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Don’t Let the Forrest In by C. G. Drews

5/5⭐️

CW: Spoilers, Disordered Eating

Okay this book was amazing. Some of the books I’ve read recently where they’ve been published more recently (The Wren in the Holly Library and The Thirteenth Child) had rushed endings but this one didn’t and also the twist of Dove being dead was really cool. I say this because when I read that it felt strange but then I thought back on it and there were clues about her being dead because whenever there were people around she would just disappear and would only show up when it was just her and Andrew.

And the way they showed Andrew struggling with food was actually really good and mature and not making it the whole thing. And then having it be with him kinda turning into the forest and not eating because of the mud and stuff was interesting.

Also the whole Andrew being a writer and Thomas being an artist is so amazing and I loved them together it was so cute. Also the whole the forest sneaking in was so cool. And the twist of Andrew being the one who caused the monsters to appear was really cool because it was kinda a tag team. Andrew would write them into existence but Thomas would give them physical shape so when there was no more art the forest itself was the attacker.

It was such a good dark academia book and while it wasn’t a, figure your (the readers) life out self help book thing but it reminded me that I should just in general write more. I really like writing and I’ve realized I can just write short one page stories and like, I love that for myself.

Would recommend the book, still kinda emotionally invested in it. Thomas and Andrew are adorable

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They so have

im listening to the plague by camus on audiobook and its brilliant but also not even gonna lie i cannot tell some of these men apart

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reading: The Plague

soooo are Rambert and Rieux gonna fuck or what?

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Dr. Rieux sleeping in the car... and the driver Tarrou🤣 p4 is the original paragraph, so cute……😆 How kind they are……😢

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"Once they were on the pier they saw the sea spread out before them, a gently heaving expanse of deep-piled velvet, supple and sleek as a creature of the wild. They sat down on a boulder facing the open. Slowly the waters rose and sank, and with their tranquil breathing sudden oily glints formed and flickered over the surface in a haze of broken lights. Before them the darkness stretched out into infinity. Rieux could feel under his hand the gnarled, weather-worn visage of the rocks, and a strange happiness possessed him. Turning to Tarrou, he caught a glimpse on his friend's face of the same happiness, a happiness that forgot nothing, not even murder."

Albert Camus, The Plague

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Tarrou should have lived so he and Rieux could run off into the sunset together and move into a cottage and adopt a dog and have a small garden and set up a general practice clinic and–

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Yes of course I read books for the deep philosophical meaning of it and I know that postmodernist novels are symbolic but holy shit is The Plague by Camus queer coded

[ghostreviewer]

The Plague by Albert Camus

3.5/5⭐️

CW: Spoilers

So, I read this book for school. It was meh, didn’t really like it but didn’t dislike it. The one thing that kept me going though was Rieux and Tarrous relationship. The book says they’re just friends. My teachers, say they are friends. But are friends so intuned with each other that when one is clutching something and closes their eyes with the other sitting away from them to then opening their eyes to see their person standing next to them? No, no I think not.

When Tarrou gets the plague Rieux doesn’t send him to isolation and stays with him at home (also Tarrou moved in after like, 2 months of knowing Rieux and they spend like, all their time together) and cares for him. Panneloux, another friend of Rieux, Rieux sends him to the hospital. But not Tarrou. That’s more than friend behaviour.

Also, Tarrou wanting to help Rieux and take the brunt of the social aspect for him is just, amazing. Rieux remembering Tarrou by how he would drive Rieux’s car when Rieux was absolutely exhausted. Sir, they’re in love!

Without their love, this would be getting a 3/5 rating, maybe even 2.5/5, it’s okay but not great. But the love? That’s a whole point by itself. Recommend? No. Read the Rieux/Tarrou fanfics? Yeah

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every once in a while, someone asks me, "where's the best place to buy your books?" -- specifically, they want to know which platform takes the lowest cut, so the largest percentage of the cover price goes to me.

this is a very cool, kind thing to ask, and i appreciate it every time. but if you really want to make sure an indie author you like makes money, here's the two biggest things you can do for their book:

rate/review. leave a star rating on whichever storefront you bought the book from. write a quick review on goodreads or the storygraph.

signal boost. post about the book on social media. recommend it to friends who like the same stuff.

these two things, either alone or together, put the book in front of more eyeballs. that translates to more sales, which translates to more eyeballs, which translates to more sales.

this is a big help even on platforms that pay smaller royalties--35% of 10 sales is still more money than 95% of 1 sale.

[ghostreviewer]

The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde

3.5/5⭐️

CW: spoilers, sex, abuse

So I finished this book and I have some feelings about it. Overall, first like, 90% of the book is give it a 4.5/5 could’ve done more heisting but oh well. The end though? That’s what brought it down, and because it was the end it really stuck with me. It just threw a bunch of things at the reader out of left field and I felt like the author had a way of foreshadowing it. But let’s back up a little bit and start with what I did like.

The plot itself? Honestly really fun. I’m pretty much always down for a fun heist and this hit that for me. Did I wish it was more heist less relationship? Yeah, but I knew there was romance going into it. The world building was also really cool and being able to figure out Keirse’s powers with her was really cool. Personally my favourite parts were when she was on the third floor doing recon, I live for that stuff. But the parts above ground building her relationships with her friends and Graves was also really cool.

Speaking of Graves, this book definitely contains some more explicit sex scenes and honestly, totally fine with it. I thought they worked well to show how they trusted each other, also I’m always down with them when the writing is good. Wouldn’t recommend reading it in class, though. Also the library, god damn I want that library. And the use of foreshadowing through the books she was reading was really cool. I did have a problem with it, though.

It gets thrown out at the end of the book that Keirse is a whisp, a type of fae, and while fae where mentioned in talking about one of the books she read, whisps weren’t and I feel like it would have made that revelation much less out of left field. And then Gen and Ethan having magic and them being a trinity? Yeah Keirse notices their magic when she heals Ethan but it didn’t feel like trinitys were really mentioned at all throughout the book and it just felt, weird. Luckily, though, all of this is in the end of the book so it didn’t taint my opinion on it too much but I probably won’t read it again anytime soon, maybe just for the theivery.

Would I recommend this book? Yeah, despite not liking the ending the majority of the book I did really like and would read it, but I just hated the ending. Could not get behind it. Overall, good; the end, bad

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reading and watching “classic” books and films is such an interesting experience because, before you get into them, when you only know them by name and maybe the vaguest plot outline, they’re intimidating and stuffy and up on a pedestal, but then you finally take the leap and check them out and realize that almost every story that’s achieved such a legendary level of popularity did so because something in its emotional core reached out and grabbed a lot of people by the throat and you are NOT immune.

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1/5⭐️

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1.5/5⭐️

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2/5⭐️

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2.5/5⭐️

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3/5⭐️

[ghostreviewer]

Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May

5/5⭐️

CW: spoilers, death

I just finished this book and it was really good! There were a few times where I was getting annoyed with the characters choices but all in all I really liked it. It gave witchy Gatsby which seems to be what the author was going for. When I read Gatsby I didn’t really like it, but this books was so much better. I’m absolutely in love with books set in this sort of time era right now and the fact that it’s witchy and sapphic it makes it better.

Going into the book itself, Emmeline was so cool(but her choices got on my nerves at times because they were bad and bad things came out of them [which is was nice to see there were consequences for their actions]). Isobel and Nathan might have been my favourites though, Annie (main character) was interesting but I got really attached to Nathan haha.

The magic system was interesting too, I got a little lost at times but I liked how there was a lot of blood based magic but also showing that it wasn’t strictly needed and that they were able to incorporate it into food. Also, all of the stuff with magic being on probation (think the alcohol probation) made it more interesting. And damn I would never go to one of the parties but they were one of my favourite parts.

I honestly don’t have much to say about this book besides that I liked it, it does handle some darker themes (SA and murder) so keep that in mind. But I would reread it and I would recommend it, maybe not to everybody because I know not everybody is into sapphic witchy historical pieces but those that do like it I would really recommend it.