clovetra's reviews
186 reviews

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

thank you shania veronica for providing me with an arc in return for an honest review <3 eek baby’s first arc from the author themselves i can’t believe it. and my god what a perfect book.

now, i want to start off by saying: i wouldn’t say romance is my favourite genre. sure i like books where there is romance, but usually it’s a subplot. so i’ll be honest and say i was a bit worried i wouldn’t enjoy this. well lucky this book proved me wrong!!!!!!!

never before in a book have my emotions followed the main character so closely. at the beginning of the book i was right there with jaslene with hating marlon, and ended the book literally kicking and squealing because THEYRE JUST SO CUTE!!!!!!! like my god. some of the scenes in this book with the two of them?????? who do i need to sell my soul to to get a female-marlon in real life. please i beg universe.

jaslene herself as a character is so relatable it almost hurts. and it’s not even in a try-hard way that some books have the mc be relatable and quirky. nope! jaslene feels so authentic, like i feel like i know this girl. i’ve walked past her. i went to school with her. the way she is written is so realistic, and that extends to every other character. her family’s dynamics, marlon, even rita felt like people i know. i think some of that can be attributed to veronica’s writing style, as homegirl was whipping out kpop & book references like it was nobody’s business. mind you im not knocking it!!!! i’m so autistic about until dawn im not kidding when i say reading a line about it in this book literally had my apple watch alerting me because i was so excited. DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IVE BEEN WAITING FOR A BOOK TO REFERENCE UNTIL DAWN??????? a million brownie points from me for that. and i mean hello all the other references just kept adding to the brownie pile.

i do find that sometimes romance books can use tropes as a bit of a crutch, and i was worried this book would. but IT DIDNT!!!!!! like cmon now the fake dating trope was so cute here, especially with how it ties in to the general plot (as in, how it starts). sometimes i find fake dating to feel a bit hamfisted but the reason for this book’s fake dating worked so well. and that goes for every other “trope”in this book. veronica sets it up, and then delightfully grows and expands beyond tropes. i loved it.

i also need to shout out marlon’s writing cuz thank GODDD his characterisation at the beginning wasn’t something like he’s an actual asshole, i liked that it was lowkey both of them just being stubborn and enjoying fighting with each other 💀💀💀 godddd i relate to jaslene SO HARD.

anyways, tldr; pick up this god damn book.

Content Warnings

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

wow oh wow oh wow. i did not expect to love this as much as i did.

i usually am not the biggest fan of nonfiction, and memoirs especially are a hit or miss for me. but my god was this a hit.

this was such a fascinating read, not only as someone raised secularly, but as someone who isn’t american. to not only read about how far religious bigotry goes, especially when you throw in some good old fashioned mental illness, plus the paranoia was astounding to me. after every few chapters i’d go up to my mum and be like: “that book i’m reading about that woman who lived in idaho? she got her first birth certificate at 9 years old. and she only learnt what the holocaust was in college. and instead of taking her mum to the hospital after a severe car accident they left her at home and she had migraines for months. and multiple times someone was set on fire and they didn’t go to hospital.”

reading this for me almost felt like a sick perversion, as i grappled with understanding that this is not fiction: this is real, this is how some people live, and this is a true story of a true family.

there are so many facets of this book that are intriguing: life on the mountain, her father’s beliefs, her mother and her complacency, but the character at the heart of this book (in the worst way) other than tara is shawn. my god. i was horrified reading this. the amount of gaslighting, shoving things under the rug, ignorance. gobsmacking. before this book i thought americans were being a bit dramatic, and highlighting the worst parts of fanatics. reading this truly brought to my attention that no, those videos you see online of republicans spouting vile remarks and being supported by those around them are not far and few in between, and the stories are not dramatised. holy shit.

i get i probably sound a bit naive, but truly i didn’t realise just *how bad* it was. the delusions, the twisting of history to fit a narrative, the cognitive dissonance, the religious bigotry, the violence, the mistrust. just. wow.

truly a remarkable book.

Content Warnings

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter

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reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

i’m a bit disappointed in this book honestly. i don’t know what i was expecting based on the blurb, but i found this book very… vapid.

cassie was a fine protagonist. i felt i couldn’t connect with her or even sympathise for her, as her thoughts never went beyond a few common themes. i understand the point is that her life is boring and she’s reaching the end of her rope, but that makes for a boring story.

the book felt like it was going nowhere, with no plot or even a semblance of a story.

the writing was nice, but the writing seemed repetitive, and flat.

there felt like there was no tension, yet at the same time this was not a relaxing book.

i don’t even know what else to really say because this book honestly gave me nothing. like i don’t even really think i can say i liked it? because what is there to like. it’s 245 pages of rambling.

i get what this book was trying to do and say, but by writing a book about how silicon valley and dead end corporate jobs are taxing and horrifying and depressing, you get a book where your reader is reading mf about how someone else is bored with life, and then your reader becomes bored. full stop.

i had high hopes for this, and was hoping at some point it would get better, but it didn’t.

Content Warnings

The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

got me crying in the club over

palamedes sextus being dead

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

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sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

i’ve done it folks. i’ve found the worst fucking book to exist. i think i am an avid Hater of this book.

why did i finish this? it ended up being a hate read. plus i was curious if it would redeem itself (spoiler alert: it didn’t. not even close).

now immediately, away from the actual story. why was this book so fucking racist and ableist and pro-pedophilia. a side character is called “Joe the R[-slur]”. what the fuck. the n-word, HARD R, is used for a description when it could’ve easily been omitted. what the fuck. pedophilia is essentially portrayed as admirable in this story, and most of its pages contain grown men fantasising about girls who died as CHILDREN. why are grown men in-text writing about a minor having sex? why is a grown man as an AUTHOR writing about a minor having sex????? lowkey explicitly???? yes i realise YA is written by adults and sometimes contains sex scenes. but my god it’s like a “flash forward” most of the time. why am i reading about luxx sucking off a guy. hey what the fuck this girl is like 15 years old let’s not. what goes through the authors’ mind where he’s like “mmm i’m gonna write with explicit detail this minor having sex! yeah that’s not odd.” and miss me with that “oh this book came out a long time ago it was a different time.” mf this book came out in fucking 93. you’re telling me racism and pedophilia weren’t a thing in 1993. sure i get the casual ableism (miss me with ur comments im disabled) because it’s still very normalised to this day!!! but you cannot convince me the n-word was needed here. or the 75 different scenes describing how promiscuous lux is. i don’t care.

the actual book was less interesting than paint drying. i thought we’d actually get an interesting story. but no. i read about the horny mc and his friends simping over these girls for 90% of the book, with celia’s suicide tackled decently at the beginning & the rest of the girl’s suicides feeling like an afterthought. you set up a book about how all the girls commit suicide, and have 4/5 of the suicides occur with less than 20% of the book left. are you kidding me. the rest of this book was senseless drivel covering the same exhausting song and dance, where we learn absolutely nothing about the lisbon girls beyond their superficial traits and how fucking horny their classmates are. for fucks sake i couldn’t give two shits about how they were “mesmerised” by the “enigmatic lisbon girls”. hey here’s some quick advice go fuck yourself.

pick a struggle ur book can’t be boring AND ableist, racist, and pedophilic.
i am actually so angry at this book. i am so angry i don’t think i can properly explain how much i fucking hate this book.

what a waste of time. this book has as much depth as my minecraft fanfiction from grade 3. actually no i take that back my fanfiction was better than this. fuck you.

Content Warnings

Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

oh wow. oh wow oh wow oh wow this was glorious. that’s truly the only way i can describe this. shout out angry women.

now let’s get out of the way why this is a 4-star — a lot of points in this book weren’t allowed to breathe imo. a lot of things were not fully fleshed out or explained, and although at times having the reader and the mc figuring things out together can work, for this book it didn’t feel like it worked. idk i felt like the horror elements needed to start a looottttt earlier, and let the audience be a step ahead of mary. alas, that did not happen. this can also apply to the “secret” of the town, as well as mary’s “true” identity. i’ll be real i didn’t see the twist about the town coming, but although i guessed mary’s twist, it wasn’t because i had all the ‘information’ before she did — my ass just went with what i thought the author would go for. i just guessed. no evidence i just threw something to the wall and it stuck.

furthermore (my lab reports are getting to me), the horror wasn’t properly… explored? at least for a good chunk of this book. i mean this is something that can’t realistically be worked around considering mary is the queen of blacking out, but then it just left me to fill in the blanks. realistically yes that can work cuz “ooo what the mind can drum up is always terrifying!” except not for my autistic ass. instead i’ll just sit there trying to work out what actually did happen, and be confused until it’s spelled out for me. so all the horror where the reader was left in the dark? sorry it’s a pet peeve when stories do that like SHOW ME THE HORROR MANNNN IF I WANT TO IMAGINE IT I’D JUST MALADAPTIVELY DAYDREAM!!!!!

also some twists just felt. stupid. like not in terms of it being added to the story — nat cassidy really brought everything to life in a magnificent way — but some elements were giving more magical realism. which i mean if my horror teeters to contemporary i want it to stay that way. if ur gonna do magical realism horror…. commit u know. idk it’s hard to describe *why* i didn’t like the plot’s direction, because it was written well… just some elements felt silly. especially the epilogue w/ mary 😭😭 like this book was well written some parts just felt too batshit for me to suspend my disbelief. like for note, chipotle. like i’m sorry that had me cackling. idk if the humour is intentional or not but this book was too goofy at times.

ok so what did i actually like? Mary. is. a. Bad. BITCH!

also i gotta note her collecting porcelain figurines is so me. girl i love royal doulton bunnies i get u homegirl. she’s somehow so relatable and Not. like she’s what i’d wish i was at 50 and yet is such a loser 😭 it’s such a fun dichotomy which makes her so interesting. honestly if mary was boring i would’ve been much meaner towards this book. nat cassidy honestly tore up mary’s characterisation. as well as everyone elses. like my god NADINE??? her last handful of scenes…. my GODDD she’s a hoot. added some needed light scenes to the book. eleanor was interesting too…. until the end (i don’t like the direction she went in but that’s just personal preference). the town mostly felt like it was full of tropey ‘villains’, but nadine really came thru for the supporting cast.

the ending was really sweet too. it really resonated with me as only recently have i come to terms with Aging. which feels silly to say when im only 19 but still. getting older is scary. and i’ve always had a fear of wasting my life. Seize the Moment! but idk this book just made me feel more content with my realisation that…. hey life is long. i can take breaks. also ur disabled so calm ur fucking farm clover oh my god. but yeah it was really sweet to see mary come to terms with her age! and her body! god do i get that one. all the power to you mary.

the best part of this book was easily the second half, although i will admit the first half was….. Slow. yes ik we have to build up to things but sometimes i wished it moved a tad faster. oh well.

i will say tho one horror element that got me were the fucking ants. you can show me gore for days but BUGGSSSS?????????????????? shiver me timbers!!!

Content Warnings

1984 by George Orwell

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

what an incredibly fascinating book.

as much as i want to say i loved this book for what it is and not what it stands for…. i can’t.

sure i was rooting for winston, but in some odd way i also wasn’t. i defo wasn’t rooting for julia - i actually couldn’t stand her but whatever. and i defo wasn’t rooting for the party, as ngl life there sounds like hell on earth. so i don’t know how, when reading this, i was simultaneously worried and not worried for winston. i simultaneously was waiting for him to get shot and simultaneously hoping he didn’t.

i honestly was quite bored at some spots. like sorry the book was 30 PAGES. i wanted to pull my hair out. but almost like stockholm syndrome i look back at those 30 pages and go “huh what was written there was smart”. insert meta-commentary about me being weak to big brother blah blah blah. i already know i would be a sheep following along no question in my mind man.

there really felt like there was no plot here, and for the life of me i cannot explain why i kept coming back to this book. but i did.

idk i found the foundations of the party to concerningly mirror real life, and the politics fascinated me. communism is such a complex topic and i really enjoyed the explorations into it, even if the commentary was a tad surface level.

for someone who’s been dead since the 50s man had extremely strong clarity in terms of communism.

i don’t really know what else to say. this book is almost beyond explanation for me. i’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes debating what rating i even give this, because i half hated and half loved this. i literally can’t tell if i even enjoyed this. my brain is mush. insert another meta-commentary here about me being so fallible to the party’s tactics blah blah blah clover sheep. goodnight.

Content Warnings

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

i’ve officially read 100 books in 2024 🤯🤯🤯 i am insane.

anyways erm… i didn’t really like this as much as the original!

for one, the threads were a lot harder for me to follow. my ass kept confusing the psychologist with the crime writer with the forensic dude. too many strings that were just surface level.

the connection to an old mystery in this book felt weak, and it was only there for a meta-commentary of “hey look this is what all crime novels do! aren’t i witty breaking the fourth wall and pointing this out?” to include an old case and weave it into the current crime is one thing, but for it to have almost no effect on the story felt like a massive waste of my time.

every side character felt boring. did not give a flying fart about anyone other than the psychologist and lisa. and that’s only cuz i Love Women (/j im kidding its because they seemed innocent to me). there were so many red herrings to the point that it wasn’t fun anymore. i was just waiting for the reveal.

the explanation of the crime was fair. like i see the connections now it’s pointed out but holy fuck how many working pieces this had…. like props to stevenson for being able to pull off a book with this much shit going on, but it just made me feel fatigued reading it.

the ending felt rushed, the plot felt as though it was meandering a lot more than the previous instalment, and it felt like a lot of the time people were just pissfarting around.

ernest was actually insufferable in this book. yes i get his character. i liked it in the first book. here he comes off as pretentious, egotistical, and just downright unlikeable. yes yes insert meta commentary about how this shows just because he’s the narrator doesn’t mean he’s automatically the good guy blah blah blah. i will say this until the cows come home — if you’re metacommentary makes the book boring to read, i don’t give a shit if thematically you wrote the bible, i will not like it.

i really think this is a case where a sequel tries to recreate the joys of the first novel, and instead sets itself up with unrealistic expectations and falls flat. honestly whilst starting this i had plans to read the next instalment, which has just come out. now? i’m gonna be honest and say im almost turned off by this entire series. i might read it closer to december as its a christmas book and so i can say ive finished the ernest cunningham series… but this book was a stinker for me.

Content Warnings

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

wow. i gobbled this up.
i somehow came to love rin even more.
another war plot felt realistic and not cheap.
all the characters were fleshed out in amazing depth. special shout out to venka and qara thank god they got some more time in the spotlight.
the plot twists were gut wrenching, and the explanations of death made me want to eat the book out of sadness.
this was a perfect progression of rin's story, and i cant wait to see how she progresses.
ok now spoilers:

nezha can go get fucked. i get now why people ship him with rin and also why people cant fucking stand him.
i was almost about to cry over qara. and then they FUCKING KILL BAJI AND SUNI. AND THEN RIGHT AFTER FUCKING RAMSA. evil evil EVIL!!!
also i was GAGGED by jinzha's death. actually had to close the book and ponder about cooking someone into dumplings. insane.
kitay and rin being anchored is so real and cute. thank god kitay got his well deserved time in the limelight.
wish the book had more of the cike featured, and went a bit further into daji as a character cuz she seemed super interesting! but i mean theres another 600 page book so hopefully i get some of that next book

Content Warnings

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

a short story collection i actually like !!!!!
sorry usually im such a hater regarding short story collections because they’re often so totally diverse i feel like im getting whiplash, but this did not happen!!! i had a fun time!!!!
im honestly amazed the tone and themes were consistent especially with the array of stories. i mean the head is horrifying as all hell (i literally had a nightmare about it after i read it my god); ruler of the winds and sands was speculative fiction; reunion made me want to sob; and goodbye my love gave me the sapphic robot story i didn’t know i needed.
standout stories for me are;
- the head: obv — if i dream about a book it means i’ve been pondering that shit deeply. i drove an hour after reading this and i just kept replaying it in my mind.
- cursed bunny: was very much a slow burn, but my god when this got going it went in HARD
- scars: this reminded me so much of genie the feral child and idk i was rooting for the youth so hard and that ending. god.
- reunion: any book mentioning eastern europe is immediately winning brownie points for me. extra bonus points as literally two days ago my grandpa’s ancestrydna updated to say he’s polish (bro has had no idea). seems random for me to mention that but idk it felt like a funny coincidence that made me like this story more. i mean it was also good as well im just easily swayed by mentions of eastern europe
ngl some stories in this collection were…. Fine. like compared to the other stories in this collection, frozen finger & embodiment sucked sorry not sorry.
anyways one story mentioned mulled wine so i’m gonna go make some forralt bor and get white girl wasted at 2am bless up

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clovetra's reviews 186 reviews

clovetra's reviews
186 reviews