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samarakroeger's reviews
550 reviews
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.75
beautiful, tense, and liminal little novella. Kerangal does a fantastic job blending language, identity, and landscape through the guise of a claustrophobic train journey. seriously, the writing is breathtaking.
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
adventurous
challenging
informative
2.75
I was expecting investigative journalism more akin to The Feather Thief, but this ended up just being a disorganized ramble through the Florida swamp with an interesting character that we don’t really get to know. It ends up being a surface-level portrait of weird Florida Men who are obsessed with orchids instead of the nuanced exploration of Tribal law and the ramifications of nature-based crime I was hoping for.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
this ended up being kind of a garbled mess. why bother with multiple perspectives if everything is going to have the same authorial voice??? it's just confusing at that point.
you can tell this was written by a poet (in both good and bad ways). there's not much of a coherent plot. it's needlessly fragmentary. some of the sentences are beautiful, and sometimes it veers into purple prose.
anyways, not thrilled about that cheap ending ...
you can tell this was written by a poet (in both good and bad ways). there's not much of a coherent plot. it's needlessly fragmentary. some of the sentences are beautiful, and sometimes it veers into purple prose.
anyways, not thrilled about that cheap ending ...
The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
2.0
THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE!!!
The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson
funny
informative
medium-paced
3.75
a fun romp through a serious topic courtesy of Jon Ronson.
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.0
maybe one of the only objectively sad and heavy romance books I've really liked. if there was a little more lightheartedness I would rate this on par with Part of Your World, but that's a personal preference. this obviously brought me to tears, so if that's what you're looking for.... look no further.
The Happy Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
listen, I'm obviously biased because I live in Ely, but this is by far the best book in the Friend Zone trilogy. I loved their trip to visit his parents in Ely! it's a tiny town so it caught me off guard lol
Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez
emotional
medium-paced
3.0
by far the weakest Abby Jimenez book (I've read all of them)
The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
what's not to like about sapphic regency romance?