**not spoiler-free
ˢᵖᵒᶤˡᵉʳˢ ᵃʳᵉ ʰᶤᵈᵈᵉᶰ
Unmaking Autism, Devon Price | 3/5 | DNF
The first chapters were very informative, and useful. I liked that it included exercises for one to think more deeply and find new perspectives about having autism and learning to unmask. The information from shared perspectives of all walks of life was also vastly appreciated, although at the time, it made me realize I was looking for more specific information. The book was still a good read, I didn't finish it though. A lot of the information I was mostly aware of, although I did take a lot to remember, especially about how to unmask and live a more authentic life. I think once it became more about the personal experiences of the author, it wasn't holding my interest as much.
I would still recommend it, if there are people that want to read about different experiences and have trouble understanding masking.
But You Don't Look Autistic At All, Bianca Toeps | 4/5 | Completed
I hadn't finished the previous book because of this one. It was more tuned into the information I was seeking, which were testimonies and perspectives from women who have autism, in particular, as that is closest to my own experience. It was informative and also had personal stories from different women shared. Although the author's experiences are different pretty much solely because of her social class being very, very different than mine, it was still relatable on some levels, at least with regards to being autistic and female and dealing with a disability that isn't taken seriously because of gender. I like the way the book was written, so it held my attention to the end. I would recommend it as a good read for women that are interested in reading about perspectives of other women with autism.
The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides | 1/5 | DNF
To start, I hadn't realized this book was highly recommended on "BookTok", something I am not apart of, until I looked it up on Reddit later on. I was searching for a completely different audiobook, but it wasn't available, and I happened to see this one while browsing options.
The plot seemed compelling enough to idly listen to while I was at work. I do enjoy a good mystery. However, this very quickly turned into a pile of shit. In a short summary, a woman, a well-known painter, murders her husband in a gruesome way, and then after, is mute. A psychotherapist, the MC, is compelled to treat her.
The first few chapters seemed fine, although somewhat poorly written, and then it dives into this plot turning into a potential "romance", which already disgusted me. The diary chapters, which detailed points of view from the painter, were the only things I liked, and even those were just fat fucking nothing burgers. Once it delved into the MC finding out his wife was cheating on him with hotguy22@gmail.com, I completely lost interest.
After that, I looked it up on Reddit to see other people's opinions on this stinky trash, and I am glad I dropped it. The twist to the mystery had grossly obvious foreshadowing and it was just stupid. 0/10, read it if you like bad stories.
Immortal Longings, Chloe Gong | 3/5 | Completed
I chose this because I liked the cover. It was a random pick up, and I liked what I had skimmed from the premise. The writing style is easy to understand and follow. The plot was interesting enough, basically, the royal prince and 86'd killer princess conspire together to kill the King. It's set in a cyberpunk mesh of old and new worlds, where the poor are unhappy because they are poor and the royalty are greed-mongers who take everything. People can use their "chi" or soul or whatever to bounce into different bodies. It's a good set up. The execution could have been better.
The plot is they have a "game" every year, in which people sign up to do a battle to the death and the last one standing gets a big reward. The world building was pretty good, so that kept me interested. The perspective of the novel is mostly from the princess, Calla, who killed her parents and fled. The other main character is August, the prince, and Anton, the ... other royal guy who grew up with August and was also exiled. There's also another one that grew up with them, a girl, in a coma, that he needs the reward for to pay for her hospital bills. He's the best jumper and, ...la-dee-da.
Spoilers:
I hadn't realized it was Calla and Anton to form the romance. In fact, I didn't realize this was a romance book at all. Even though looking at the summary after I finished the book, it was implied and marked in the romance genre and I guess I just didn't notice. They had no chemistry at all so when they suddenly started getting all goo-goo eyed, it put me off. The sex scenes were kinda cringy. The twist ending is that Calla "kills" Anton to win the game in order to kill the King with August, but somehow, Anton jumped into August's body ...? without the "flash of light", which he was practicing earlier in the book. And the big, big plot twist, even though August and his in-love-with-him guard tried to kill Atta, the coma girl, she woke up miraculously. Wow. Love-triangle, coming soon. Bleh lol
I did enjoy some of the character interactions, even though sometimes they felt kind of juvinile, and their interactions with the world they're set in. The ending was alright, up until the twist was revealed in the final line of the book, and I suppose that is going to be explained in the next book which released in September this year. I won't be continuing with that. I wish the author would have explored more of the thoughts and perspectives and feelings of individuals behind body jumping and how that ties to identity or loss of it, as that is a main aspect to the story, but it was implied that it's just something everyone with that gene does and nobody, aside from Calla, feels any sort of way about it.
It was alright. Not great, but not terrible.
The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul G. Tremblay | 4/5 | Completed
This was a pretty good read. I initially was going to place it at a 3/5 but I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, even though I was under the impression that the plot was different than what it was. Apparently, ambiguous endings are just something this author does with a lot of his books, so I changed my mind on the rating based on that and I enjoyed his writing style. I started this book because the one I wanted to read wasn't available at the library. The plot is that a group of people want to prevent the apocylpse. I took this literally. Lol.
The suspense was okay, but the first chapter, it was very palpable. The setting starts with a little 7 year old girl named Wen, and describes her life with her adoptive fathers, Eric and Andrew. They're on vacation in a secluded cabin. The way the author describes Wen and her interactions and thoughts are very realistic and heartwarming, which makes the later events heart wrenching. While Wen is playing outside and catching grasshoppers, she is approached by a very large, very wide young man, Leonard, and he is very kind to Wen. They catch bugs together, until Leonard starts asking weird questions, saying, he's sorry for "what he has to do".
So, it isn't about (literally) preventing the apocyplse, as I had thought. It's about four cultists that deluded themselves into believing that they needed to carry about their plans from "visions" they had, by making this poor family sacrifice one of their own to "prevent the end of the world". I thought that this would be more of a supernatural type of theme, but it was a realistic plot. I didn't hate that though.
Spoilers:
After the cultists force entry into the cabin, they fail to force the couple to make a "sacrifice", leading them to sacrifice one of their own, and hoo-boy, this was disgustingly well-written. It was so visceral and heartbreaking to have Wen's reactions detailed, even though she didn't actually see it. And even more heartbreaking, later on, Wen is accidentally killed after Andrew frees himself and gets his gun out of the SUV. Earlier, she gets incredibly upset because she is reminded that her grasshoppers were left outside in the jar, and worried about them having died, trapped under the sunlight. The parallel between that and her impending death was horribly well written.