want to be" started to really piss me off!
It's otherwise nice to hear from someone who transitioned at an older age, and the chat about going to buy Melody Maker on a Wednesday gave me serious teenage nostalgia!

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The Sad Ghost Club 3 by Lize Meddings

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Sad Ghost Club by Lize Meddings

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Fat Black Woman's Poems by Grace Nichols

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emotional funny inspiring reflective

5.0

An absolute joy to read. Every poem in this book is just poetic perfection. You should read it and marvel at Nichols skill as a writer.

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The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 9%.
I managed an hour of the audio book before the whiny tone of the narrator and the bitching about people who live in council houses got too much for me and I had to DNF.
Will probably be made into a film with Jim Broadbent!
Over the Top: My Story by Jonathan Van Ness

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medium-paced

3.0


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The Book Cat by Clara Vulliamy, Polly Faber

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

The space ship is a great analogy for being trapped in slavery, you can't run away into a vacuum. The actual science of this space ship though, is insane like it has a tiny sun with floors for growing crops round it that all require drastically different environments and you can see people on other floors and they're upside down. What? If you take the ship purely as an analogy and don't think about science then this is a really interesting way to write about slavery and trauma full of diverse, queer and neurodivergent characters. The A deck ruling class are the white, heteronormative colonisers and the rest of the alphabet of decks represent the various cultures that the West enslaved and colonised. The analogy is good but the actual plot of the story gets confusing. 
 The story of Aster learning about her mother through the journals she left behind started out so well and then kind of got lost later. We just dropped it for the middle of the book and then it reappeared at the end with a lot of solutions which clearly happened off page. 
 I could see why Giselle was there to show us the effects of trauma but i have no idea why she was Aster's friend, she seemed to hate her a lot and they had nothing in common apart from living on the same floor of the massive ship. I have no idea what the Lieutenants motives were, he was a cartoon villain who just decided one day that a random child was his nemesis and he was going to mess with her for the rest of his life.
 It was very readable and I enjoyed it but this review seems to think otherwise...

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