Book Review | The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge


The Reason

I love Katherine Center and I’m probably going to be reading everything she writes.

The Quotes

“I had a theory that we gravitate toward the stories we need in life. Whatever we are looking for- adventure, excitement, emotion, connection-we turn to stories that help us find it. Whatever questions we’re struggling with- sometimes ones so deep, we don’t even really know we’re asking them- we look for answers in stories.”

“Well, you’re lucky. Because love is something you can learn. Love is something you can practice. It’s something you can choose to get good at. And here’s how you do it. Appreciate your person.
That’s it.”

“Whatever story you tell yourself about your life, that’s the one that’ll be true.”

“Humanity at its worst is an easy story to tell – but it’s not the only story. Because the more we can imagine our better selves, the more we can become them.”

The Narrator(s)

Patti Murin. Loved it! There was such a natural flow to the storytelling and I was engrossed.

My Thoughts

First of all; tropes! I love them, but only if they’re done well and not overly cliched, and I love them here in this book. We’ve got close proximity, enemies to lovers, miscommunication, and more! There’s also a little bit of cheesiness, but come on, this is a romance; cheese is an essential part of the recipe, otherwise why are you even reading romance?

Having said all that, I loved the story! I love how well-written it was and how emotional I got at the end. There were a couple of scenes that were difficult to read about, specifically one with the FMC, Emma, and her sister. And while I don’t necessarily like that it happened, I feel like it’s true to real life and real family dynamics.

As for the romance itself, I really love how the relationship developed between Emma and Charlie. I love the conversations they had, the way they got to know each other and started respecting one another. It was a bumpy ride, and again, so emotional, but well-worth it in the end.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Posted September 27, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Classics Club


The Reason

It was my in-person bookclub’s September BOTM. This is a reread for me and I remember enjoying it very much the first time too.

The Quotes

“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”

“He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”

“He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent.”

“And because people are stupid and use their noses only for blowing, but believe absolutely anything they see with their eyes, they will say it is because this is a girl with beauty and grace and charm.”

The Narrator(s)

Nigel Patterson. No complaints! I enjoyed listening to the narration.

My Thoughts

I remember the first time I read this book; I was in my “scentology” phase and I was fascinated with the sense of smell. I’d been reading a few other books on smell as well, one I remember is The Scent of Desire by Rachel Herz. Obviously unlike The Scent of Desire, this book is fiction, but they were both very interesting.

I also really enjoyed the movie based on this book even if I don’t remember much of it anymore. I might watch it again soon! Our BOTM theme for September is Banned Books, and I have a feeling that the movie version I watched might have been edited as well, especially since I watched it in the cinema when I was living in Malaysia.

Rereading it this time, once again I loved how beautiful the writing is. I love how immersed in smells we get. The description of the scents, all the different ways to evoke them in our imagination; the book was written so well! Even though we were reading about a really creepy murderer, it was still so fascinating to see his journey from his birth, his perfumery apprenticeship, his obsession with possessing scents and using them in very interesting ways, until the very end. Some parts of the story seem a little bit fantastical but they are still very entertaining to read about, and at the end of the day, I just love how smell-y the book is! So worth reading!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Books on My Fall 2024 TBR

Posted September 23, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 44 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List

Some of these books have been on my list since the beginning of the year. Heck, some of them have been on my list since last year… and way before. It distresses me that I haven’t read them, the older ones in particular. I’m going to really try to get them done this fall!

Top Ten Books on My Fall 2024 TBR

  1. The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan – This is the one I most want to prioritize. I’ve had it on my TBR the moment it was announced, before it was even published, and I was so excited when it was released. I love the author and I have no doubt I’ll love this book, but I just haven’t gotten around to it for some reason.
  2. The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan – Malaysian author, Malaysian setting, Malaysian reader (me!). I must read it!
  3. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson – I have been wanting to read this for a while now. You know it caught my attention with a title like that.
  4. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – Everyone keeps recommending this as one of the best series you can listen to on audiobook, but I’m hesitating because I listened to a sample and I’m not sure I like the narration, so I’m waffling between getting it on print vs. audiobook. So many people can’t be wrong about the audio, right? But what if they are?!
  5. Never Whistle At Night by various authors – This is relatively new to my TBR but I really want to read it because I wanted to read more diverse books this year, and I love folklore and not whistling at night is also a superstition in my own culture.
  6. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – A much older book that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time. Part of why I also signed up for a nonfiction reading challenge this year.
  7. Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane – I love the author’s works, but I don’t consider them light-hearted romance because they often have heavier themes and not so traditional HEAs, so I do need to be in a certain mindset to read them.
  8. The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin – Another author I love, but much, much heavier stories. I read two of them very close to each other earlier this year, and I needed a break before I jump back into another one.
  9. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer – I don’t even remember how I heard about this book but I was so excited about it, and it’s also a bookish book!
  10. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – Another bookish book I’ve been wanting to read. The things people say about it make me very curious!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Sunday Post | Four Eyes

Posted September 21, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 24 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

I Got Glasses

I got my first prescription glasses last week! I’m so happy and I’ve been wearing them almost non-stop to the point where my husband is scolding me for wearing them while lounging in bed because he doesn’t want me to break them.

To be clear, these aren’t my first glasses, only my first prescription glasses. I had “vanity glasses” as a child because I wanted to look smart and studious and my dream job was to be a librarian. Yes, I wore glasses I didn’t need out of vanity, and I’m only telling y’all here because I feel like if anyone would get me, it’s other bookworms. 😂 Also, I get that the whole librarian wearing glasses thing might be a little stereotypical but I was 10 and I loved reading! 🤷‍♀️

It’s also nice to be able to see things a little more clearly now!

I also ran 5k three times last week! Woot, progress! Well, sort of. I ran almost every day when it was 3k, and now that it’s 5k, I’m only running three times a week because it exhausts me and I need more recovery time, so there’s a give and take. I’m still slow, but at least I’m running slow a little further!

I’m looking forward to eventually running a marathon, like maybe after 10 more years of training! 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

All the happy things:

  1. I love my new glasses!
  2. Really proud about my progress with running even though there’s definitely some growing pains!
  3. My Hobonichi Cousin 2025 arrived! I know it’s still a few months to 2025, but I like knowing it’s there ready for me and I also have some things already scheduled for 2025 that I can now fill in.
  4. We had more soup! Spicy Sichuan soup this time!
  5. I crocheted a bag out of scrap yarn and it’s ugly as heck but I love it! (I haven’t woven in the ends yet.)
  6. The cooler weather means I can crochet more now! It’s no fun crocheting in the heat with all that yarn on my lap, but it’s so cozy when it’s cooler.

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare – Book 1 of the Wanton Dairymaid Trilogy. I love Tessa Dare but I felt like this one had a little more cheese than her other books I loved. Still fun and enjoyable, and I needed light-hearted books.
  2. Surrender of A Siren by Tessa Dare – Book 2 of the Wanton Dairymaid Trilogy. Also kinda cheesy, but sometimes you need a little cheese.
  3. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig – It was very much a disappointment. The writing was quite messy and unclear. The characters were unlikeable and inconsistent and I couldn’t understand their motivations. The magical concept was interesting though, and I’m still very intrigued by the plot, but the good isn’t good enough to outweigh the flaws, and it was a struggle to get through it. I only did because it was a buddy read.
  4. Cujo by Stephen King – This is a reread but it’s been so long since I first read it that it might as well be a new read. As always, Stephen King is the King of Storytelling. There’s so much more to Cujo than just a scary, rabid dog story, and it’s such an incredibly look into the thoughts and behaviors of flawed human beings.

Book(s) I’m reading:

  1. Perfume by Patrick Süskind – It’s my irl bookclub’s BOTM for September and the meeting is this weekend. I’m about 30% in and it’s just so beautifully written. It’s a reread for me but it’s been a long while.
  2. I Fell In Love With Hope by Lancali – Just started and already I’m scared. It sounds like a sad and heavy read, and I’ve been warned to keep a lot of tissues on hand for the inevitable tears.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

Feeling a little burnt out with reading so many sad and heavy books over the last month and we haven’t even gotten to October spooky season yet. I’m going to try to get some more light-hearted reads in between the heavy stuff.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | Cujo by Stephen King

Posted September 21, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Cujo by Stephen King

Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

The #1 national bestseller for Stephen King’s rabid fans, Cujo “hits the jugular” (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a sick bat. Get ready to meet the most hideous menace ever to savage the flesh and devour the mind.

Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day, Cujo chases a rabbit into a cave inhabited by sick bats and emerges as something new altogether.

Meanwhile, Vic and Donna Trenton, and their young son Tad, move to Maine. They are seeking peace and quiet, but life in this small town is not what it seems. As Tad tries to fend off the terror that comes to him at night from his bedroom closet, and as Vic and Donna face their own nightmare of a marriage on the rocks, there is no way they can know that a monster, infinitely sinister, waits in the daylight.

What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inescapably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has ever written. “A genuine page-turner that grabs you and holds you and won’t let go” (Chattanooga Times), Cujo will forever change how you view man’s best friend.


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge


The Reason

I guess I’m making my way through Stephen King’s catalog faster than usual now that there are buddy reads happening. I love Stephen King and I would read him anyway, but it’s so much more fun when you can discuss the books with other Stephen King fans.

The Quotes

“It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. He had tried to do all the things his MAN and his WOMAN, and most of all his BOY, had asked or expected of him. He would have died for them, if that had been required. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor.”

“When there was nothing left but survival, when you were right down to the strings and nap and ticking of yourself, you survived or you died and that seemed perfectly all right.”

“The two of them had discovered it was all right to open the closets…as long as you didn’t poke too far back in them. Because things might still be lurking there, ready to bite.”

“A woman doesn’t necessarily mind being looked at. It’s being mentally undressed that makes you nervous.”

The Narrator(s)

Lorna Raver. It was a good listening experience. Lorna Raver did some pretty decent voices and the sound engineering was good too.

My Thoughts

This is a reread and it’s funny because most of what I remembered most about the story was the scary dog, of course, but rereading it now I see that it’s so much more than that.

We get a lot of background story with the characters – there are several notable characters – and we start to care about them very much. They are all flawed in some way; we find out about their marital problems, career problems, car problems, kids problems, life-in-general problems. Even their (very young) kids have problems!

The characters here are so multi-faceted and humanly flawed, and it’s interesting to see how their individual thoughts and behaviors created a butterfly effect that led them down this road to Cujo. It’s an intense read, and so heartwrenching.

I’m also paying more attention now to the crossovers between his books and that enhances the reading experience even more. It’s been a while since I read The Dead Zone, but I remember Frank Dodd and I like how his story was incorporated here. I also just read You Like It Darker earlier this year, and I like that one of the characters here continues his story there in Rattlesnakes.

Also, poor Cujo. He’s the monster portrayed in this book, but he’s not the real monster if you really think about it. This is just an incredible book, so well-written, and I think it’s up there as one of my favorite King books (but there are so many of them!).

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Top Ten Tuesday | Redeemed Characters

Posted September 16, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 20 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Ten Characters Authors Surprisingly Redeemed (which characters did you not like at first, but grew to love by the end of the book?) 

Topics like this one are difficult because while I’ve definitely got a whole bunch of characters I didn’t like that I ended up liking, I can never think of them when I need them! But I did some digging and went through my books read and managed to come up with ten, whew!

Top Ten Redeemed Characters

  1. Glokta from The Blade Itself (and the whole The First Law Trilogy) – He’s a royally sanctioned torturer and inquisitor and does a lot of bad things. But he’s also a very interesting character and may be my favorite character in the series.
  2. Mary from The Secret Garden – She starts out really spoiled and contrary, which to be fair, isn’t really her fault, but becomes such a lovely person in the end.
  3. Colin from The Secret Garden – Another spoiled and annoying child who becomes a much nicer person.
  4. Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol – He starts out so horrible and stingy that his name has become synonymous with stinginess.
  5. Jaime Lannister from A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire series) – There are several other characters who have redemption stories in this series, but I think Jaime’s arc is one of my favorites.
  6. Naomi from You Deserve Each Other – Naomi and Nicholas, listed below, are the MCs of this book and they are both insufferable at the beginning of the book to the point that you don’t know how you could enjoy the story at all. I was happily surprised to be wrong.
  7. Nicholas from You Deserve Each Other – See above.
  8. Linus from The House in the Cerulean Sea – Linus wasn’t evil or anything, just naive and maybe too much of a rule-follower, but sometimes the people who are “just doing their jobs” can cause a lot of harm. Glad to see things change.
  9. Cardan from The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air series) – He was such an insufferable bully. I hated him. Then I loved him.
  10. Boromir from The Lord of the Rings – Maybe one of the most well-known examples of redeemed characters? Or maybe it’s just because LOTR is one of the most well-known books! Either way.

Have you read any of these books? Did you like any of these characters? Who are your favorite redeemed characters?

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Sunday Post | Sweater Weather

Posted September 14, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 14 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

It’s Cool, That’s What I Tell ‘Em

Last week was cooler and we’ve started getting out the sweaters! This week is going to be more of the same. I’m really looking forward to autumn!

On the running front; I only went a couple of times this past week, but in my defense, it was mostly because husband and I went on a hike on Sunday and my muscles were sore for a couple of days! I made up for it by doing extra yoga exercises later in the week though! We’re planning to hike again this weekend if we can.

Other than that, I’ve been mostly just moaning and groaning about my sore muscles while totally exploiting them as the reason I can’t do anything except sit around and read my books! Bonus: school has officially started so I have more time to laze about in secret while husband is at work. 😂

All the happy things:

  1. Now that the weather is cooler, we’ve been enjoying more delicious soups! I made hot and sour soup on Monday, and the husband made bak kut teh on Thursday.
  2. I love my husband very much, but I also really enjoy having the house all to myself more often now while he’s at work!
  3. I’m really happy about that hike, even with the sore muscles. I want to do more!
  4. The book community with all the buddy reads is making me really happy. I’ve been there for about a month now and getting to know the people there better. It’s been really fun and welcoming, and I’m also having such wonderful discussions about the books we read.

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward – I love the vibes, but I hated the audiobook production! I’ve heard a lot about this author and wanted to try her books, but I think next time I’ll stick to a print copy.
  2. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman – This was an unexpected favorite. It’s very speculative and I both love and hate the uncertainty. I feel it’s a great philosophical exploration though and it’s really giving me lots to think about.
  3. The Girl from the Other Side Volume 8 by Nagabe – Continuing with the series. I think this is one of my favorite volumes out of the ones I’ve read so far!
  4. Born A Crime by Trevor Noah – This was so good! I love Trevor Noah and now I think I love him more. I love the way he tells his stories; they are so eloquent, funny, and emotional all at once!

Book(s) I’m reading:

  1. Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare – I needed something light and romantic for a palate cleanser. I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of heavy books recently. And now that it’s close to Halloween season, there are darker books to come!
  2. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig – Apparently this book has been talked about a lot in social media spaces, but I haven’t heard of it before. I signed up for the buddy read blind and I’ve only just started reading.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I’m almost finished with Goddess of the Hunt, and then I’ll be able to focus on One Dark Window. I’ve got a lot of darker reads in the queue but I might end up reading a few romances in between just to lighten the mood.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Book Review | Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

Posted September 13, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 6 Comments

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah

The memoir of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
2024 Diversity Reading Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge


The Reason

I really like Trevor Noah and I’ve heard such great things about this book, especially the audiobook as narrated by him!

The Quotes

“The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”

“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”

“Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.”

“You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad. Where you either hate them or love them. But that’s not how people are.”

The Narrator(s)

Trevor Noah, the author himself. I love listening to him, I wish there was more!

My Thoughts

I watched some of Trevor Noah’s clips on the Daily Show and his comedy shows and I really enjoy them! He comes across as really self-aware and a great person overall, but I don’t know very much about him. There’ve been so much praise about this book, and I’ve been so curious about him and the book, but I held off reading for a while because I wanted to listen to him narrate it on audiobook, and it was so worth the wait.

I love the way he tells his stories, the different languages that he incorporates into the story, his expressive style, his amazing sense of humor, and the way he handles sensitive topics. He talks about difficult things; his own life growing up poor, in an apartheid regime, with an abusive stepfather, but he still manages to retain his humor and gratitude. I love the way he adores his mother, and the way he appreciates his relationship with his biological father. It’s such a privilege getting this glimpse into his life.

I was already a fan, but I think I’m a bigger fan now after reading his book!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Posted September 13, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 2 Comments

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

“As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker.”

A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered… if indeed there were crimes.

The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.

Then everything changes… and nothing changes.

A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been… and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.


The Reason

This was my online bookclub’s BOTM and one of the other bookclub members said it was really good so I got curious and excited!

The Quotes

“If you do something that is forbidden, it is the action that is the target. If you do something that isn’t forbidden, and they intervene, then it’s not the activity that’s attracting the attention, it is you yourself.”

“By remaining silent, they were creating a girl who didn’t know and who would regard them as the custodians of a treasure. Did they only keep me in ignorance so they could pretend they weren’t entirely powerless?”

“I understood that, alone and terrified, anger was my only weapon against the horror.”

“Sometimes, you can use what you know, but that’s not what counts most. I want to know everything there is to know. Not because it’s any use, but purely for the pleasure of knowing, and now I demand that you teach me everything you know, even if I’ll never be able to use it.”

My Thoughts

I loved this book! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to talk about what I loved most about it without giving away spoilers, but I’ll try.

This book is written without chapter breaks, and yet somehow it felt interesting enough that I kept reading, on print, without feeling bored or needed to take breaks. The lack of chapter breaks also corresponds to the story itself because the women’s imprisonment not being marked by any sort of time-keeping felt parallel to the story not being marked by chapters. There were also some other parallels to later parts of the story about not having markers. I loved that!

It’s a very thought-provoking read and I love that it had so much fodder for speculation and uncertainty. Definitely worth reading!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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Book Review | The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward

Posted September 13, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

The Girl From Rawblood by Catriona Ward

In 1910, eleven year old Iris Villarca lives with her father at Rawblood, a lonely house on Dartmoor. Iris and her father are the last of their name. The Villarcas always die young, bloodily. Iris knows it’s because of a congenital disease which means she must be strictly isolated. Papa told her so. Forbidden to speak to other children or the servants, denied her one friend, Iris grows up in solitude. But she reads books. And one sunlit autumn day, beside her mother’s grave, she forces the truth from her father. The disease is biologically impossible. A lie, to cover a darker secret.

The Villarcas are haunted, through the generations, by her. She is white, skeletal, covered with scars. Her origins are a mystery but her purpose is clear. When a Villarca marries, when they love, when they have a child – she comes and death follows.

Iris makes her father a promise: to remain alone all her life. But when she’s fifteen, she breaks it. The consequences of her choice are immediate and horrific.

Iris’s story is interwoven with the past, the voices of the dead – Villarcas, taken by her. Iris’s grandmother sets sail from Dover to Italy with a hired companion, to spend her final years in the sun before consumption takes her. Instead she meets betrayal, and a fate worse than death. Iris’s father, his medical career in ruins, conducts unconscionable experiments, to discover how she travels in the Villarca blood. Iris’s mother, pregnant, walks the halls of Rawblood whispering to her, coaxing her to come. As the narratives converge, Iris seeks her out in a confrontation which shatters her past and her reality, revealing the chasm in Iris’s own, fractured identity. Who is she? What does she desire? The answer is more terrible and stranger than Iris could have imagined.


For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 Audiobook Challenge


The Reason

I’ve heard good things about Catriona Ward but have never read her books. This was a buddy read so I thought it might be a good opportunity to try one.

The Narrator(s)

Liz Pearce, Steven Crossley, John Keating, Elizabeth Sastre, Jenny Sterlin. This was painful to listen to on audio. The narrators were fine, but the sound engineering was so bad and it really detracted from my listening experience. The volumes between chapters were inconsistent, and there was one chapter where the volume varied so much I had to keep turning it higher and lower as I was listening to it! The soft parts were so difficult to hear and the loud parts were sudden and hurt my ears. I didn’t enjoy listening to this on audiobook at all!

My Thoughts

I feel like I missed a lot of details and the nuances of the story because of the audiobook production, and it made me doubt my listening comprehension of the book. This book is told in multiple POVs, across multiple timelines, and it jumps about a bit. There were many times when the story jumps to something that wasn’t mentioned in previous chapters and I had to wonder if I missed something or if it was a stylistic choice. I enjoy time jumps and missing pieces of the puzzle as stylistic choices, but I couldn’t be sure that was what was happening here while listening to it. I had to repeat entire chapters of the book because I was so confused.

Having said that, I love the vibes of the book and the writing style. It feels very gothic and is reminiscent of Frankenstein, which is one of my favorite books. The vibes and writing style is enough to make me want more, but I think next time I’ll try a print version of Catriona Ward’s books.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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