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vigil's reviews
189 reviews
The Girl & the Galdurian by Tim Probert
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
4.0
delightful! i love when middle grade and juggle the digestible tone of children’s books without sacrificing lore or intrigue, which i think was done really well here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and War
Moderate: Mental illness and Dementia
Minor: Genocide
Abandon Me: Memoirs by Melissa Febos
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Mental illness
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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
3.75
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
In the Garden of Echo by H.S. Wolfe
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
:/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Monstress, Vol. 8: Inferno by Sana Takeda, Marjorie Liu
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
easily the best entry yet, and definitely the most confusing. still in the habit of fleshing out its world, but i can see that much of the wandering was building to all of this. this was probably the most direct progression we’ve made in a while. it’s all coming together and i hope maika’s dad gets murdered soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
Did not finish book. Stopped at 61%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 61%.
look i tried. it is not unreadable or anything, but with an overwritten prose style leading to an egregious 600 page count (full of absolutely NOTHING) it’s flaws are glaring. how the world building manges to be both overly descriptive, info dumpy, tedious, shallow, and nonsensical all at the same time is truly a feat. i don’t have it in me to care about these rich people or the idea of a forbidden romance involving lin and conor, who is easily the most bland, uninteresting, annoying, useless characters i’ve read in a long time. it was like watching a black hole suck the life of of me and everyone else on the page. i almost wished kel would snap and bomb that goddamn palace to free me from my misery if nothing else.
lin doesn’t have a personality of much note, cassandra still falls into generic YA tropes despite ostensibly being an adult book (it’s not. the characters are just 23. you can tell because they ✨visit brothels✨) and it’s quite clear no one has seriously edited this woman in a long time. the most interesting part of the story is definitely lin and mayesh which we tragically get very little of and instead suffer through paragraph after paragraph of lin suffering through nonsensical misogynistic oppression (i understand the oppression towards her race, even if i think it’s poorly written. but why is there misogyny but no homophobia. does cassandra have any clue how these things work on a systemic level? i know the answer is no, but good god.) and her sad boring friend marie. enough!
lin doesn’t have a personality of much note, cassandra still falls into generic YA tropes despite ostensibly being an adult book (it’s not. the characters are just 23. you can tell because they ✨visit brothels✨) and it’s quite clear no one has seriously edited this woman in a long time. the most interesting part of the story is definitely lin and mayesh which we tragically get very little of and instead suffer through paragraph after paragraph of lin suffering through nonsensical misogynistic oppression (i understand the oppression towards her race, even if i think it’s poorly written. but why is there misogyny but no homophobia. does cassandra have any clue how these things work on a systemic level? i know the answer is no, but good god.) and her sad boring friend marie. enough!
Bad Fruit by Ella King
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Rape
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Monstrous by Jessica Lewis
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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? Yes
2.0
the dialogue was unfortunately twitter poison, flipping between therapy speak and ironic quips, and the plot couldn’t help but undermine itself at every given opportunity. the ending reads as half finished, the initial story ended up being completely irrelevant to what actually went down, and our purpose for the entire story was discarded, the book only accomplished maybe a quarter of what it initially intended to do and all of it proved to be rather useless in the long run with no bearing on the actual narrative.
the emotional thread was all over the place, the romance proved to be quickly tiring, and at the end our main goal is implied to be accomplished offscreen after the book ends. except it wasn’t really our main goal because the original goal was made forcibly irrelevant by the narrative. at the end of the book i could only wonder what the was the fucking point? why write 400 pages of a nothingburger plot with a shit ending? why do i still think YA is a salvageable genre? what happened to the plot of the movie!
also are we still doing villain exposition monologues. even if it is YA, evil grinning cartoon villain monologuing his whole plot to the protagonist is very played out.
it’s only getting two stars for the snake.
the emotional thread was all over the place, the romance proved to be quickly tiring, and at the end our main goal is implied to be accomplished offscreen after the book ends. except it wasn’t really our main goal because the original goal was made forcibly irrelevant by the narrative. at the end of the book i could only wonder what the was the fucking point? why write 400 pages of a nothingburger plot with a shit ending? why do i still think YA is a salvageable genre? what happened to the plot of the movie!
also are we still doing villain exposition monologues. even if it is YA, evil grinning cartoon villain monologuing his whole plot to the protagonist is very played out.
it’s only getting two stars for the snake.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail