Books I've Rated 3.5 / 5
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The Arcane Arts
Finished
I don’t know about this one. It was much hornier than I expected it to be. I don’t read books for “spice,”1 and this one spent far too much time in the middle third on that for my enjoyment; but more than that, the backdrop of this book is the brutal murder of a woman (and another, less-explained murder of three people) and it felt really uncomfortable to me to be focusing so much on sex with that in mind. Beyond that, BDSM bordering on CNC—perhaps especially with that aforementioned backdrop—is also very much not my thing, and that’s before we get to the (explicitly acknowledge) power imbalance. I think the authors did OK with the sticky issues at play there, but it still wasn’t something I enjoyed.
The underlying sans-spice plot was entertaining and it was compellingly written. But man, there was a lot of stuff that made this book tough for me, and I just powered through it to get to the next book on my shelf.
Footnotes
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I don’t read books for “spice” but I try to read “spicy” books occasionally because a) it’s a genre that’s generally written off as “for women” and that’s dumb and misogynist and it’s worth reading things that are not marketed to oneself b) sometimes they have really compelling plots around the “spice.” And I guess c) sometimes the right amount of spice is still entertaining, even if it’s not something I would seek out. I really enjoyed Danielle Jensen’s Saga of the Unfated duology, for example. ↩
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A World Without Princes
Finished
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The Summer I Ate the Rich
Finished
This was disappointing but maybe that’s on me—it simply wasn’t the book I expected it to be. I was about 80% of the way in when I realized it just wasn’t heading where I expected it to, and it was a lot tamer than the title had me thinking it would be. I think there are some really smart ideas in here, but I think maybe it’s just … more aimed at young adults than I realized? The romance subplot seemed to undermine some of the righteous anger that the protagonist carried, and
I’m left feeling like I missed something when it came to the “eat the rich” thing here. The one moment when someone found a tooth seemed to imply there was more to her cooking than she let on, but … did I just miss it? I’m just very confused after it all about what actual “eating the rich” happened. She got a summer internship, snagged a rich boyfriend, and … influenced people with her cooking, I guess, -
Those Beyond the Wall
Finished
I loved the first book. This one didn’t grab me as much; I think the pacing was a bit off and a lot of reveals and flashbacks made some of the twists and turns hard to follow or keep track of what’s happening now, where do we stand, who knows what. Felt more grim than the first book, which still had plenty of grimness to my recollection. And then the final act gave strong Mad Max Fury Road vibes which, to be fair, really only helped my enjoyment because it gave me a strong image in my mind’s eye.
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Love, Mom
Finished
This was such a perplexing read for me: the central idea is really fun for a thriller, but the execution is awful. I had the twist figured out long, long before it came. People use awkwardly sanitized language. So many uses of “freaking,” and her dad, drunk and bitter, says her mom was “shagging” someone else—this book all takes place in the US, in the present day. But this book has murder, SA, drug use, sex (references, not acts), so it’s not like the language is sanitized to make it PG.
The premise is a bit silly as many thrillers are, but the way it unfolds is even more cartoonish. The pacing gets weird, there’s essentially no climax, and then much of the mystery is just resolved in epilogues.
The way the author treats EJ, I was certain he’d turn out to be bad – my theory was that he was the child given up for adoption – but no, it’s just an excessively cheesy love story side plot. And dad going to prison for life? Did I hear that right? Nah. Silly. A fun story, somewhat disorientingly written.
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6:40 to Montreal
Finished
I don’t know. I was very intrigued by the premise of this book, but the execution was underwhelming. Firstly, even with the aid of the fact that it’s winter where I am now, the book didn’t have that kind of cold feel to it, the “we’re trapped inside with the snow piling up outside” feeling. Something about how it was told. And then the resolution of the mystery was … disappointing. I had to go back and read it a few times to see if I’d missed something, but I hadn’t. It’s contrived, kind of out of left field, and with a lot of open questions.
I still don’t get how or why the spider factors into it, and who the guy who died was to our protagonist – nobody? Her husband just killed a stranger to spice up their life? And there’s some implication that things might point at her as the culprit, but why would they? And all of this … with a few months left to live? Your husband murdered a guy so you wouldn’t have an affair before you die? Really? -
Thunderhead
Finished
Adequately entertaining. I don’t tend to red series immediately in sequence but I almost rushed to pick up the next. It’s a bit cartoonish, and I think probably the premise justifies that even if I do think some of the concepts introduced in this series, while fanciful, are fascinating and could probably be explored with a bit more seriousness. I’ll definitely read the next, soon.
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The New Couple in 5B
Finished
This was entertaining enough. The tropes were heavy. The horror-type elements were a bit unexpected, but
didn’t actually amount to much, in retrospect? Are we to understand she’s just got a little of The Gift and it’s not really related? -
The Last One at the Wedding
Finished
This was an interesting kind of thriller but the pacing kind of lost me – it’s kind of over with 20% of the book to go. Sure, not completely, but the writing’s on the wall and there’s really no more tricks up its sleeve.
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The Vacancy in Room 10
Finished
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The House Across the Lake
Finished
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The Escape Room
Finished
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Marble Hall Murders
Finished
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The Element of Fire
Finished
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Middletide
Finished