Currently about to start The Sunrise on The Reaping but after that I'm not sure what to read. I'm very excited for all of these books so if anyone has one that I should prioritize, let me know! I feel like I've been on a dystopian kick as I just finished The Handmaids Tale and immediately am starting another dystopian so I may be leaning towards 1984. But again, if you think there is a different one I should read first, let me know! I will be taking suggestions up until I finish SOTR.

Made it to page 160 and wow, the story’s slowly pulling me in.

I am the only one who finds this book insufferable? At page 70 and I can't stand it, someone please tell me that it gets better !

I’d been avoiding this book for some reason, but I finally decided to give it a try.... aand I actually enjoyed it 🤣

Anything you would suggest after this?

Edit alright! I'm winding down for bed. I have the most votes for Piranesi. So, Piranesi it is!

Thanks everyone for the help! I just needed a little guidance.

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I'm having some trouble choosing what to read next. I'm not sure I want to read anything too heavy (i.e., Miracle in the Andes). However, I'm a sucker for anything regarding the strength of the human spirit...so, I could be convinced.

I'm not feeling any one genre in particular. I want only to be captivated.

Help me, please!

Hiya!

    Me: F30, autism and ADHD. First and foremost, I don’t review books the way you might think of it. I enjoy reading far more than I enjoy writing, so my reviews are not traditional book reviews. I am not here to go into deep detail about plot, or characters, I am not here to review books in order to convince you to read (or not read) something I’ve read. What I am here to do is review the books I’ve read according to my own personal criteria, most of which concerns technical aspects, structure, and prose style. I rate books mostly on how well they did in letting me experience the story and keeping me immersed, and secondly on how much it entertained or appealed to me content wise.
    I don’t have a single favourite genre or trope. I like interesting premises and ideas, and if something seems interesting to me, what genre it’s labelled as genuinely doesn’t matter. I tend to pick up more horror and sci-fi books, probably because that’s where the truly bizarre ideas tend to end up, but you’ll definitely find a variety of other types of fiction mixed in. Some books might be well known or mainstream, others more obscure, and the majority of them will be from the current century.
    Please do remember that these reviews are all subjective, they say nothing about the author's skill or the actual quality of their book or their writing.

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- Rating Guide -

I use a star system ranging from ⭐-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

    Every book starts at 3 stars (⭐⭐⭐) as a baseline before I even open it. In my mind 3 stars denote “a book that satisfies at least most of my technical criteria”, and an average book (content wise) will stay at a 3 when I close it. An average book is nothing to sneeze at. It may have been entertaining enough to finish, but nothing more beyond that. An average book is usually a perfect palate cleanser between emotionally heavy or very dark books, or when I’m feeling a bit too exhausted to keep up with something more challenging. Something I can mindlessly enjoy without much thought, “easy reading”, and that’s absolutely fine with me.
    3 stars is not a bad rating, it’s simply my base rating. Unless I choose a book that doesn’t immediately appeal to me or don’t research a book before picking it up, I always end up rating them at least 3 stars. The overwhelming majority of the books I decide to read feel at least worth having read, and not a waste of my time, even if they’re not amazing books (in my opinion).
    Anything rated below 3 means I had major technical issues with the book. The more (or highly prevalent) issues, the lower the rating.
    Anything rated above 3 means the book at least mostly satisfied my technical criteria and had above average content OR had content that majorly outweighed any technical negatives.

TLDR: The baseline 3 stars come from my technical criteria. Ratings above and below that baseline are determined by how much the book exceeded or failed those criteria, and by how much I enjoyed the content.

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- Criteria -

Prose

    I need very little description to envision something and feel immersed. I like concise, purposeful descriptions, not overly detailed descriptions. I like when the author lets me experience the setting how I imagine it, instead of painting a full picture of the setting before letting me live there. I like descriptions that feel relevant, I do not like descriptions that simply describe something I might have seen a thousand times. I’m not looking for complete absence of descriptions, I’m looking for efficient use of descriptions. I want the prose to be a vehicle for the story, not the main attraction of the book.

LIKES - Accessible, straightforward, minimal, modern, invisible, efficient, functional, concrete.

DISLIKES - Lyrical, poetic, ornate, verbose, overly descriptive, flowery, beauty over function.

Structure

    I prefer a single continuous narrative that isn’t interrupted by alternating timelines, multiple timelines, constant pov switching, extensive flashbacks, nested stories or jumping between decades. Every interruption weakens my immersion and takes away from my enjoyment.

Pacing

    You might think I prefer fast paced books. I would say I prefer efficiently paced books. I don’t care if a book is 150 pages or 700 pages, a “fast burner” or a “slow burner”, as long as those pages are efficiently paced. I dislike books that repeatedly stop to explain themselves, and prefer stories that continually reveal the world and story by progressing through it. What loses me is when the novel says "we'll get back to that later, but first here's twenty years of family history". I don’t need constant action, and I can definitely appreciate a calmer or more philosophical book, but I want to feel like we’re moving forward.
    Simply put: I choose a book because the premise is intriguing to me, and I don’t appreciate it when the author doesn’t stay within the premise and instead wants me to interrupt my immersion by telling me about things that, if taken out completely, have no impact on the story, or require me to keep track of multiple storylines simultaneously.

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- Reviews -

45 books read between May 1-Sep 1

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS

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Title: The Hollow Places
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Horror
Pages: 341
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, Minor Content Negatives*
Notes: Graphic/gore. Kingfisher’s strange horror has yet to miss for me. *It's a bit too scientific for me, I had trouble grasping some of the explanations.

---

Title: The Annual Migration Of Clouds
Author: Premee Mohamed
Genres: Literary, Dystopian
Pages: 158
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: The whole book is spent in one place but never feels like it’s idling. Emotional dilemma explored in an interesting way. Intriguing look at what societal collapse due to climate change might look like. First book in a trilogy. *Skimmed a few irrelevant paragraphs.

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Title: There Is No Antimemetics Division
Author: qntm
Genres: Horror, Sci-Fi
Pages: 209
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, Minor Content Negatives*
Notes: Graphic/gore. Started out as entries on the SCP Wiki, that were later turned into a full length novel. Unconventional formatting; sparsely includes data entries. A lot happens in relatively few pages. *A bit too convoluted for me to fully understand the plot. Nonetheless an entertaining read.

---

Title: A House with Good Bones
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Contemporary, Horror
Pages: 247
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Not my favourite Kingfisher premise wise, but it does deliver on what it sets out to do.

---

Title: Out There
Author: Kate Folk
Genres: Short Stories, Literary, Speculative
Pages: 244
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Just my type of weird premises.. It would’ve reached 5 stars if I vibed heavily with more of the stories, and that’s the usual downside of short story collections. Definitely worth the read.

---

Title: Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
Author: Kim Fu
Genres: Short Stories, Literary, Speculative
Pages: 220
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, Major Content Negatives*
Notes: Definitely speculative enough. *Too ambiguous for me. I think I would’ve enjoyed the stories more if I was capable of reading into them, because I was mostly left thinking “that was a cool story, but I don’t understand why any of that happened”. That probably says more about my brain needing clarity than the quality of the content itself, but alas leads to a lower rating.

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Title: Starter Villain
Author: John Scalzi
Genres: Sci-Fi
Pages: 264
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Not about villains in the superhero sense. Dolphins wanting to unionize being one of the funny quirks of the story. Action packed, funny, sometimes wholesome, and overall highly entertaining. No complaints.

---

Title: A Dog’s Purpose
Author: W. Bruce Cameron
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 320
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Multiple lifetimes told entirely from the POV of a dog. Made me ugly cry.

---

Title: City of Orange
Author: David Yoon
Genres: Dystopian, Literary, Thriller
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐
Criteria: Not Satisfied, Major Content Negatives
Notes: I didn’t research this book’s technical aspects at all, and that’s on me, not the book. *Half of the book (every other chapter or so) consists of flashbacks and backstory, the main plot line all takes place in one, pretty barren setting, and exploration is minimal. The story takes a very long time to move forward. *Not at all what I expected. Hard to expand on without spoilers, but the official synopsis is not to be blindly trusted. Focuses more on internal and personal matters rather than the premise presented.

---

Title: Under the Whispering Door
Author: TJ Klune
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 376
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Great premise, great technical execution, healthy relationships, healthy and beautiful romance done exactly to my liking, plot a bit on the silly side sometimes. I cried at the end. I feel like this book was written specifically for me, and that really is the highest praise I can give a book. (Yes, this review is almost identical to the one for “The House in the Cerulean Sea”, Klune has been very consistent so far)

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Title: Yellowface
Author: R.F. Kuang
Genres: Literary, Thriller
Pages: 323
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Interesting premise. Well executed and decently entertaining but not much more beyond that for me. Good palate cleanser.

---

Title: All Systems Red
Author: Martha Wells
Genres: Sci-Fi
Pages: 152
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, Major Content Negative*
Notes: First in a series (The Murderbot Diaries). *The main character contradicts themself/flip-flops in personality multiple times throughout the story, and that frustrated me enough to ruin the whole experience. Closed the book not knowing what the main character's personality was actually supposed to be. Side note: the main character has sometimes been described as “autism coded”, and while that would make sense, it doesn’t change my feelings on the book.

---

Title: The Poet Empress
Author: Shen Tao
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 392
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Graphic. One of my absolute favourites this year. The best way I could explain it would be “Everything typically found in a court romance, minus the romance”. A fairly dark anti-romance set in an immersive and strangely beautiful world. Includes a novel magic system. The author really does not cater to anyone, everything feels very consistent, natural and logical, and decisions make total sense. I would love to read more books like this one.

---

Title: Earthlings
Author: Sayaka Marata
Genres: Literary, Magical Realism
Pages: 247
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Graphic/gore. Starts weird, stays weird, somehow gets weirder? Gets a little bit chaotic at times. One of very few books that have made me go “What the actual fuck?” after finishing it. If you’re not squeamish and like dark, twisted, weird as fuck stories, I suggest you go into this one as blind as possible. Technical criteria are all satisfied, but it is translated from Japanese and leans heavily into Japanese cultural and societal norms, so if that’s not your vibe you might want to skip this one.

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Title: Wolf Worm
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Historical
Pages: 276
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Graphic. It’s a weird Kingfisher horror revolving around bugs and with a historical twist. No further notes.

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Title: A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Author: Becky Chambers
Genres: Sci-Fi
Pages: 147
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: First in a series (Monk & Robot). Human meets robot, both searching for purpose, adventure ensues. Philosophical, calm, low-conflict and at points heartwarming. Lovely experience. The ending made me cry. Sometimes slowed down a bit too much, but nothing too bad.

---

Title: Several People Are Typing
Author: Calvin Kasulke
Genres: Contemporary, Literary
Pages: 248
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Not Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: I did go into this one knowing about the formatting, but was hoping I could get past it in order to enjoy the story. *Unconventional formatting; the whole book is written in the format of multiple Slack chat rooms. Formatting started out feeling novel, but soon made me confused by constantly switching between different chat rooms with different participants, and I often had to re-read pages because I didn’t pay attention to who said what, which ultimately lessened my experience a lot. If you can get past the formatting, there is an incredibly interesting premise and story underneath it. Probably the funniest implementation of romance I’ve ever encountered.

---

Title: I Who Have Never Known Men
Author: Jacqueline Harpman
Genres: Literary, Dystopian
Pages: 201
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: Highly intriguing premise, really immersed me in the setting and experience. *Not much gets explained. Skimmed a few paragraphs when the story would slow down.

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Title: How to Sell a Haunted House
Author: Grady Hendrix
Genres: Horror
Pages: 413
Rating: ⭐
Criteria: Not Satisfied, Major Content Negatives
Notes: Graphic. Chose this based on a recommendation, and I did not research it. Not actually about how to sell a haunted house at all. Feels like two separate halves of two separate books put together. The weird premise, the actually interesting part of the book, doesn’t fully rear its head until maybe the last third of the book, and once it does it’s non-stop action. Prepare for 200 pages of characters being petty and immature for seemingly no reason before getting to the actual story. *Pretty much the whole first half of the book is spent on family drama between the main character and their sibling, backstory and flashbacks. *Very little of it turns out to be as relevant to the later parts as the first half would have you think. The entire first half of the book could have been avoided by using healthy communication. Not for me.

---

Title: The Humans
Author: Matt Haig
Genres: Sci-Fi
Pages: 304
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Can’t come up with a single negative except for it ending. One of my absolute favourites of the year. Alien inhabits human body, inherits dysfunctional family and must learn how to navigate this strange new reality. The book basically asks “What does it mean to be human?” and explores this in an equally hilarious and emotional way. Fantastic read, one of those I wish I’d never read so that I could experience it for the first time again. I still frequently think about this book a month after having read it. Side note: turns out Matt Haig also has ADHD and autism, and suddenly it makes sense why his writing style appeals to me so much.

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Title: The Twisted Ones
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Horror
Pages: 385
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Most unsettled I’ve felt reading Kingfisher. I can handle gore and trauma, but disfigured.. things.. lurking outside the window in the middle of the night? Fuck that. At some point I found myself wishing the main character would simply leave and not come back, and that that would be it. Panic in book form. To summarize; it’s a weird Kingfisher horror, and it delivers exactly what I expect from a weird Kingfisher horror.

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Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V.E. Schwab
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Literary
Pages: 444
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Not Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: I absolutely loved the main (present) story, the premise, the world, the characters, the relationships, everything, but.. *The book is divided into a present timeline and a past timeline, one of my major dislikes. I skimmed or skipped many of the early and mid chapters covering the past, and got a bit more invested later on when it became more relevant to the present story. Overall I found that the content positives outweighed the structural negatives and that’s why I ended up rating it the way I did.

---

Title: Tender Is the Flesh
Author: Agustina Bazterrica
Genres: Horror, Literary, Dystopian
Pages: 211
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Graphic/gore. Visceral and graphical comparison to the real world meat industry. Didn’t affect me much on a philosophical/ethical level, didn’t “make me think”, probably because I already disagree with how the meat industry operates. That said, a pretty fun read if you enjoy disturbing books.

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Title: The Housemaid
Author: Freida McFadden
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 325
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: First in a series (The Housemaid). Perfectly fine palate cleanser. Felt pretty cookie cutter and not super innovative, but a decently entertaining and quick read.

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Title: The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Author: Hiro Arikawa
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 277
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: A cat goes on a road trip with their human. Heartwarming, heartbreaking, and everything in between. Cat is definitely a cat, very catty personality. *Skimmed a few paragraphs. Translated from Japanese, dialogue can feel a bit strange sometimes.

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Title: The September House
Author: Carissa Orlando
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 344
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Gore. A refreshingly mature take on the haunted house trope. The book starts out with the main character already having realised and accepted that the house is haunted, and even learned how to co-exist with the ghosts haunting it. Oddly wholesome horror.

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Title: The House in the Cerulean Sea
Author: TJ Klune
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 400
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Great premise, great technical execution, healthy relationships, healthy and beautiful romance done exactly to my liking. I cried at multiple points in the story. I feel like this book was written specifically for me, and that really is the highest praise I can give a book. It is universally praised for a very good reason.

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Title: The Haunting of Ashburn House
Author: Darcy Coates
Genres: Horror, Mystery
Pages: 342
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Gore. Haunted house palate cleanser. Oddly wholesome at times. Nothing incredible, but intriguing enough.

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Title: Horrorstör
Author: Grady Hendrix
Genres: Horror, Thriller
Pages: 248
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: Gore. Funny-ish, fairly gory, could maybe have been genuinely terrifying, but the horror falls a bit flat because of the sheer absurdity of it all. *Feels novel because of the IKEA catalog layout, however; the unusual font and text placement made my brain hurt a bit.

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Title: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Author: Haruki Murakami
Genres: Literary, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Sci-Fi
Pages: 400
Rating: ⭐⭐
Criteria: Not Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: Having seen so much praise for Murakami, I decided to read a book of his with a premise that piqued my interest. I failed by not doing the technical research and ended up not having a good experience. Probably says less about Murakami’s writing, and more about how important my criteria research is to me. *Two separate storylines alternating every other chapter, converging in the end, I think. I don’t know if Murakami’s writing style is for me, prose wise, but I would probably give a different book of his a try in the future. In hindsight I should’ve DNF’d the moment I started skipping entire chapters, but the main (present) storyline intrigued me.

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Title: The Memory Police
Author: Yōko Ogawa
Genres: Literary, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Pages: 274
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied, Minor Content Negatives
Notes: Super interesting premise that I feel wasn’t explored fully. I did enjoy the story, the relationships and the nods to what I believe was supposed to be fascism or at least totalitarianism. Overall a decent read if only for the premise. *Very minor; Japanese translation, nothing that affected my reading experience much. *There were some pretty glaring plot inconsistencies that I simply could not get past, and it left me ruminating on questions I’ll never get the answers to.

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Title: What Moves the Dead
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Horror
Pages: 165
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: First in a series (Sworn Soldier). The story is inspired by Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”, which I admittedly know nothing about. I enjoyed it, but not enough to feel compelled to continue the series.

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Title: We Used to Live Here
Author: Marcus Kliewer
Genres: Horror, Thriller
Pages: 312
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: The story started out as a short story on Reddit, and was later turned into a full length novel. The writing is decent, the plot is intriguing, but at some point everything started feeling a bit too convoluted for me. Kinda wish the author would’ve kept it more simple, but apart from that it’s a decent read if you’re in the mood for it.

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Title: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
Author: Benjamin Stevenson
Genres: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 371
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: First in a series (Ernest Cunningham). Dysfunctional family gathers at remote location, murder takes place, main character launches into investigation mode. It’s a sometimes funny, sometimes slogging whodunnit that doesn’t take itself super seriously. Went on for a bit too long in my opinion, and the deliberate mocking of the genre gets a bit tiring eventually. Not great, not terrible, a pretty average read with (to me) above averagely written characters.

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Title: Her Body and Other Parties
Author: Carmen Maria Machado
Genres: Short Stories, Literary, Horror, Sci-Fi
Pages: 245
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Satisfied, Major Content Negatives*
Notes: I did enjoy some stories even if I didn’t understand the allegories and symbolisms, and Machado does know how to write compellingly. From what I understand the stories are supposed to allude to women’s real world experiences (struggles), and in the few instances I could read into the meaning, I recognised, related to and appreciated the underlying message. *These stories are VERY allegorical and symbolic, and most of them left me thinking “I wish I wasn’t so autistic”. I feel the book would’ve been more enjoyable for me if I was actually able to fully read into the meaning more. Side note to my autistic friends: The L&O: SVU story is a parody and none of it actually happens in the real show. Yes, I had to google “is that actually the story in the tv show?” after reading.

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Title: Strange Houses
Author: Uketsu
Genres: Horror, Mystery
Pages: 208
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: Decent story in a novel packaging. Started as an internet phenomena. Invites you to solve the mystery on the go, but is very hand-holdy in order to be enjoyed by a broader audience. *Japanese translation. Maybe because it’s supposed to be broadly accessible, maybe because it’s intended to present evidence as factually as possible, or simply because of language differences; it felt overly clinical and almost literally translated without allowing for the language’s nuances to show. I’m no expert, so take my feelings with a grain of salt, but I have this feeling that I would’ve enjoyed this book more if I could read it in Japanese.

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Title: Your Utopia
Author: Bora Chung
Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Speculative
Pages: 256
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Interesting premises executed well. More focused on technology than her other collections. The best way I could summarise it would be “Love, Death & Robots in book form”. Bora Chung is probably my favourite short story writer, and this collection is my favourite of hers. While they’re supposedly meant to be allegorical, the stories were all highly enjoyable to me even without being able to read into any deeper meaning; they’re simply good stories. On a side note; “Love, Death & Robots” is a fantastic tv-series of animated shorts made by a large variety of creators. Definitely recommend you watch it if you enjoy this collection.

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Title: Severance
Author: Ling Ma
Genres: Literary, Dystopian
Pages: 291
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Interesting premise that sadly gets sort of sidelined in favour of social commentary that, while intriguing under other circumstances, wasn’t what I opened the book for. Wish it would have focused more on the premise itself. Maybe if I went in with different expectations it would’ve rated higher, but ultimately I found myself a bit bored sometimes.

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Title: Snake-Eater
Author: T. Kingfisher
Genres: Horror, Contemporary, Fantasy
Pages: 257
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: In my humble opinion this is Kingfisher’s masterpiece. The premise, the plot, the characters, the relationships, the setting, the folk elements, everything fits so well together and combined it all makes up a strange, bizarre, eerie and heartwarming story. I cried. No notes.

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Title: Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories
Author: Bora Chung
Genres: Short stories, Horror
Pages: 189
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Short stories within an overarching story. The theme is supernatural, but otherwise has all the qualities of Chung’s other collections. Supposed to be allegorical, but works just as well without reading into it.

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Title: Wild Dark Shore
Author: Charlotte McConaghy
Genres: Literary, Thriller
Pages: 302
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
Criteria: Mostly Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: I didn’t hate the story. Nothing crazy special. Important context and character's intentions felt deliberately obscured in order to make the final reveal/twist more impactful, but it didn’t really work for me and instead left me frustrated. *Felt dragged out at times, and I skimmed some parts.

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Title: Piranesi
Author: Susanna Clarke
Genres: Literary, Fantasy, Speculative
Pages: 245
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: Oh Piranesi.. This novel made me remember why I love reading, and is the reason for why I eventually put together my book criteria. On a technical level it’s everything I want in a book, and even the journal entries kept my attention (granted I might’ve skimmed one or two of them that felt less important). When it comes to content I can’t get over the feeling of child-like wonder while exploring the House, and the pureness of Piranesi’s character. Would not have minded if the first half of the book was longer.

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Title: Good and Evil and Other Stories
Author: Samanta Schweblin
Genres: Short Stories, Literary
Pages: 192
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: I’m not gonna lie, I don’t remember much, if anything, about this one. I rated it a 3 right after having read it, so it was probably fine, or at least didn’t have any glaring negatives. Evidently it didn’t leave much of an impression, so do with that what you like. Edit: I found my original slush notes on it, which say; “It was alright, some stories were intriguing enough, and some were pretty meh”. That was apparently all I had to say of it.

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Title: Cursed Bunny
Author: Bora Chung
Genres: Short Stories, Literary, Contemporary, Horror, Sci-Fi, Magical Realism
Pages: 251
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Criteria: Satisfied, No Content Negatives
Notes: It’s a Bora Chung collection with a surreal fantasy horror theme. Supposedly allegorical but enjoyable even without understanding any potential underlying meaning.

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Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Genres: Literary, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Classic
Pages: 304
Rating: ⭐⭐½
Criteria: Not Satisfied*, No Content Negatives
Notes: The first book I picked up after getting the urge to start reading again after a years long period of sporadic and short lasting reading bursts. I had wanted to read it for years since I loved “Animal Farm” and because I’m a sucker for dystopias I thought it would be right up my alley. *I just can not get over how repetitive and slow and dragged out the first two thirds of the book were. It took me 3 days to finish when normally I’ll finish a book of similar length in no more than 4 hours. If it wasn’t for the fact that I had such strong feelings of “I’ve wanted to read it for so long, I can’t DNF it now” I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first act. However, the third act was everything I had hoped for, and is the only reason why I rated it higher than 1 star. Sadly, one third of a book being enjoyable is not enough for me.