cyanide_latte's reviews
1699 reviews

I've been wanting to get to this for a while, and I'm glad that I finally did! This is a super, super cute webcomic-in-print-form, about four boys (all sort of named for the archetypes they're modeled on, who gradually develop feelings for each other and collectively get together and decide to become a polycule. While the majority of this volume is super fluffy and mostly focused on the guys getting together, there are also hints of genuine slice-of-life going on with regards to their college careers and home lives. I enjoyed every bit of this, and I hope to get the next couple of volumes soon!

DNF'd at 38%. Sad to say I've lost interest in this. The premise was fascinating, but the pacing really turned me off. The characters were appealing to me for sure, but the plot felt very slow to start, and once it really got anywhere, it was too late for me. I plan on giving this away to a friend, who will hopefully enjoy it more than I did.

It's been a long time since I've read one of Laurie Halse Anderson's books, but her writing still hits like a train. This was a rough, emotional read, and I think it was worth going through at least once. I'm not sure I'll ever re-read it, due to how heavy it is, but it's very unapologetic and raw and real with the topic it tackles.

This is such a fun, fluffy little ride so far, and I'm glad I picked it up on a whim! It has similar enough vibes to MXTX's Scum Villain series to appeal to fans of it, while still managing to very much be its own thing! I can't wait to get to the next book!

Another book sent to me by a friend to try out, that I otherwise don't think I would have heard of.

I found the premise of this fascinating. The plot was something I predicted pretty quickly (though I was pleasantly surprised by the twist at the end, and honestly? Good for Henrietta,) but that wasn't a bad thing. And the book was compulsively very readable. Iain Reid has a very fast-paced and interesting writing style.

That said, I liked none of the characters, and at times the pacing felt slower than it needed to be. I've seen others say this felt like having to wait for the characters to catch up with where they'd predicted the plot was going, and honestly, I do understand that feeling. I think what helped balance that out was that the setting felt very isolated to the point of being claustrophobic and suffocating, so that helped with it feeling like a horror.

This wasn't a bad read! It was given to me by a friend, and one of the blurbs on the back of the book mentions it is a good read for a winter night, so I have done my best to read it fast during these cold evenings.

As far as gothic horror goes, this delivers the slow build of increasing dread and horrific events. Things start dreary and only go from bad to worse. It's told in three separate time-frames that alternate, most of the story being told from the main character's "present" recollection as she tries to document the events that happened to her before, and another perspective from the entries in an old diary she finds. These are alternating in a way that I find really allows the reader to start to draw the lines of connection on their own, as crucial details from the diary entries foreshadow what happens in the upcoming chapters.

I think where this book falls short however, is that it's one of those where knowing the ending robs the story of its power on a re-read. Once you know everything that unfolds, I don't believe it will enhance the reading experience on a second go-through. There is also period-accurate bigotry and racism, which has me having a sigh; I'm not going to condemn the book on that point, but it got tiresome quickly when held in tandem with the fact Elsie is a very unlikeable and miserable main character. Additionally, there is a lot of brutal child harm/death, and animal death as well, and I think that would also put me off a re-read.

There is also, if I'm not mistaken, a plot point that's spelled out but not said outright that

the character of Jolyon is probably Elsie's son as well as her brother. The text implies, when speaking of the abuse she suffered as a child, that her father may have raped her and her mother let it happen. Certainly there's a line talking about her father's pinching, wandering hands around the girls who worked in his match factory, and there's multiple instances of Elsie remarking her mother never did a thing to stop the abuse she went through, and in fact blamed her for it, among other things. There are additional moments in the book between her and Jolyon hinting to him having been her son she bore at 12 years old, where she indulges him, refuses to leave him alone to deal with other businessmen, and is repeatedly fretting over his thoughts of her. She also remarks once that he "doesn't even know who she is," and is frantic when he dies, moreso than she was shown this entire time to be over her late husband, calling Jolyon her boy numerous times and insisting she must be there when he is buried, as she was when he was born.

This book certainly took its twists and turns, but that one I saw coming. The hints were there throughout.

Still, it was worth reading at least once, and I'm glad I gave it a chance!

I wish I had more positive things to say about this book. The first time I recall seeing it was some time ago, probably in 2017, and it was already out of print by that point. I'd held out hope for a while that I would be able to find a secondhand copy eventually for a decent price somewhere, and just added it to some wishlists to see if it ever got a hit. It did recently, and I bought this copy from Thriftbooks with a lot of hope and excitement.

And on the point of nostalgia and reminding me of many things from my childhood in the 90s, this is great! It's a short but informative little book that touches on things from the 90s that presses the nostalgia button without overstaying the welcome on any one topic.

However, I am not a fan of the way this was written. It feels incredibly mean-spirited in the way it often talks about aspects of the topics it touches on, including a lot of ableism and body-shaming, and a degree of misogynistic lean in how a lot of women are spoken of. It barely scoots by without being racist on top of that, and even then I'm arching a brow. I'm sure someone's going to say I'm being too sensitive or PC or something to that effect, but the truth is you could make a book like this without being mean-spirited and exclusionary in the way you choose to talk about your topics. You can talk about the decade with full authenticity without being mean-spirited and exclusionary, and yet that wasn't done here. 

Safe to say I'm disappointed. I didn't get enough value out of this book to counterbalance the way it was written and how that left a bad taste in my mouth. I intend to either sell or give away this copy to someone who I feel might appreciate it more than me.

DNF'd at 53%. I read this once back when the book came out quite some time ago, and I recall having mixed feelings on it back then. The film "Brigadoon" was one I loved as a kid, and I will state right now that I think you need to be familiar with the film in order to appreciate this book as a concept. I have seen a lot of reviews complaining that a lot of the lore and events don't make sense, and I think that you need to at least have seen the film in order to fill in some of those gaps.

That being said, I think this book does have some shortcomings in the way it chooses to handle itself. I don't think any of that has to do with the attempts at making the lore function however. As far as memory serves, I originally picked up my copy of this book in a Christian bookstore I was dragged to, and the book does seem to have Christian theology tied to the land of Doon itself and impacting the lore. The way this is utilitized in the story feels more separate from a lot of Christian ideology at times though, which is not something I'm used to in a lot of Christian fiction, especially the fiction aimed at a YA audience. This book spends a lot of time referencing secular behavior as well, and secular media. Veronica is often characterized by and shown as having a focus on the various books she reads, referencing a great number of pop culture series. Similarly, Mackenna constantly makes theater references in her chapters. There is also no shying away from a lot of teen girl behavior that would normally characterize Christian YA fiction. Veronica and Mackenna often engage in discussion about their bodies very casually ("I'd give my left butt cheek for your knockers" kinda thing) and reference previous relationships and the way that ties into exploring their sexuality. These sorts of subjects are often treated as taboo in a lot of YA Christian fiction, usually with the POV characters treating said subjects as inappropriate and shocking with some low-key demonization of other characters who engage in typical teenage behavior and development and popular interests. I recalled that even the first time I read this and didn't see the narrative treating these things as horrible and something to be avoided and shunned, it was refreshing. For that I give it props at trying to be different.

But, reading it now, it is very clear that it also tries to follow a lot of standard YA tropes and popular concepts from its time (2013 to even now) while balancing that with the Christian theology (and less obviously, points of ideology as well.) And as a result, it often feels confused on what it wants to really be, as a book. The concept of "the Calling" and the way this impacts Veronica and her will-they-won't-they dynamic with Jamie feels like an attempt to marry the Fated Romance trope with an idea in Christian social spheres that you have a perfect romance waiting for you that will have been put in your path by the Christian god because it's the person you need to be with in order to be happy and be a better Christian. And while I only made it slightly around halfway in this re-read before deciding to DNF, I do feel like "the Calling" will tumble into Christian ideologies of what a marriage should look like with its very rigid gender roles and associated expectations. Frankly, I'm not sure I'm interested in seeing that unfold; Veronica and Mackenna are pretty fun characters that are written decently, and a lot of the rigid gender roles in Christian romantic relationships often are antiquated and mired in misogyny, removing a lot of agency from the woman in the relationship as she assumes her expected role. Are Vee and Kenna the best written characters ever? No, but at least they have agency, and if my suspicions of this series were to turn out to be accurate, I think seeing their agency as individuals dwindle and become reduced to "What a Good Christian Woman Should Be" would honestly ruin the series for me.

I'm disappointed to be setting this down and calling a DNF. I'd even bought secondhand copies of the next two books and had eventually wanted to get the final one, but it's been so long since I did that, and going through this now after a lot of life changes (and the accompanying perspective changes) I don't have a desire to continue. I wanted to give this a second chance, I really did, but I have no desire to be let down by a YA series reimagining of the world of "Brigadoon". That would break my heart, so I have to leave it here.  So no, I don't think this book is great, but not for a lot of the same reasons I feel like I see other reviews criticizing it. 

I wasn't wholly sure what to expect, going into this. I wasn't anticipating reading the entire thing in a single day, despite knowing how fast I read through things written in verse. This was engrossing, raw and emotional, and it has the sort of unrelenting, unflinching teeth I appreciate from books that came out when I was a teenager. The one thing I will say people should be aware of when going into this is that a rape occurs in the story; just be careful and take care of yourselves. I knew this was a book about meth addiction, and was prepared for that, but the rape did catch me somewhat off-guard.

I'm really not sure what I feel about this story on the whole. The writing isn't bad, the translation is great, and some of the intrigue in the plot is very solid, with a lot of tangled, interconnected webs that make things very messy. But I don't care about the Main Character or the Male Lead Love Interest. I recognize they're both horrible people and they start off with a very toxic relationship, and neither of those things put me off of giving this a shot. But I just don't care about either of them as individuals, and the miscommunication trope that defines their entire relationship at this point and perpetuates the toxicity felt stale a third of the way through, and I just don't care about the relationship. I just don't, and I don't believe in it. Taking a glance at other reviews for this series on StoryGraph, it seems like they DO eventually get better but I'll be honest, I genuinely just don't have time or patience for that. I don't wanna keep slogging through this, and I highly doubt I'll continue with books 2 and 3.