Yeah so I kept hearing you've gotta get to THE big plot twist about 150 pages in so I pushed through the extremely mediocre set up (the entireDNF @40%
Yeah so I kept hearing you've gotta get to THE big plot twist about 150 pages in so I pushed through the extremely mediocre set up (the entire synopsis happens in the first like 100 pages, and the inciting incident aka everyone disappearing happens in like no joke 10 pages) to get to this big plot twist. and yeah it was MAD stupid sooo DNF i don't need to continue lol...more
Ya know the whole thing of once you notice something, you can never un-notice it? Or, once something gives you an ick, there's no going back? That'DNF
Ya know the whole thing of once you notice something, you can never un-notice it? Or, once something gives you an ick, there's no going back? That's what happened with this book - I laughed at it with my friends about the main character being a *HaCkEr* girl and there being MLMs in this FANTASY BOOK and the mcs name is MISERY and I literally could not read another page with a straight face, I just simply couldn't take it seriously anymore.
I had been really excited for this cause i LOVE omegaverse but I've read everywhere that this isn't even really a/b/o - he's just an Alpha and there's knotting and apparently a lot of booktok girlies didn't know what knotting was so it was a whole big thing.
I'll stick to omegaverse in fanfics where it's done CORRECTLY...more
This is such a disappointing review to be writing as this was a very exciting release for me. I've adored all of Yangsze Choo's other books, but thDNF
This is such a disappointing review to be writing as this was a very exciting release for me. I've adored all of Yangsze Choo's other books, but this one was just... not it.
This was extremely dull and boring and seemed to drag on forever. I was reading it on my kindle so I wasn't sure how many pages in I was, and even though I was actively reading it every day for almost a week, I had apparently only read 49 pages. I genuinely couldn't believe that when I saw it as it felt like I had been reading this book FOREVER.
It was also just missing SOMETHING. I can't pinpoint exactly why this book didn't work for me - it was an interesting premise, and I love a good fantasy-based romance and a murder mystery. But the writing somehow made both of these aspects extremely dull. I think this would have genuinely worked better if it was just written as a romance or written as a mystery book rather than literary fiction. It could have been really fun, but it wasn't.
Maybe one day I'll go back to this and try again but, this just wasn't it for me right now....more
"Kate you need to stop reading YA even if the premise sounds like something you would like, even if the cover is pretty, eDNF
Say it with me everyone!!
"Kate you need to stop reading YA even if the premise sounds like something you would like, even if the cover is pretty, even if its an author you like - YOU DON'T LIKE YA!!"...more
I can't believe the publishing industry really managed to make us all excited for this one lol i gotta hand it to them - the marketing was phenomenDNF
I can't believe the publishing industry really managed to make us all excited for this one lol i gotta hand it to them - the marketing was phenomenal. A sapphic, cozy fantasy about a honey witch? with this beautiful cover? How could anyone say no?
This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and I could barely make it a few chapters in before I was actually losing my mind about how bad it was. This might have been the worst 50 pages I've read in a published book in a LONG time - they were so incredibly dense, rambling, and info dumping but about shit that couldn't POSSIBLY have mattered. It begged the question of WHERE ARE THE EDITORS?
The quality of traditional publishing has truly gone so far down I don't even know what to read anymore especially since the marketing effort has gone so far up. I just want good books again - not all these mediocre novels with pretty covers and that get advertised as something completely different than they actually are....more
I quite literally forgot I was reading this lol so that's a signal to me that I should probably just DNF it for now. Maybe i'll come back to DNF @ 35%
I quite literally forgot I was reading this lol so that's a signal to me that I should probably just DNF it for now. Maybe i'll come back to it eventually but I feel like this honestly could have been a novella considering my brain kept telling me I was finished with it after about 85 pages LOL...more
yall i got almost 300 fucking pages into this and saw i still had 400 more to go (kindle version) and i just could not even FATHOM doing that lol
I DNF
yall i got almost 300 fucking pages into this and saw i still had 400 more to go (kindle version) and i just could not even FATHOM doing that lol
I think this book was probably a fanfic before this and it probably worked way better as a fanfic. The first 150 pages are just ALL introduction and set up and moves very slowly and also feels SO different from the rest of the book - it definitely feels like it was added to make us care about the characters, but kind of failed. Which obviously wouldn't have been necessary in a fanfic
But honestly I just couldn't bring myself to read another 400 pages about mediocre characters and a mediocre story, especially when just 300 pages took me over 2 weeks to read cause I never wanted to pick this up...more
These were perhaps the worst 30 pages I've ever read in my life
I'm not sure if the author is a kpop stan, or if she wasn't a big fan/recent fDNF @ 15%
These were perhaps the worst 30 pages I've ever read in my life
I'm not sure if the author is a kpop stan, or if she wasn't a big fan/recent fan, but there were too many instances that told me that she wasn't/didn't know how things worked within the kpop fandom. Because of this, this book felt more like an outsider's perspective rather than a story about a fangirl FROM a fangirl's perspective. And so, this book felt like the never ending, over redundant mantra of "fangirls are crazy you all are crazy kpop stans are crazy fangirls are crazy crazy crazy CRAZY" that fangirls have been told for the last 50+ years. It's so tired.
So let me say that I was so excited for this book because I AM a kpop stan, but very self-aware lol so I was really interested in looking at this character and her psyche after becoming obsessed with a kpop idol. But, I feel like this book was like 5-10 years later because it felt like every sentences was trying to be AMAZING and DEEP and REVOLUTIONARY but everything it said I was like "uh huh, yes, we already know this" and just kept digging at the story that we all already know - fangirls are crazy crazy CRAZY
It also was just SO TIRED with the fact that the main character is a "washed up 29 year old woman who doesn't know what she's doing with her life and is depressed so she gets into a boy band." Like damn I am so tired of this narrative that fangirls have no lives and are these sad, barely-human creatures. Like, most of us are just normal people? We have jobs, we have kids, we have aspirations - kpop and fangirling is just a hobby and a PART of our lives. But, I feel like every time there is a story written about this, it really digs into the fact that fangirls are ONLY fangirls and thats IT
It also took itself WAY too seriously - like truly this was one of the most overwritten, overly flowery bullshit books I've ever read. It's one of those that, out of context, each line might be pretty or highlight-able, but in context its just like lol shut the fuck up bro. Like it wasn't actually a well told story, and was 99% "tell" and not "show."
Very, very disappointed with this one. At this point I feel like I need to write my own book like this that actually tells and INTERESTING story and not this same shit that everyone has fed society about fangirls for 50 years...more
I'm taking the L and DNFing this one. I was really excited for this because as a boy band fangirl, a Why Choose about a girl and her fDNF at 120 pages
I'm taking the L and DNFing this one. I was really excited for this because as a boy band fangirl, a Why Choose about a girl and her favorite band sounded right up my alley. But, I'm not sure if I'm just not into Why Choose/Reverse Harem or if it was this book specifically, but I had the same problems with this as I did with other Why Choose books I've read which is that I just don't really like the "group of dickhead guys all fucking the same girl but also kind of being mean and treating her like shit" which has been like 3 books i've read so far lol
I wish I could have liked this but, alas, it was not for me...more
I think I have a similar opinion to most people about this book - this just does not feel like Ruth Ware - it didn't have her fun flare or interestiDNF
I think I have a similar opinion to most people about this book - this just does not feel like Ruth Ware - it didn't have her fun flare or interesting plot or well written characters/plot twists - The main character was insufferable. I can't believe I was reading about a woman in her 20s talking about how quirky she is and how shes not like other girls with her red hair and how she doesn't like wearing heels - the story was just simply not for me - it's not interesting, it wasn't well done, and I just didn't care about it. - I just couldn't take the plot serious it was truly the epitome of spy movies and hackers being like *click click clack clack* I'M IN but the author obviously doesn't know ANYTHING about hacking or how to do it lol
Overall, maybe try this out if you like spy/heist/hacker books but not if you like thrillers/ruth ware books...more
This author did absolutely nothing to make me actually care about what was going on with and happening to our main character. Bad things wereDNF @ 50%
This author did absolutely nothing to make me actually care about what was going on with and happening to our main character. Bad things were happening and I was told that this story was extremely sad and dark but I just didn't care because the writing style was so detached.
The story is fascinating and I wish I could have loved it but I am no longer reading books for other people and if I'm not enjoying something I'm going to dnf it ...more
I thought I was going to LOOOVE this, but honestly this irritated me so much. Nothing had happened in 45%, yet the author definitely thought DNF @ 45%
I thought I was going to LOOOVE this, but honestly this irritated me so much. Nothing had happened in 45%, yet the author definitely thought something had. Most of the things that irritated me in this were conscious choices by the author and that just made it worse - like WHY was the cat religious??? Tf? Also I felt like I already knew what was going to happen, and just didn't feel like continuing. Disappointed, but I'm not gonna force myself to read a book I'm actively disliking....more
I just don't think sci-fi and fantasy are for me anymore, I can never really get into them and I'm always very annoyed by world building.DNF @ page 60
I just don't think sci-fi and fantasy are for me anymore, I can never really get into them and I'm always very annoyed by world building. It all just seems very repetitive and boring to me at this part of my life. Maybe one day I'll get more into sci-fi and fantasy again but for right now I was hating reading this....more
I would usually never write a review for something I only read 25 pages of which is why I'm not rating this but I just had to say
I have a literal mastI would usually never write a review for something I only read 25 pages of which is why I'm not rating this but I just had to say
I have a literal masters degree in literature and never in my life have I read something this pretentious I THOUGHT THIS WAS A ZOMBIE BOOK TF ??...more
yeahhhh I'm sorry I just can't. This sounded so fun and i GET that the point of it is to be about pretentious, privileged rich kids, butDNF @ 55 pages
yeahhhh I'm sorry I just can't. This sounded so fun and i GET that the point of it is to be about pretentious, privileged rich kids, but man I couldn't care less about rich people problems - it's the same problem I had with "Crazy Rich Asians." It's just so self centered and obnoxious. so... I'll pass. I guess I can put "about rich people" on my list of things I officially dislike in books....more
This book has been on my tbr for AGES so needless to say i'm pretty bummed to be DNFing it when I've finally gotten my hands on it... this stDNF @ 35%
This book has been on my tbr for AGES so needless to say i'm pretty bummed to be DNFing it when I've finally gotten my hands on it... this story is about such an interesting and important subject but this is so freaking BORING. The writing is so choppy and basically and tells everything and shows nothing. There were so many names being thrown around that I had no clue who was who or what time period I was reading from. What a shame. ...more
I quite honestly have just lost interest in this book. It sat on my shelf just that bit too long that when I opened it to try, I simply didn’t wantDNF
I quite honestly have just lost interest in this book. It sat on my shelf just that bit too long that when I opened it to try, I simply didn’t want to read it anymore....more
Sigh. This had such potential ! I gave it a lot longer of a chance than I normally would have cause I just kept willing it to get better causDNF @ 48%
Sigh. This had such potential ! I gave it a lot longer of a chance than I normally would have cause I just kept willing it to get better cause I loved this author’s previous works.
Here’s why I DNF’d: - MC was honestly the worst she was super unlikable which I don’t mind when a character is complex and flawed but this character was just boring and awful. Her only personality trait was that shes a bitch and that she’s poor which was brought up every other sentence - I pROMISE girl everyone in ur town doesn’t hate u or look at u cause ur poor they hate u cause ur a bitch - boy I’m assuming becomes the love interest is a piece of shit who assumes all girls like him and if they don’t they’re gay but also said he needs proof of gayness to stop harassing said girls. Soooo no thanks - classic “I don’t like this girl cause she’s rich and cares about her appearance” even tho Artemis was the only good character sooo - zero world building. I still don’t know wtf firestarters are also did she rip off stephen king ?? - I’m almost 50% in and noTHING HAS HAPPENED