unboxedjack's reviews
1260 reviews

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

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emotional reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

I really thought I'd enjoy this book more than I did. The premise of a first-generation Palestinian-American woman exploring oppression, intergenerational trauma, and all that comes with that is very much up my alley. Unfortunately, this fell short. Obviously the reader is primed to be sympathetic to the protagonist, Yara, but the character development was incomplete. That was especially clear in how secondary characters were written. They had no depth, with Yara's being pretty minimal at times. Though I did like how Rum painted well-meaning white people as being just as racist with their microaggressive comments, the dialogue and presentation of this (as well as dialogue as a whole) was repetitive, superficial, and unrealistic. There were plenty of opportunities to dive into these themes more deeply rather than creating a fairly obvious and unsatisfying story. Ultimately, this read like a YA novel rather than something designed for older readers. 2.5 stars.

Content Warnings

The Hunter by Tana French

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I admittedly was not in a good mental space reading this so it took me a while, but I enjoyed the plot for the most part. Tchaikovsky did an excellent job continuing the world building and characterization he did well on with the first book of the series, but he seems to suffer from padding, which makes the pacing a bit off-kilter; that's the primary reason I rated this a 3.5/5 instead of 4/5. Granted, my own attention span could have been the biggest part to blame in that, but I hold firm that this book probably could have been at least 50 pages shorter. Enjoyable, nonetheless.

Little by Edward Carey

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dark reflective sad medium-paced