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warriorbarrd

warriorbarrd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 9 months ago

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reviewed The Gilded Ones #2 by Namina Forna

Namina Forna: The Gilded Ones #2 (Hardcover, 2022, Delacorte Press) 3 stars

It's been six months since Deka freed the goddesses in the ancient kingdom of Otera …

Review of 'The Gilded Ones #2' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

The men were right I guess?

Considering how much I LOVED the Gilded Ones, I’m in shock. The themes of the first book are gone. The powerful female narrative was destroyed. The retcon of characters to make them trans/non-binary was shoehorned in, the relationships between the characters all felt contrived and rushed, and worst of all - the abusive, insane men of the first book were “right.” The goddesses are evil after all. They do actually eat children and apparently them thinking lowly of men makes them evil - despite what the men in Otega did to women for centuries, we’re supposed to be like “oh poor baby boys :( ignored :(“

I’m honestly destroyed. The Gilded Ones was IT for me. The Merciless One was a pathetic, tone deaf mess, the opposite of what the central themes were in the first one and putting yet more misogyny apology into …

reviewed Playground by Aron Beauregard

Aron Beauregard: Playground (2022, independently published) 2 stars

ONCE IN A LIFETIME Three low-income families have been given a handsome retainer to join …

Review of 'Playground' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Mmmmm not sure how I feel about this one. Interesting concept, the gore descriptions were on point BUT the author revelled in misogyny too much for me to truly enjoy most of it. It felt a lot like “I hate women and I’m going to say everything I’ve ever wanted to but it’s okay because she’s evil.”

I couldn’t connect emotionally with any of the characters, the ones given all the “screen time” sucked. I’m a cryer and if you can’t make me cry at a 7yo clutching her 9yo sister’s dismembered arm after seeing her die horribly then idk how to help you. (I know that’s not the point of horror but if you don’t care about the characters then why would you feel any sense of horror?)

reviewed Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

No cover

Jonathan Aycliffe: Naomi's Room (1992, Harpercollins (Mm))

 3 stars

Review of "Naomi's Room" on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Some of the prose at the beginning was beautiful, but honestly it became grating by halfway and then lost all its power by the last quarter.

The suspense and atmosphere had no payoff for me; it felt like there was such a big disconnect between the fear he talked about and what was actually happening. I understand what it was doing, I just don’t think it worked and I didn’t care about the protagonist at all. It ended up a boring, violently misogynistic mess and was such a disappointment.

reviewed A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay: A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) 4 stars

"The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when …

Review of 'A Head Full of Ghosts' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Eh. Not worth the hype. I put this down to go to bed right before the exorcism began, so you can imagine how riveting and tense I found this book. I love unreliable narrators and switching POVs and ambiguity … normally. One or two at a time. But I felt like this book never gave me a proper payoff to anything; it faded to black so often that the tension couldn’t be maintained. Just. Eh.

reviewed TheCheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Kara Thomas: TheCheerleaders (Paperback) 3 stars

Review of 'TheCheerleaders' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

There’s so much going on in this book. The pacing felt strange, with almost too many red herrings to keep the story running smoothly. After every non-lead I’d find myself frustrated and shutting the book for a while. It felt like a lot of it was unnecessary and took away from the true horrors of the situation.

Written in a weird format, the POV would jump from first-person present tense, to third person past tense, but not evenly so it felt disjointed rather than truly compelling.

I did enjoy it enough to finish it though, which is good sign.

Frankly, Ginny is a badass and I would read anything with her as the protagonist because she was much more interesting than the actual protag (sorry).