The Night of Baba Yaga is a book highlighting sexism and female rage in the Japanese underground. Yoriko Shindo is kidnapped by the yakuza and forced The Night of Baba Yaga is a book highlighting sexism and female rage in the Japanese underground. Yoriko Shindo is kidnapped by the yakuza and forced to become the bodyguard of the leader’s spoiled daughter. (This happens to me every Tuesday so it’s so very realistic ...more
(Quick edit: Have you ever read a book with a pop-y soundtrack? This book is getting one! I felt a bit bad about the low rating but it all just scream(Quick edit: Have you ever read a book with a pop-y soundtrack? This book is getting one! I felt a bit bad about the low rating but it all just screams 'vanity project' to me now, so I don't feel as bad. The (first?/only?) song's catchy though and it connects to the whole element-energy-thingamajig in the book.)
I don’t want to be mean here, but Julianne Hough got herself a ghostwriter* for a weird mashup between a Hallmark movie and Ghost Whisperer featuring heavy topics (CT: miscarriage) - one that shouldn’t be published as a book, but a Wattpad story. I found the story just very messy and the writing was just very… light? It tried to be good, smart, and visual, but it just kinda felt like a very cheap Wattpad story. Also, note that the Ghost Whisperer aspect is more of a spiritual energy-healing situation type of deal.
I hate that I’m giving it such a low rating because I started this with low expectations already. I love Julianne Hough for one reason and one reason only: KINRGY. And when I saw she had a book coming up I got sort of excited, even though this is not the type of book I usually read. I like getting out of my comfort zone and I usually give higher ratings when I start off with low expectations. Not this time.
The story follows Lexi. She’s pretty, she’s talented, she’s successful, her partner Shane is a firefighter who also volunteers (or maybe a dude that volunteers as a firefighter, tomato tomato)… You Google ‘power couple,’ and you get them both. But behind the curtains, they’re struggling. They’ve had a miscarriage. And to make things worse, now Lex is having some sort of paranormal hallucination thing. And eventually, there is a witch too? ...more
Alright, *sigh*, I finished this last week and said I'd write a review. I wasn't feeling like it, this book was honestly a slog. You often hear books Alright, *sigh*, I finished this last week and said I'd write a review. I wasn't feeling like it, this book was honestly a slog. You often hear books 2 in trilogies are cursed and are usually not as good as the first and final books, so I'm hoping it's just that.
Axiom's End, book 1 of the Noumena series, was a first contact novel in which aliens showed up on Earth. Our main character Cora happened to meet one of them and they became connected (speaking simply). It's all a mess - Ampersand (the alien) is running away from bad aliens and she's dealing with her messy life (+ daddy issues) and now the FBI.
Truth of the Divine continues around where we left off as Cora becomes the official interpreter for Ampersand, since he refuses to talk to anyone else. Cora and Ampersand are dealing with their own PTSD and blablabla. And I'm not trying to poke fun at the heavy focus on mental health in this book. I love books that feature mental health and different struggles, but this was absolutely anticlimactic coming from book 2.
I was just so confused: this is a sci-fi book. Aliens are coming to Earth. Governments across the Globe are challenged by the question of what it means to have human rights and protection now that they have a group of refugee aliens. And what do we get? Cora befriends a regular human (who also has a connection with an alien), and the book is just: Cora's mental health and her relationship with Kaveh. Like. I'm sorry? What just happened?
And Kaveh's bit of the story was interesting but... it was just the same thing we had with Cora and Ampersand in book 1. I didn't need this again.
Where's the politics? Where are the aliens? What is going on?
If this book was 300 pages long instead of 550+ my review would be slightly different. I understand the relevance Cora's mental health has in how the story may develop. And, let's face it, she's gone through a lot. But this book was just too long. It just went on and on about the same stuff.
So, intrinsically, while I do like books about mental health and character healing, this isn't what I want when I pick up the sequel to a book about intergalactic conflict. Maybe 200 pages of it would have been enough and then 360 pages could have been about something else? I'm not sure. It just felt like a very big change that I wasn't expecting at all, and I tried liking it but I couldn't.
I'm probably not going to finish the series. I love the covers of these books, but I can just tell I'm going to DNF or skim around the next one. I was just very disappointed, and I was already coming from giving Axiom's End 3 stars so I was seeking for the conflict and pacing to pick up rather than just completely and entirely halt the way it did....more
This is one of the books I speed-read just to get over with. First 40% is dreadful. Awful. Boring. I suggest skipping it all together. I didn't care aThis is one of the books I speed-read just to get over with. First 40% is dreadful. Awful. Boring. I suggest skipping it all together. I didn't care about the rest of the book but it was easy to read, but what an awful first chunk.
I do have to admit one thing, I picked this up because of the cover and that’s the sole reason. I have read Leigh Bardugo enough *sigh* to know I don’t enjoy her that much, but I am optimistic. She’s an established author, so she should have improved since Shadow & Bone, right? She must have listened to the criticism she’s got and improved her writing and blablabla. And I guess her writing is sort of better, but her characters have taken a hit for the worse (and let’s be honest here, we read her because of her characters).
Anyways, please don’t come at me for it, but I don’t think Leigh Bardugo is a great writer. She writes compelling stories, angsty romances, and she’s usually really good with characters (NOT in this book), but her writing skills are just OK and her research skills are laughable. We all know about how she disregarded Russian culture and language in Shadow & Bone, which is fantasy, and now she decided to take on… historical fiction. *sigh* Well, so I always shrugged about the Russian stuff because, I don’t know, it’s in a fantasy setting, so she has more room to wiggle. But, Leigh, Spain isn’t a fantasy (sadly, *cries in Catalan*) so maybe checking Wikipedia a few times wasn’t good enough. I just don’t know. It was a perplexing read. Did I expect better? Not really. Though I do have to say she kept it all so general it’s not necessarily that bad, but it’s the type of book you shouldn’t use the brain cell when reading.
Now, my main issues with the book, and I’m doing bullet points because who cares: - THE PACING. Holy god. This was dreadful to read. Up until the 40% mark NOTHING HAD HAPPENED. You could burn a diaper and it’d smell better than whatever crap was that. Then the book starts and it’s up to you if you care (I didn’t). - The Darkling. I think in every review I have about the Shadow&Bone series (and the Nikolai series) I have said the same thing: Leigh relies on the Darkling to get the book going. And I know this isn’t Shadow&Bone, but the main love interest is sort of the Darkling all over again: dark and brooding? ✅ Sort of magical? ✅ Works for a king?✅ Is trying to trick a king? ✅ Can we move on from this dude? I rather have some sort of Nikolai doppelganger. - This read like a YA book to me. - Deus ex machina endings are just disappointing to me, especially with chunky books. - The poor worldbuilding. This is linked to little research on the topic, but the magical bits were so poorly incorporated into the story. It was just very lazy?
Also, for the Spanish-speaking peeps wondering why the MC’s name is Luzia and not Lucía. It’s Portuguese. There is an explanation about it in the book, so we can all collectively forget about it. Okay, it's also not Portuguese. Leigh, maybe write about the US and stop messing up names/last names from other cultures?...more
Thirst is a book I picked up because I happened to fall in love with the cover. I skimmed through it before reading it and I was slightly intimidated Thirst is a book I picked up because I happened to fall in love with the cover. I skimmed through it before reading it and I was slightly intimidated - there is very little dialogue in it, but something called me and I decided to go for it. What I found was one of the most stunning prose I’ve ever read and a fantastic book.
This book has two interconnected plot lines that are told in two parts. The first part is a quintessential gothic vampire novel set in early Europe and then Argentina. We follow a young woman who becomes a vampire in a world that lets her act like a wild beast, but then, as Europe modernizes and the world changes, she is forced to become a seductress to feed. This part is the absolute highlight of this book. It’s got all the quiet, sexy, gothic, and scary bits that we love from Dracula and Carmilla, but told from a very honest female vampire perspective (and it’s LGBTQIA+ so you won’t need to deal with any homophobic/misogynistic!). I cannot put into words how beautiful, haunting, and brutal this part was.
Part 2 is set in post-COVID Argentina as a woman copes with the degenerative disease of her mother. Her mother, unable to speak or write, communicates to her two things ‘key’ and ‘no.’ She tells her to not open something with the key and then this woman finds the key. The change to part 2 is very anticlimactic and just beautiful and brutal in a very different way. Whereas Part 1 starts wild and finishes claustrophobic, Part 2 is about grief and then liberation. I did enjoy it slightly less than Part 1, but I think it’s just because Yuszczuk started very strong.
I thought it funny that the structure of this book (part 1 - horror historical fiction and part 2 - contemporary generalish fiction) reminded me of Comemadre by Roque Larraquy, because then I noticed it had the same translator, Heather Cleary. I’m surely going to look up her translations because both books have been quirky, horrific, and just really cool. (Now, don’t ask me why I didn’t read the original in Spanish, I just didn’t notice it was translated into English until it was too late lol).
Just some random bits I highlighted:
“Nothing I do makes sense,” I explained, and for the first time I understood that it was true. “I was dragged into this story; my only freedom is to create.” “To create? By destroying?”
—
“I never thought, in the delirious haze into which I sank,” he said, collapsing onto the sofa, “that when I looked at you, attraction would so eclipse disgust.”
—
I had conquered death, but never my thirst....more
This is a wacky one. Folkvi is a shaman in a Viking village and she’s very, very, very close with her brother Áslakr. Yes, I mean intimately close. ÁsThis is a wacky one. Folkvi is a shaman in a Viking village and she’s very, very, very close with her brother Áslakr. Yes, I mean intimately close. Áslakr leaves for his first expedition and comes back a man… and with news she wished she never heard.
The writing is very lyrical and it somehow created a very eerie atmosphere. This was, in a way, very evocative and the type of book you pick up for the atmosphere and the writing and not for the story (like Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm or Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh). But this one actually had a plot that had me hooked. Folkvi is a very interesting yet controversial character to root for, but I somehow did. She’s infatuated with her brother, sure, but she’s also the new shaman and she’s trying to claim her new role in a village and as a woman. Áslakr was also such a cool character to read about. What won here is just how… wacky and eerie it all is, because as the reader you’re caught in this weird infatuation and troubles while preparing for winter (or Ragnarok if that comes first).
Really cool book. This is my not-so-great review but I can’t explain much without spoiling and the story in itself doesn’t have that many great events. The writing though it’s hypnotic, highly recommend. ...more
Rosie is waiting for Ted. Rosie has spent £250,000 on furniture and she now is a true Instagram influencer. Rosie is a #superwife. Rosie, Ted is not comiRosie is waiting for Ted. Rosie has spent £250,000 on furniture and she now is a true Instagram influencer. Rosie is a #superwife. Rosie, Ted is not coming anytime soon.
This was a very cool, confusing read. The chapters have the same structure: ‘Rosie is waiting for Ted’ and then flashbacks of their relationship and Rosie’s relationship with others. I think it would fit into the weird (horror?) lit genre and it’s a feminist, satirical take on relationships, Instagram, and yogi gurus. A bit of a cautionary tale of what happens when a woman becomes obsessed with household design and #traditionalfemininity social media.
This being said, it is a confusing read. Rosie is all over the place. The characters are all deranged, eccentric, and just plain unlikable. I’m not sure how I feel about the ending either, I was trying to guess what would happen in the end and it certainly surprised me, but I’m not sure I liked it.
"I am tall. I am magnificent; a voluptuous centrepiece amidst the dazzle of scintillating dust lifting me to the heavens. I am housewife. My pink, frilly apron bounces with fertility, its tie accentuating my waist, reminding you that these curves could bear your children. My hair is thick, locks cascading down my shoulders like a fountain of youth, framing a wide-eyed face that is at your service. I am superwife....more
“I’m not dreaming. I listen intently to the sounds of the shelling, and the heaviness of the sound translates my distance from the place being bombed.“I’m not dreaming. I listen intently to the sounds of the shelling, and the heaviness of the sound translates my distance from the place being bombed. It’s far, past the Wall. In Gaza, or maybe Rafah. Bombing sounds very different depending on how close one is to the place being bombed, or how far. The rumblings from this shelling aren’t strong at all, and the noise isn’t unsettling; rather, it’s a deep, heavy sound, like a languorous pounding on a massive drum. [...] I keep listening, my ears trained to the sound of repeated bombings, and I feel a strange closeness with Gaza.”
I (buddy) read Minor Detail by Adania Shibli with the Shine & Shadow peeps here.
Minor Detail is divided in two parts. Part 1 follows the harrowing event that follows after a Palestinian girl is captured by Israeli soldiers. This is not a spoiler since it’s the synopsis of the book, but this girl is gang raped and then murdered. Part 2 is about a Palestinian woman from Area A who was born the day the Palestinian girl was murdered. She wants to research what has happened and decides to go all the way to Area C with someone else’s identity card and a car rented by a friend to investigate this minor detail - this girl who died when she was born.
The writing in the first part is really interesting. It follows a man and his patterns: an injury, how he watches his soldiers, his interactions with a dog, and the girl. The writing is detached and cold, almost as if he is watching his own life and actions from the outside. We don’t get to see what’s inside of his head, and I think it’s for the better. What happens in this first part is awful and harrowing, certainly haunting.
The world is an ugly place right now and I think Part 2 was the most interesting to me. You read about Palestine and how “it works,” but reading about the character struggling with borders, military controls, permits to go from one place to the other, poverty, etc. It hits differently. It was very easy to empathize with her and her struggles. It was also interesting to follow along with her (she mentions landmarks or specific pictures or drawings that are in certain places, and you can easily find them online). The ending took me by surprise.
In short, these are two stories that have division and perhaps hate at its core. I found the writing beautiful. Part 1 is detached, distant, it lacks character, and the coldness of it all makes the events haunting. Part 2 is rambly, like a woman who is stepping over lines for the first time thinking she’s being silly for being scared.
Favorite bits: - “The borders imposed between things here are many. One must pay attention to them, and navigate them, which ultimately protects everyone from perilous consequences. This grants a person a sense of serenity, despite everything else. There are some people who navigate borders masterfully, who never trespass, but these people are few and I’m not one of them. As soon as I see a border, I either race toward it and leap over, or cross it stealthily, with a step. Neither of these two behaviors is conscious, or rooted in a premeditated desire to resist borders; it’s more like sheer stupidity.”
- “... suddenly fear descends on me. Or maybe it’s been inside me this entire time and simply strikes whenever it wants.”...more
I hate to say this, but I’ve already read this book.
The Deep Space is Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh but better. Both books have a flashback aI hate to say this, but I’ve already read this book.
The Deep Space is Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh but better. Both books have a flashback aspect with the main character dealing with family and then in a competitive school where, if she performs well, she will be one of the selected peeps sent to a new system. There’s also a diverse set of characters (multicultural, gender, and sexual orientation-wise) and issues with the ship that threaten their mission.
I thought Kitasei did a much better job than Oh did with her story. The writing was really good, some of the things she added (augmented reality in their implants, for example) as really cool. Character development, the whodunit bit, the action - it was a pleasure to read. I was a bit scared about the ending because it seemed it would be the same as in Oh’s, but in the last 8 pages, she went a different direction, which was great because I didn’t like how that one ended. But, yeah, it felt like that book, just rewritten. Even the geopolitical issues going on were very similar.
I think I’d give it 4 stars if it hadn’t felt like a neverending déjà vu....more
To be perfectly honest, I just read this because I’ve been obsessed with the cover (and the title) of this collection of short stories since the momenTo be perfectly honest, I just read this because I’ve been obsessed with the cover (and the title) of this collection of short stories since the moment it popped up on my Goodreads’ Home page. I purchased the book and I kept putting it off - I don’t like short stories AND stories about talking animals? Really not my thing.
And, welp, I loved this. A few stories were just in the ‘okay’ range, but I fell in love with some: The Good Donkey, What We Fed to the Manticore, and The Dog Star is the Brightest Star in the Sky. As utterly gorgeous as they were, to a degree, harrowing/heartbreaking.
All the stories are quite different but some of the themes are hopes for the future, the interconnectedness of beings, concerns about how the world has become a ‘dog eats dog’ world with war and just stepping over one another, and climate change. So, all in all, it’s a wide range of topics, they are all cautionary tales to a degree and beautifully written.
So that’s that. I’ll just close off with some of my favorite quotes:
Let me tell you a thing about tragedy. At first, every one of the missiles is shocking. You don’t know if you will survive. If you can lose anyone else without losing yourself. And then it becomes ordinary. The sound is muffled. The news of the dead comes to you as if from a great distance and hovers around you like a swarm of flies.
Until, of course, it comes for you. And then everything changes. Everything changes. Everything, everything changes.
------------------------
“You will live alone,” said their mother. “But why?” asked the white bear, then just a cub. “Because there isn’t enough anymore,” she said. “Of what?” “Of anything. There isn’t enough ice. There isn’t enough food. There aren’t enough bears.” ...more
This is not a bad book, but We Had to Remove This Post is a victim of bad marketing. Someone decided this was a horror book and made it sound sor2.5*
This is not a bad book, but We Had to Remove This Post is a victim of bad marketing. Someone decided this was a horror book and made it sound sort of creepy in the synopsis (“...the content monitors convince themselves they’re in control ... until the violence strikes closer to home"). Well, I have news, this is contemporary fiction.
The story follows Kayleigh, a woman who needs money and finds a job as a content moderator for social media platforms. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend their days solving ‘tickets,’ aka: posts that have been reported due to having violence, dead bodies, or nudity. Understandably, this f*cks everyone’s minds after a while and the book follows that as well as Kayleigh’s relationship with Sigrid.
That’s it. Sure, content moderation can be bleak, but it’s not horror. It’s just Facebook. I think, because of the tags and the synopsis, I kept waiting for something to happen. I waited and waited. And then the book ended and I was still waiting.
So that’s it. If you want to read about an awful job and a queer relationship, go for this. It has good commentary about mental health and social media. But if you saw this was horror and you were looking for a horror book, just walk the other way,...more
The Pharmacist follows Wolfe, one of the pharmacists in a bunker as her dull life administering meds for her fel(2.5* rounded up because of the cover)
The Pharmacist follows Wolfe, one of the pharmacists in a bunker as her dull life administering meds for her fellow residents is disrupted by a request from their mysterious Leader.
The premise sounds very cool and Atalla manages to create a claustrophobic ambiance that you can only dread. A war has broken out and a selected group of lucky individuals are sent to this bunker (or fallout shelter?). Their survival comes at the expense of their privacy, their first names, and just the abundance they enjoyed outside. Instead, they all share bunk beds, call each other by their last names, and get rations of food pouches (smoothies and baby food).
I had a few issues with the book. I feel I started reading it with the wrong expectations as it is marked as a dystopian thriller, but it really is a character study. The other characters (not Wolfe) are interesting but we don’t get to see enough for me to actually like them or understand what they do and, because Wolfe narrates it passively and doesn’t really dwell on her emotions, I just struggled to understand her relationships.
The real problems I had with this were 1) the writing. It’s problematic and maybe a deal-breaker for some (maybe for me too) as there is no punctuation differentiating dialogue from the narration. It got confusing at times and I can’t really tell why this was the author’s choice. And 2) just what is going on? Why are they in a bunker? Why is everyone paranoid? What do other people do? Where do they get the electricity from? Would building was very lacking and I couldn’t get into the story fully because of it.
I don’t think this is a bad book, I just think I had many questions and the wrong expectations....more
This All Come Back Now is a short story collection by indigenous Australian authors. The stories were all very different yet they had the common elemeThis All Come Back Now is a short story collection by indigenous Australian authors. The stories were all very different yet they had the common element of talking about home and identity. This was a bit of a mixed bag for me - some I despised and some I really loved, but it was a very cool read nonetheless (and the cover is so gorgeous!) (yes, this is me again reading books because of their covers, I need help).
My favorite stories were the more sci-fi leaning ones (mostly dystopia): Your Own Aborigine by Adam Thompson in which the Australian government enacts a new bill and aborigines only get welfare if they are sponsored by someone. This is the kind of story you could discuss for hours, I wish this had ten more pages or was a novella.
Nimeybirra by Laniyuk which has someone writing letters from our future in which indigenous people all around the world are taking their land back, it was a very good analysis of how indigenous communities have gone through so much and wether getting their land back would be enough. It includes a very raw, introspective talk about the need for retribution and how, in a way, it’s not what’s right.
In His Father’s Footsteps by Kalem Murray and Myth This! by Lisa Fuller were kinda cool, but they were very similar so I don’t think it was right to put them one after the other. Both stories are about indigenous parents in the woods with their kids and respecting what lives/resides there, and the consequences of not doing it.
Some of the stories that are objectively good but I didn’t love are Five Minutes by John Morrissey which starts with a cool concept but it tried to be many things. It’s about a man thinking of a story about aliens destroying Australia and letting indigenous people five extra minutes to say goodbye to each other before they are killed, but it’s also about work, social interactions, and family, a weird mix. Water by Ellen Van Neerven is about a new type of human-plants discovered in Australia and a woman of indigenous descent being the Cultural Liaison Officer, it just didn’t do anything for me but I can see people loving it. (I also think it was a take on medical experiments on Australian Aborigines but maybe I’m wrong about that?). And lastly, When From by Merryana Salem which I could tell was good but I HATE time traveling.
As I already said, this was a mixed bag. Some stories I didn’t like because I didn’t particularly like the writing style or structure and some I didn’t quite follow. I have the feeling some stories were part of a bigger thing and they were just ‘cut and paste’ because I felt I lacked vital information or context? (or am I dumb?). Everything ghosty/dystopian-ish I liked the best because those are the genres I enjoy, but if you like these genres and books featuring mobs, violence, time travel (ugh), and scratching at what it means to be human, you’ll like this.
Bits I highlighted: (Your Own Aborigine - Adam Thompson) I’m going to use your money to buy beer and smokes when my royalty cheques run out. We get those monthly, you know, from the mines near our community where they diggin’ up all our country. We can’t go there anymore cos there’s a big fence. You took our land. Reckon it’s fair enough you buy me a beer.
— (Five Minutes - John Morrisey) … people love pointless, aimless stories about trauma, as if trauma had sufficient meaning in itself. I don’t know why – it seems to me there is enough pain in the world, and we can at least invent new kinds of misery to entertain ourselves.
— (Nimeybirra - Laniyuk) I want justice. I want retribution. I want vengeance. I want the ugly. I want the wrong. I want an appeasement only known through reciprocity. I want an eye for an eye. I want death and destruction and burning. My body craves the power to decimate. My heart desperately wants to know the satisfaction of a win. My mind, scrambling to find a way out of this maze of white supremacy and colonialism.
And yet my spirit tells me of something else. ...more
Two best friends go on a trip to Paris and get trapped in a time loop whilst visiting the Louvre at night. Eventually, they become separated a[image]
Two best friends go on a trip to Paris and get trapped in a time loop whilst visiting the Louvre at night. Eventually, they become separated and reminisce about their friendship whilst attempting to survive the apocalypse.
Not for me.
This was such a mess. I think the premise was super interesting and I am in love with the cover, but the story was a letdown. Whilst the whole reminiscing about their friendship and what being friends in your 30s is like was okay, the time loop stuff, the impromptu romance, and just the structure were a disjointed mess. I appreciated the ending, I guess. It didn’t surprise me, but it was okay....more
I'm not quite sure about how to review this own without giving anything away.
If you've ever watched a horror movie from the early 2000s, you have proI'm not quite sure about how to review this own without giving anything away.
If you've ever watched a horror movie from the early 2000s, you have probably watched some about asylums haunted by patients that had been experimented with by mad doctors. Comemadre is comprised of two novellas that are interconnected and, at the core of it, there's a cancer hospital, a very human scientific curiosity to know what is after death, and immoral staff.
I feel this book is better if you approach it without knowing much about it. It's not gory or tries to depict any of the brutality that occurs. Rather, it shows how people convince themselves to do evil stuff out of curiosity or sympathy. I personally enjoy horror books where the real monsters are real people, and this book sort of felt like that at the beginning, but I ended up comprehending why they did this or that, and I was even curious at points.
So yeah, 4 stars. I thought about giving it 5 stars, but the narration confused me at times where I wasn't sure if the narrators were describing what was happening or just merely 'talking to themselves' (I only struggled with this in the first novella, though). Also, I wish we had had some closure or answers to 'some stuff', but I am pretty sure that's intentional and... ugh, I hate that I love it....more
There’s a dude, I already forgot his name so that’s great, and he was about to sign off a project with a big coBlergh. Honestly. I did not enjoy this.
There’s a dude, I already forgot his name so that’s great, and he was about to sign off a project with a big company. But suddenly, the Executive Vice President of that big company, calls the deal off because he doesn’t like said dude. Dude gets drunk and goes to the EVC’s house for reasons unknown, spots a woman getting out, and follows her.
It turns out that the woman, Juri (this is the only name I remember, please applaud), is the EVC’s ex-lover’s daughter and she’s escaping the house. So once the dude and Juri meet, the game begins. They’re playing the kidnapping game to get money out of EVC.
This was not good. Boring. I did like that the dude thought of everything like a game but it got old after maybe three pages. I thought Juri was young (she acts like a 12-year-old) so the sex threw me off and it was only mentioned she was an adult around the 60% mark (and she may not be lol). Otherwise, she is praised a few times as a smart woman because she is able to follow the dude’s explanations and the rest of the time she’s as useful and active as a lamp without a lightbulb. Then there is a big twist that was lowkey expecting and idk, it was whatever.
I also struggled following many things because the dude was being ‘smart’ and kept it all secret, so you’d have to trust the process and then you’d be “ah ok I get it,” but you were 20 pages just wondering what is the point. And there were so many loose ends and things that made no sense.
Zero likeable characters. Nothing really interesting other than coming up with the kidnapping game. Translation was okay but there were a couple bits that felt off. 10/10 cover. I don’t think I like Keigo Higashino....more
It did what it had to do and I appreciate it. It’s one of this books that I can’t rally say if I liked or disliked but - this was not what I expected.It did what it had to do and I appreciate it. It’s one of this books that I can’t rally say if I liked or disliked but - this was not what I expected. It was a very original idea that I’ve only seen in comedy and horror movies yet, this was proper sci-fi. Now, hear me out, some of the scenes reminded me of Twilight. Many scenes had me thinking of Bella and Edward and I am still conflicted. If this peaks your interest, there you go....more
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