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The Four Humors by Mina Seckin
“THE FOUR HUMORS THAT PUMP THROUGH MY BODY DETERMINE my character, temperament, mood. Blood, phlegm, black bile, and choler. The excess or lack of these bodily fluids designates how a person should be.” The Four Humors is a rather milquetoast addition to the young-alienated-women subgenre that has become all the vogue in the last few…
3 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, anxiety, atmospheric, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, break-ups, chronic pain, cold tone, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, DEATH, DEPRESSION, eating disorders, ennui, family, female authors, GRIEF, illness, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, medical, mental health, midlife crisis, Mina Seckin, mumblecore, My reviews, navel gazing, obsession, published in 2021, read in 2022, reading, sardonic humor, self-destructive, SISTERS, slow pacing, strong sense of place, Summer, summer reads, The Four Humors, Turkey, turkish american author -
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined. If you’ve read my review for A Little Life you know how much that novel means to me. Just looking at my hardback copy makes me feel all sorts of intense feelings. So, naturally, my expectations were high for To Paradise. At first, the Cloud Atlas-esque…
1890s, 1990s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, Adult, age gap, alternate history, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, arc, beautiful prose, big books, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, cheating, chronic pain, class, cultural dissonance, DEATH, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dystopia, f/f side, family, fathers & sons, favourite authors, female authors, gay, hawaii, illness, interconnected stories, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, m/m, MARRIAGE, mental health, My reviews, netgalley, pandemic, PRIVILEGE, published in 2022, queer, read in 2021, reading, social issues, SPECULATIVE FICTION, style over character, to paradise -
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
“It never ends, does it? Loving you never ends.” Seven Days in June took me by surprise. The romcom tone of this novel’s first pages belies the serious topics and issues it later delves into. Seven Days in June is the kind of read that has you laughing out loud one moment before pulling at…
2000s, 3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, abuse, addiction, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, arc, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, books about writers, chronic pain, Contemporary, drama, female authors, GRIEF, HUMOR, mental health, mothers & daughters, My reviews, netgalley, NEW YORK, published in 2021, read in 2021, ROMANCE, second-chance romance, self-harming, Seven Days in June, sex, social issues, Summer, summer reads, Tia Williams, trauma, uplifting reads -
Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
“Your Boyfriend Called, He Thinks You’ve Joined a Cult, Please Advise.” Mister Impossible may be Stiefvater’s trickiest novel. I inhaled it in just a day and part of me knows that I need to re-read in order to truly absorb everything that went down. This is the kind of novel that leaves you feeling pretty…
3rd pov, 4 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, adrenaline fuelled reads, ambiguous protagonist, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, BOSTON, brothers, cambridge (us), chronic pain, Contemporary, dreamers, Dreams, f/f side, fairytalesque prose, FANTASY, favourite authors, female authors, friendships, gay, great storytelling, Harvard, heist, lgbtq+, loneliness, m/m, Maggie Stiefvater, MAGIC, Massachusetts, My reviews, PARANORMAL, published in 2021, queer, read in 2021, reading, road trip, Ronan Lynch, self-destructive, series that went downhill, tarots, tdr, the dreamer trilogy, trauma, unreliable narrative, URBAN FANTASY, virginia, YOUNG ADULT -
All’s Well by Mona Awad
“I thought tests led to something. A diagnosis led to a plan, a cure. But tests, I know now, never lead us anywhere. Tests are dark roads with no destinations, just leading to more dark.” All’s Well makes for an entertaining if somewhat flawed romp. The novel is narrated by Miranda, a theatre professor in…
1st pov, 3.25 stars, academia, actors, Adult, ALIENATION, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, canada, canadian author, chronic pain, Contemporary, dark humor, disabilities, female authors, feverish, hallucinations, HORROR, illness, MAGIC, MAGICAL REALISM, mental health, mona awad, My reviews, MYSTERY, netgalley, playful style, published in 2021, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, revenge, shakespeare, she is not feeling good at all, stylised prose, teachers, the female malaise, theatre, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, unreliable narrators, weird, womanhood/femininity -
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
“Fear and hatred, fear and hatred: often, it seemed that those were the only two qualities he possessed. Fear of everyone else; hatred of himself.” A Little Life is a heart-wrenching tour de force. Dark, all-consuming, devastating, moving, stunning, brutal, dazzling, beautiful, disturbing, A Little Life is all of these and so much more. This…
5 STARS, A Little Life, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, abuse, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, actors, Adult, ALIENATION, all of the trigger warnings, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, anxiety, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, beautiful prose, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, child abuse, chronic pain, cliques, Contemporary, dark, DEPRESSION, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), disabilities, distressing reads, female authors, film industry, forgiveness, found family, friendships, gay, graphic content, GRIEF, GUILT, Hanya Yanagihara, identity, Italy, lesbian side characters, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, m/m, male friendships, masculinity, monasteries, morocco, NEW YORK, Pedophelia, psychological, published in 2015, queer, rape, read in 2021, self-harming, sexual assault/abuse/rape, SEXUALITY, suicide, tragedy, trauma, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, violence -
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert — book review
I feel cheated by the cutesy illustration on the cover of Get a Life, Chloe Brown. Having recently finished a romcom novel with a similar cover (If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane) I was under the misguided impression that Talia Hibbert’s book belonged to the same genre. While Get a Life, Chloe Brown…
3 STARS, 3rd pov, Adult, bi side characters, Black & Black heritage authors, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, British author, Chloe Brown, chronic pain, Contemporary, disabilities, england, female authors, Get a Life, Get a Life Chloe Brown, lgbtq+ side, mental health, published in 2019, read in 2020, rom-coms, ROMANCE, sex, Talia Hibbert
luce [is reading] 